[19] For an account of the habits and customs of the Iroquois, the following works, besides those already cited, may be referred to:—
Charlevoix, Letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguières; Champlain, Voyages de la Nouv. France; Clark, Hist. Onondaga, I., and several volumes of the Jesuit Relations, especially those of 1656-1657 and 1659-1660.
[20] This is Colden’s translation of the word Ongwehonwe, one of the names of the Iroquois.
[21] La Hontan estimated the Iroquois at from five thousand to seven thousand fighting men; but his means of information were very imperfect, and the same may be said of several other French writers, who have overrated the force of the confederacy. In 1677, the English sent one Greenhalgh to ascertain their numbers. He visited all their towns and villages, and reported their aggregate force at two thousand one hundred and fifty fighting men. The report of Colonel Coursey, agent from Virginia, at about the same period, closely corresponds with this statement. Greenhalgh’s Journal will be found in Chalmers’s Political Annals, and in the Documentary History of New York. Subsequent estimates, up to the period of the Revolution, when their strength had much declined, vary from twelve hundred to two thousand one hundred and twenty. Most of these estimates are given by Clinton, in his Discourse on the Five Nations, and several by Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia.
[22] Hurons, Wyandots, Yendots, Ouendaets, Quatogies.
The Dionondadies are also designated by the following names: Tionontatez, Petuneux—Nation of Tobacco.
[23] See Sagard, Hurons, 115.
[24] Bancroft, in his chapter on the Indians east of the Mississippi, falls into a mistake when he says that no trade was carried on by any of the tribes. For an account of the traffic between the Hurons and Algonquins, see Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 1637, p. 171.
[25] See “Jesuits in North America.”
[26] According to Lallemant, the population of the Neutral Nation amounted to at least twelve thousand; but the estimate is probably exaggerated.—Relation des Hurons, 1641, p. 50.