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48 conveniences annexed to it than Oswegatche, having an excellent harbour, with a strong fortification well garrisoned. It affords excellent accommodation for shipping, and may be considered as the naval storehouse for supplying Niagara and the other posts. There are vessels of considerable bulk continually sailing from thence to Niagara, Oswego, &c.—There is also a commodore of the Lakes, whose residence is on the island.

Fort Oswego, on Lake Ontario, formerly called Lake Frontenac, is a good fortification, and capable of containing six hundred men. This post is particularly important, as it is the key to the United States, and commands the opening to the North, or Hudson's River, protecting the trade with the Indians who live on the banks of the River St. Laurence, and the whole extent of the great sheet of water near which it stands, reckoned about eighty leagues in length, and in some places from twenty-five to thirty broad.

When the English were in possession of the Colonies, ————