ment, where they could be supplied at a cheaper rate, and at a less distance. Oswego then became one great emporium of the fur trade; and its ruins now proclaim the vestiges of its former prosperity. The French perceived all the consequences of those measures, and they immediately rebuilt the fort at Niagara, in order that they might have a commercial establishment, two hundred miles nearer to the western Indians than that at Oswego. Having previously occupied the mouth of Lake Ontario by Fort Frontenac, the fort at Niagara now gave them a decided advantage in point of position. The act passed by Gov. Burnet's recommendation was, under the influence of a pernicious policy, repealed by the British king. The Iroquois had adopted a determined resolution to exterminate the French. "Above these thirty years," says La Hontan, "their antient counsellors have still remonstrated to the warriors of the Five nations, that it was expedient to cut off all the savage nations of Canada, in order to ruin the commerce of the French, and after that to dislodge them from the continent. With this view they have carried the war above four or five hundred leagues off their country, after the destroying of several different nations."* Charlevoix was impressed with the same opinion. "The Iroquois," says he, "are desirous of exercising a species of domination over the whole of this great continent, and to render themselves the sole masters of its commerce." Finding the auxiliary efforts of the English rendered abortive, their rage and fury increased, and the terror of their arms was extended accordingly. At a subsequent period, they appeared to entertain different, and more enlightened views on this subject. They duly appreciated * Vol. i, page 270. ↑ Charlevoix's Histoire Generale de la Nouvelle France, 1 vol. b. 11page 487. the policy of averting the total destruction of either European power; and several instances could be pointed out, by which it could be demonstrated that the balance of power, formerly the subject of so much speculation among the statesmen of Europe, was thoroughly understood by the confederates in their negotiations and intercourse with the French and English colonies. To describe the military enterprises of this people, would be to delineate the progress of a tornado or an earthquake.* "Wide-wasting death up to the ribs in blood with giant-stroke widow'd the nations."t Destruction followed their footsteps, and whole nations subdued, exterminated, rendered tributary, expelled from their country, or mersed in their conquerors, declare the superiority and the terror of their arms. When Champlain arrived in Cana da in 1603, he found them at war with the Hurons and Algonkins. He took part and headed three expeditions against them, in two of which he was successful, but in the last he was repulsed. This unjust, and impolitic interference, laid the foundation of continual wars between the French and the confederates. The Dutch, on the contrary, entered into an alliance with them on their first settlement of the country, which continued without interruption; and on the surrender of NewYork to the English in 1664, Carteret, one of the commissioners, was sent to subdue the Dutch at Fort Orange, now Albany; which having effected, he had a conference with the confederates, and entered into a league of friendship; which continued without violation on either part ‡ For the military exploits of the Iroquois, generally speaking, se De La Potheire, La Hontan, Charlevoix, Colden, Smith, and Herriot. -† Cumberland's battle of Hastings. + 1 Colden, p. 34-Smith's New-York, p. 3—31—2 Douglass's Summary, p. 248. The conquests of the Iroquois, previous to the discovery of America, are only known to us through the imperfect channels of tradition-but it is well authenticated, that since that memorable era, they exterminated the nation of the Eries or Erigas, on the south side of Lake Erie, which has given a name to that lake: They nearly extirpated the Andastez and the Chouanons; they conquered the Hurons and drove them and their allies, the Ottawas, among the Sioux, on the head waters of the Mississipi, "where they separated themselves into bands, and proclaimed wherever they went, the terror of the Iroquois."* They also subdued the Illinois, the Miamies, the Algonkins, the Delawares, the Shawanese, and several tribes of the Abenaquis. After the Iroquois had defeated the Hurons, in a dreadful battle fought near Quebec, the Neperceneans, who lived upon the St. Lawrence, fled to Hudson's Bay to avoid their fury. In 1649 they destroyed two Huron villages and dispersed the nation; and afterwards they destroyed another village of six hundred families. Two villages presented themselves to the confederates and lived with them. "The dread of the Iroquois," says the historian, " had such an effect upon all the other nations, that the borders of the River Ontaonis, which were long thickly peopled, became almost deserted, without its ever being known what became of the greater part of the inhabitants." The Illinois fled to the westward, after being attacked by the confederates, and did not return until a general peace; and were permitted in 1760, by the confederates, to settle in the country between the Wabash and the Scioto rivers. The *Herriot, page 77. Herriot, page 70. Pownall's Topographical description of such parts of North America as are described in Evans's map 1776, p. 42. 1 banks of Lake Superior were lined with Algonkins, who sought an asylum from the Five nations: they also harassed all the northern Indians, as far as Hudson's Bay, and they even attacked the nations on the Missouri. When La Salle was among the Natchez in 1683, he saw a party of that people, who had been on an expedition against the Iro+ quois.* Smith, the founder of Virginia, in an expedition up the bay of Chesapeak in 1608, met a war party of the Confederates, then going to attack their enemies.† They were at peace with the Cowetas or Creeks, but they warred against the Catawbas, the Cherrokees, and almost all the Southern Indians. The two former sent deputies to Albany, where they effected a peace through the mediation of the English. In a word, the Confederates were, with a few exceptions, the conquerors and masters of all the Indian nations east of the Mississipi. Such was the terror of the nations, that when a single Mohawk appeared on the hills of New-England, the fearful spectacle spread pain and terror, and flight was the only refuge from death. Charlevoix mentions a singular instance of this terrific ascendency. Ten or twelve Ottawas being pursued by a party of Iroquois, endeavoured to pass over to Goat Island, on the Niagara river, in a canoe, were swept down the cataract; and, as it appeared, preferred to the sword of their enemies || The vast immeasurable abyss In consequence of their sovereignty over the * Tontis' account of De la Salle's last expedition. Printed in London from the French in 1698-p. 112. Jefferson's Notes, 310, &c. Adair's History of the Indians. § 1 Colden, p. S. 3 Charlevoix, Letter 15, p. 234. ** Milton's Paradise Lost, book 7. other nations, the Confederates exercised a proprietary right in their lands. In 1742 they granted to the Province of Pennsylvania certain lands on the west side of the Susquehanna, having formerly done so on the east side. In 1744 they released to Maryland and Virginia, certain lands claimed by them in those colonies; and they declared at this treaty, that they had conquered the several nations living on the Susquehanna and Patowmac Rivers, and on the back of the Great Mountains in Virginia.† In: 1754, a number of the inhabitants of Connecticut purchased of them, a large tract of land, west of the River Delaware, and from thence spreading over the east and west branches of the Susquehanna River. In 1768 they gave a deed to William Trent and others, for land between the Ohio and Monongahela. They claimed and sold the land on the north side of Kentucky river. § In 1768, at a treaty held at Fort Stanwix with Sir William Johnson, the line of property, as it was commonly denominated, was settled; marking out the boundary between the English Colonies and the territory of the Confederates. || The vicinity of the Confederates was fortunate for the colony of New-York. They served as an effectual shield against the hostile incursions of the French, and their savage allies. Their war with the French began with Champlain, and continued with few intervals, until the treaty of Utrecht, which confirmed the surrender of Canada, Nova Scotia, and Acadia, to Great Britain. For near a century and a half, they maintained a war against the French possessions in Lousiana and Can * 2 Colden, p. 20. †7 Massachusetts Historical Collections, p. 171, &c. 296. |