While the French with comparative ease, reached the vast inland seas, the English by more difficult channels sought the advantages, which intercourse with the lake Indians afforded. An early writer of American history, Isaac Weld, says: “There are four principal channels for trade between the ocean and the lakes. One by the Mississippi to Lake Erie, a second by the Potomac and French Creek to Lake Erie. (Lake Erie was at first called Okswego, and the territory to the south of Lake Erie was sometimes called Ontario Nous.) A third by the Hudson, and a fourth by the St. Lawrence.” A later writer says: “It is worthy of notice, that a person may go from Quebec to New Orleans by water all the way except about a mile from the source of Illinois River.” The last mentioned route we have seen belonged to the French, and was the best to follow, as well as the most direct to Europe. Of the other three, we have only to speak of that by the Hudson. The distance from New York to Lake Ontario is laid down as being 500 miles. From New York Bay to Albany, the Hudson is navigable, 180 miles. Ten miles north of Albany the river divides into two branches. The western branch is the Mohawk and leads to Rome, formerly Fort Stanwix. A branch of the Mohawk, Wood Creek, leads toward Oneida Lake, which was reached by a portage. A branch of Wood Creek was called Canada Creek, and led toward Lake Champlain. From Oneida Lake, the larger lake, Ontario, is reached by the Oswego River. Weld probably refers to this route when he says that the distance over which boats had to be hauled by land, (perhaps, from New York to Ontario) was altogether thirty miles. This was no doubt the most speedy route by which to reach Upper Canada from the Hudson. Frequent reference is made to it, in the accounts of journeying, by the U. E. Loyalists, which have come under notice. It was by far the most commonly traveled way, taken by those who came into Canada after the close of the war. And, it is stated, 1796, that the chief part of the trade between New York and the lake is by this way. But sometimes, the traveler up the Mohawk, instead of turning into Vilcrik, or Wood Creek, would continue to ascend the Mohawk, which turned more toward the east; and then into a branch sometimes called, 1756, West Canada Creek, by which he was brought contiguous to the head waters of the Black River, which empties into the lake at Sacket’s Harbor. But the Black River was sometimes reached by ascending the Hudson, above the mouth of the Mohawk, away eastward to the Mohegan mountains, where the Hudson rises. Crossing these mountains he would strike the Moose River, which is a tributary to the Black River. Occasionally, instead of Moose River, the Oswegotchie was reached, and followed to its mouth at La Présentation, the present town of Ogdensburgh That this route was well known, is shown from the statement of Weld, that, “It is said that both the Hudson and Oswegotchie River