Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/35

DELAWARE COUNTY. 11 exact limits of the treaty — that county being ceded to the English — while Broome and Chenango, still farther westward, remained in possession of the Six Nations or their dependen- cies. The consideration paid for this extensive territory, now so valuable in agricultural and mineral resources, was ten thousand four hundred and sixty pounds sterling, or about fifty thousand six hundred dollars. The honorable and friendly adjustment of the existing diffi- culties by the Stanwix Treaty, restored the confidence which had been so severely tested by the lawless and inhuman depre- dations which had been of frequent occurrence for a term of years preceding upon the settlers and their property, for in- fringements, whether real or imaginary, upon the territory claimed by the Indians. About the period of 1770, the tide of emigration may be said to have fairly commenced. The two years of uninter- rupted peace that had preceded, strengthened by the glitter- ing allurements of the future, had succeeded in burying the inclemency and suff"erings of the past in oblivion. The hardy settlers, accompanied by their wives and children, together with the rude accoutrements of civilization, were seen pene- trating the wilderness in every direction; and not twenty years elapsed from the time the first settler crossed the North river in the bark canoe, and followed the Indian trail to some desirable location for himself and his family a home — although the scenes of the Revolution are numbered within that period — ere the whole surface of the territory, from the majestic Hud- son to those great inland seas, was dotted by innumerable clearings — the homes of honest, industrious, and daring pio- neers; where, by dint of hard labor and economy, in most instances, they succeeded in obtaining a comfortable support for themselves and families. The gigantic forests which had flourished in their majesty and grandeur from age to age, now faded away before the