Map of Morris's Purchase or West Geneseo in the state of New York : exhibiting part of the Lakes Erie and Ontario, the Straights of Niagara, Chautauque Lake, and all the principal waters, the boundary lines of the several tracts of land purchased by the Holland Land Company, William and John Willink, and others, boundary lines of townships, boundary lines of New York and Indian reservations, laid down from actual survey, also a sketch of part of Upper Canada

This map demonstrates the process by which Americans expanded westward and took over Native American territories. Based on surveys by brothers Joseph and Benjamin Ellicott, the map promotes the Holland Land Company’s real estate interests in western New York, a territory previously occupied by the Seneca Indians and claimed by Massachusetts. The extensive pattern of squares delineates townships available for land sales and eventual American settlement. The smaller irregular tracts identify lands reserved for Native Americans. The Senecas relinquished their rights to these lands, except for the reservations, in a treaty negotiated in 1797.
Courtesy of Boston Public Library