Excerpt from Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase of Western New York: Embracing Some Account of the Ancient Remains; A Brief History of Our Immediate Predecessors, the Confederated Iroquois, Their System of Government, Wars, Etc; A Synopsis of Colonial History; Some Notices of the Border Wars of the Revolution Read the preface! A command that may be regarded as too imper ative, and yet one that an author has some right to make, in consideration of the deep interest which he may be supposed to have in its observance. Having prepared an entertainment, as he is about to Open the door to his guests, it is quite natural he should Wish to pass them in With his own introduction. First, as to the general plan of the work - There may be readers of it who have anticipated a history more strictly local in its character, than they Will find this. It was the original intention of the author to have commenced With the close of the Revolution, and traced settlement and its progress westward, very much as has been done, with the exception of a more extended detail. Upon proceeding to his task, however, after mate rials for it had been collected, the important consideration presented itself, that, although there existed, in detached forms, sketches of the earliest approaches of civilization to this region - Of early colonization tending in this direction - of the French and Indian and French and English wars; the long contest for supremacy and dominion; the occupancy of that extraordinary race of men, the Jesuit Missionaries; the Border Wars of the Revolution; still, there was no history extant that connected all this, and furnished an unbroken chain of events allied to the region of Western New York, and especially the Holland Purchase. The distinguished historian, Mr. Bancroft, was the first to draw from French sources any considerable amount of the history of French occupancy of the valley of the St. Lawrence, and the borders of our lakes and rivers; of the advents of Jesuit Missionaries, and their cotemporaries, the fur traders; and embellish his country's history with a long series of interesting events, before almost unnoticed. But little could be gathered by an humble local historian, after such a gleaner had passed over the ground; but his work is of a magnitude to preclude access to it, by the great mass of readers. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.