sight, their eyes were fixed upon him with an evident expression of uneasiness. As for the Mohawk, he condescended only to give them a passing glance, and went on his way with the same lounging, indifferent step that he had exhibited from the first. He was a superb-looking fellow, of about 25, full six feet in height, and could easily have demolished three or four of the dwarfish and effeminate Penobscots. At the time of the author's residence in the Mohawk country, the materials of that history, especially that portion of them connected with events subsequent to the conquest of Canada by Great Britain, were for the most part ungathered. The events of the war of the Revolution, which nowhere else raged so furiously, and was nowhere else marked with such bitter and entire desolation, were then fresh in the recollections of the people; and many a time and oft were the recitals listened to with thrilling interest, and laid up in the store-house of memory, as among the richest of its traditionary treasures. Nor was the interest of these verbal narratives diminished by visiting the sites of the old fortifications, strolling over the battle-fields, and noting the shot-holes in the walls of such houses as had stood out the contest, and the marks of cannon balls upon the trunks of trees yet remaining on fields which had been scenes of bloody strife. Several years afterward it occurred to the author to undertake a task which he ought to have commenced years before, viz. the composition of a historical memoir of the Mohawk Valley, which would embody those written and unwritten materials of history, now fast disappearing by the death of the actors in the scenes to be described, and the loss of papers and manuscripts, of which such reckless destruction is allowed in this country. In the progress of thought and investigation upon the subject, it was soon determined to embrace in the proposed memoir some biographical account of the Great Chief of the Six Nations, Joseph Brant--Thayendanegea; but there was yet another distinguished name, whose history and fame were intimately connected with the Mohawks, and whose character has neither been justly described nor well understood. The reader will probably anticipate the name, Sir William Johnson. By this time it was apparent that the work, if executed, must be more extended than had originally been contemplated; and a few slight preparations were made for its commencement ten years ago.