USA > New York > Monroe County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 32
USA > New York > Allegany County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming > Part 32
USA > New York > Livingston County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 32
USA > New York > Yates County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 32
USA > New York > Ontario County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 32
USA > New York > Wyoming County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 32
USA > New York > Steuben County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 32
USA > New York > Genesee County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 32
USA > New York > Wayne County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 32
USA > New York > Orleans County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 32
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Brant has almost been lost sight of in the progress of this narra- tive ; though he was by no means inactive. He was in correspond- dence with General Chapin, on terms of personal friendship with him, receiving from his hands considerable sums of money in pay- ment for promised services ; but it is impossible to avoid the con- clusion that he was insincere and faithless. His own partial biog- rapher, Col. Stone, places him in arms, with an hundred Mohawks, against St. Clair, and gives a letter of his to Gov. Simcoe, in which he acknowledges the receipt of ammunition from the British, and said he was about to join his camp of warriors at "Point Appineu,"* to act in co-operation with Cornplanter in an attack upon Le Boeuf. In short, with the exception of a growing distaste for war, of which he had had a surfeit, his relations to the British government, and attachment to its interests, were not materially changed, until grow- ing out of land difficulties in Canada, he had a quarrel with the colonial authorities. Cornplanter finally made some amends for the conduct of which Gen. Chapin so very justly complained.
The visit of General Chapin to the disputed territory in Penn- sylvania, as a mediator, and the fortunate turn he gave to affairs by his judicious suggestion of a general treaty, was an important event not only to this region, but to our whole country. It diverted the Six Nations from marching against Wayne ; had they been in main force with the confederates, the result of the contest, in all probability, would have been adverse. Little Turtle would have been aided by the counsels of "older and better " warriors than himself; the ancient war cry of the Iroquois that had so often spread dismay and terror among the confederates, would have been equally potent in rallying them in a common cause of their race. In a letter to Gen. Knox, dated in December, atter the treaty, in which he congratu- lates the Government through him of the favorable turn of affairs, and gives the assurance of a settled state of things in this region, General Chapin says : - " My journey to Le Boeuf, I shall ever believe was the means of preventing the Six Nations from lending
* Point Abino on the Canada side of Lake Erie.
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their assistance to their western brothers, as they term them; and in which I got my present sickness from which I am fearful I shall never recover. But believe me, Sir, to be useful to the frontier upon which I live, and my country in general, has been the prevailing object of my pursuits."
Other than the mutual pledges of peace and friendship which was made at the treaty, the settling of the lands about Presque Isle was the important consummation. This was the result of a com- promise. By the treaty at Fort Stanwix, the western boundary of the Senecas was a line due south from the mouth of Buffalo creek to the Pennsylvania line ; thus cutting them off from Lake Erie and taking from them all the territory that is now embraced in Chautauque county, besides a strip which is now in Cattaraugus, and a gore in Erie county. This was restored, making their western boundary the shore of Lake Erie, and a strip of land on the Niagara River, an addition to what had been ceded to Great Britain, was also res- tored. The Senecas surrendered all claim to a smaller amount of land -the triangle at Presque Isle.
In the Maryland Journal of Nov. 5th, 1794, there is a letter dated at Whitestown, in this state, which says that "Wm. Johnston a British Indian agent " was present at the treaty and secretly at- tempted a diversion of the Indians. The author finds bnt little of this in General Chapin's correspondence with Gen. Knox, but he infers that something of the kind occurred. In a letter to Brant General Chapin speaks of the sudden departure of Johnston from the treaty ground, as if he had advised it in consequence of a fear that some outrage would be committed upon him by citizens in at- tendance ; as if he had interfered, and a summary punishment was threatened.
