8 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 



kees with incessant forays.^ On the north, they 

 uprooted the ancient settlements of the Wyandots ; 

 on the west they exterminated the Eries and the 

 Andastes, and spread havoc and dismay among 

 the tribes of the Illinois ; and on the east, the 

 Indians of New England fled at the first peal of 

 the Mohawk war-cry. Nor was it the Indian race 

 alone who quailed before their ferocious valor. 

 All Canada shook with the fury of their onset; 

 the people fled to the forts for refuge ; the blood- 

 besmeared conquerors roamed like wolves among 

 the burning settlements, and the colony trembled 

 on the brink of ruin. 



The Iroquois in some measure owed their tri- 

 umphs to the position of their country ; for they 

 dwelt within the present limits of the State of New 

 York, whence several great rivers and the inland 

 oceans of the northern lakes opened ready thorough- 

 fares to their roving warriors through all the adja- 

 cent wilderness. But the true fountain of their 

 success is to be sought in their own inherent ener- 

 gies, wrought to the most effective action under a 

 political fabric well suited to the Indian life ; in 

 their mental and moral organization ; in their in- 

 satiable ambition and restless ferocity. 



In their scheme of government, as in their social 



1 The tribute exacted from the Delawares consisted of wampum, or 

 beads of shell, an article of inestimable value with the Indians. " Two 

 old men commonly go about, eA^ery year or two, to receive this tribute ; 

 and I have often had opportunity to observe what anxiety the poor In- 

 dians were under, while these two old men remained in that part of the 

 country where I was. An old Mohawk sachem, in a poor blanket and a 

 dirty shirt, may be seen issuing his orders with as arbitrary an authorit}'' 

 as a Roman dictator." — Golden, Hist. Five Nations, 4. 



