It appeared by the map of the adjacent country that a direct road across the mountains would shorten the distance of the Genesee Country from the settlttaents in Pennsylvania at least one hundred miles, and the advantages attending the opening of this communication were so obvious, that, difficult as the undertaking was, he determined, without delay to try to effect it. Ry the month of November, of the same year, thirty miles Avere made sufficiently good to admit the passage of waggons ; and by the following August the road was completed to Williamsburgh, a distance of one hundred and seventy miles from the mouth of Lycoming Creek, where they had entered the wilderness to explore the route.

1134 PAPERS RELATING TO

It is only from this period, which opened to the Genesee a oommiinication with the settlements in Pennsylvania, that we can trace the beginning of that singularly rapid progress in population and improvements, which has so eminently distinguished that country. The opening of this road from Pennsylvania over a chain of mountains before reckoned impassable, excited the curiosity of the inhabitants in the adjacent country, and many were tempted to explore the Genesee lands, that, previous to this, had scarcely ever given them a thought. The idea of the immense distance was at once destroyed. At this early period, however, it was only men of observation that were pleased. Many returneil disgusted with the extreme inconvenience of travelling through a country almost destitute of inhabitants, for the distance of one hundred and seventy miles, and particularly when they found the only settlement in that part of the country depending on the Indians for subsistence.