The forebodings of General Chapin, in his last letter to General Knox, in reference to his declining health, unhappily for his country, and especially the local region where he had been so useful, was des- tined to be realized. He continued to decline, under the effects of what is presumed to have been in some form the then prevailing disease of the country, which finally terminated in dropsy. He died on the 7th of March, 1795, aged 54 years. In the discharge of his official duties, he had won the esteem and confidence of the government, testimonials of which were given before and after his death. Apprized of his illness, his friend Colonel Pickering, who had
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succeeded Gen. Knox as Secretary of War, carefully consulted the eminent physician, Dr. Rush, and communicated his advice by letter ; and equal solicitude was felt throughout a large circle of ac- quaintance. In all this local region, his death was mourned as that of a public benefactor ; and no where more sincerely than among the Indians, whose esteem he had won by his uniform kindness and strict regard for their welfare. Soon after his death a large num- ber of chiefs assembled at Canandaigua, and in public council de- monstrated their high sense of the loss they had sustained, Red Jacket, addressing Captains Israel Chapin and Parrish, said : -
" BROTHERS - I wish you to pay attention to what I have to say. We have lost a good friend ; the loss is as great to us as to you. We consider that we of the Six Nations, as well as the United States, have met with a great loss. A person that we looked up to as a father ; a person appointed to stand between us and the United States, we have lost, and it gives our minds great uneasiness. He has taken great pains to keep the chain of friendship bright be- tween us and the United States ; now that he is gone, let us pre- vent that agreeableness and friendship, which he has held up between us and the United States, from failing.
" BROTHERS - It has been customary among the Six Nations, when they have lost a great chief, to throw a belt in his place after he is dead and gone. We have lost so many of late, that we are destitute of a belt, and in its place we present you with these strings, [9 strings black and white wampum.]
" BROTHERS - As it is a custom handed down to us by our fath- ers, to keep up the good old ancient rules, now we visit the grave of our friend, we gather leaves and strew them over the grave, and endeavor to banish grief from our minds, as much as we can." [14 strings black and white wampum.]
After this the chiefs adopted a message to be sent to the Presi- dent, informing him that the "person whom he had appointed for us to communicate our minds to, has now left us and gone to ano- ther world. He with the greatest care communicated our minds to the great council fire." They concluded the message by recapitu- lating the services that had been rendered them by Captain Israel Chapin, his son ; reminded the President that he is conversant with all the relations of his father with them, and request that he may succeed to his place.
L
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The President being of the same mind of the Indians, the ap- pointment of Captain Israel Chapin soon followed. In announcing to him his appointment, Mr. Pickering says : - " The affairs of the Six Nations will henceforward be managed with much less trouble than formerly. The treaty made with them last fall, must supersede all pre-existing cause of complaint. The treaty entered into by Mr. Jay with Great Britain, will, I trust, rid you of all such embarrass- ments, as heretofore have sprung from British influence, and peace with the western Indians, is now in fair prospect. The hostile na- tions have all sent in their chiefs to Gen. Wayne, to sue for peace ; and have agreed upon a treaty, to be held at his head quarters, about the first of June next. So your principal concern will be to pro- tect the tribes under your superintendence from injury and imposi- tion, which too many of our own people are disposed to practice upon them; and diligently to employ all the means under your di- rection, to promote their comfort and improvement."
As the Secretary suggested, the principal difficulties with the Six Nations had been adjusted, but a vast amount of labor and responsi- bility still devolved upon the local agency. Annuities were to be paid, not only the general ones, but special ones, to a large num- ber of chiefs and warriors, who had recommended themselves to favor ; schools and school-masters were to be looked to; blacksmiths were to be employed and superintended in all the principal Indian villages ; depredations upon Indian lands were to be prevented, and frequent difficulties between Indian and white settlers were to be adjusted ; Indians killed by the white men were to be paid for .* The Indians had learned to lean upon the local Superintendent with all the dependence of childhood. All these arduous duties seem to have been faithfully discharged until 1802, when he was removed from the agency. His successor was Captain Callender Irwin, of Erie, Pennsylvania. The change would seem to have been one of an ordinary political character, and not from any cause that im- plicated his private or official character.
In connection with these events, it should be mentioned that
* Killing was a matter of business compromise : - " Received of Israel Chapin, agent of Indian affairs for the Six Nations, two hundred dollars, to satisfy the widow and children of a deceased Indian, who was murdered at Venango, in 1795, by a sol- dier of that garrison. his
Witness, Win. Johnston, Jasper Parrish Canandaigua, April 8, 1797.
JOHN X O'BAIL. mark.
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the Six Nations found in the Yearly Meeting of the society of Friends of Philadelphia early and faithful guardians of their inter- ests and welfare. A committee of their number hospitably enter tained their chiefs when they visited Philadelphia ; at the especial request of the chiefs, a committee attended the treaty of '94, at Canandaigua. For almost half a century there has been a standing committee of that Yearly Meeting, having especial care of the Six Nations. In 1796 this committee, availing themselves of a visit of Jasper Parrish to the seat of government, prevailed upon him to visit the Indians and tender to them their assistance in a plan to instruct them in " husbandry and the most neccessary arts of civil life." They soon after established schools, sent men and women among them to teach them farming and house work, and built mills for them, in at least one locality.
