424 THE LAST OF THE HURONS- [1650-60. 



It is a matter of some interest to trace the for- 

 tunes of the shattered fragments of a nation once 

 prosperous, and, in its own eyes and those of its 

 neighbors, powerful and , great. None were left 

 alive w^ithin their ancient domain. Some had 

 sought refuge among the Neutrals and the Eries, 

 and shared the disasters which soon overwhelmed 

 those tribes ; others succeeded in reaching the 

 Andastes ; while the inhabitants of two to^vns, St. 

 Michel and St. Jean Baptiste, had recourse to an 

 expedient which seems equally strange and desper- 

 ate, but which was in accordance with Indian prac- 

 tices. They contrived to open a communication 

 with the Seneca Nation of the Iroquois, and prom- 

 ised to change their nationality and turn Senecas 

 as the price of their lives. The victors accepted 

 the proposal ; and the inhabitants of these two 

 towns, joined by a few other Hurons, migrated in 

 a body to the Seneca country. They were not 

 distributed among different villages, but were al- 

 lowed to form a tow^i by themselves, where they 

 were afterwards joined by some prisoners of the 

 Neutral Nation. They identified themselves with 

 the Iroquois in all but religion, — holding so fast to 

 their faith, that, eighteen years after, a Jesuit mis- 

 sionary found that many of them were still good 

 Catholics.^ 



The division of the Hurons called the Tobacco 

 Nation, favored by their isolated position among 



1 Compare Relation, 1651, 4 ; 1660, 14, 28 ; and 1670, 69. The Huron 

 town among tlie Senecas was called Gandougarae. Father Fremin was 

 here in 1668, and gives an account of his visit in the Relation of 1670. 



