PAPERS RELATING TO OSWEGO.
291
The House (Niagara) was commenced the same year and finished in 1720.
Nota. Sieur Chaussegross, engineer, writes that he erected this House on the same spot where anantient Fort had been built by order of M. d’Enonville former Governor and Lieutenant General ofNew France in 1086.
25 July , 1726. (M. de Longueuil writes that) he has given orders to Chevalier de Longueuil his
son who commanded there (at Niagara) not to return until the English and Dutch retire from Chou-guen where they have been all summer to the number of 300 men, and should he meet their canoeson the lake, to plunder them.
18 *Sept 1726. M. the Marquis of Beauliarnois sends an extract of a letter from Chevalier deLongueuil dated Niagara the 5th of 7 ber 1726, in which he states that there are no more English atChoueguen, along the Lake nor in the River and if he meet any of them in the Lake he’ll plunderthem.
GOV. BURNET TO THE BOARD OF TRADE.
[ Lond. Doc. XXIII. ]
I have this Spring sent up workmen to build a stone house of strength at a place called Oswego,at the mouth of the Onondage River where our principal trade with the far Nations is carried on. Ihave obtained the consent of the Six Nations to build it, and having intelligence that a party of French of ninety men were going up towards Niagara I suspected that they might have orders to interruptthis work, and therefore I have sent up a detachment of Sixty Souldiers with a Captain and twoLieutenants, to protect the building from any disturbance that any French or Indians may offer to it.There are'besides about two hundred traders now at the same place, who are all armed as Militia,and ready to join in defence of the Building and their Trade, in case they are attacked : The French can have no just pretence for doing it, but their lately building a Fort at Niagara, contrary to the lastTreaty makes me think it necessary for us to be on our guard against any attempts they may make.
When the house is finished it will be sufficiently strong against an attack with small arms, whichis all that can be brought thither, and I intend to keep an Officer and twenty men always in Garrisonthere, which will be of the greatest use to keep our Indians true to us, it being near the centre of allthe Six Nations, & lying most conveniently to receive all the far Indians who come to trade with us.
My Lord Bellomont formerly intended to build a Fort by King William’s order near this place, andit went so far that even plate and furniture for a chappie there, were sent over from England, but theDesign was laid by upon his Death , and has never been resumed since ’till now. 1
The Assembly provided three hundred'pounds last fall for this service, of which I then acquaintedYour Lordships, but I have been obliged to lay out more than double that value upon my own credit,to furnish necessaries and provisions, and hire workmen, & make Battoes to carry up the men, for itis all Water carriage from our outmost Town called Schenectady to this place, which is about twohundred miles, except five miles, where they must draw their Battoes over Land, which is easilyenough done, and this makes the communication much more convenient than by Land.
1 Smith Hist. N. Y. Ed. 1828, i. 253, represents the erection of the above Fort as having been begun in 1722; an errorwhich has been copied by McAuley, Dunlap and others who have followed him without enquiry. Gov. Burnet’s despatchand the preceding Docs., correct the mistake and furnish the precise date.