1684.] MISSION TO ONONDAGA. 93 



laer, the governor of New York, only as their 

 brother. 1 Dongan, it seems, could not, or dared 

 not, change this mark of equality. He did his best, 

 however, to make good his claims, and sent Arnold 

 Yiele, a Dutch interpreter, as his envoy to Onon- 

 daga. Yiele set out for the Iroquois capital, and 

 thither we will follow him. 



He mounted his horse, and in the heats of 

 August rode westward along the valley of the 

 Mohawk. On a hill a bow-shot from the river, he 

 saw the first Mohawk town, Kaghnawaga, encircled 

 by a strong palisade. Next he stopped for a time 

 at Gandagaro, on a meadow near the bank ; and 

 next, at Canajora, on a plain two miles away. 

 Tionondogue, the last and strongest of these forti- 

 fied villages, stood like the first on a hill that over- 

 looked the river, and all the rich meadows around 

 were covered with Indian corn. The largest of 

 the four contained but thirty houses, and all to- 

 gether could furnish scarcely more than three 

 hundred warriors. 2 



When the last Mohawk town was passed, a ride 

 of four or five days still lay before the envoy. He 

 held his Avay along the old Indian trail, now traced 

 through the grass of sunny meadoAvs, and now tun- 

 nelled through the dense green of shady forests, 

 till it led him to the town of the Oneidas, contain- 



1 Except the small tribe of the Oneidas, who addressed Corlaer as 

 Father. Corlaer was the official Iroquois name of the governor of New 

 York ; Onas (the Feather, or Pen), that of the governor of Pennsylvania ; 

 and Assarigoa (the Big Knife, or Sword), that of the governor of Vir- 

 ginia. Corlaer, or Cuyler, was the name of a Dutchman whom the 

 Iroquois held in great respect. 



2 Journal of Wentworth Greenhak/h, 1677, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 250. 



