Chap. I.] ANDASTES ; ERIES. 25 



Iroquois family. The Andastes built their fortified 

 villages along the valley of the Lower Susque- 

 hanna ; while the Erigas, or Eries, occupied the 

 borders of the lake which still retains their name. 

 Of these two nations little is known, for the Jesuits 

 had no missions among them, and few traces of 

 them survive beyond their names and the record 

 of their destruction. The war with the Wyandots 

 was scarcely over, when the Five Nations turned 

 their arms against their Erie brethren. 



In the year 1655, using their canoes as scaling 

 ladders, they stormed the Erie stronghold, leaped 

 down like tigers among the defenders, and butch- 

 ered them without mercy.-^ The greater part of 

 the nation was involved in the massacrp, and the 

 remnant was incorporated with the conquerors, or 

 with other tribes, to which they fled for refuge. 

 The ruin of the Andastes came next in turn ; but 

 this brave people fought for twenty years against 

 their inexorable assailants, and their destruction 

 was not consummated until the year 1672, w^hen 

 they shared the fate of the rest.^ 



Thus, within less than a quarter of a century, 

 four nations, the most brave and powerful of the 

 North American savages, sank before the arms of 

 the confederates. Nor did their triumphs end 

 here. Within the same short space they subdued 



1 The Iroquois traditions on this subject, as related to thfe writer by 

 a chief of the Cayugas, do not agree with the narratives of the Jesuits. 

 It is not certain that the Eries were of the Iroquois family. There is 

 some reason to beheve them Algonquins, and possibly identical with the 

 Shawanoes. 



2 Charlevoix, Nouvelle France, I. 443. 



