CANADA, A TYPICAL KACE OF AMEEICAN ABORIGINES. 83 



has been derived which is emijloyed above as a test of the hmguage of the Hochelagans 

 iu the sixteenth century. But the Hurons of Lorette have also preserved their native 

 tongue ; and even specimens — if not indeed an ample vocabulary,' — of the older form of 

 their language survive, from which some ilk\strations are adduced below. A third modi- 

 fication of the ancient tongue no doubt exists ; for the larger remnant of the survivors of 

 the Hurons, after repeated wanderings, is now settled, far from the native home of the 

 race, on reserves conceded to them by the American G-overnment in Kansas. 



The Hurons have thus, for the most part, disapi^eared from Canada ; but it is not with- 

 out interest to note thdt the revolution which, upwards of a century ago, severed the 

 connection of the old colonies to the south of the St. Lawrence with the region to the north, 

 restored to Canada its ancient Iroquois race. The confederation of the Five Nations is 

 traced by Mr. Hale, in his " Iroquois Book of Rights," to Hiawatha, whom he reclaims 

 from Longfellow's traditional association with the Ojibways of Lake Superior, and literally 

 identifies as an Onondaga chief of rare sagacity, the beneficent reformer of his people. In 

 Longfellow's version of the " Indian Edda," he refers to it as founded on a tradition 

 prevalent among the North American Indians, of a person of miraculous birth, who was 

 sent among them to clear their rivers, forests, and fishing grounds, and to teach them the 

 arts of peace. That the legend of " a Prince of Peace " in any form should have been 

 perpetuated among tribes jjersistently devoted to war as the main business of life, can 

 only be accounted for by a gTowing sense of the misery brought on themselves by 

 hereditary feuds which wasted their nirmbers, and exposed their f\imilies to treacherous 

 massacre, or to the most barbarous tortures. But the Hiawatha tradition appears to 

 belong to the Iroquois, among whom there arose a wise teacher to whom Mr. Hale 

 ascribes the avowed design of a universal federation of his race, under which peace 

 should cA'erywhere reign. " Such," says this latest historian of their league, " is the 

 positive testimony of the Iroquois themselves, and their statement is supported by 

 historical evidence." " 



No interpreter of Indian philology or tradition is more deserving of respectful con- 

 sideration than Mr. Hale, whose valuable researches have thrown a flood of light on 

 this department of study. But in view of all that we know of this people throughout 

 the whole authentic period of their history, I find it difficult to reconcile the idea of such 

 a far-sighted philanthropic reformer with the social condition of the tribes known to 

 have composed the Iroquois confederacy. Nevertheless the league of the Iroquois is 

 an undoubted fact. The five tribes or " nations " were thenceforth banded together as 

 members of the famous Kannonsioni or league of the united households. Of its peace- 

 ful fruits, except in so far as it prevented internal feuds, we have no evidence ; but to 

 its influence apparently was due the exceptional preeminence achieved among the nations 

 of the North American continent by a barbarous people, ignorant of any of the arts 

 indisjDensable to the merest initial steps in civilization. This race of mere savages 

 acquired the mastery of a region equal in extent to Central Europe ; and by a system of 

 warfare, not, after all, more inherently barbarous or recklessly bloody than that of Europe's 

 G-rand Monarch, reconstructed the social and i^olitical map of the continent east of the 



' The Huron vocabulary prepared by the Jesuit Father, Chaumonot, is, as I have recently learned, still in 

 existence, and will, I hope, be speedily pubhshed, under trustworthy editorial supervision. 

 ' The Iroquois Book of Bites, p. 22. 



