CHAPTEE XXXm. 



1650-1670. 

 THE DESTROYERS. 



Iroquois Ambition. — Its Victims. — The Fate of the Neutrals. 



— The Eate op the Eries. — The War with the Andastes* 



— Supremacy op the Iroquois. 



It was well for the European colonies, above 

 all for those of England, that the wisdom of the 

 Iroquois was but the wisdom of savages. Their 

 sagacity is past denying ; it showed itself in many 

 ways ; but it was not equal to a comprehension of 

 their own situation and that of their race. Could 

 they have read their destiny, and curbed their mad 

 ambition, they might have leagued with themselves 

 four great communities of kindred lineage, to re- 

 sist the encroachments of civilization, and oppose 

 a barrier of fire to the spread of the young col- 

 onies of the East. But their organization and 

 their intelligence were merely the instruments of 

 a blind frenzy, which impelled them to destroy 

 those whom they might have made their allies in 

 a common cause. 



Of the four kindred communities, two at least, 



[4341 



