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or adventure. It began as a deliberately planned real estate development.

For years this writer has been trying to find out why pioneers settled where they did. Usually the descendants do not know.

"He heard it was good out this way and came to see." Yes, of course. But with all Ohio to choose from, why did a man choose the region around Fremont rather than that about Ashtabula, for instance? Why did the family or the man who came first, come this far and stop here?

Out of all this questioning, a theory has been developing in the writer's mind. When the man came first, he stopped where lateness of the season caught him. Then, either he liked that spot and took steps to get ownership of the land, or he asked questions of stray passers and looked around a few miles this way or that, and chose his site near where he was. When the whole family came at once, they made an end of journeying when Mother could stand no more. She had come so far, past land good, bad and indifferent, and here was a place as good as any, and why keep on forever traveling and maybe finding worse? "This will do," said Mother, firmly, and there the family stayed. Again, after one winter, they may have moved a little to right or left or up or down the map, but in the general vicinity they remained.

Cleaveland was different : a big region, belonging to Connecticut; fertile soil, good water; a boom in lands to the westward. The French were spreading strange, new and ever-expanding ideas all over Europe. Equality and fraternity were not of so great appeal in New England where the differences in way of living between rich and poor were not so great, and all were more or less trying new ways of life together. But Freedom—ah, there was a word for you! Freedom from England had only of late been won. Freedom of thought and action were ideas working, fermenting. But already it appeared that complete freedom could not be had where neighbors were too near—the neighbors also wanted freedom and sometimes the two concepts of freedom interfered. But—Out West! There was a place for you! A distance illimitable—for all practical purposes—before one

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reached the Great South Sea. It was only on Bastile Day—July 14, 1789,—that Alexander Mackenzie had reached to the mouth of his great river and seen whales playing in the Arctic Ocean. Four years after that, on July 22, 1793, just three years to a day before Moses Cleaveland got to "The Cujahoga," Mackenzie reached the shore of the Pacific Ocean. He was the first white man to go by land across the continent from sea to sea. Champlain, La Salle, had worked and dreamed. La Verendrye had dreamed and tried longer and harder and later, with more knowledge behind him. But it was a Scotchman, after all, who took that palm.

People knew now that that Sea was far and far away, beyond almost impassable barriers of mountain, plain and desert. Cathay was even farther. These were still matters of romance.

New Connecticut, now, was a practical proposition. Quite far enough from the old home town. But perfectly possible of attainment. Plenty of land. Good land. Good water. Good timber. Plenty of game. Not far from salt. The voice of the realty enthusiast sounded in Yankee Old Connecticut with a clarion call to that grim Yankee humor which is always willing to try anything once.

So they bought the land.

Eight men, each representing a county of Connecticut, were appointed a committee to receive proposals, form and complete contracts for the sale of three million acres of the Western Reserve, being "Lands belonging to this State lying west of the west line of Pennsylvania as claimed by that state."

The eight men who represented Connecticut were :

John Treadwell

Marvin Wait

Thomas Grosvenor

Elijah Hubbard

James Wadsworth

William Edmond

Aaron Austin

Sylvester Gilbert

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"The committee, and the several adventurers, spent the summer of 1795 in negotiations," says Whittlesey in "The Early History of Cleveland." "On the 2d of September, 1795, the bargain was concluded."

The "several adventurers" and the amounts of their subscriptions were :

The odd numbers of dollars which complete a good many of these sums look curious at first. The explanation probably lies in the fact that one of the conditions on which the committee were empowered to dispose of the land was that it must all be disposed of before any individual sale was concluded. The gentlemen adventurers probably subscribed at first as much as they thought they could, in reason, manage to put up. The totals did not add to the necessary amount, so, as is done in our Community Fund raising today, volunteers who could do so probably added a hundred dollars, or two hundred, or five, to the total. When there was still lacking a little of the necessary amount, doubtless one, two, eight or fifteen dollars were added by those who could do so, and when the addition came out even, the subscriptions stopped.

Every dollar bought one twelve-hundred-thousandth, in common, of the entire tract. Col. Whittlesey, who had before remarked that "speculation in wild lands had already become epidemic in New England," concludes his story of the transaction with a startling and illuminating sentence :

"It does not appear that any part of the consideration was paid in hand."

