missionary Ziesberger, with his followers, quitted Detroit, and were transported in a vessel called the Mackinaw, to the mouth of the Cuyahoga river. Thence they proceeded into the interiour, following the river some eleven miles, to a deserted village* of the Ottawa Indians, and there remained until the April of the ensuing year, when they abandoned it, and removed to, and effected a permanent settlement upon, the banks of the Huron river, near where now stands the flourishing town of Milan. In 1809, the colony again removed to Fairfield, Upper Canada, at which place their mission establishment still remains, and is flourishing.

As before remarked, the first landing for settlement purposes was in the autumn of 1796. The attention of Oliver Phelps, and several other enterprising citizens of Connecticut and Massachusetts, had some four years previous been directed to the advantages every where presenting themselves along the region of country known as the Connecticut Reserve, and sub-named Fire Lands and Sufferers' Lands. These lands embrace the tract of country in the State of Ohio bounded east by the west line of Pennsylvania, south by the completion of the 41st degree of north latitude, and west parallel with the west line of Pennsylvania, and one hundred and twenty statute miles west from it, extending north 42 deg. 2 min., which was excepted and reserved by the State of Connecticut in her deed of lands ceded to the United States. A map of more modern comprehensiveness of outline makes the boundaries thus: on Lake Erie,† north, and Pennsylvania, east. It extends 120 miles from east to west, and upon an average, 52 from north to south. The area is just 3,000,000 of acres. The subdivision, or Fire Lands, (500,000 acres in all, and located in the western portion of these reserve lands,) was a donation from the State of Connecticut to those of her citizens whose property had been destroyed by the incursions of the British against the towns of New London, Groton, Fairfield, and others, during the struggles of the Revolution. The 3,000,000 acres were offered for sale by the State of Connecticut, at Hartford, in 1795. Three distinct com

* Ziesberger gave the spot the name of "Pillgenah," i. e. Pilgrim's Rest.

† Lake Erie, by the French voyageurs, called "Conte;" by the savages, "Errie." Baron Laboutan, who treats of this sheet of water and of its shores, in a treatise bearing date in the last century, and whose observations were taken in 1788, thus remarks of the lake itself, and the peculiarities of its circum-adjacents: “The Lake Errie is justly dignified with the illustrious name of Conte; for assuredly it is the finest lake upon earth. . . You may judge of the goodness of the climate from the latitudes of the countries that surround it. Its circumference extends

to two hundred and thirty leagues; but it affords everywhere such a charming prospect, that its banks are decked with oak trees, chestnut trees, apple and plum trees, and vines which bear their fine clusters up to the very tops of the trees-upon a sort of ground that lies as smooth as one's hand. . . I cannot express what vast quantities of deer and turkies are to be found in these woods, and in the vast meadows that lie upon the south side of the lake... At the bottom of the lake we find wild beeves (buffaloes) upon the banks of two pleasant rivers that disembogue into it without currents or cataracts... The savages assure us that it is never disturbed with high winds, but in the months of December, January, and February, and even then, but seldom; which, indeed, I am very apt to believe, for we had but very few storms when I entered into my fort, in 1688, though the fort lay open to the Lake of the Hurons. The banks of this lake (Erie) are commonly frequented by none but warriors, whether the Iroquese, the Illinese, the Oumanis, &c., and it is very dangerous to stop them.". . We elsewhere find that the Errieronous, (the Erie tribe,) and the Audasto-quesomons, (according to Bancroft, the Audastes,) dwelt upon the confines of the lake; but these, as well as other smaller tribes, were extirpated by the Iroquois

panies appeared as purchasers; but a compromise was effected between the agents of each, (Oliver Phelps, of Suffield, Conn., John Livingston, of Columbia county, New York, and William Hull, well known as afterwards Governor of Michigan,) by which the difficulties existing were removed, and two of the companies became the owners, with an understanding that the third (Hull's) should share in the advantages to be derived.*

