APPENDIX.

The situation of the American colonists at the time this record begins, in the year 1719, is graphically shown by the accompanying map. At that time Spain held Florida and Mexico, and, having explored the Pacific coast, claimed all the country northward from Mexico to an indefinite extent. Spanish settlements extended up the Rio Grande valley and central New Mexico beyond Sante Fe, and into lower Texas and lower California, but were few in number and scattered at wide intervals. Nevertheless the sphere of Spanish domination included what is now Texas and all of the California coast. In Florida the few Spanish settlements at St. Augustine, Pensacola, etc., gave assured dominion of the peninsula, and from having explored the country south of Tennessee from the Savannah river to the Mississippi, and having mined for gold in Georgia, Spain claimed the territory as far north as the Savannah river, and actually dominated that region.

France, by virtue of the explorations of the Jesuit missionaries in the valleys of the St. Lawrence, Ohio and Mississippi rivers and about the great lakes, her settlements along the St. Lawrence, and her chain of Jesuit missions at Detroit, Mackinac, Chicago, Kaskaskia and New Orleans, claimed all the territory in North America except that actually occupied by the Spanish settlements and the narrow fringe of English settlements along the coast from Savannah to the Penobscot river, excepting Acadia and Hudson's Bay, which she had ceded to England in 1713. The sphere of French influence, however, owing to the activity of the Jesuit explorers and missionaries, was much the more extensive, and dominated the St. Lawrence valley, Canada, the region about the great lakes, and the Mississippi valley. All of the interior of the country, however, from a little west of Albany to the Pacific coast and from the gulf to beyond the great lakes was in the actual possession of the Indian tribes.

The British crown claimed all of North America from latitude 34 degrees to 45 degrees, and had granted it "from sea to sea," but the British sphere of influence was limited substantially to the territory actually settled under British grants, and

to the region in central New York occupied by the Five Nations of Indians, who were less friends of the English than bitter enemies of the French. The actual settlements of the colonists under British grants were confined to the region closely bordering the coast, from about Portsmouth, N. H., to Savannah, Ga., and extended but a few leagues from the coast, except in New England, where they extended westward nearly to the Hudson river, but were mostly small and widely scattered in the inland portions. There was no settlement in New York westward of Schenectady, nor in Pennsylvania west of Harrisburgh; New Orleans had been settled by the French in the preceding year, and the first trading post was established at Oswego by the English in the following year, 1720. The western part of Massachusetts and northern part of Connecticut were only settled by a few pioneers located miles apart in the wilderness, which was still occupied by the Indians, while northern New Hampshire and all of Vermont was yet an unbroken wilderness, as was all of northern New York north of the Mohawk valley. This was the extent of the development of the colonies at the end of the first century after the first settlement at Plymouth. How little this situation had changed up to the time of the French and Indians wars may be seen from the map of North America (from the Pittsburg Dispatch) which shows the situation in 1750.

CONFUSION OF NAMES.

The difficulty of tracing names during the colonial period, and especially names of foreign origin, is greatly increased by the confusion introduced where names were translated, as was often done. A most singular instance of this confusion is given in Furman's History of Long Island regarding the name of one Feyerston, a Scotchman, who settled among Dutch neighbors who translated his name, as if it were Firestone, into Feuerstein, but this name was again translated by his later English neighbors into Flint, by which family name his children were known. One of the children moved to Canada, where his French neighbors again translated Flint into Pierrea-fusil (gun-stone), and upon his return many years later to the locality where his father had lived, his translated name of "Pierre-a-fusil was again translated and became Peter Gun.

An additional source of confusion is the carelessness and ignorance of spelling common names during the colonial period, and even afterwards, combined with the rude independence of that time which led those who had occasion to speak or write an unfamiliar name to promptly guess at it rather than take the least trouble to find out the real sound or spelling of the name. Examples of this habit are seen in the following variations of spelling of Ticonderoga taken from the reports of various officers during the French and Indian War; some of whom spelled the name six different ways in the same document. The spellings noticed were: Tionduroque, Toronduroque, Tycondarogue, Atianderogoe, Tianderrogoe, Tiandrogo, Tionderogo, Tianarago, Tiandaroga, Tenondorogo, Tiondarog, Tiondorogo,

In one paper—

Diontarogo, Diandorogo, Diontorogo,

Diondaroga, Tuyondaroga, Diondarago, Tiantiroga, Tocondoroga, Tjondaroge, Tyconderoga.

In family names the same confusion is found. The name of the same person is spelled sometimes koert van Voorhees and sometimes Kourten Van Fores, in the same rolls. The name Gillespie is spelled Galesby, Glispy, and Clisby by different writers referring to the same person. The name of one man is spelled Howlet, Halet and Houldt in the same document, and there are innumerable other instances of similar confusions in spelling.

Even at the present day misspelling of the name Vorce is very common when it is written by those unfamiliar with its correct spelling. The following forms have come to the notice of the author where the name has been written down by various persons from the oral pronunciation of it, viz: Vors, Vorse, Force, Borce, Bors, Fours, Fowers, Bores, Vores, Fores, Voys, Vorts, Vorch, and Wors.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSONS.

Adam Vorce, was a Revolutionary soldier from Derby, Conn., in 1775.

Adam Vorse, was a private in Capt. Couch's company in the Revolutionary war, and was discharged December 20,