The shores of Lake Erie had not yet been rightly mapped. Its south line shows on the early maps as almost east and west. In Bellin's map of 1744, Lake Erie slopes up instead of down. The map of Lewis Evans, Philadelphia, 1755, shows but a slight slant to the southward between Cuyahoga and the Sandusky rivers, and then a sharp line, only a little west of north, to the upper corner, with the mouth of the Detroit River almost exactly north of the mouth of the Sandusky. Judging from the best maps they had and best guesses they could make, there was still a large amount of land left, after the compensating Fire Lands had been deeded to those who had suffered losses in the war, and the three million

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acres had been sold to the Connecticut Land Company. John Livingston, who does not appear on the list of buyers of the three million, and Oliver Phelps, who appears as by far the largest subscriber, with some associates, had given Moses Cleaveland and his fellow-members a little competition in the buying of the three million. But when the latter had completed their subscriptions, Phelps, Livingston and their group were easily persuaded to take over what was left. They organized their famous "Excess Company," in which "Shares were sought after with as much eagerness as those in John Law's company of the Indies, having about the same basis of value."

Phelps, it may be interesting to know, had had pretty good luck in a former deal. He and Benjamin Gorham had made a large purchase of lands in New York and had sold their holdings to Robert (not John) Livingston of Philadelphia. Livingston had transferred it to a company in Holland. This tract was thereafter known as the Holland Purchase. Phelps was, accordingly, in a mood to invest heavily in other wild lands.

Alas, when the survey was made, and the lake lines were checked astronomically for the first time, the tract left after taking out the Fire Lands was found to comprise not more than three million acres, but less. The Excess Company's subscribers had bought lands under water, as speculators have done before, and will doubtless do many times again. It might have been fairer to have divided the existing land between the two companies "pro rata," but nobody seems to have thought of that.

There are thirty-five names, or groups of names, in the list of buyers of the Connecticut Land Company. But as some of the individuals represented others whose names do not here appear, the whole count of investors numbered as members of the Company was fifty-seven.

As soon as the subscriptions added to the necessary amount, buying the land at 40 cents an acre, the associates formed themselves into the Connecticut Land Company, and deeded their purchase in trust to three directors, or trustees.

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These were :

John Caldwell

Jonathan Brace

John Morgan

This trust deed bears the date of September 5, 1795.

Seven directors were elected to take over the management of the Company. They were :

Oliver Phelps, of Suffield

Henry Champion, 2d, of Colchester

Moses Cleaveland, of Canterbury

Samuel W. Johnson

Ephraim Kirby

Samuel Mather, Jr., of Lynn

Roger Newberry, of West Windsor

On the fourth of the next July the first surveying party, under the leadership of Moses Cleaveland, entered the Western Reserve, by boat from Buffalo. On July twenty-second, the surveyors entered the mouth of the Cuyahoga.

One can well imagine what a winter intervened—the meetings around at various homes, on the street, the talk at the post office, the taverns, or wherever members of the Company or their friends chanced to gather. "Who is going?" "What shall we take?" "What can we get along without?" "They say that chocolate is a good thing for a man to carry—he can brew a heartening drink with it, or eat it raw if he cannot stop to make a fire." "A man with Craig said there were stands of oaks so large two men could not reach around them." "They say a man with Rogers said—" "They say—" "They say—."

"Augustus Porter, of Salisbury," writes Whittlesey, "who had been engaged in surveys for Gorham and Phelps, in the Holland Purchase, since 1789, was made principal surveyor. Seth Pease, of Suffield, was given the place of mathematician and surveyor. He went to Philadelphia for instruction and instruments, to be procured of the astronomer, David Rittenhouse."

It is likely that Pease saw the Moravian missionary, Heckewelder, on that trip to Philadelphia, and that the

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famous Heckewelder map and description were part of the information he then received.

The five surveyors were :

Augustus Porter

Seth Pease

John Milton Holley

Richard M. Stoddard

Moses Warren, Jr.

Moses Cleaveland was given charge of the expedition with the title of general agent.

"The State guaranteed nothing either as to title or quantity. She only transferred the rights she possessed, as well politic, as those of property under the patent of Earl Warwick, and the charter of Charles the Second. So little was known at this time of the respective powers of the States and the United States, under the Constitution of 1787, that many of the parties thought the Land Company had received political authority and could found here a new state. They imagined themselves like William Penn, to be proprietors, coupled with the rights of self government.

