The Navigators A Journal of Passage on the Inland Waterways of New York 1793 Philip Lord Jr. NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 2003 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Regents of The University ROBERT M. BENNETT, Chancellor, B.A., M.S. ................................................................... Tonawanda ADELAIDE L. SANFORD, Vice Chancellor, B.A., M.A., P.D. ............................................... Hollis DIANE O’NEILL MCGIVERN, B.S.N., M.A., Ph.D. ............................................................. Staten Island SAUL B. COHEN, B.A., M.A., Ph.D..................................................................................... New Rochelle JAMES C. DAWSON, A.A., B.A., M.S., Ph.D. ...................................................................... Peru ROBERT M. JOHNSON, B.S., J.D. ......................................................................................... Huntington ANTHONY S. BOTTAR, B.A., J.D. ........................................................................................ North Syracuse MERRYL H. TISCH, B.A., M.A. ........................................................................................... New York GERALDINE D. CHAPEY, B.A., M.A., Ed.D. ....................................................................... Belle Harbor ARNOLD B. GARDNER, B.A., LL.B. .................................................................................... Buffalo HARRY PHILLIPS, 3rd, B.A., M.S.F.S. ................................................................................. Hartsdale JOSEPH E. BOWMAN,JR., B.A., M.L.S., M.A., M.Ed., Ed.D. ............................................ Albany LORRAINE A. CORTÉS-VÁZQUEZ, B.A., M.P.A. .................................................................. Bronx JUDITH O. RUBIN, A.B. ....................................................................................................... New York JAMES R. TALLON,JR., B.A., M.A. .................................................................................... Binghamton MILTON L. COFIELD, B.S., M.B.A., Ph.D. .......................................................................... Rochester President of The University and Commissioner of Education RICHARD P. MILLS Chief Operating Officer RICHARD H. CATE Deputy Commissioner for Cultural Education CAROL F. HUXLEY Director of the New York State Museum CLIFFORD A. SEIGRIED The State Education Department does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, religion, creed, disability, marital sta- tus, veteran status, national origin, race, gender, genetic predisposition or carrier status, or sexual orientation in its edu- cational programs, services and activities. Portions of this publication can be made available in a variety of formats, including braille, large print or audio tape, upon request. 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The Navigators A Journal of Passage on the Inland Waterways of New York 1793 Philip Lord, Jr. New York State Museum NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM BULLETIN 498 2003 iii Copyright © The New York State Education Department Published 2003 Printed in the United States of America Copies may be ordered from: Publications Sales New York State Museum 3140 CEC Albany,NewYork 12230 Phone: (518) 402-5344 FAX: (518) 474-2033 Web address: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/publications.html ISSN: 0278-3355 ISBN: 1-55557-142-5 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2002115697 This book printed on acid free paper Cover Image This engraving of boats navigating the Mohawk, including a Durham boat passing through one of the WILNC wing dams, was done in 1810 from an eyewitness account from 1807. iv “At night I have often hunted for a stone or a stick for a pillow, and in the morning, when I took hold of the oar or setting pole, I had to do it as gently as I could by reason of the soreness of my hands, which were much blistered, &c, in rowing the boat.” 1 Rev. Elijah Woolsey, on the Oswego River, 1794 v “This volume commemorates the bicentennial of the completion of the works of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company in 1803, which opened a continuous waterway westward for large Durham boats and transformed the transportation history of the Nation.” CONTENTS PREFACE ............................................................ viii INTRODUCTION ........................................................ 1 PROTOCOL ............................................................ 2 CHAPTER ONE —TheEmbarkation....................................... 3 CHAPTER TWO —TheLowerMohawk .................................... 9 CHAPTER THREE —TheLittleFalls ...................................... 21 CHAPTER FOUR —TheUpperMohawk................................... 29 CHAPTER FIVE —TheGreatCarryingPlace ............................... 37 CHAPTER SIX —UpperWoodCreek ..................................... 43 CHAPTER SEVEN —LowerWoodCreek ................................... 47 CHAPTER EIGHT —OneidaLake......................................... 59 CHAPTER NINE —TheOneidaRiver ..................................... 65 CHAPTER TEN —TheOswegoRiver ..................................... 75 CHAPTER ELEVEN —Oswego............................................ 83 CHAPTER TWELVE —AgaintoThreeRivers ............................... 91 CHAPTER THIRTEEN — Return to New Rotterdam . 97 CHAPTER FOURTEEN —ExcursiontoOneidaCastle ........................ 105 CHAPTER FIFTEEN —TheRoadtoWhitestown ........................... 113 CHAPTER SIXTEEN —AtJohnPost’sLanding ............................. 121 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN —LittleFallsRevisited............................. 131 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN — Passage to Schenectady . 137 EPILOGUE .......................................................... 144 SOURCE NOTES ...................................................... 145 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................... 151 vii Preface n the morning of October 1st, 1793, Simon Desjardins and year transferred to the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Pierre Pharoux arrived in Albany on a Hudson River sloop Society. The greater part of the journal, which covered the years from New York. They were mounting an expedition to 1793 to 1797, dealt with the establishment of Castorland itself, a view lands in the Black River country of northwestern New York, locale largely restricted to the western Adirondacks. It was, there- Oon which they hoped to establish a new French settlement. Pharoux fore, the noted regional historian Dr. Franklin B. Hough who and Desjardins were agents for the Compagnie de New York, a immediately set about to transform this extraordinary French French shareholder company whose mission was to secure lands for journal, containing over 700 pages of detailed entries, into an the resettlement of French emigrants fleeing uncertain and often English translation. dangerous circumstances following the French Revolution. They The initial entries, limited mostly to 1793 and 1794, doc- were immediately joined by Marc Brunel, whom they had met on ument expeditions to and from the Castorland area, before a semi- their Atlantic passage aboard the American ship “Liberty.” permanent establishment was made there, and so record the trans- The trio had first to go overland to the Mohawk River portation route that is the subject of this present work. It is port of Schenectady, from which they would embark by batteau Hough’s manuscript translation, now in the New York State on a voyage of the inland waterways that crossed New York. This Library and previously published only in brief extracts, that has journey would see them fifteen days later on the very brink of the made accessible to us the rich texture, and rare historical insights, Great Lakes at Oswego, returning once again to the streets of of this timely inland adventure. Albany on November 9th. Their journal records a 40 day voyage It is fortunate, indeed, to have a first-person account of of discovery along the expanding American frontier. travel by water along this route in the Autumn of 1793, capturing The year 1793 was a significant one in the history of images of the works of the Western Inland Lock Navigation westward transportation in New York State, and the Nation. The Company under construction as no other eyewitness could have. old Mohawk/Oneida navigation corridor connecting the Hudson But also to have an account of such comprehensive detail, the Valley with the Great Lakes had served throughout the eighteenth record of constant and acute observation of both the cultural and century as the only viable route for inland travel. However, as the natural environment through which these waterways passed, pro- new nation contemplated opening up vast western territories to vides a unique opportunity of which every student of American settlement, and thereby expanding areas of agricultural produc- history should avail themselves. tion and markets for eastern goods, this network of natural water- This absorbing eyewitness account of the journey of ways was proving inadequate to the demand. Desjardins, Pharoux, and Brunel records the adventure of travel The year before, The Western Inland Lock Navigation across New York two hundred years ago, and reveals, as no other Company, New York’s first canal company, had been formed to account has, the unique