Of that war, itself, there is little occasion to speak.  Its progress and termination have long been matters of history.  The independence of America was acknowledged by England in 1783; and, immediately after, the republicans commenced the conquest of their wide-spread domains, by means of the arts of peace.  In 1785, the first great assaults were made on the wilderness, in that mountainous region which has been the principal scene of our tale.  The Indians had been driven off, in a great measure, by the events of the revolution; and the owners of estates, granted under the crown, began to search for their lands in the untenanted woods.  Such isolated families, too, as had taken refuge in the settlements, now began to return to their deserted possessions; and soon the smokes of clearings were obscuring the sun.  Whitestown, Utica, on the site of old Fort Stanwix, Cooperstown, for years the seat of justice for several thousand square miles of territory, all sprang into existence between the years 1785 and 1790.  Such places as Oxford, Binghamton, Norwich, Sherburne, Hamilton, and twenty more, that now dot the region of which we have been writing, did not then exist, even in name; for, in that day, the appellation and maps came after the place; whereas, now, the former precede the last.

The ten years that elapsed between 1785 and 1795, did wonders for all this mountain district.  More favourable lands lay spread in the great west, but the want of roads, and remoteness from the markets, prevented their occupation.  For several years, therefore, the current of emigration which started out of the eastern states, the instant peace was proclaimed, poured its tide into the counties mentioned in our opening chapter—­counties as they are to-day; county ay, and fragment of a county, too, as they were then.

The New York Gazette, a journal that frequently related facts that actually occurred, announced in its number of June 11th, 1795, “His Majesty’s Packet that has just arrived”—­it required half a century to teach the journalists of this country the propriety of saying “His Britannic Majesty’s Packet,” instead of “His Majesty’s,” a bit of good taste, and of good sense, that many of them have yet to learn—­“has brought out,” home would have been better “among her passengers, Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Willoughby, and his lady, both of whom are natives of this state.  We welcome them back to their land of nativity where we can assure them they will be cordially received notwithstanding old quarrels. Major Willoughby’s kindness to American prisoners is gratefully remembered; nor is it forgotten that he desired to exchange to another regiment in order to avoid further service in this country.”