"Articles of association, fourteen in number, were signed by the proprietors, on the same day with the trust deed. These articles are very elaborate, providing for the government of the company, giving extensive powers to the directors, pointing out in detail the mode of survey, partition and sale ; authorizing transferable certificates of stock, and determining the manner of proceeding at meetings of the company. These articles of agreement were so full and particular that no changes were found necessary in order to carry on the business of the company.

"For the purpose of voting and assessments, the concern was divided into four hundred shares. Provision was made, in case one-third of the interest should demand it, to set off to the applicants one third of the property in a body, but no such demand was made."

There seems to have been considerable wisdom and foresight in those hard-headed gentlemen who founded Cleveland. They provided against a good many vexations that have been a source of trouble in earlier colonies.

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The State of Connecticut having only relinquished such rights as it had, there remained against the land certain Indian claims. These had to be extinguished and the directors decided to get it done as soon as possible. Money and presents for the purpose had to be among the essentials provided for the party which was to make the first survey.

One of the provisions decreed by the members of the Company was intended to make the parcels of land, though differently located, equal in value.

"Six townships east of the Cuyahoga were to be subdivided for sale, for the general benefit of the Company. Four more townships of the next best quality were to be surveyed into four hundred lots, of one hundred and sixty acres each; equal to the number of shares, to be drawn by lot; three thousand dollars purchase money representing a share.

"What remained of the land east of the Cuyahoga, was to be divided into as many portions, to be called a draft, as there were townships of equal value. To come at this much coveted equality, the committee on partition were required to select the best full township as a draft ; and add fractional townships, tracts and lots to all the others until the less desirable ones were made in all respects equal to the best.

"The avails of the townships, sold for the general benefit, after the general expenses were paid, were distributed in subsequent drafts. In the first draft the committee on partition made ninety-two parcels, each equal in value to the best township, which parcels covered all the territory to be drawn east of the Cuyahoga."

It is plain that the plans were carefully made. So far as the directors could see to it, this was to be no wildcat speculation but a good-faith investment in good land, with everything fair and square and the titles clear, reaching back to the English crown with quitclaims obtained from Connecticut and to be obtained from such Indians as came forward to urge a prior ownership.

CHAPTER: II

ENTER MOSES

These are the instructions given by the directors of the Connecticut Land Company to their General Agent:

"To Moses Cleaveland, Esq., of the county of Windham, and State of Connecticut, one of the Directors of the Connecticut Land Company, Greetings :

"We, the Board of Directors of said Connecticut Land Company, having appointed you to go on to said land, as Superintendent over the agents and men, sent on to survey and make locations on said land, to make, and enter into friendly negotiations with the natives who are on said land, or continguous thereto, and may have any pretended claim to the same, and secure such friendly intercourse amongst them as will establish peace, quiet and safety to the survey and settlement of said lands, not ceded by the natives under the authority of the United States. You are hereby, for the foregoing purposes, fully authorized and empowered to act, and transact all the above business, in as full and ample a manner as we ourselves could do, to make contracts in the foregoing matters in our behalf and stead; and make such drafts on our Treasury, as may be necessary to accomplish the foregoing object of your appointment. And all agents and men by us employed, and sent on to survey and settle such land, to be obedient to your orders and directions. And you are to be accountable for all monies by you received, conforming your conduct to such orders and directions as we may, from time to time, give you, and to do and act in all matters, according to your best skill and judgment, which may tend to the best interest, prosperity and success of said Connecticut Land Company. Having more particularly for

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your guide the Articles of Association entered into and signed by the individuals of said Company.

Oliver Phelps,

Henry Champion,

Roger Newberry, Samuel Mather, Jun.

Directors

May 12, 1796.

Who was this Moses Cleaveland, who was thought enough of by his associates to be made general agent of this project, who came, directed the survey of the tract on which was to rise a city bearing his name, and went back to his old home in Connecticut, where he was to die without ever again having seen the growing settlement?

"While I was in New Connecticut I laid out a town, on the bank of Lake Erie, which was called by my name, and I believe the child is now born that may live to see that place as large as Old Windham."

