Section IL, 1906. [ SU ] Trans. R. S. C. 



IV. — The Downfall of the Huron Nation. 

 By C. C. James. 



(Annual popular lecture, delivered Ma y 23, 190o.) 



Eight miles from Quebec is a little village overlooking the valley 

 of the St. Charles River. In the cabins clustered about the church 

 dwell the Hurons (of Lorette, a remnant of an old Indian tribe. 



We come west nearly 750 miles to the Detroit river. In Sandwich 

 we may see still standing the old Huron Mission House. Here and 

 there along the river we find settlers who are very proud to trace their 

 origin back to the aristocratic "Wyandotts. A short distance above 

 Amherstburg the electric railway takes you past the Wyandott burial 

 ground where, conspicuous above the rest, rises the tall shaft marking 

 the grave of Mondoron^ Joseph White, Chief of the Hurlons or Wyan- 

 dotts. On the Michigan side of the river is the City of Wyandott. 

 tradition, place name, and local history all bear traces of the early and 

 continued presence lof the Hurons or Wyandotts along both banks of 

 the river. 



A little further south, in Ohio, we come to the Counties of Huron 

 and Wyandot. We cross the Mississippi, and in Kansas we find another 

 Wyandot County and a Wyandot City. 



Further south we reach the Indian Territor}^ in the north east 

 comer of which is 'the Wyandott Settlement or Reserve, where the Wy- 

 andotts and their old enemies the Senecas live peaceably side by side. 



Quebec, the Detroit, and the Indian Territory are far removed 

 from one another. Wq enquire as to the story of these three groups 

 of Hurons and we learn that they all trace back to Lake Huron, to that 

 section of the Province of Ontario which lies between lake Simdoe and 

 the Georgian Bay. It is the story of the dispersion, the decimation, 

 or the downfall of the Hurons, that I have been asked to tell you to- 

 night. 



This story of the Hurons takes us back 260 years and more to the 

 very earliest chapters in the history of the inhabitants of Ontario. 

 Preceding it there is li'ttle that can be substantiated. When we would 

 gio further back we enter the field of tradition and of speculation. 



The story that I am briefly to recount is not a new tale, it is not 

 a piece of original investigation — it is merely an attempt to present in 



'Inscription as follows: — Mondoron, chief of the 'Wyandotts or Hurons, 

 Joseph White, Born January 19, 1808; Died February 18, 1885. 