The sons of General Israel Chapin were : - Thaddeus, who was an early merchant in Canandaigua, and subsequently, a large farmer near the village ; Israel, the official successor of his father, who was the founder of what was called "Chapin's Mills, " a few miles north of Canandaigua, on the Palmyra road ; the only survivors of his family, are, Mrs. John Greig, and a maiden sister ; Henry, who was an early merchant in Buffalo, a resident of Ohio; and George, a farmer near Canandaigua. A daughter of General Chapin, was the wife of Benjamin Wells, who came to Canandaigua with his father-in-law, in 1789. The surviving sons of Mr. Wells are, Walter Wells, of Webster, Monroe county, Benjamin Wells, of Conhocton, and Clement Wells, of Canandiagua. A daughter became the wife of Jonas Williams, who was one the founders of the village of Williamsville, Erie co.
JASPER PARRISH.
His family were emigrants from the state of Connecticut to the head waters of the Delaware river in this State, where they were residing on the breaking out of the border wars. In 1778, when but eleven years of age, the subject of this sketch was with his father, who was six miles from home, assisting a family of back- woodsmen to move nearer the settlement, where they would be less exposed. Attacked by a small party of Munsee Indians, they were made captives. The father was taken to Niagara, and after being a
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captive two years, was exchanged and enabled to rejoin his family .. The protector of young Jasper, was a war chief, by whom he was well treated. After remaining a while at the "Cook House," he was taken to Chemung. When entering the Indian village, the war party that accompanied him set up the war shout, when a posse of Indians and Indian boys sall'ed out and met them; pulling the young prisoner from the horse he was riding, they seourged him with whips and beat him cruelly with the handles of their toma- hawks - subjected him to one form of their gauntlet - until his master humanely rescued him. He was soon after sold by his master to an Indian family of Delawares, and taken to reside with them at their village on the south side of the Delaware river, where he remained during the year 1779, suffering a good deal during the winter for the want of warm clothing, and in consequence of the scanty farc of the Indians. To inure him to cold, the Indians com- pelled him almost daily, to strip and plunge into the ice and water of the river. Adopted by the family who had become his owners, he was kindly treated, and accompanied them in all their hunting and fishing excursions.
He was at Newtown with his captors, when Sullivan invaded their country, and used to relate what transpired there : - As the army approached Newtown point, a large body of Indians collected four miles below to make an attack, after having placed their squaws, prisoners and baggage in a safe place. They soon found they could not stand their ground, and sent runners to the squaws directing them to retreat up the river to Painted Post, where they followed them soon after. The whole made a hasty march to Niagara, via Bath, Geneseo and Tonawanda. The family to whom Parrish be- longed were of this retreating party. In a short time after their arrival, nearly the whole of the Six Nations were encamped on the plain, in the vicinity of the Fort. They subsisted upon salted pro- visions during the winter, dealt out to them from the British garrison, and great numbers died in consequence. To induce them to dis- perse and go back to their villages on the Genesee river, or go out on scouting parties, the British officers offered them an increased bounty for American scalps.
Before winter young Parrish was sold for twenty dollars, to Cap- tain David Hill, " a large fine looking Mohawk Indian," a relation of Joseph Brant, who conducted him to his tent and gave him to
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understand that he would thereafter live with him. He disliked the change of masters at the time : it involved the necessity of learning another Indian language, and he had become attached to the Delaware family ; but it all turned out for the best. He resided in the family of Captain Hill for five years, in all of which time he was kindly treated, and well provided for. His time was chiefly spent in accompanying the Indians in travelling excursions, hunting, fishing, and when put to labor, but light tasks were imposed upon him. Soon after he was purchased by Captain Hill, a general council of the British and Indians took place at Fort Niagara ; upon which occasion Capt. Hill took his young American captive into the midst of an assembly of chiefs, and adopted him as his son, going through the ceremony of placing a large. belt of wampum around his neck. After which an old chief took him by the hand and made a speech, as is customary on such occasions, accompanying it with a great deal of solemnity of manner. Then the chiefs arose and all shook hands with the adopted captive.
