History of the Indians, of North and South America

by Samuel G. Goodrich

This noted confederacy consisted of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. The name given them, by the French writers, is the Iroquois. Each nation was divided into three tribes or families, distinguished by their ensigns, as the Tortoise, the Bear, and the Wolf. Their original seat was the island of Montreal and its vicinity. Many years before the French discovered Canada, they employed themselves in the peaceful pursuits of agriculture. The Adirondacks, who then dwelt about 300 miles from Trois Rivières, where the Ottawas afterwards lived, pursued hunting, and exchanged their venison for the corn raised by the Five Nations.

The Adirondacks, or, as they are more frequently called by the French, the Algonquins, despised the Five Nations, as a weak people, occupied with business fit only for women. But on a certain occasion, their game failed, and they employed some of the young men of the Five Nations to assist them in hunting. These soon became expert and capable of enduring fatigue beyond the Adirondacks themselves. The latter consequently became jealous of them, and, fearing that they would throw off the yoke to which they were subjected, murdered them in cold blood. Not having any serious fears of the resentment of so unwarlike a people, they ordered a small compensation to be paid to the Five Nations, whom they looked upon as incapable of avenging the atrocity which had been perpetrated. These were, however, greatly exasperated, and resolved to be revenged. The Adirondacks, when informed of this, deemed it a good occasion to subject them to their sway, and accordingly attacked them. The Five Nations at first defended themselves faintly against their fierce and warlike assailants, and were forced to leave their own country, and fly to the shores of the Lakes. This occurred about the beginning of the seventeenth century. Here they applied themselves to the exercise of arms, and became daily more and more expert in the use of them. Their sachems, to remove the dread of the Adirondacks, entertained by their people, and to inspire them with some degree of confidence, first led them against the Satanas, who then occupied what are now the central parts of the State of New York. They subdued these, and drove them out of the country, to the banks of the Mississippi.

Having thus proved their courage, the Five Nations next successfully withstood the whole force of the Adirondacks. They then carried the war into the heart of their country, and forced them to leave it, and fly towards Quebec. The Adirondacks were now joined by the French, who had just commenced their settlements in Canada. The combatants met at Corlaer’s Lake, since called, after the French commander, Lake Champlain. The Five Nations had never seen fire-arms, and the French, keeping themselves concealed till the Indians were engaged, rose suddenly up and poured a deadly volley upon them. Panic-struck at the fearful character and deadly effect of the attack, they fled, with great loss, from the field.

By the influence of the French, the Hurons and other neighbouring nations now joined in the war against the Five Nations. The Adirondacks, thus reinforced, and having been furnished with fire-arms, proposed utterly to destroy their enemies. But their young men, fond of adventure, and refusing obedience to their captains, often attacked the foe rashly; and the latter, observing this, soon began to profit by it. They sent out small parties, who, meeting greater numbers of the enemy, retreated, while the Adirondacks pursued with fury, and carelessly suffered themselves to be drawn into ambuscades. Thus many of them were cut off with little loss to the victors. In this manner the Adirondacks were wasted away, while the practice of the Five Nations, of adopting into their tribes the prisoners taken from the Satanas, increased their strength and numbers.

The Five Nations appear to have delighted in stratagem, and amused the Adirondacks, and the Hurons, their allies, by messages to the French, pretending to wish for peace, and to have some priests come among them. When, accordingly, some Jesuits came, they kept them as hostages, in order to force the French to remain neutral in their wars with the Adirondacks. They then attacked and defeated the latter within two leagues of Quebec, and, had they known its weakness, might have destroyed even the French colony.

The allies of the Adirondacks, now struck with terror, fled in different directions. Soon after, the Five Nations collected 1,000 or 1,200 men, and set out to pay a visit to the governor of Canada. On their way, they met Piskaret, captured him, and, learning from him that the Adirondacks were divided into two bodies, they fell upon them and cut them to pieces. When the French first settled in Canada, the Adirondacks had 1,500 warriors within a league of Quebec, but, after this last battle, they never possessed any consequence as a nation.

Piskaret, whom we have just mentioned, was a great warrior, and famous for his exploits and stratagems. On one occasion, he set out for the country of the Five Nations, about the time of the spring thaws. He put the back part of his snow-shoes forward, and went along the ridges and high grounds, where the snow was melted, so that he might leave no track. Coming near a village of the Five Nations, he hid himself till night. Then stealing into a wigwam, he murdered the whole family while asleep, scalped them, and again hid himself. The next day, the murderer was sought for in vain. At midnight, he came out and repeated his bloody deed. The third night, a watch was kept. Piskaret bundled up his scalps, and then stole on till he discovered an Indian asleep. Him he despatched at a blow, but, being discovered, he was obliged to flee. As he was the swiftest of all the Indians, he suffered his pursuers to approach him, and then darted away. In the evening, he hid himself and lay down; his pursuers also stopped and went to sleep. Piskaret turned about, knocked them on the head, scalped them, and returned home. Such were the bloody feats which secured renown among the Indians.

The Five Nations having thus established their ascendency over the adjacent tribes, rapidly advanced in power. Though checked by the French, they still extended their sway in every direction, and especially towards the south. They conquered the whole territory of the Delawares, or Lenapes, and obliged them to put themselves under their protection. They spread their victorious bands over all the remote parts of Virginia, and down as far as the mouth of the Ohio, while they subdued the nations eastward to Connecticut River. They often travelled singly, or in small parties, three or four hundred miles, and lurked about the villages of their enemies to shed blood, and revenge the real or imputed wrongs of their friends. Their sway at length extended to South Carolina on the south, and on the west to the Mississippi, a tract of territory 1,200 miles in length, and 600 in breadth. In 1667, they formed a treaty with the governor of Maryland, which was afterwards broken, and troubles, both with that colony and Virginia, ensued. At last, Lord Howard, as agent of the latter, met the chiefs of the tribes at Albany, and, after a long conference, a peace, which was well observed on both sides, was entered into by the contracting parties.

In 1684, the French made great efforts to detach the Five Nations from the English. They invited them to a conference at an appointed place. The Onondagas complied, and sent one of their sachems and thirty warriors; the Senecas and others refused. The French commander, after reproaching the Indians, threatened them with vengeance, if they did not conform to his views; but the sachem replied boldly, and avowed his determination to preserve peace, and the Frenchman went home disappointed and enraged.