nd draw their batteaux over the rifts. At the little falls is a
postage or land-carriage for about a mile, over a ground so marshy that
it will not bear any wheel carriage; but a colony of Germans settled
there, attend with sledges, on which they draw the loaded batteaux to
the next place of embarkation upon the same river. From thence they
proceed by water up that river for fifty miles, to the Carrying-place,
near the head of it, where there is another postage, the length of which
depends upon the dryness or wetness of the season, but is generally
above six or eight miles over in the summer months. Here the batteaux
are again carried upon sledges, till they come to a narrow river, called
Wood's Creek, down which they are wafted on a gentle stream for about
forty miles into the lake Oneyada, which stretches from east to west
about thirty miles, and is passed with great ease and safety in calm
weather. At the western end of the lake is the river Onondaga, which,
after a course of between twenty and thirty miles, unites with the river
Cayuga, or Seneca, and their united streams run into the lake Ontario,
at the place where Oswego fort is situated. But this river is so rapid
as to be sometimes dangerous, besides its being full of rifts and rocks;
and about twelve miles on this side of Oswego there is a fall of
eleven feet perpendicular, where there is consequently a postage, which
however, does not exceed forty yards. From thence the passage is easy
quite to Oswego. The lake Ontario, on which this fort stands, is near
two hundred and eighty leagues in circumference; its figure is oval, and
its depth runs from twenty to twenty-five fathoms. On the north side of
it are several little gulfs. There is a communication between this
lake and that of the Hurons by the river Tanasuate, from whence it is a
land-carriage of six or eight leagues to the river Toronto, which
falls into it. The French have two forts of consequence on this lake;
Frontenac, which commands the river St. Lawrence, where the lake
communicates with it; and Niagara, which commands the communication
between the lake Ontario and the lake Erie. But of these forts, and
this last lake, which is one of the finest in the world, we shall have
occasion to speak hereafter.

Though we had long been in possession of fort Oswego, and though it lay
greatly exposed to the French, particularly to those of Canada, upon any
rupture between the two nations, we had never taken care