On one occasion, while with the Delaware family at Niagara, he came near being the victim of the British bounty for scalps. Left alone with some Indians who were on a carousal, he overheard one propose to another, that they should kill the "young Yankee," take his scalp to the Fort and sell it for rum. In a few minutes one of them took a large brand from the fire and hurled it at his head, but being on the alert, he dodged it and made his escape. The Indians pursued him, but it being dark he was enabled to avoid them.
In May, 1780, Brant founded a village of Mohawks near the pres- ent village of Lewiston, to which Capt. Hill removed. There Par- rish remained until the close of the Revolution. He travelled with his Indian father a good deal among other Indian tribes, by whom he was always well treated. At the treaty of Fort Stanwix, in 1784, he with other prisoners, were surrendered in accordance with treaty stipulations. He immediately joined his father's family, whom he found in Goshen, Orange county. Having nearly lost the use of his own language, he attended school for about one year, which was all the opportunity for acquiring an education he ever enjoyed, other than what a strong native intellect enabled him to acquire in his intercourse with the world.
He was employed by Mr. Pickering in his Indian treaty in 1790, and '91, and his qualifications as an interpreter, together with his
20
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character for faithfulness and integrity, coming to the knowledge of the then Secretary of War, General Knox, he employed him in the Indian department in 1792, giving him a letter to General Cha- pin, with whom he became associated as interpreter for the Six Nations. In all the crisis of Indian difficulties, he was the active co-operater of General Chapin, and contributed much to the final adjustment of them. A "winged Mercury," in the earliest years his appointment after he was now here, and now there; alter- nating between the seat of government, at Philadelphia, Buffalo Creek, Genesee River, Onondaga, Oneida and Canandaigua; the interpreter at councils, and the bearer of messages. The captive boy of the Indian wigwams, becoming a man, remembered only the virtues and kindnesses of his captors - not the wrongs they had inflicted upon him or his countrymen - and was the faithful inter- preter of their complaints and grievances to him, whom they called their "Father, the great chief of the Thirteen Fires "- Washing- ton. In 1803 he had the additional appointment of local Indian agent, and continued to hold both offices, through all the changes of the administration of the general government, down to the second term of General Jackson's administration.
He retained to the close of his life, a strong attachment to the Indians, as was the case generally with liberated captives ; and by means of his position, and the influence he had acquired with them, was enabled to render them essential service; to assist in ameliorating their condition, by introducing among them the Chris- tian religion, schools and agricultural pursuits. While a prisoner, he acquired the Mohawk language, and before the close of his life, he spoke that of five of the Six Nations with great fluency. Captain Parrish died at his residence in Canandaigua, July 12th, 1836, in the 69th year of his age.
He married in early life, a daughter of General Edward Paine, one of the Pioneers of the western Reserve, and the founder of Painesville. She died in 1837. His surviving sons are, Isaac, a farmer on the Lake shore, near Canandaigua; Stephen and Ed- ward, residents of the village of Canandaigua. One of his daughters became the wife of Ebenezer S. Cobb, of Michigan, who was lost with the ill-fated Erie, near Dunkirk, in 1841; another, the wife of Peter Townsend, of Orange county ; and another, the wife of William W. Gorham, of Canandaigua.
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CHAPTER IV.
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ATTEMPT OF GOV. SIMCOE TO BREAK UP THE SETTLEMENTS OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY.
THE reader has already learned, generally, what was the temper and bearing of the British authorities in Canada, touching the early Pioneer movements in the Genesee country. A British and Indian alliance, a connected movement, having in view the re-possession of the country, was with much difficulty but barely prevented. In all the controversy - or pending the issue of the whole matter - there was, other than what may have transpired at the west, but one overt act, in pursuance of British pretensions and threats. This was an actual invasion, by a British armed force, of the Genesee country, at Sodus Bay.
Previous to coming in possession of the valuable manuscripts of the late Thomas Morris, the author had drawn up for this work, an account of the event, the materials for which were derived prin- cipally from the papers of Mr. Williamson. Mr. Morris having included it in his reminiscences, it being a matter, "all of which he saw, and a part of which he was," his history of the transaction is substituted : -
"Gov. Simcoe had, from his first assuming the government of Upper Canada, evinced the greatest jealousy of the progress of the settlement of our western country ; he was even said to have threatened to send Captain Williamson to England in irons, if he ever ventured to come into Canada. In 1794, Capt. Williamson had commenced a settlement at Sodus Bay.
