55 French and the Fur Trade (1724)
It has of late been generally believed that the inhabitants of the Province of New York are so advantageously situated with respect to the Indian trade and enjoy so many advantages as to trade in general, that it is in their power not only to rival the French of Canada, who have almost entirely engrossed the fur trade of America, but that it is impossible for the French to carry on that trade in competition with the people of this province. New France (as the French now claim) extends from the mouth of the River Mississippi to the mouth of the River St. Lawrence, by which the French plainly show their intention of enclosing the British settlements and cutting us off from all commerce with the numerous nations of Indians that are everywhere settled over the vast continent of North America. And the good Services they intend with the Indians but too plainly appears at this day, by the Indian War now carried on against New England.
The method of carrying goods upon the rivers of North America into all the small branches and over land from the branches of one river to the branches of another was learned from the Indians and is the only method practicable through such large forests and deserts as the traders pass through in carrying from one Nation to another. It is this: the Indians make a long narrow Boat made of the bark of the Birch-tree, the parts of which they join very neatly. One of these canoes that can carry a dozen men can itself be easily carried upon two men’s shoulders, so that when they have gone as far by water as they can (which is further than is easily to be imagined, because their loaded canoes don’t sink six Inches into the water) they unload their canoes and carry both goods and canoes upon their shoulders over land, into the nearest branch of the river they intend to follow. Thus the French have an easy communication with all the countries bordering upon the River of St. Lawrence and its branches, with all the countries bordering upon these inland seas and the rivers which empty themselves into these seas, and can thereby carry their burdens of merchandise through all these large countries, which could not by any other means than water-carriage be carried through so vast a tract of land.
This however but half finishes the view the French have as to their commerce in North America. Many of the branches of the River Mississippi come so near to the branches of several of the rivers which empty themselves into the Great Lakes that in several places there is but a short land carriage from the one to the other. If one considers the length of this river and its numerous branches, he must say that by means of this river and the lakes there is opened to his view such a scene of inland navigation as cannot he paralleled in any other part of the world. The French have with much industry settled small colonies and built stockaded forts at all the considerable passes between the lakes, except between Cataracui Lake (called by the French Ontario) and Lake Erie. One of our Five Nations of Indians, whom we call Senecas (and the French Sonontouans) having hitherto refused them leave to erect any buildings there.
The French have been indefatigable in making discoveries and carrying on their commerce with Nations of whom the English know nothing but what they see in the French maps and books. The barrenness of the Soil and the coldness of the climate of Canada obliges the greatest number of the Inhabitants to seek their living by travelling among the Indians or by trading with those that do travel. But notwithstanding all these advantages, the French labor under difficulties that no art or industry can remove. The mouth of the River of St. Lawrence and more especially the Bay of St. Lawrence lies so far north and is thereby so often subject to tempestuous weather and thick Fogs that the navigation there is very dangerous and never attempted but during the summer months. A voyage to Canada is justly esteemed much more dangerous than to any other part of America.
Besides these difficulties in the transportation, the French labor under greater in the purchasing of the principal goods proper for the Indian market. For the most considerable and most valuable part of their cargo consists in strouds [broadcloths], duffils [coarse woolens], blankets, and other woolens which are bought at a much cheaper rate in England than in France. From Albany the Indian traders commonly carry their goods sixteen miles over land to the Mohawk River at Schenectady. From Schenectady they carry them in canoes to the carrying-place between the Mohawk River and the river which runs into the Oneida Lake. From thence they go with the current down the Onondaga River to the Cataracui Lake.
When this country (the Province of New York) came first under the Crown of Great Britain, our Five Nations of Indians were mortal enemies of the French at Canada and were in a continual war with them and all the nations of Indians around the lakes so that then it was not safe for the English to travel further than the countries of the Five Nations. Nor would our Indians permit the far Indians (with whom they had constant war) to pass through their countries to Albany. Besides, the Five Nations of Indians were at that time so numerous (consisting of ten times the number of fighting men they now do) that the trade with them alone was very considerable for so young and small a colony.
About this time the [Glorious] Revolution happened in Great Britain which was succeeded by a War between Great Britain and France. In February a party of three hundred men, consisting of equal numbers of French and Indians, surprised Schenectady in the nighttime when the poor people were in their beds. Barbarously murdered sixty-three men, women, and children in cold blood, laid the village in ashes, and then retired without reaping any other advantage besides their cruel revenge on innocent people for the mischief our Indians had done them. This raised a cruel war between the two colonies in which there was much mischief done and bloodshed, without any advantage to either side.
King William’s Peace put an end to this war but the peace lasted so short a while that the people of this province hardly had time to resettle their farms on the frontiers, which they had deserted in the time of the war, much less to adventure trading in the Indian countries so lately the scene of so much cruelty. But both colonies having now an abhorrence of the cruelties of the last war agreed on a kind of neutrality for the Indians during Queen Anne’s War, in which time we lost much ground with our own Indians. For the French having learned by dear experience that it was not possible for them to conquer our Five Indian Nations, resolved to try all means to gain their affections. And in this art the French are always more successful than in that of war. And the English failing in two ill-concerted expeditions against Canada, the Indians lost much of the opinion they had of the English power and valor. As soon as the peace was proclaimed an open trade with Montreal was carried on with such earnestness that Montreal was filled with Indian goods and Albany exhausted. By which means Montreal became the principal if not the only Indian market and the Indians depended entirely on the French for what they wanted.
From the whole, it seems plain that any difficulties and disadvantages this province has been under have only proceeded from the wars which have continued since the first settling of the province to the beginning of the last general peace. But now that not only this province but likewise our six Nations of Indians are at peace and in amity both with the French and all the Indian nations with whom we can have any commerce, these difficulties are all removed. And we now enjoy the most favorable time that at any time can be hoped for, in order to extend the British commerce in North America. While the French not only labor under the difficulties which I have shown to be inseparable from the situation of their colony, but likewise under another disadvantage (not before taken notice of) by the fur trade of Canada being restrained to one company.
Source: Cadwallader Colden, “Papers relating to . . . the . . . Encouragement of the Indian Trade, etc.” in his History of the Five Indian Nations of Canada (1747), second pagination, 25-40. https://archive.org/details/toldcontemporari02hartrich/page/320/mode/2up
