466 MISCELLANEOUS RECOLLECTIONS -I 



smaller lakes are set, like gems, among vineyards and 

 groves; and in others shimmering streams go winding 

 through corn-fields and orchards fringed by the forest. 



Of this last sort is the Onondaga valley. It lies just at 

 the center of the State, and, although it has at its northern 

 entrance the most thriving city between New York and 

 Buffalo, it preserves a remarkable character of peaceful 

 beauty. 



It is also interesting historically. Here was the seat 

 the &quot;long house&quot; of the Onondagas, the central tribe 

 of the Iroquois; here, from time immemorial, were held 

 the councils which decided on a warlike or peaceful policy 

 for their great confederation; hither, in the seventeenth 

 century, came the Jesuits, and among them some who 

 stand high on the roll of martyrs; hither, toward the 

 end of the eighteenth century, came Chateaubriand, who 

 has given in his memoirs his melancholy musings on the 

 shores of Onondaga Lake, and his conversation with the 

 chief sachem of the Onondaga tribe ; hither, in the early 

 years of this century, came the companion of Alexis de 

 Tocqueville, Gustave de Beaumont, who has given in his 

 letters the thoughts aroused within him in this region, 

 made sacred to him by the sorrows of refugees from the 

 French Bevolution. 



It is a land of peace. The remnant of the Indians live 

 quietly upon their reservation, Christians and pagans 

 uniting harmoniously, on broad-church principles, in the 

 celebration of Christmas and in the sacrifice of the white 

 dog to the Great Spirit. 



The surrounding farmers devote themselves in peace 

 to their vocation. A noted academy, which has sent out 

 many of their children to take high places in their own 

 and other States, stands in the heart of the valley, and 

 little red school-houses are suitably scattered. Cling 

 ing to the hills on either side are hamlets like Onondaga, 

 Pompey, and Otisco, which in summer remind one of the 

 villages upon the lesser slopes of the Apennines. It 

 would be hard to find a more typical American popula- 



