1(390.] THE IROQUOIS IN COUNCIL. 197 



" Ho, ho, ho," returned the eighty senators, from 

 the bottom of their throats. It was the unfailing 

 Iroquois response to a speech. Then Cut Nose, 

 the governor's messenger, addressed the council : 

 " I advise you to meet Onontio as he desires. 

 Do so, if you wish to live." He presented a wam- 

 pum belt to confirm his words, and the conclave 

 again returned the same guttural ejaculation. 



" Ourehaoue sends you this," continued Cut Nose, 

 presenting another belt of wampum : " by it he ad- 

 vises you to listen to Onontio, if you wish to live." 



When the messenger from Canada had ceased, 

 the messenger from Albany, a Mohawk Indian, rose 

 and repeated word for word a speech confided to 

 him by the mayor of that town, urging the Iro- 

 quois to close their ears against the invitations of 

 Onontio. 



Next rose one Cannehoot, a sachem of the Sene- 

 cas, charged with matters of grave import ; for 

 they involved no less than the revival of that 

 scheme, so perilous to the French, of the union of 

 the tribes of the Great Lakes in a triple alliance 

 with the Iroquois and the English. These lake 

 tribes, disgusted with the French, who, under 

 Denonville, had left them to the mercy of the Iro- 

 quois, had been impelled, both by their fears and 

 their interests, to make new advances to the con- 

 federacy, and had first addressed themselves to 

 the Senecas, whom they had most cause to dread. 

 They had given up some of the Iroquois prisoners 



quences. Cut Nose, or Nez Coupe, is called Adarahta by Colden, and 

 Gagniegaton, or Red Bird, by some French writers. 



