Built by Sir William Johnson, 1742] Syracuse, like Utica and Rochester, had its own way of beginning. We can truly say that at first salt made the city. The beds of salt are not directly under Syracuse, but are in the hills not far away. The water from the rains and springs dissolves some of this salt, and as it flows down it fills the gravels in and around the town. While all was yet forest the Indian women had made salt from the brine which oozed up in the springs. So long ago as 1770, five years before the Revolution, the Delaware Indians went after Onondaga salt, and a little of it was now and then brought down to Albany. Sometimes it was sold far down the St. Lawrence in Quebec. [Illustration: NEW YORK NEW YORK, LAKE ERIE AND WESTERN RAILROAD   ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ DELAWARE, LACKAWANNA AND WESTERN RAILROAD   ........... NEW YORK CENTRAL AND HUDSON RIVER RAILROAD  ----------- NEW YORK, ONTARIO AND WESTERN RAILROAD  -·-·-·-·-·- DELAWARE AND HUDSON RAILROAD  -+-+-+-+-+- ERIE CANAL (old location)  =========== ] The pioneers first made salt there in 1788. This was several years before the Genesee road was cut through the woods. One of these men, a Mr. Danforth, whose name a suburb of Syracuse now bears, used to put his coat on his head for a cushion and on that carry out a large kettle to the springs. He would put a pole across crotched sticks, hang up the kettle, and go to work to make salt. When he had made enough for the time he would hide his kettle in the bushes and bring home his salt. By and by so many hundreds of bushels were made by the settlers that the government of the state framed laws to regulate the making and selling of the salt, and as time went on a town arose and grew into a city. Many years later rock salt was found deep down under the surface farther west, and since that discovery the business of Syracuse has become more and more varied in character. The history of the state of New York shows well how the New World was settled along the whole Atlantic coast. The white men from Europe found first Manhattan island and the harbor. Then they followed the lead of a river and made a settlement that was to be Albany. Still they let a river guide them, this time the Mohawk, and it led them westward. They pushed their boats up the stream, and on land they widened the trails of the red men. Near its head the Mohawk valley led out into the wide, rich plains south and east of lake Ontario. Soon there were so many people that a good road became necessary. When the good road was made it brought more people, and thus the foundations of the Empire State were laid. CHAPTER III ORISKANY, A BATTLE OF THE REVOLUTION