OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. 151 



great Dakota stock, who first made their way eastward to the valley of the St. 

 Lawrence, near Montreal, where they were once established, and afterwards into 

 the lake region of Central New York, where they were found at the epoch of their 

 discovery. 



The prominent position of the Iroquois among the Northern nations was acquired 

 subsequently to the establishment of the league under which they were consolidated 

 into one political family. That tendency to disintegration, from the secession of 

 successive bands which has ever been the chief element of weakness in Indian 

 society, was counteracted by the federative principle, retaining, as it did, the natural 

 increase of their population to the largely increased development of their intelli- 

 gence, and to the great augmentation of their military strength. Such a league 

 was rendered possible by a limited agricultural cultivation through which their 

 means of subsistence had become permanently enlarged. Their superiority over 

 their cotemporaries in the art of government is demonstrated by the structure and 

 principles of the league itself, which for originality and simplicity of plan, for effi- 

 ciency in organizing the power of the people, and for adaptation to military enter- 

 prises is worthy of commendation. 1 Since the commencement of European inter- 

 course they have passed through a novel and severe experience, in the progress of 

 which they have produced a greater number of distinguished men than any other 

 Northern nation. 



As near as can now be ascertained the league had been established about one 

 hundred and fifty years, when Champlain, in 1609, first encountered the Mohawks 

 within their own territories on the west shore of Lake George. This would place 

 the epoch of its formation about A. D. 1459, or one hundred and thirty-four years 

 subsequent to the foundation of the pueblo of Mexico, according to the current 

 representations. 2 At the time the Iroquois nations confederated they were inde- 

 pendent bands, speaking dialects of the same stock-language, but each having its 

 own distinct previous history ; with the exception of the Oneidas, who separated 

 themselves from the Mohawks after their settlement in New York, and the Cayugas 

 who, in like manner, separated themselves from the Onondagas. According to their 

 traditions, which are confirmed to some extent by other evidence, they had resided 

 in this area for a long period of time before the league was formed, and had at 

 times made war upon each other. The Tuscaroras, who were of kindred descent, 

 were admitted into the Confederacy about the year 1715, upon their expulsion from 

 North Carolina. 



There were but five other nations of the same immediate lineage of whom we 

 have any knowledge. First among these, in numbers and importance, were the 

 Hurons, the ancestors of the present Wyandotes, who occupied the shores of the 

 Georgian Bay and ranged southward toward Lake Erie. Their principal vil- 

 lages were along the Georgian Bay and around Lake Simcoe. Although divided 



1 In another work, " The League of the Iroquois," I have presented and discussed the structure 

 and principles of their civil and domestic institutions. 



8 " The foundation of Mexico happened in the year 2 Calli, corresponding with the year 1325 of 

 the vulgar era." Clavigero's Hist, of Mexico, I, 162. (Cullen's Trans. 181 1.) 



