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The scene is the hill or "terrace" which once stood as a prominent landmark, commanding a magnificent view of Lake Erie and Buffalo Creek flowing at its base. The time is late afternoon in September, 1798. In those days lumbering ox-carts were beginning to carry new settlers toward the west. Here, the emigrants are passing down a rough trail, preparing to camp for the night. When dawn breaks they will again take up their slow march, wading across the bars at the mouth of the creek, and follow the sandy shores of Lake Erie westward.

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The picture tells the story of how this land - destined to become the nucleus of the city of Buffalo was acquired from the Indians.

The famous Seneca war chief Honayewus, known as "Farmer's Brother," kneels beneath a great basswood tree. He is dignified, defiant, yet not quite heedless to the white man's offer: all the lumber the Indians could use for their houses, in exchange for land on both sides of the mouth of Buffalo Creek.

The most important figure in the little group on the terrace is the orator chief Red Jacket, who stands apart. He has spoken, and now stands in mute appeal to the Spirit of the Great Tree, which hears and knows the voices of its children. He holds up the Covenant Belt of George Washington, commemorating the peace treaty between the Iroquois and the United States.

The two men in late eighteenth century attire are Joseph Ellicott,member of a prominent Philadelphia family of scientists and engineers, and Amsterdam banker Jean Gabriel Van Staphorst, Jr., wearing a tophat. His family had been early investors in theHolland Land Company, which owned nearly all of Western New York, and part of Pennsylvania. The surveyor with his transit - one of the first used in America - recalls the work of Ellicott in the original survey of WesternNew York. An old woodsman, Captain William Johnston, acts as interpreter between Ellicott and the Senecas. Johnston was able to arrange a trade, and in turn another trade with the Holland LandCompany, which made him the firstlandholder in Buffalo, and secured a lake frontage and a potential harbor for the future city of Buffalo.