"These are the words," writes James H. Kennedy a hundred years later, "in which Moses Cleaveland, in the year 1796, recorded a prophesy that has been abundantly fulfilled. Staid Old Windham, where for many years Connecticut justice held the scales with rigid exactness, was then far in advance of the newly-named town upon the Cuyahoga, which existed only upon the surveyors' charts, and in the prophetic vision of its founder. Staid Old Windham lies today in the quiet usefulness of villagehood, while the city by Lake Erie is well counted one of the great commercial centers of the West."

Moses was the son of Aaron and Thankful Paine Cleave-land. He was born at Canterbury, Connecticut, January 29, 1754. The family is said to go back in Yorkshire, England, to a time before the Norman Conquest when it occupied an estate in which there were clefts or "cleves." The dwellers thereon were called, from this. "Cleftlands," or "Cleave-lands."

A William Cleaveland moved from York to Hinckley in

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Leicestershire, where he died in 1630. His two sons were Thomas, who became vicar of Hinckley, and Samuel. Samuel had a son, Moses, who came to the new world in 1635, fifteen years after the landing of the Mayflower, and one year before John Harvard established his college at Cambridge.

This Moses Cleaveland was the founder of the New England Cleaveland family.

He lived in Boston for a time, then went to Woburn, Massachusetts, of which town he was one of the founders, where he died in 1701. Some of his descendants went to Chelmsford, and later to Canterbury, where Aaron Cleave-land, son of Josiah, was born in 1727. He married Thankful Paine in 1748, and the Moses Cleaveland of our tale was his second son. According to E. M. Avery :

"Aaron and Thankful were persons of education and refinement and decided that their son should have a college education." He was accordingly sent to Yale, was graduated in 1777, studied law, was admitted to the bar and began to practice in Canterbury.

"In 1779 he became captain of a company of sappers and miners in the service of the United States, served as such for several years and then returned to the practice of the law. He became a prominent member of the Masonic order and served several terms in the state legislature. In 1794 he married Esther, daughter of Henry Champion, a young lady of rare accomplishments." They had two sons and two daughters.

"In 1797 he was commissioned as brigadier-general of the Connecticut militia and in the same year was chosen to lead the pioneers of the Connecticut Land Company to the Western Reserve. It is said that in his bearing he was manly and dignified."

Harvey Rice describes him :

"He wore such a sedate look that strangers often took him for a clergyman. He had a somewhat swarthy complexion, which induced the Indians to believe him akin to their own race. He had black hair, quick and penetrating eyes. He was

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of medium height, erect, thick-set and portly, and was of muscular limbs and his step was of a military air."

Now let Moses speak for himself a bit. Here is a letter he wrote Oliver Phelps only a week after he was given his commission as general agent. In this week he had already made matters move and had proceeded as far west as Albany on the Company's business.

"Albany, May 19, 1796.

"I have in rain and bad roads arrived at this place. Mr. Porter left Schenectady on last Sunday, one man was drowned. I find it inconvenient and at present impossible to obtain a loan of money without sacrifice, as our credit as a company is not yet sufficiently known. It must then rest on drafts on Thos. Mather and Company, dependent on their early being supplied with money from Hartford. Mr. Porter has proceeded, as I obtain information, with all the dispatch and attention possible, but we shall all fall short, tho' our exertions are ever so great, without pecuniary aid. I have concluded, without adequate supply, to proceed, and as my presence is much wanted, to risque consequences, shall make drafts on Thos. Mather and Company, resting assured that you will immediately, if at the expense of a person on purpose, send on the money immediately that can be procured, to Messrs. Mather, who will attend to all orders and directions that you may please to give. A credit once established, the business can with great ease and less expense be transacted, but if we shall be obliged to draw orders, and once protested, I am apprehensive that consequences will be fatal, at least to the persons employed."

Thos. Mather and Company seem to have advanced the money, for in a very few weeks General Cleaveland had assembled most of his men at Schenectady with provisions and supplies for the venture. These were the men who went:

OFFICERS :

Moses Cleaveland, Superintendent.

Augustus Porter, Principal Surveyor and Deputy Superintendent.

Seth Pease, Astronomer and Surveyor.

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Amos Spafford, John Milton Holley, Richard H. Stoddard and Moses Warren, Surveyors.

