46 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [eth, ann. 32 



that one of the tribes shouUl enter into a treaty or other compact with its 

 enemies, while tlie others might still maintain a hostile attitude toward the 

 alien contracting party. 



During 1622 the Montiignais, the Algonkin, and the Hurons sought to con- 

 clude peace with the Iroquois (yro(7Mois=Mohawli division?), because "they 

 were weary and fatigued with the wars which they had had for more than 50 

 years." The armistice was concluded in 1624, but was brolsen by the continued 

 guerrilla warfare of the Algonkin warriors; for this reason the Seneca (" Oneu- 

 touoronons d'autre nation, amis desdits Yrocois") liilled in the "village of tlie 

 Yrocois " the embassy composed of a Frenchman. Pierre Maguan, and three 

 Algonqulan ambassadors. This resulted in the renewal of the war. So in Sept 

 1627, the Iroquois, including the Seneca, declared war against the Indians and 

 the French on tlie St. Lawrence and its northern aSluents by sending various 

 parties of warriors against them. 



From the Jesuit Relation for 1635 (p. 34. 1858) it is learned that the Seneca, 

 after defeating the Hurons in the spring of 1634, made peace with them. The 

 Hurons in the following year sent an embassy to Sonontouan, the chief town of 

 the Seneca, to ratify the i>eace, and while there learned that the Onondaga, the 

 Oneida, the Cayuga, and the Mohawlv were desirous of becoming parties to the 

 treaty. 



In 1639 the war was renewed by the Hurons, who in May captured 12 pris- 

 oners from the Seneca, then regarded as a powerful people. The war continued 

 with varying success. The Jesuit Relation for 1641 (p. 75, 18.58) says the Seneca 

 were the most feared of the enemies of the Hurons, and that they were only one 

 day's journey from Ongniaahra (Niagara), the most easterly town of tlie 

 Neuter.s.' The Relation for 1643 (p. 61) says that the Seneca (i. e. " les Hiro- 

 quois d'en haut"), including the Cayuga, the Oneida, and the Onondaga, 

 equaled, if they did not exceed, in number and power the Hurons. who pre- 

 viously had had this advantage; and that the Mohawli at this time had three 

 villages with 700 or 800 men of arras who possessed 300 arquebuses that tliey 

 had obtained from the Dutch and which they used with sl<ill and boldne.ss. 

 According to the Jesuit Relation for 1648 (p. 49, 1858), 300 Seneca attacked 

 the village of the Aondironnon, and killed or captured as many of its inhab- 

 itants as possible, although this people were a dependency of the Neuters who 

 were at iwace with the Seneca .it this time. This affront nearly precipitated 

 war between the Iroquois and the Neuters.' 



The Seneca warriors couqiosed the larger part of the Iroquois warriors wlio 

 in 1048-49 assailed, destroyed, and dispersed the Huron tribes; it was likewise 

 they who in 1649 sacked the chief towns of the Tionontati. or Tobacco tribe : 

 end the Seneca also took a leading part in tlie defeat f.nd subjugation of the 

 Neuters in 1651 and of the Erie in 1656. From the Journal des PP. Jesuites 

 for 1651-52 (Jes. Rel., Thwaites' ed., xxxvii, 97, 189S) it is learned that in 1051 

 the Seneca, in waging war against the Neuters, had been so signally defeated 

 that tlieir women and children were compelled to flee from Sonontowan. their 

 capital, to seek refuge among the neighboring Cayngn. 



'This village of Onpniaahra (Ongiara, Ongni.Tara. and Snclciara are other forma found 

 In the literature of the Jesuit Fathers) was slluated very probably on or near the site of 

 the village of Youngstown, New York. It is the present Iroquoian name of this village, 

 but not of the river nor of the Falls of Niagara. 



-The Aondironnon probably dwelt at or near the present Moraviantown, Ontario, 

 Canada, although some Iroquois apply the name to St. Thomas, some distance eastward. 

 Another form of the name Is Ahondihronnon. The nominal part that is distinctive Is thu.s 

 Aondi or Ahonilin, as written in the Jesuit Relations. The modern Iroquoian form Is 

 f'.ti'hC', ' The middle or oputor of the peninsula." 



