m^^] INTRODUCTION 47 



In 1652 the Seneca were plotting with the Mohawk to destroy and ruin the 

 French settlements on the St. Lawrence. Two years later the Seneca sent an 

 embassy to the French for the purpose of making peace with them, a movement 

 which was probably brought about by their rupture with the Erie. But the 

 Mohawk not desiring peace at that time with the French, perhaps on account of 

 their desire to attack the Hurons on Orleans id., murciered two of the three 

 Seneca ambassadors, the other having remained as a hostage with the French. 

 This act almost resulted in war between the two hostile tribes; foreign affairs, 

 however, were in such condition as to prevent the beginning of actual hostility. 

 On Sept. 19, 1655, Fathers Chauraonot and Dablon, after pressing invitations to 

 do so, started from Quebec to visit and view the Seneca country, and to estab- 

 lish there a French habitation and teach the Seneca the articles of their faith. 



In 1657 the Seneca, in carrying out the policy of the Lengue to adopt conquere<l 

 tribes upon submission and the expression of a desire to live under the form of 

 government established by the League, had thus incorporated eleven different 

 tribes into their body politic. 



In 1652 Maryland bought from the Minqua, or Susquehanna Indians, i. e. the. 

 Conestoga, all their land claims on both sides of Chesapeake bay up to the 

 mouth of Susquehanna r. In 1663, 800 Seneca and Cayuga warriors from the 

 Confederation of the Five Nations were defeated by the Minqua, aided by the 

 Marylanders. The Iroquois did not terminate their hostilities until famine had 

 so reduced the Conestoga that in 1675, when the Marylanders had disagreed 

 with them and had withdrawn their alliance, the Conestoga were completely 

 subdued by the Five Nations, who thereafter claimed a right to the Minqua 

 lands to the head of Chesapeake bay. 



In 1744 the influence of the French was rapidly gaining ground among the 

 Seneca ; meanwhile the astute and persuasive Col. Johnson was gradually win- 

 ning the Mohawk as close allies of the British, while the Onondaga, the Cayuga, 

 and the Oneida, under strong pressure from Pennsylvania and Virginia, sought 

 to be neutral. 



In 1686. 200 Seneca warriors went w. against the Miami, the Illinois in the 

 meantime having been overcome by the Iroquois in a war lasting about five 

 years. In 1687 the Marquis Denonville assembled a great horde of Indians 

 from the region of the upper lakes and from the St. Lawrence — Hurons, Ot- 

 tawa, Chippewa. Missisauga. Miami. Illinois. Montagnais, Aniikwa, and others — 

 under Durantaye, DuLuth, and Tonti, to serve as an auxiliary force to about 

 1,200 French and colonial levies, to be employed in attacking and destroying 

 the Seneca. Having reached Irondequoit, the Seneca landing-place on L. 

 Ontario, Denonville built there a stockade in which he left a garrison of 440 

 men. Thence advancing to attack the Seneca villages, he was ambushed by 600 

 or 800 Seneca, who charged and drove back the colonial levies and their Indian 

 allies, and threw the veteran regiments into disorder. Only by the overwhelm- 

 ing numbers of his force was the traitorous Denonville saved from disastrous 

 defeat. 



In 1763, at Bloody Run and the Devil's Hole, situated on Niagara r. about 4 

 m. below the falls, the Seneca ambushed a British supply train on the portage 

 road from Ft Schlosser to Ft Niagara, only three escaping from a force of 

 nearly 100. At a short distance from this place the same Seneca ambushed a 

 British force composed of two companies of troops who were hastening to the 

 aid of the supply train, only eight of whom escaped massacre. These bloody 

 and harsh measures were the direct result of the general unrest of the Six 

 Nations and the western tribes, arising from the manner of the recent occu- 

 pancy of the posts by the British, after the surrender of Canada by the French 



