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Beyond Penn's Treaty

Account of I. Coates, J. Sharpless, & J. Pierce, visits to Indian Reservation, NY

Page out of 117

Our young men propose having a piece of
ground cleared, and in readiness for the plough
against the arrival of our boat, that no time
may be lost with respect to getting in as much
of this grain as our circumstances will ad-
mit. This evening our young men endeav-
ored to catch eels, but their canoe upset, and
they caught a ducking.

Their household utensils were 5 tins, three
spoons, a camp kettle, and a small frying
pan, borrowed from the Indians. They wanted
dishcloths, towels, soap, and something to
knead brid in. They say, When we fry our
meat or our fritters, we have neither dish nor
plate to put them on, so we use bark dishes.

Our bacon was nearly gone and our cheese
quite. A little flour left that we brought
from Franklin

with chocolate and sugar are
our chief dependence as food. We have received
some sugar of the Indians as a present, and
some we purchased of the Indians at 1s. 6d. per lb.
(18 3/4 cts) which we find a pretty good substitute
for butter and cheese, by taking a bite of sugar
(it was in hard cakes) with our bread, there was
no cow in this settlement. The rain to day
convinced us that our house was not proof
against storms.

25th 6th day

Still rainy, so that very little