THREE DAYS AT BUFFALO. 193 



the western gate-keepers of the " Long House," made 

 a settlement near Buffalo, to which they gave the 

 musical name of Te-you-seo-wa, the place of bass- 

 wood, having found there huts covered with basswood 

 bark, the remnants of some lately abandoned village. 

 This settlement was not as near the lake-front as the 

 city now is, but was cautiously laid out farther back 

 from shore to prevent surprise. Here the young 

 braves found a favorite hunting-ground, and were 

 wont to conceal themselves near the salt springs that 

 bubble up from the border of the creek, to await the 

 buffaloes, which came there in herds. Tliere has 

 been some dispute as to the naming of the city, and 

 the possibility of the American bison having fre- 

 quented this part of the country, but it is generally 

 believed that herds of these herbivorous animals did 

 graze on Eastern soil, and that the attacks of carniv- 

 orous beasts and the constant warfare waged ao-ainst 

 them by the Indians drove them to the Western 

 plains. 



Nearly two centuries ago, when the site of the 

 present city was still a wilderness through whose 

 tangled labyrinths Indian eyes peered out over the 

 gleaming waters of the lake, La Hontan penetrated 

 these western wilds, and suggested to his sovereign 

 the building of a fort here, as a safeguard against the 

 Iroquois. 



We see almost instinctively the scenes which he 

 saw as we follow him through lake and stream — the 

 great falls sparkling beneath an August sun, their 

 wild surroundings nn marred and untrodden .save 

 by moccasined feet ; the rapids and then the river, 

 to whose current, farther up, he trusted his boat. 



