fire of their thirsty muskets over the brink of the great ravine in which lies the Devil's Hole, fitly named. At the great treaty that Sir William Johnson now held at Niagara with all the western Indians--one of the most remarkable convocations ever convened on this continent--the Senecas were compelled to surrender to the English Government all right to a tract four miles wide on each side of the Niagara River from Fort Niagara to Fort Schlosser. When it came time to sign the articles agreeing to this grant, Johnson, at the suggestion of General Bradstreet, who had in mind a fortification of the present site of Fort Erie, asked to extend the grant to include all land bordering the entire river from mouth to source and for four miles back. To this the Senecas agreed, but signed the treaty, as it were, with their left hands, never intending to keep it. However, it is to this date that we trace first actual white man's ownership of the first foot of land on the Niagara frontier, save perhaps the enclosure at Fort Niagara. Until this agreement was reached Sir William refused to deal with the gathered host of Indians from the West; thus was the Devil's Hole Massacre avenged. Over two thousand Indians had met to treat with the now famous Indian Commissioner for the Crown, coming from Nova Scotia in the East and the head streams of the Mississippi River in the West; that Niagara should have been the chosen meeting-place illustrates again its geographical position on the continent. Shrewd at this form of procrastinating business, Sir William laid down the policy of treaty with each tribe separately and not with the nations as such, and this, added to the formality observed, tended to make the procedure of almost endless duration. But Johnson knew his host and it is said on good authority that the vast sum now invested by the Crown paid good interest; the congress cost about ten thousand dollars in New York currency, and about two hundred thousand was distributed in presents to the vast assemblage. "Though this assemblage consisted of peace-desiring savages, their friendly disposition was not certain. Several straggling soldiers were shot at, and great precautions were taken by the English garrison to avert a rupture." Writes the graphic Parkman: "The troops were always on their guard, while the black muzzles of the cannons, thrust from the bastions of the fort, struck a wholesome awe into the savage throng below." [Illustration: The Stone Redoubt at Fort Niagara, Built in 1770. From the original in the British Museum.]