Joshua Stow, Commissary.

Theodore Shepard, Physician.

EMPLOYEES OF THE COMPANY :

Joseph Tinker, Boatman

Francis Gray

George Proudfoot

Amos Sawtel

Samuel Forbes

Amos Barber

Stephen Benton

William B. Hall

Samuel Hungerford

Asa Mason

Samuel Davenport

Michael Coffin

Amzi Atwater

Thomas Harris

Elisha Ayres

Timothy Dunham

Norman Wilcox

Shadrach Benham

George Gooding

Wareham Shepard

Samuel Agnew

John Briant

Titus V. Munson

Joseph Landon

David Beard

Ezekiel Morly

Charles Parker

Luke Hanchet

Nathaniel Doan

James Hamilton

James Halket

John Lock

Olney F. Rice

Stephen Burbank

Samuel Barnes

Daniel Shulay

Joseph McIntyre

Besides these thirty-seven men definitely employed by the Company, six other people came along. There were Elijah Gun and his wife, Anna ; Job Phelps Stiles and Tabitha Cuni Stiles, his wife. Nathan Perry and Nathan Chapman came driving cattle, by means of which they furnished the surveyors with fresh beef. They also did some trading with various Indian parties, as opportunity served.

There were all told 58 men, two women, thirteen horses and the cattle aforesaid. Perry and Chapman were not with the party all the time, going faster or slower according to their own lawful occasions.

Some of the surveyors kept journals, some of the other members of the party made occasional notes. Some of them

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who had good memories later told or wrote about the expedition to others. Colonel Whittlesey gathered up a good many of these records for his "Early History of Cleveland" and prints them with this comment :

"It is due to the general system of New England education, that her sons are able wherever they go in unexplored countries, to record intelligibly what passes under their observation."

Which is all very true. But present day readers of these old journals sometimes wish the famous New England education had included a little more firmness in the matter of commas.

The journal of John Milton Holley, surveyor, begins on April 28, 1796. He started then from Dover for Lake Erie. He picked up Colonel Porter on the second day. They lodged in Spencertown the next night and at Albany the next. They dined on Sunday at "Shenectady," moved on to Esquire Miles' in New Amsterdam, "thence through Ballantine and Germanflats, and lodged at Talcott's, next night at Bean's in Westmoreland, and thence to Morehouse's, thence—(a piece torn off )—thence to Sanborn's in Canandaigua."

More is lost at this point, but on May 6 he went to "the Ertrantiquet" (Irondequoit) where he spent two days. The rest of the month was spent around Canandaigua, Stones-town, Irondequoit. On the last day of May things begin to happen.

"May 31st.—In the afternoon left Canandaigua for Gerundicut (Irondequoit) a second time. Stow and Stoddard came from Sodus, on Lake Ontario, with information that three boats were cast away, but no lives or property lost ; in consequence of which we left Canandaigua the 31st of May, for Gerundicut, slept the first night at Howe's in Boughtontown."

"June 1st.—Went to the landing to see our boat, but it had not arrived, Porter, Stow and myself embarked on Dun-bar's boat, to go to the great lake to meet our boat, but as luck would have it we went in the boat about half a mile to the landing, unloaded, and Porter with four hands returned

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to Little Sodus, to give relief to those who were cast away, and Stow and myself with our hands encamped on the Gerundicut. Built a bark hut, and the men lodged in it the first night. Stow and myself lodged on the floor at Dunbar's. Go to Smith's and see if there is any flour or wheat, and if so, if there are any barrels, if not, call upon Steel, get four barrels of pork at Chapin's and two barrels of flour at Chapman's."

Apparently Holley spent the next day looking after the flour and pork, for he does not write that day. On the next, Moses Cleaveland appears upon the scene.

"June 3d.—Gen. Cleaveland at evening arrived at Canandaigua and gave us information that the boats had gone from Whitestown to Fort Stanwix, [now Rome, New York] and Mr. Stow got a letter from the British minister, or chargé des affaires, to the commanding officer at Fort Oswego, requesting permission for our boats to pass unmolested."

