Here Cooper is said to have written his admirable novels of border and Indian life, novels which have been devoured by me and millions of readers; it is fair to predict that the stories will be read for another century to come.[29] Many other interesting characters have at different periods made Fort George their abode. In 1780, a handsome house within its enclosure was occupied by General Guy Johnson. [Footnote 24: _Colonial Documents of New York_, vol. ix., p. 773; in the history of the French régime at Niagara special acknowledgment must be made to Porter's _Brief History of Old Fort Niagara_ (Niagara Falls, 1896), which is particularly rich in references to the important sources of information concerning the French along and at the mouth of the Niagara River.] [Footnote 25: _Colonial Documents of New York_, vol. ix., pp. 952, 958.] [Footnote 26: Logstown?] [Footnote 27: In the author's _Historic Highways of America_, vol. iv., chap. 2, this whole problem is discussed and Cumberland's instructions quoted.] [Footnote 28: The record of these bloody years is hinted in the number of prisoners brought to Niagara. On this topic Frank H. Severance writes [In _Old Trails on the Niagara Frontier_, pp. 89-91. Mr. Severance, Secretary of the Buffalo Historical Society, has ably taken the place of the eminent scholar of the Niagara country O. H. Marshall. In his volume above quoted Mr. Severance provides a most interesting, scholarly series of papers which no one who loves New York's old frontier should miss. Our story of the famine at De Nonville's fort was written with Mr. Severance's book open before us.]: "Just how many American prisoners were brought into Fort Niagara during this period I am unable to say, though it is possible that from the official correspondence of the time figures could be had on which a very close estimate could be based. My examination of the subject warrants the assertion that several hundred were brought in by the war-parties under Indian, British, and Tory leaders. In this correspondence, very little of which has ever been published, one may find such entries as the following: "Guy Johnson wrote from Fort Niagara, June 30, 1781: "'In my last letter of the 24th inst. I had just time to enclose a copy of Lieut. Nelles's letter with an account of his success, since which he arrived at this place with more particular information by which I find that he killed thirteen and took seven (the Indians not having reckoned two of the persons whom they left unscalped). . . .' "Again: