force was strengthened in order to hold a country that for the most part was not being settled. The Regiments of Béarn, Guienne and La Sarre were sent to Canada and these veterans found themselves in garrison at Fort Frontenac or at Niagara guarding an unpeopled wilderness. M. Pouchot a captain in the Bèarn Regiment was sent to Niagara in 1756 with authority to complete the fortifications, and constructed there a fortress according to the plans of M. de Vauban, the famous French military engineer of Louis XIV.'s period. Redoubts, half-moons, covered ways-all were provided on a front of 120 toises. Since the toise was equivalent to 6.39 English feet the fort was immense and might have served for the Rhine frontier. Pouchot's "Memoirs" have been published and make interesting reading.

In 1684 a detachment of 500 soldiers was sent to fortify Fort Frontenac, the journey from Montreal by flat boats occupying twelve days. Five or six men were drowned in the Rapids and after the fort was reached above 80 died from disease. Six years later scurvy appeared in the small garrison, closely invested by the Iroquois, and Denonville gave orders that the fort should be blown up. Count Frontenac, who succeeded Denonville as Governor, countermanded the order, and the place remained a fortified French post, of variable efficiency until 1758 when it was captured by the English under Col. Bradstreet. He embarked at Oswego with 2,700 Provincials, of whom 1,100 were New Yorkers, and 42 Indians, under Chief Red Head. The operations against Fort Frontenac were described (with some incoherence) by Thomas Butler in the following official report: "Early in the morning of the 26th (of August) we landed our cannon and drew them near the fort, upon which we fired and they at us, which lasted the whole day, and not one of our people hurt. In the night we got two entrenchments made within two hundred yards of the enemy's fort. The enemy fired away briskly with cannon and small arms at us all this night, with but little fire from us, only once in a while a bomb. On the 27th our cannon playing on the fort very briskly which the monsieurs finding too hot came out to capitulate, and about twelve o'clock we took possession. The remainder of the day was spent in destroying the fort, shipping, etc., of which there were nine, and not one escaped. In the evening the French, being about 150 men went to Canada according to agreement,

but are to return the like number of prisoners, among whom is to be Col. Schuyler. It's undescribable the quantity of stores we found here. We have a brig and a schooner which we keep to carry plunder to Oswego. In the whole of this action we have not lost a man, and only two or three slightly wounded. One of the enemy had his thigh shot off, whom Red Head scalped. They lost some by the bursting of their cannon, and some wounded by our shot." A postscript to this dispatch signed by Sir William Johnson declared that the enemy had not one vessel left on Lake Ontario. This was the answer to the success of the French under Montcalm in 1756 when the English fort at Oswego had been captured and destroyed.

The expedition for the reduction of Fort Niagara consisted of 2,200 regulars and Provincials under General Prideaux and 943 Indians under Sir William Johnson. The force left Oswego on July 1st, 1759, and invested the fort on July 7th. On the 19th General Prideaux was killed by the bursting of a shell carelessly discharged by one of the English gunners and Johnson succeeded to the command. He pressed the siege and the bombardment was so severe that by the 22nd a practicable breach was made in the “flag bastion." Meanwhile the French general D'Aubry collected from Detroit and the neighborhood a force of 1,200 men and advanced to take the English in rear. Johnson's scouts gave him full information of the progress of this expedition and on July 24th he detached a considerable force and marched with it along the River road towards the Falls. There was a smart fight, ended by an impetuous English charge. D'Aubry and eighteen other officers, with 96 men were captured and about 150 French were killed. Returning to Niagara Johnson sent the news to Captain Pouchot within the fort and summoned him to surrender before the Indians would get out of hand. On the morning of July 25th the fort capitulated, and 11 officers and 607 men were made prisoners of war. These were sent to England by way of Oswego and New York. The women and children in the Fort were sent to Montreal.

