302 THE PEACE BROKEN. [1646. 



their Iroquois enemies by abusing their French 

 friends, — declaring them to be sorcerers, who had 

 bewitched, by theh charms and mummeries, the 

 whole Huron nation, and caused drought, famine, 

 pestilence, and a host of insupportable miseries. 

 Thereupon, the suspicions of the Mohawks against 

 the box revived with double force, and they were 

 convinced that famine, the pest, or some malignant 

 spirit was shut up in it, waiting the moment to 

 issue forth and destroy them. There was sickness 

 in the town, and caterpillars were eating theii 

 corn: this was ascribed to the sorceries of the 

 Jesuit.^ Still they were divided in opinion. Some 

 stood firm for the French; others were furious 

 against them. Among the Mohawks, three clans 

 or families were predominant, if indeed they did 

 not compose the entire nation, — the clans of the 

 Bear, the Tortoise, and the Wolf.^ Though, by 

 the natui'e of their constitution, it was scarcely 

 possible that these clans should come to blows, 

 so intimately were they bound together by ties 

 of blood, yet they were often divided on points of 

 interest or policy ; and on this occasion the Bear 

 raged against the French, and howled for war, 

 while the Tortoise and the Wolf still clung to the 

 treaty. Among savages, with no government ex- 

 cept the intermittent one of councils, the party of 

 action and violence must always prevail. The 

 Bear chiefs sang their war-songs, and, followed by 

 the young men of their own clan, and by such 



1 Lettre de Marie de I' Incarnation a son Fils. Quebec, . . . 1647. 



2 See Introduction. 



