that could was busied in gathering withered branches of pine, to fill up the interstices of the pile, and make the green wood burn faster. Then a train of gun-powder was laid along to give fire to the whole fabric at once, which blazed and crackled magnificently. Then the tents were erected close in a row before this grand conflagration. This was not merely meant to keep us warm, though the nights did begin to grow cold, but to frighten wild beasts and wandering Indians. In case any such, belonging to hostile tribes, should see this prodigious pile, the size of it was meant to give them an idea of a greater force than we possessed. "In one place, when we were surrounded by hills with swamps lying between them, there seemed to be a general congress of wolves, who answered each other from opposite hills in sounds the most terrific. Probably the terror all savage animals have of fire, was exalted into fury by seeing so many enemies whom they durst not attack. The bullfrogs, those harmless but hideous inhabitants of the swamps, seemed determined not to be outdone, and roared a tremendous bass to this bravura accompaniment. This was almost too much for my love of the terrible sublime; some women who were our fellow-travellers, shrieked with terror; and finally the horrors of that night were ever after held in awful remembrance by all who shared them." More than half a century passed away after the journey recorded by the officer's daughter, whose narrative was published in 1808. And still the region about Oswego was essentially a wilderness. During that very year 1808, a young American naval officer, the future author of the "Pathfinder," made the same journey, in company with a party of messmates who had been ordered to Lake Ontario. Oswego was still very thoroughly a frontier station, beyond the pale of civilization. The young officers had a weary tramp of a week or two over ground which may now be passed in a few hours. There was neither canal, steamboat, nor railroad to shorten the distance between Albany and Oswego, when this party moved from the sea-board to the Lake shore. But the young officers enjoyed extremely the novelty of the change, and the spice of adventure connected with it. They considered it a piece of especial good luck for sailors to find themselves drifting through a forest, and all in the way of duty. Many were the amusing anecdotes told by Mr. Cooper in later years in connection with this service on Lake Ontario; he always looked back to it with pleasure, and continued through life on the most friendly terms with the officers belonging to the expedition. More than one of these gentlemen declared at a later day that he had been the life and soul of their mess; of a gay and buoyant nature, he was overflowing with vivacity, and full of conversation. His physical activity was also remarkable. So vigorous and sound was his constitution that his comrades declared that he rarely encumbered himself with cloak or overcoat, even with the thermometer below zero. In those days travellers moving towards the western wilds on Lake Ontario, or the Genesee country, very generally embarked at Schenectady, ascending the Mohawk in what were still called batteaux. The Erie Canal had already been thought of. Among those who had given the subject no little attention was the father of the young midshipman then slowly ascending the Mohawk. In a letter of Judge Cooper, written apparently about the year 1805, the following passages occur relating to this important question. Speaking of the valley of the Mohawk and the western lakes, he says: “The trade of this vast country must be divided between Montreal and New York, and the half of it thus lost to the United States, unless an inland communication can be formed' from Lake Erie to the Hudson. This project worthy of a nation's enterprise has been some time meditated by individuals. Of its practicability there can be no doubt, while the world has as yet produced no work so noble, nor has the universe such another situation to im prove. Its obvious utility will hereafter challenge more attention; men of great minds will turn their thoughts, and devote their energies to its accomplishment, and I doubt not that it will be one day achieved. "The surface of Lake Erie is elevated about two hundred and eighty feet above the Hudson at Albany. A canal large enough for sloops of fifty tons burden, will not only bring the produce of these great and rich tracts of land in the State of New York to its capital, but will secure all the trade and productions of the vast country which surrounds the lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior. Were this once effected, a sloop might then perform an inland voyage of seventeen hundred miles! "The trade of Lake Erie already supports twenty-three ships, brigs, snows, and sloops; and Ontario twelve. "The United States have millions of acres in the Michigan country, of which the produce by this operation would be transportable to a market. "How, you ask, and by what funds is this great work to be accomplished? Without presuming that my