PRE-ARYAN AMERICAN MAN. 65 
nearly exterminated. When Locke visited Paris, in 1679, the narratives of the Jesuit 
Fathers had rendered familiar the unflinching endurance of this race under the frightful 
tortures to which they were subjected by their Iroquois captors; and which they, in turn, 
not only inflicted on their captive foes, but on one after another of the missionaries whose 
devoted zeal exposed them to their fury. We now read with interest this reflection noted 
in his journal, in which he recognizes in these savages the common motives of humanity ; 
the same desire to win credit and reputation, and to avoid shame and disgrace, which 
animates all men: “This makes the Hurons and other people of Canada with such cons- 
tancy endure inexpressible torments; this makes merchants in one country and soldiers 
in another; this puts men upon school divinity in one country and physics and mathe- 
matics in another; this cuts out the dresses for the women, and makes the fashions for 
the men, and makes them endure the inconveniences of all.” The great English philosopher 
manifestly entertained no doubt that the latent elements on which all civilization depends 
were equally shared by Indian and European. But the Hurons perished—all but a little 
remnant of Christianized half-breeds now settled on the St. Charles River, below Quebec ; 
—in their very hour of contact with European civilization. 
Father Sagard estimated the Huron tribes at the close of their national history, when 
they had been greatly reduced in numbers, as still between thirty and forty thousand. But 
besides these there lay between them and the shores of Lake Erie and the Niagara River 
the Tiontonones and the Attiwandaronks ; and to the south of the Great Lake, the Eries: 
all of the same stock; and all sharers in the same fate. Tradition points to the kindling 
of the council-fire of peace among the Attiwandaronks before the organization of the Iroquois 
confederacy. Father Joseph de la Roche d’Allyon, who passed through their country 
when seeking to discover the course of the Niagara river, speaks of twenty-eight towns 
and villages under the rule of its chief Sachem; and of their extensive cultivation of 
maize, beans, and tobacco. They won, moreover, the strange character of being lovers of 
peace ; and were styled by the French the Neuters, from the desire they manifested to 
maintain a friendly neutrality alike with the Hurons and the Iroquois. Of the Eries we 
know less. In the French maps of the seventeenth century the very existence of the great 
lake which perpetuates their name was unknown; but the French fur-traders were 
aware of a tribe existing to the west of the Iroquois, whose country abounded with the 
lynx, or wild cat, the fur of which was specially prized; and they designated it “ La 
Nation du Chat.” To their artistic skill are ascribed several remains of aboriginal art, 
among which a pictorial inscription on Cunningham’s Island is described as by far the 
most elaborate work of its class hitherto found on the continent.* From the partial 
glimpses thus recovered of both nations, we are tempted to ascribe to them greater apti- 
tude for civilization than the boasted federal league of the Iroquois gave evidence of. 
But they perished by the violence of kindred nations before either the French or English 
could establish intercourse with them; and their fate doubtless reveals to us glimpses of 
history such as must have found frequent repetition in older centuries, throughout the 
whole North American continent. 
The legend of the peace pipe, Long fellow’s poetic version of the Red Indian Edda, 


* Schoolcraft. History of the Indians Tribes, vol. ii, p. 78. 
Sec. IL, 1883. 9 