Following the fall of Niagara, Fort Levis on Chimney Island, about three miles below Ogdensburg, was reduced, and then on September 13th, 1759, Quebec yielded to the British forces under Wolfe. The capitulation of Montreal did not take place until September 6th, 1760, De Vaudreuil signing the papers. Four days afterwards Major Robert Rogers was ordered to take possession of Detroit and

the other western French posts. He left within twenty-four hours of the issue of the order, having fifteen whale-boats and 200 men. The journey from Lachine to Fort Frontenac occupied twelve days, from September 11th to September 23rd; then the expedition rowed along the north coast of the Lake and by October 1st was at Niagara. Rogers was a native American, an expert in border warfare, a scout of parts, and one who was thoroughly at home in negotiations with the Indians. His book on the war and his journal show him as an excellent observer. He and his party were detained for a day or two at the site of Fort Frontenac on account of a wind accompanied by rain and snow. "We improved our time," he wrote, "in taking a plan of the Old Fort situated at the bottom of a fine, safe harbour. There were about 500 acres of cleared ground about it, which though covered with clover seemed bad and rocky, and interspersed with some pine trees." He mentioned that game was plentiful along the North shore and twice stress of weather drove the party to beach their boats and go hunting. On the 30th of September after a run of 70 miles the expedition reached the "Toronto River." Major Rogers found a clearing of about 300 acres around the place where the French formerly had a fort. He added, "I think Toronto a most convenient place for a Factory (or tradingpost) and that from there we may very easily settle the north side of Lake Erie."

After refitting at Niagara the party crossed Lake Erie to Presqu' Isle and remained encamped while Major Rogers proceeded to Fort Pitt (Pittsburg) with despatches from General Amherst. On his return half the men were sent by land, and half by water, to Detroit, arriving there on November 29th. Rogers received the capitulation of the Fort from De Belestre, the commandant, administered the oath of allegiance to such settlers as were remaining in the neighborhood and had an unpromising interview with an Ottawa delegation from Pontiac, a shrewd and accomplished chief. Despite the severe weather the Major, and 37 men, attempted to go by Lake Huron to Michilimackinac, but were forced to turn back by reason of floating ice and rough weather. From Detroit, Rogers proceeded to Sandusky, to Fort Pitt, to Albany, Philadelphia and New York, arriving there on February 14th, 1761.

Sir William Johnson was in Detroit in 1761, for there were rumors that the Indians were uneasy. Two years later Pontiac had

completed a scheme for a simultaneous attack upon twelve British posts along the whole frontier. The plan for the reduction of Detroit and Michilimackinac was for the Indians to accept an armistice, and to celebrate it by a lacrosse game to which the British officers of the garrison should be invited. The warriors being unarmed it was expected that the British would be thrown off their guard. As if by accident the ball was to be thrown into the Fort; then as the braves pursued it, the Indian women were to produce weapons from beneath their blankets. The stratagem succeeded to admiration at Michilimackinac, but at Detroit the Indian mistress of a British officer gave warning of the enterprise afoot and secret preparations were made to meet it. Pontiac, when the signal was given, found himself checkmated. The Fort was besieged for six months but was relieved by a force under Col. Bradstreet in 1764.

Some New York Manors and Patents*

BY BENEDICT FITZPATRICK, NEW YORK

HE word 'manor" has a Latin root and the genealogy of the idea for which it stands may be presumed, therefore, to have had a Latin origin, using the term in the comparative sense, and a Norman-French channel of descent. In American law it stands for a tract of land occupied by tenants who pay a free-farm rent to the proprietor. Specifically in New York it stood for a tract of land granted in colonial days either by patent or in confirmation of grants from the States-General of Holland to proprietors or patroons, who held by perpetual rent in money or in kind. The patrons were tenants in capite and had such manorial privileges as the right to hold a manorial court, to award fines, and to have waifs, estrays, and deodands. They had the right of subinfeudation, but their tenants did not. After the Revolution the State superseded the English king as lord, and the rents from the proprietors were from time to time commuted or released. In a few cases the rents, in money, in services, or in kind, from the subtenants continued to exist as rent charges upon the land. The old French word was "manoir," derived apparently from the Latin verb, "manere," having the sense of "to remain" or "to dwell."

Under the old law of Europe the manor consisted of a district of land held by some baron or man of worth by freehold tenure of the king or of some mesne lord, within which the lord of the manor exercises a certain jurisdiction in addition to his rights as landlord. The term "manor" to describe such a lordship did not come into use in England until some time after the Norman Conquest, but the institution is found in a less-developed form among the AngloSaxons. The typical manor in its later development consisted of two parts: (1) the inland (demesne) or home estate, which the lord held in his own hands, upon which his house was built, and which was farmed by non-free, peasant occupiers, and (2) the outland or

*Reprinted from advance sheets of "The Bronx and Its People, A History," by the Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., with James L. Wells, Louis F. Haffen, and Josiah A. Briggs as the board of editors.