opinion should be the guide in so important a concern, it is enough if I can point out one way in which it may be possible, and I think the mode I am about to propose not only possible, but very practicable. The State of New York may cede the track of this canal to the United States, and the United States may then grant a charter to a company, with strong rights and immunities, and the fullest security the general laws will admit of — in short whatever would encourage the European capitalist to adventure in this magnificent enterprise. Let the United States take shares to the amount of ten millions of dollars, which will serve as an encouragement and security to the foreign capitalist and be a safeguard against the effects of those fluctuations in councils, and public opinions, to which the affairs of men are everywhere liable. -- "The banks of this canal would become a carriage-road, and one of the most beautiful in the universe. That most attractive and gratifying object, the falls of Niagara, would of itself create a thoroughfare, and the product of the tolls on the turnpikes, and canal gates, would raise a revenue sufficient, in a very short time, to requite the undertakers. No stranger but would make this tour his object, and no traveller of taste would leave it uncelebrated. But, as this speculation lies in the province of fancy, and may be treated as a vision, I leave it." Different indeed was the aspect, and the whole character of the valley of the Mohawk in those days, from what it has since become. If the canal was considered visionary, what would have been thought of the railroads, and of the telegraph which only thirty years later was planned by a friend of the young midshipman, then slowly moving up the troubled current of the stream. There were two kinds of boat, then in general use on the Mohawk, by which the produce of the interior moved down the stream towards the Hudson, and the manufactures of the sea-board were carried to Utica and the small towns farther west. The Schenectady boat was small, flat-bottomed, and rigged with an ungainly sail, though depending chiefly on the muscular power of the boatmen with their oars or poles. The Durham boat, of which there were large numbers, was long, shallow, and nearly flat-bottomed. These batteaux, as they were called, were chiefly worked by means of a pole, ten feet long, shod with iron, and crossed at short intervals with small bars of wood; the men would place themselves at the bow, two on each side, thrust their poles into the channel, and grasping the wooden bars successively, work their way towards the stern, impelling the boat forward by this laborious movement. These Durham boats found their way from the Mohawk to the St. Lawrence, and were much used on the Canadian waters. And it was said that one of these craft went into the Missouri River, making an inland voyage of six weeks, from the rude wharf at Schenectady. The Mohawk boatmen were singularly skillful in those times; they made the trip to Utica, about one hundred miles, against current and rapids, and returned in nine days! Two miles and a half in an hour, was the usual speed against the current. The young midshipman was the guide of the party as they moved slowly up the river. He was thoroughly familiar with the valley of the Mohawk, his own home among the Otsego Highlands lying some five and twenty miles to the southward. The two fine stone houses semi-fortified, built by Sir William Johnson more than half a century earlier, were passed. And in the same reach of the river a singular Indian antiquity was observed, which is no longer visible; it was a picture writing, on a rock in a conspicuous position, representing a canoe with seven warriors in it. The coloring was red, the figures rude as usual, but every line had its meaning to the Indian eye. It was said to have been painted by some Mohawk war party about the middle of the last century. At the mouth of the Schoharie, a little fort and church built in the time of Queen Anne, for the benefit of the Mohawks, were still standing. In those days the boatmen generally stopped at this point, for a supply of water from a peculiarly fine spring. At Fort Plain, the little block house which has given its name to the village was still in good condition. At Little Falls the travellers came to one of the first steps in internal improvement undertaken in our State. There was a succession of five canal locks at the Portage as it was formerly called, for the passage of loaded boats to and fro. They were first used in 1803. General Schuyler had superintended this work, which was a first step towards the Erie Canal. These locks had been originally built of wood, but in 1808 they were rebuilt of stone. The cost of each lock was $10,000. The tolls in 1808 were $4,700. In the course of three months some two hundred and fifty boats would pass. Only six days were required for this voyage between Schenectady and Utica! This was a pleasant little village, where twenty years earlier there was only one house. It could now boast some two hundred and fifty houses, and |