BULL. 30] 



SENECA 



505 



eluding the Seneca, declared war against 

 the Indians and the French on the 8t 

 Lawrence and its northern attluents by 

 sending various parties of warriors against 

 them. 



From the Jesuit Eelation 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 peace, and while 

 there learned that the Onondaga, the 

 Oneida, the Cayuga, and the Mohawk 

 were desirous of becoming parties to the 

 treaty . 



In 1639 the war was renewed by the 

 Hurons, who in May captured 12 prisoners 

 from the Seneca, then regarded as a 

 powerful people. The war continued 

 with varying success. The Jesuit Rela- 

 tion for 1641 (p. 75, 1858) says the Seneca 

 were the most feared of the enemies of 

 the Hurons, and that they were only one 

 day'sjourney from Ongniaahfa(Niagara), 

 the most easterlv town of the Neuters. 

 The Relation for 1643 (p. 61) says that 

 the Seneca (i. e. " les Hiroquois d'en 

 haut"), including the Cayuga, the Onei- 

 da, and the Onondaga, equaled, if they 

 did not exceed, in number and power the 

 Hurons, who previously had had this 

 advantage; and that the Mohawk at this 

 time had three villages with 700 or 800 

 men of arms who jiossessed 300 arque- 

 buses that they had obtained from the 

 Dutch and which they used with skill 

 and boldness. According to the Jesuit 

 Relation for 1648 (p. 49, 1858), 300 Seneca 

 attacked the village of the Aondironnons, 

 and killed or captured as many of its 

 inhabitants as possible, although this 

 people were a dependency of the Neuters 

 who were at peace with the Seneca at 

 this time. This affront nearly precipi- 

 tated war between the Iroquois and the 

 Neuters. 



The Seneca warriors composed the 

 larger part of the Iroquois warriors who 

 in 1648— 19 assailed, destroyed, and dis- 

 persed the Huron tribes; it was likewise 

 they who in 1649 sacked the chief towns 

 of the Tionontati, or Tobacco tribe; and 

 the Seneca also took a leading part in the 

 defeat and subjugation of the Neuters in 

 1651 and of the Erie in 1656. From the 

 Journal des PP. Jesuitesfor 1651-52 ( Jes. 

 Rel., Thwaites' ed., xxxvii, 97, 1898) it 

 is learned that in 1651 the Seneca, in 

 waging war against the Neuters, had been 

 so signally defeated that their women and 

 children were compelled to flee from 

 Sonontowan, their capital, to seek refuge 

 among the neighboring Cayuga. 



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., murdered two of the three 

 Seneca ambassadors, the other having 

 remained as a liostage 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 Chaumonot 

 and Dal)lon, after pressing invitations to 

 do so, started from Quebec to visit and 

 view the Seneca country, and to establish 

 there a French habitation and teach the 

 Seneca the articles of their faith. 



In 1657 the Seneca, in carrying out the 

 policy of the League to adopt conquered 

 tribes upon submission and the expression 

 of a desire to live under the form of gov- 

 ernment 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 INIinqua, aided by the 

 Marylanders. The Iroquois did not ter- 

 minate 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 there- 

 after claimed a right to the Minqua lands 

 to the head of Chesapeake bay. 



In 1744 the influence of the French 

 was rapidly gaining grountl among the 

 Seneca; meanwhile the astute and per- 

 suasive Col. J(jhnson 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 mean- 

 time having been overcome by the Iroquois 

 in a war lasting about five years. In 1687 

 the Marquis Denonvi lie assembled a great 

 horde of Indians from the region of the 

 upper lakes and from the St Lawrence — 

 Hurons, Ottawa, Chippewa, Missisauga, 

 Miami, Illinois, Montagnais, Amikwa, 

 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 



