HEWITTl 



INTRODUCTION 461 



Around the Great Council P^ire of the League of the Iroquois at 

 Onondaga, with punctilious observance of the parliamentary pro- 

 prieties recognized in Indian diplomacy and statecraft, and with a 

 decorum that would add grace to many legislative assemblies of the 

 wliite man, the Federal senators of the Iroquois tribes devised plans, 

 formulated policies, and defined principles of government and political 

 action which not only strengthened their state and promoted their 

 common welfare but also deeply affected the contemporary history 

 of the whites in North America. To this body of half-clad Federal 

 chieftains were repeatedly made overtures of peace and friendship 

 by two of the most powerful kingdoms of Europe, whose statesmen 

 often awaited with apprehension the decision of this senate of North 

 American savages. 



The sites of the village of Onondaga with their approximate dates 

 are thus identified by Clark, Beauchamp, and others, and listed by 

 Beauchamp in the notes to his map (Jes. Rel., Thwaites ed., li, 294, 

 1899): In 1600 the site was probably about 2 miles west of Cazenovia 

 and east of West Limestone Creek, Madison County, N. Y. Two 

 sites of towns are accredited to 1620, the one about 'lYi miles south- 

 west and the other 1 mile south of Delphi, Onondaga County, N. Y. 

 The site of 1630 was nearly 2 miles northwest of Delphi; that of 1640 

 was about 1 mile south of Pompey Center, Onondaga County, on 

 the east bank of West Limestone Creek; that of 1655, in which was 

 established the mission of St. Jean Baptiste, was about 2 miles south 

 of the present Manlius, in the same county, on what is called Indian 

 Hill; the Jesuit Relation for 1658 states that this town was large and 

 was called "Onnontaghe . . . because it was on a mountain." 

 This town, with its site, is probably the same as that visited by 

 Greenhalgh in 1677 and described as large, unpalisaded, consisting 

 of about 140 lodges, and situated on a very large hill, the bank on 

 either side extending at least 2 miles, all cleared land and planted with 

 corn. Greenhalgh learned that there was another village of 24 lodges 

 situated 2 miles westward. He estimated the Onondaga warriors 

 at about 350. The site of 1696 was 1 mile south of Jamesville, east 

 of Butternut Creek, Onondaga County. Count Frontenac burned 

 this town in 1690. The site of 1743 was east of the creek and north 

 of the present reservation in Onondaga County, while that of 1756 

 was west of the creek. The site of 1779 was that of one of the three 

 towns plundered and burned in April by the troops of Col. Van 

 Schaick; they were situated within 2 mUes of one another and con- 

 tained 30 to 50 lodges. 



The mission of Saincte Marie de Gannentaa was founded in 1655 

 on the shore of Lake Onondaga, 12 miles north of the mission of St. 

 Jean Baptiste; it was also called Saincte Marie du Lac de Gannentaa. 

 To this mission village, which was abandoned in 1058, the Jesuits 