However, for some reason not explained, the officer in charge at Fort Oswego refused the permission for the boats to pass. This fort, with some others, had not yet been turned over to the United States government under the Jay treaty, although it was under contract to do so in a short time. The boats, therefore, had to slip past as best they could at night, in bad weather. Returning to the journal :

"This information, together with the favorable prospect of wind and weather at that time, gave us great hopes that the stores would get on safely and rapidly, but on Saturday morning there sprang up in the northeast a storm, and blew most violently on the shore of the Lake. This proved fatal to one of the boats, and damaged another very much, though we went a little forward to a safe harbor, and built several fires on the bank of the Lake as a beacon to those coming on. After the disaster had happened, the boat that was safe went on to the Gerundicut with a load, and left the other three, including the one that was stove, at Little Sodus, encamped near the lake. Among the passengers were two families, one of the women with a little child. The water at Gerundicut is about two rods wide and twelve to fourteen feet deep,

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very crooked and great obstruction for boats. Started for Canandaigua and arrived on the morning of the 14th.

"All these misfortunes happened in consequence of not having liberty to pass the fort at Oswego. Such are the effects fects of allowing the British government to exist on the continent of America."

June fifth, the boats left Gerundicut for Niagara, and on June 17th we pick up the diary : "At evening we got to Skinner's tavern at Buffalo Creek. On the 18th, Porter and myself went on the creek in a bark canoe, a fishing, and caught only three little ones."

They landed at Chippawa, found some difficulty about the goods, so went to Queenstown and set out next morning for Buffalo.

"On the way I stopped to take a view of Niagara Falls. That river, a little above Fort Slusher, is two and one half miles wide. Soon after this the water is very rapid, and continuing on, is hurried with amazing impetuosity down the most stupendous precipice perhaps in nature. There is a fog continually arising, occasioned by the tumbling of the water, which in a clear morning, is seen from Lake Erie, at a distance of thirty or forty miles, as is the noise also heard. As the hands were very dilatory in leaving Chippawa, we were obliged to encamp on the great island in the river. We struck a fire and cooked some squirrels and pigeons, and a young partridge; two I eat for supper. I slept very sound all night, between a large log and the bank of the river. The next day arrived at Buffalo. About two o'clock this afternoon, the council fire with the Six Nations was uncovered, and at evening was again covered until morning, when it was opened again, and after some considerable delay, Captain Brant gave General Cleaveland a speech in writing.

"The chiefs, after this, were determined to get drunk. No more business was done this day. In the evening, the Indians had one of their old ceremonial dances, where one gets up and walks up and down between them, singing something, and those who sit around keep time, by grunting.

"Next morning, which was the 23d, after several speeches

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back and forth, from Red Jacket to General Cleaveland, Captain Chapin, Brant, etc. etc. General Cleaveland answered Captain Brant's speech.

"In short, the business was concluded this way. General Cleaveland offered Brant one thousand dollars as a present. Brant, in answer, told General Cleaveland that their minds were easily satisfied, but that they thought his offer was not enough, and added this to it, that if he would use his influence with the United States, to procure an annuity of five hundred dollars par, and if this should fail, that the Connecticut Land Company should, in a reasonable time, make an additional present of one thousand five hundred dollars, which was agreed to. The Mohawks are to give one hundred dollars to the Senecas, and Cleaveland gave two beef cattle and whisky, to make a feast for them."

One incident of the Indian meeting made enough impression upon the mind of the young surveyor to be recorded completely.

"Thursday, June 23d.—Farmer's Brother, Red Jacket, Little Billy, and Green Grass Hopper dined with the Commissioners. In the course of conversation Red Jacket gave his sentiments upon religion, which were to this purpose. You white people make a great parade about religion, you say you have a book of laws and rules which was given you by the Great Spirit, but is this true? Was it written by his own hand and given to you? No, says he, it was written by your own people. They do it to deceive you. Their whole wishes center here (pointing to his pocket) all they want is money. (It happened there was a priest in the room at the same time who heard him). He says white people tell them, they wish to come and live among them as brothers, and learn them agriculture. So they bring on implements of husbandry and presents, tell them good stories, and all appears honest. But when they are gone all appears as a dream. Our land is taken from us and still we don't know how to farm it."

