Their fame was thus carried to
almost every village and hamlet in Pennsylvania and New England. Hence
great eagerness was manifested in regard to the title, and settlement of
these lands.
The company of which Messrs. Phelps and Gorham were the leading spirits,
having purchased the pre-emptive right of Massachusetts, in the spring of
1788, Mr. Phelps went on to the ground, and was successful in convening a
council of the Indians for the sale of their lands, at Buffalo creek,
during the month of July of the same year. [Footnote: His success in
obtaining this council, and securing a sale, was owing in a large degree,
to his policy in paying court to the powerful faction of the Leasees
residing in Canada, and giving them an interest in the purchase.]
The Indians at this treaty strenuously resisted the sale of any of their
land west of the Genesee river; yet with a view of furnishing "_a piece
of ground for a mill yard_" at the Genesee Falls, were finally persuaded
to give their assent to a boundary line, that included a tract twelve
miles square, west of that river. The eastern boundary of the lands sold,
was the Massachusetts pre-emptive line; the western, was a line "beginning
in the northern line of Pennsylvania, due south of the corner or point of
land made by the confluence of the Genesee river, and the Canaseraga
creek, thence north on said meridian line to the corner or point, at the
confluence aforesaid; thence northwardly along the waters of the Genesee
river, to a point two miles north of Canawangus village, thence running
due west 12 miles; thence running northwardly so as to be twelve miles
distant from the western bounds of said river, to the shores of Lake
Ontario.
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