Early in the spring of 1796, the directors of the Connecticut Land Company resolved upon the survey of their purchase. These directors were Oliver Phelps, as aforenamed, Henry Champion, of Colchester, Samuel Mather, of Lyme, Gen. Newberry, of New Windsor, and Gideon Granger-all of Connecticut. They proceeded to select forty surveyors, under the immediate direction and inspection of SETH PEASE and Augustus PORTER, the former subsequently Assistant Postmaster General, and now deceased the latter alive, and residing at, or near Niagara Falls. The agent of the Company accompanying the survey was MOSES CLEVELAND, from whom the queen city of Lake Erie derives its name. Among the surveyors were J. Milton Holley, of Salisbury, Connecticut, a brother of Myron Holley, since one of the Canal Commissioners of New York; Moses Warren, Amos Spafford, and Richard M. Stoddard. The surveying party proceeded to Schenectady in the month of June, 1796, where they remained until they collected the necessary compasses, chains, and other mathematical instruments for the traverse, and such stores as would be required for their journey and subsistence when arrived at and upon the theatre of their labours, and some two thousand dollars worth of dry goods, designed as presents to the Indians. For the transportation of these, the party procured four Schenectady batteaux,† and in these ascended the Mohawk river, passing over the portage at Little Falls to Fort Stanwix, (now Rome,) where there was another portage from the Mohawk to Wood Creek, which empties into Oneida Lake. They followed this stream to the lake, crossed the latter, and through its outlet and the Oswego river, and along the south shore of Lake Ontario to the mouth of the River Niagara; up that stream to Queenston, on the British side; crossed the seven miles portage, arriving at Chippewa; from thence following the Niagara to Buffalo, where they were to meet Gen. Cleveland and Mr. Porter. The journey that to our modern modus operandi is a self-sought pleasure excursion, was then a work of time, labour, and danger, and the expedition found it one of danger and death.

Hull's party was known at that time, and subsequently, as the "Excess Company," and was to have an interest in any lands over the 3,000,000 of acres, (the Fire Lands not included, of course.) This Company, soon after the purchase, divided their supposed interest into one hundred and twenty shares, for which they issued scrip: this was thrown into the market, and sold in some instances at a premium of three thousand dollars per share. The survey of the Reserve showed, however, a deficit of about 200,000, leaving the Connecticut Land Company but 2,800,000 acres, instead of over 3,000,000.

†These batteaux were of some eighteen barrels bulk, and usually manned with four hands. The arrival of these at Conneaut as a traditional term (is not an unwarranted) commencement of the navigation history of the great lakes of North America.

While ascending Spraker's rift on the Mohawk, one member of the expedition lost his life. With a view to facilitate their progress, each of the boats had been furnished with a pole, serving as a mast, such pole having a fork at its top over which the halyard to hoist the sail was rove. On one of the boats, the halyard became

At Buffalo, (Messrs. Cleveland, Porter, and Holley, having joined the main body—the latter gentleman bringing some twelve or fourteen packhorses, and ten or twelve head of cattle,) a "talk" was had with the Seneca and Mohawk tribes as to the relinquishment of their real or imaginary claims to the possession of the lands within the company's purchase. Red Jacket, Farmer's Brother, and other chiefs of the Senecas were present, as well as Col. Brant, (Thayandaencagua,) sachem of the Mohawks. The Senecas urged their claim pertinaciously for three or four days, but finally withdrew them on the delivery to them, by General Cleaveland, of about twelve hundred dollars worth of goods.

The expedition then started-the boats skirting the lake coast, while a large majority of the men progressed by land, driving before them the horses and cattle-and on the second day after quitting Buffalo arrived at Presque Isle, (now Erie,) where the boats lay wind-bound for several days. Again en route, the boats were sent up the bay to the narrowest part of the isthmus, unladen, and they and their cargoes transported by land across, and into the lake. Thence proceeding, the whole party arrived at (now) Conneaut, on the 4th of July, 1796.