Kennedy says of this incident : "This seems, in some respects, a very shrewd presentation of the vexed 'Indian question' at an early day." Which is true. But to one

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writing thirty-five years after Kennedy, taking into consideration some of the details added to the sum of men's knowledge of man in that length of time, there seems very good reason to doubt whether the roaming Indians could have been taught to farm, as an agricultural people understand farming, in one generation or a dozen. Mankind learns and advances, but much more slowly than the hopeful missionaries of that time believed.

The diary of Seth Pease is useful because of his careful observations, but it adds little story to that given above. Pease seems to have been thoroughly of the mathematical type of mind. His account is in terms such as these :

"June 21st.—I set out from Niagara fort, or Newark, went on foot to the landing above the falls, visited the cataract of Niagara; it takes a stone three seconds to fall from the top of the rock to the bottom."

"Monday, June 27th.—We started from Buffalo Creek at 11 o'clock A. M. to cross Lake Erie. Steered south, 34 degrees west. Our latitude at noon, forty-two, twenty minutes north. Got to Cataraugus, a convenient harbor."

"Sunday, July 3d.—On examination of the quadrant, we found that one hundred and eighty degrees measured one hundred and eighty degrees and four minutes by the octant. We went on as far as the portage, got our boats and loading over and camped."

When astronomer Seth Pease tells of the method and time of arrival in New Connecticut, therefore, his word may safely be taken.

"Monday, July 4th, Independence Day.—I traveled by land ; good walking on the shore and bank; high springs and streams very plenty and good. We discovered Pennsylvania north line about 3 o'clock, P. M., a stone marked on the north side, and on the south, Pennsylvania forty-two degrees north latitude, variation seven minutes thirty seconds west."

Mr. Pease is sufficiently excited by the arrival to add a further item :

"Monday, July 4th, 1796.--We that came by land arrived at the confines of New Connecticut and gave three cheers

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precisely at 5 o'clock P. M., we then proceeded to Conneaut at 5 hours 30 minutes; our boats got on an hour after; we pitched our tents on the east side."

Having lapsed sufficiently into human nature to mention the three cheers along with the minute of arrival of land and water parties, Pease characteristically makes no mention of the celebration of the evening.

"Tuesday, At camp."

"6th.—Traversed the lake shore from the stone at forty-two degrees north latitude to the stone at the north end of Pennsylvania line."

"Thursday, 7th.—In the afternoon we began to measure the east line of New Connecticut. We run about two miles south and encamped by a pond in a swamp. Plenty of gnats and mosquitoes; poor water."

But if Mr. Pease sticks to his stars and latitudes, the founder sticks to his special task also. He makes a complete and businesslike report. From the Diary of Moses Cleave-land :

"On this creek (`Conneaught') in New Connecticut land, July 4th, 1796, under General Moses Cleaveland, the surveyors and men sent by the Connecticut Land Company to survey and settle the Connecticut Reserve, and were the first English people who took possession of it. The day, memorable as the birthday of American Independence, and freedom from British tyranny, and commemorated by all good freeborn sons of America, and memorable as the day on which the settlement of this new country was commenced, and in time may raise her head among the most enlightened and improved States. And after many difficulties perplexities and hardships were surmounted, and we were on the good and promised land, felt that a just tribute of respect to the day ought to be paid. There were in all, including men, women and children, fifty in number. The men, under Captain Tinker ranged themselves on the beach, and fired a Federal salute of fifteen rounds, and then the sixteenth in honor of New Connecticut. We gave three cheers and

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christened the place Port Independence. Drank several toasts, viz :

1st. The President of the United States.

2d. The State of New Connecticut.

3d. The Connecticut Land Company.

4th. May the Port of Independence and the fifty sons and daughters who have entered it this day be successful and prosperous.

5th. May these sons and daughters multiply in sixteen years sixteen times fifty.

6th. May every person have his bowsprit trimmed and ready to enter every port that opens.

Closed with three cheers. Drank several pails of grog, supped and retired in remarkable good order."

"July 5th.—Wrote letters to the directors and my wife. Two boats were dispatched under the direction of Tinker to Fort Erie, to bring the remainder of stores left there. The Conneaut is now choked with sand. The stream is capable of admitting boats the greater part of the year, up beyond the Pennsylvania line, which in a straight line cannot be more than four miles.

"July 7th.—Received a message from the Paqua, chief of the Massassagoes, residing in Conneaut, that they wished a council held that day. I prepared to meet them, and after they were all seated, took my seat in the middle. Cato, son of Paqua, was the orator, Paqua dictated. They opened the council by smoking the pipe of peace and friendship. The orator then rose and addressed me in the language of Indian flattery, 'Thank the Great Spirit for preserving and bringing me here, thank the Great Spirit for giving a pleasant day,' and then requested to know our claim to the land, as they had friends who resided on the land, and others at a distance who would come there. They wanted to know what I would do with them. I replied, informing them of our title, and what I had said to the Six Nations, and also assured them that they should not be disturbed in their possessions, we would treat them and their friends as brothers. They then presented me with the pipe of friendship and peace, a curious

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one, indeed. I returned a chain of wampum, silver trinkets, and other presents, and whisky, to the amount of about twenty-five dollars. They also said they were poor; and as I had expressed, hoped we should be friendly and continue to be liberal. I told them I acted for others as well as for myself, and to be liberal of others' property was no evidence of true friendship; those people I represented lived by industry, and to give away their property lavishly, to those who live in indolence and by begging, would be no deed of charity. As long as they were industrious and conducted themselves well, I would do such benevolent acts to them as would be judged right, and would do them the most good, cautioned them against indolence and drunkenness. This not only closed the business, but checked their begging for more whisky."

0 Yankee Moses !

"July 10th.—Went with Captain Buckland about eight miles up the beach; wind ahead. Stopped by Jay Creek, then went about three miles farther; part of the way slate rock, and trees had tumbled in; the surf high, making very hard walking on my return; lost one stocking; dined on the beach; went two miles farther and turned in, took a berth with a great-coat under a hemlock.

"July 11th.—Returned to Port Independence; a storm of rain coming on made it uncomfortable, and wet us very decently.

"July 12th.—Dispatched Stoddard with four men to join Porter."

Ten days more went by before the smaller party now left with Cleaveland entered the mouth of the Cujahoga. One of the labors performed at Conneaut was the building of a log cabin to hold the stores, in charge of Joshua Stow, the commissary. We may take it that the architecture was a little queer, for the men laughed over it a good deal. They called. it "Stow's Castle," and by that name it was called to the end of its chapter.

Four surveying parties were now in the field, running meridians and lines beginning with the Pennsylvania north

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and west lines. Their leaders were Moses Warren, Seth Pease, Amos Spafford and John Milton Holley. Holley was at this time only eighteen years old. Their compasses varied a good deal, causing some of the meridian lines to converge and some to diverge. As much as half a mile of variations was found when they got to the lake. Whittlesey, himself a government surveyor and geologist, remarks that "The early surveys of the Government of the United States were conducted in the same manner, but it was soon found necessary, in using an instrument subject to so many fluctuations as the ordinary compass, to make a correction of each township line before proceeding to the next. This is done by running a random line across the north end of each township and correcting back. By the system employed on the Western Reserve, the townships were not equal in quantity."

Porter made the traverse to Sandusky which resulted so sadly for the Excess Company.

CHAPTER III

THE SCENE

While the four surveying parties were laying out the state of "New Connecticut," Moses Cleaveland, with a party in one boat, started out from Port Independence to the Cuyahoga. All of the parties, Cleaveland's included, at some time or other mistook the Chagrin River for the Cuyahoga, with consequent difficulty in knowing where they were, in meeting supplies or checking surveys.

On the twenty-second of July, however, Moses and his party entered the right river. There was a bar across the mouth, and they had difficulty getting in, but that was a minor detail. They were there. The entry was not attractive. It was too marshy to tie up a boat. One of the narrators says in trying to land at one point the boat of Moses got caught in the bullrushes as did the cradle of the more famous Moses. This, if true, was another trivial incident. They came, after a bit, to the foot of the Indian trail up the bank later called Union Lane. Here they could debark, and did so, some of the men unloading the boat while Cleaveland and some others climbed the slope and came out on the table land above.

Lake Erie was blue in 1796. It was clear. One could see the bottom at depths measured by fathoms. It was good to drink.

Out in the middle, halfway to Canada, it is still clear and beautiful. It was that way at the edges then, as Georgian Bay is now, or the forested Canadian borders of HuronChamplain's "Mer Douce." Not so dark as those northern waters, because not so deep, Erie still held unsullied its characteristic turquoise beauty.

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