206 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 191 



The Sanson map of 1656 pictures the "Eriechronons ou N. du Chat" 

 south of Lake Erie and west of Virginia and Maryland, although the 

 cartographic distortion is such that this latter fact may not be signifi- 

 cant. A detailed discussion of the problems involved in attempting 

 to draw conclusions concerning the position of the Erie by inspection 

 of early cartographical representations has been given by Marion E. 

 White (1961, pp. 40-49), who calls attention to a very important 

 clue. The so-called Bernou map of c. 1680 shows a legend below 

 Lake Erie (here called "Lac Teiocha-rontiong") reading. 



This Lake is not Lake Erie, as people usually call it. Erie is a part of Chesa- 

 peake Bay in Virginia, where the Eries have always lived. 



5. BLACK MINQUA-ERIE CONNECTION 



As with the Massawomeck, there exists no indisputable evidence 

 to link the Black Minqua to the Erie. There does exist, however, a 

 considerable amount of elusive and cu'cumstantial data which, when 

 considered in toto, does seem to render such a conclusion at least 

 plausible. 



First of all, it is apparent that just as the Massawomeck of the 

 Smith and Lederer maps seem to fall within Erie territory, so do 

 the Black Minqua of Herrman's map. Second, there seems to be 

 some relation between the name Erie or Eriehronon and the name 

 Arrigahaga as used by Printz. In this connection it should be noted 

 that Lewis Evans used the form Erigas on his map of 1755 (Evans, 

 1939, p. 13). 



Above and beyond this there seem to be numerous parallels between 

 the histor}'' of the Erie and the Black Minqua which, when taken 

 together, seem to be more than mere coincidence. This best can be 

 seen in a comparison of the Erie and Black Minqua histories insofar 

 as we can reconstruct them from the sources. 



According to the French, the Erie-Iroquois war began shortly 



after the Iroquois defeat of the northern Algonquian, the Huron, the 



Tionontati, and the Neutral; that is, between 1651 and 1653. The 



Iroquois account of the cause for this war, as given to the French at 



Onondaga, was that 



The Cat Nation had sent thirty Ambassadors to Sonnontouan, to confirm 

 the peace between them; but it happened, by some unexpected accident, that a 

 Sonnontouahronnon [Seneca] was killed by a man of the Cat Nation. This 

 murder so incensed the Sonnontouahronnons, that they put to death the Ambas- 

 sadors in their hands, except five who escaped. Hence, war was kindled between 

 these two Nations, and each strove to capture and burn more prisoners than its 

 opponent. [De Quens, 1657; in Thwaites, ed., 1896-1901, vol. 42, p. 177.] 