The sons of revolutionary sires, some of them sharers of themselves in the great baptism of the republic, they made the anniversary of their country's freedom a day of ceromonial and rejoicing. They felt that they had arrived at the place of their labours, the-to many of them-sites of homes, as little alluring, almost as crowded with dangers, as were the levels of Jamestown or the rocks of Plymouth to the ancestors who had preceded them in the conquest of the seacoast wilderness of this continent. From old homes and friendly and social associations, they were almost as completely exiled as were the cavaliers who debarked upon the shores of Virginia, or the Puritans who sought the strand of Massachusetts. Far away as they were from the villages of their birth and boyhood; before them the trackless forest, or the untraversed lake, yet did they resolve to cast fatigue and privation and peril from their thoughts for the time being, and give to the day its due, to patriotism its awards. Mustering their numbers, they sat them down on the eastward shore of the stream now known as Conneant, and, dipping from the lake the liquor in which they pledged their country-their goblets some tin cups of no rare workmanship, yet every way answerable, with the ordnance accompaniment of two or three fowling pieces discharging the required national salute— the first settlers of the Reserve spent their landing-day as became the sons of the Pilgrim Fathers—as the advance pioneers of a population that has since made the then wilderness of northern Ohio to "blossom as the rose," and prove the homes of a people as remarkable for integrity, industry,

entangled; to remove the difficulty, one of the crew went up to re-arrange the halyard; but fell with his back across the gunwale, went overboard, and was drowned. By a stipulation in Jay's Treaty with the British Government, the western posts were in the early part of this year to be yielded to the United States. It was, therefore, supposed by Gen. Cleveland and his colleagues, that before the boats arrived before Oswego, that point would be evacuated by the troops of England, and in the possession of our own. But the attempt to pass was opposed by the British, (who were still garrisoned there,) and the boats were taken a short distance up the river until after nightfall, when they made a run by; but being caught by a sudden squall of wind, they were driven ashore a short distance below Oswego, and they and some of their loading much damaged.

love of country, moral truth and enlightened legislation as any to be found within the territorial limits of their ancestral New England.

The whole party numbered on this occasion fifty-two persons, of whom two were females, (Mrs. Stiles, and Mrs. Gunn, and a child.) As these individuals were the advance of after millions of population, their names become worthy of record, and are therefore given, viz: Moses Cleveland, Augustus Porter, Seth Pease, Moses Warren, Amos Spafford, Milton Hawley, Richard M. Stoddard, Joshua Stow, Theodore Shepard, Joseph Tinker, Joseph McIntyre, George Proudfoot, Francis Gay, Samuel Forbes, Elijah Gunn, wife and child, Amos Sawten, Stephen Benton, Amos Barber, Samuel Hungerford, William B. Hall, Samuel Davenport, Asa Mason, Amzi Atwater, Michael Coffin, Elisha Ayres, Thomas Harris, Norman Wilcox, Timothy Dunham, George Goodwin, Shadrach Benham, Samuel Agnew, Warham Shepard, David Beard, John Briant, Titus V. Munson, Joseph Landon, Job V. Stiles and wife, Charles Parker, Ezekiel Morley, Nathaniel Doan, Luke Hanchet, James Hasket, James Hamilton, Olney F. Rice, John Lock,* and four others whose names are not mentioned.

On the 5th of July, the workmen of the expedition were employed in the erection of a large, awkwardly constructed log building; locating it on the sandy beach on the east shore of the stream, and naming it "Stow Castle," after one of the party. This became the storehouse of the provisions, &c., and the dwelling-place of the families.

Pennsylvania had at that time so far ascertained her lake possessions, as to establish the boundary line between her territory and the lands vested in Connecticut. The western line of the former State arrived within three miles of the camping ground of the surveyors. Of the geographical character of the country west of this point, or, to have it still more definite, west of Presque Isle, (now Erie, Pa.,) nothing was known by the Connec ticut Land Company, and of course by the surveying expedition, except such imperfect information as was drawn from a French map, of questionable accuracy and evident meagerness of detail; but professing to give the points at which the streams emptying into Lake Erie along its southern shore were to be found. The names of these tributaries were given in the order of their range from east to west, to wit: Conneaut, Ashtabula, Grand, Chagrin, Cuyahoga,† Rocky, Black, Vermillion, and Huron rivers, and Sandusky bay.§ The principal surveyor, Mr. Porter, found the State land-mark of Pennsylvania to be about 3 minutes short of 42 degrees of north latitude.

