208 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



follows: In 1()4(J (lielaiioii of 16*46, p. 8-4) Pùro Lalemant reports that 

 '• Ululer tho AlgoïKiuiii luuuo '' the French included '' ii divertsity of small 

 peoples," one of which was named tho Onontchataronons or "the trihe of 

 Iroquet," *• whose ancestors formerly inhabited tho island of Montreal," 

 and one of their old men " aged say eighty years " said " my mother told 

 mo that in her youth the Hurons drove us from this island." (Kl-KJ, p. 

 -to.) This makes it clear that the inroad was Huron. Note that this 

 man of eighty years does not mention having himself lived on the island; 

 and also the addition " in her youth." This fact brings us back to before 

 15(J(J. But in 1G42, another "'old man" states that his "grandfathers" 

 had lived there. Note that ho does not say his parents nor himself. 

 These two statements, I think, reasoning from the average ages of 

 old men, carry us back to about 1550-(j0. Champlain, in 1622, notes a 

 remark of two Iroquois that the war with the Hurons was then " more 

 than tifty years" old. The Huron inroad could not likely have occurred 

 for several yeai^s after 1542, for so serious an incursion would have taken 

 some years to grow to such a point out of profound peace. 1550 would 

 therefore appear a little early. The facts demonstrate incidentally a 

 period of prosperity and dominance on the jiart of the Hurons themselves, 

 for instead of a mere incursion, it exhibits, even if made by invitation ot 

 the Algonquins, a permanent breaking through of the barriers between 

 the Huron country and the Montreal neighbourhood, and a continuance of 

 their power long enough and sufficiently to press forward against the 

 enemy oven into Lake Champlain, It also shows that the Superior Iroquois 

 were not then strong enough to confine them. Before the League, tho 

 latter were only weak single tribes. When Dutch tirearms were added 

 to the advantage of the league, the Hurons tinally fell from their power, 

 which was therefore apparently at its height about 1560. 



Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, end of Bk. V., after de- 

 scribing the tirst mass at Ville Marie, in 1642, says : "The evening of the 

 same day M. do Maisonneuve desired to visit the Mountain which gave the 

 island its name, and two old Indians who accompanied him thither, 

 having led him to tho top, told him they were of the tribe who had 

 formerly inhabited this country." "We were," they added, ''very 

 numerous and all the hills {collines) which you see to the south and east, 

 were peopled. The Hurons drove thence our ancestors, of whom a part 

 took refuge among the Abénakis, others withdrew into the Iroquois 

 cantons, a few remained with our conqueroi-s." The}' promised Maison- 

 neuve to do all tliey could to bring back their people, " but apparently 

 could not succeed in reassembling the fragments of this dispersed tribe, 

 which doubtless is that of tho Iroquois of which I have spoken in my 

 Journal." 



A i)roof that this people of Iroquet wore not originally Algon- 

 quins is that by their own testimony they had cultivated the ground, 