In the month of August of that year, Lieut. Sheaffe, of the British army, (now Major General Sir Roger Hale Sheaffe, who, during the last war, commanded at the battle of Queenston, after the death of Gen. Brock,) was sent by Governor Simcoe, with a
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protest to be delivered to Captain Williamson, protesting against the prosecution of the settlement of Sodus, and all other Ameri- can settlements beyond the old French line, during the inexecution of the treaty that terminated the Revolutionary war. Finding there only an agent of Mr. Williamson's, (a Mr. Moffat, who is yet living.) Lieut. Sheaffe informed him of the nature of his mission, and requested him to make it known to Capt. Williamson, and to inform him that he would return in ten days, when he hoped to meet Capt. Williamson there. Mr. Moffat came to me at Canan- daigua. to acquaint me with what had taken place, and induce me to accompany him to Bath, to confer with Capt. Williamson in re- lation to this very extraordinary protest. I accordingly went to Bath, and it was agreed between Capt. Williamson and myself, that we would both meet Lieut. Sheaffe at Sodus, at the time he had ap- pointed to be there. Accordingly, on the day named by Lieut. Sheaffe, we were at Sodus ; and shortly after our arrival there, we perceived on the lake, a boat rowed by about a dozen British soldiers, who, after landing their officer, were directed by him to pull off' some distance in the bay, and remain there until he made a signal to return for him. Capt. Williamson, in consequence of the threats imputed to Gov. Simcoe, in relation to himself. did not think proper to expose himself unnecessarily to any act of violence, if any such should have been meditated against him. He therefore requested me to receive Lieut. Sheaffe on the beach, and to ac- company him to the log cabin where Capt. Williamson was, with a brace of loaded pistols on his table. The ordering his men to re- main at a distance from the shore, shows that the precaution that had been taken, though proper at the time, was unnecessary, and that no resort to force was intended. The meeting between the Lieut. and Mr. Williamson, was friendly ; they had known each other before : and while in the same service, had marched through some part of England together. The Lieut. handed to Capt. Wil- liamson the protest, and was desired by the Capt. to inform Gov- Simcoe that he would pay no attention to it, but prosecute liis set- tlement, the same as if no such paper had been delivered to him ; that if any attempt should be made forcibly to prevent him from doing so, that attempt would be repelled by force. Lieut. Sheaffe having, during the interview between them, made some allusion to Capt. Williamson having once held a commission in the British
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army, he replied, that while in the service of the Crown, he had faithfully performed his duty ; that having since renounced his al- legiance to that Crown, and became a citizen of the United States, his adopted country, having both the ability and the inclination, would protect him in his rights, and the possession of his property. I asked Lieut. Sheaffe if he would be so good as to explain what was meant by the old French line, where it ran, and what portion of our country we were forbidden in Gov. Simcoe's protest, to oc- cupy. He replied, that he was merely the bearer of the paper ; that by the orders of his superior officer, he had handed it to Capt. Wil- liamson ; that no explanation had been given to him of its purport, nor was he authorized to give any. After about half an hour, I accompanied him to the beach, where he had landed ; and on a signal having been made by him, his boat returned for him, and he departed. This is what my father, in his letter of the 10th of Sep- tember, 1794, alludes to, and terms a treaty, and for which he hopes that Simcoe will get a rap over the knuckles from his master. So many years have elapsed since the complaints made both by the British and our own Government, were adjusted by negotiation, that you may be at a loss to know what Governor Simcoe meant when he spoke of the inexecution of the treaty that terminated our Revolutionary struggle. The complaint on the part of Great Britain, was, that those parts of the treaty which required that those States in which British subjects were prevented by law, from recovering debts due to them prior to the Revolution, had been re- pealed, - as by the treaty, they ought to have been, - and also, that British property had been confiscated, since the period limited in the treaty for such confiscations, and no compensation had been made to the injured parties. On our part, the complaint was, that after the cessation of hostilities, negroes and other property, were carried away by the British army, contrary to stipulations en- tered into by the preliminary treaty of peace. The British retain- ed possession of the posts on our borders, and within our bounds, until an amicable settlement of these difficulties, and which settle- ment, I think, took place in 1796."
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