Note 29 — VOYAGES AND TRAVELS
Reading edition
Fort Stanwix was built by the British at the head of navigation on the Mohawk River (where the city of Rome, New York, now stands), in 1758, at a cost of $266,000. Here was held the treaty of 1768, by which a general purchase of Indian lands was made, and the Iroquois boundaries settled. Early in the Revolution it fell into American hands, and was re-christened Fort Schuyler, which withstood the siege of St. Leger and his Indian braves in 1777. It is claimed that the present national flag, as adopted by Congress in 1777, was first raised over the battlements of Fort Schuyler. After the Revolution, the fort was rebuilt, and reverted to its original name. Here were held important treaties with the Iroquois in 1784 and 1788, in the latter of which much land in the Mohawk Valley was ceded to the whites. The settlement about the fort was made in 1785, by Connecticut emigrants.—Ed.