After the completion of the stores-depot, and a day or two devoted to preparations for departure, the surveyors started. One division com- . menced at the junction of the Pennsylvania boundary with the lake coast,

James Kingsbury joined shortly after, with his wife who gave birth to the first white child known to have been born on the Reserve. This infant died in consequence of want of nourishment. The mother was interred in the burial ground of this city about two years ago. The father, who has since held several important judicial and legislative trusts, is yet living in the township of Newburgh, about four miles distant from Cleveland, and was the first man who thrust a sickle in the first wheat field planted on the soil of the Reserve.

† Cuyahoga, i. e., crooked river.

Rocky, by the Indians, Copopa.

This harbour, situated at the western extreme of the Reserve, is one of the most safely land-locked, to be met with on the traverse of the great lakes.

and measured south to the highlands north of the Mahoning river; while another, under the direction of Gen. Cleveland, coasted along the shore of the lake to the Cuyahoga river. (Other divisions accompanied the neighbouring survey, for the purpose as it progressed towards the 41st deg. of latitude-the southeast corner of the tract-to run off thence west on that parallel; at the end of each five miles to start a surveyor north to the lake: but with the operations of these parties, the writer does not propose to continue,-his aim alone being to bring the earlier facts to bear upon the arrival of the agents of the C. L. Co. at Cleveland. Suffice it under this head, that the surveys then made were afterwards in the main recognised as correct, and are the boundaries and subdivisions shown on the existing maps of Ohio.)

Gen. Cleveland, on arriving at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, entered the river, and followed its windings to where Tinker's Creek empties into the former, eleven miles south of Cleveland. The creek was so named, Tinker, the navigator of the party being the discoverer of its point of debouchure. The General then returned to Conneaut, and, while waiting for the return of the other exploring parties, held a council with a small tribe of Indians squatted several miles above the latter outlet of the stream and having made to them, through their chief, Pagua, some small presents, he effectively gained from them their friendship and respect for himself and his colleagues and followers.

While coasting the region of the Reserve, Mr. Cleveland unfortunately fell into the error that there was no stream worthy to be called such between Grand river and the Cuyahoga. The parties running the four first meridians having returned to Conneaut, Gen. Cleveland, Mr. Porter, Joshua Stow, Dr. Shepard, and four others, started again, to make a southwise exploration of the lake boundary of the company's possessions. They took with them one of the batteaux for the transport of provisions, &c. The first night after their departure they encamped on the west shore of Ashtabula river.* Proceeding westward they touched at the mouth of the Cuyahoga; thence to Sandusky bay, and returned to Cuyahoga river. Here they found Stiles, with his wife, and some ten others of the party, and commenced the survey of the town plot of what is now the city of Cleveland. By the first of October a log-cabin was erected. The city of Cleveland was outlined into two hundred and twenty lots of eight rods front, and forty rods rear; the whole encircling a public square of nearly ten acres (inclusive of two highways passing there-through.) On the 18th of October, the surveyors quitted Cleveland on their return route, leaving Stiles and his family and Capt. Paine, since of Cleveland, to weather out the winter in the solitudes of the new CITY. At this time, it may be as well to state, the settlements of whites between the western shore of the Genesee river and the Western Ocean were as oasis on Sahara. The garrison at Fort Niagara; two families at Lewiston; one at Schlosser, and a British Indian interpreter; two Indian traders at Buffalo, and, as near as we can gather, a family of New England origin; a few settlers at Presque Isle arrived there the previous year; Messrs. Kingsbury

* Among other evidences of the luxuries to be obtained by a life on the border, we may as well mention that Joshua Stow, the commissary of the survey, while at Ashtabula river, growing tired of the salt supplies, discovered that the reptile life every where met with was fresh, and therefore supplied his table (?) with a daily dish of cooked rattlesnake! He declared them exquisite of flavour and right epicurean.