Richard Smith (22) (1735–1803)

Reprint of 1906 edition, with notes and commentary by Halsey.

In 1769 - shortly before the country burned - Smith travels to check out his land purchase around Oneonta. From Burlington NJ, up the Hudson, up the Mohawk through Schenectady to Canojaharie, across the ridge to Cherry Valley and then Glimmerglass, and then down the Susquehanna to Oquaga, finally portaging into the Delaware and home. En route visits and describes the country and its residents, including Dutch farm families with no English, and Oneida longhouses.

A couple brushes with history that make Smith a footnote to others' stories: he hires two Mohawks to take him downriver from Glimmerglass: one of them is the 27-year-old Joseph Brant. (Whose wife and child are literally beneath mention until later in the journal.)

And at 5 o'clock on June 3rd 1769 - at Oquaga - they unship Mr Wells' telescope to observe the transit of Venus. (Which is remarkably good planning, given how I was unable to interest anyone in viewing our contemporary transit.)

Encounters many of the familiar names of the day - James Dean, Good Peter, George Croghan,

One can apparently put a canoe in the water at Cherry Valley and emerge in Maryland. Oquaga to Burlinton was a one-day portage, and then five days on the Delaware.

The 1906 editor repeats (p.82) the apparently mythical story of Albany's pre-Henry Hudson pre-history: "...the French are believed to have had a trading post near there much earlier still - that is, in 1540, but this was soon abandoned." (Eventually, I'm going to have to run this story to ground.)… (más)