26 EARLY GAZETTEER ANB MAP LITERATURE 



follows : — " The most considerable and best known of all tbe Indians, 

 as well as the strongest and most powerful. Their country lies 

 between lat. 41 and 44, and extends 70 or 80 leagues from E. to W., 

 from the source of the river of the Iroquois (St. Lawrence) to that 

 of Richelieu and Sorel ; from the lake of St. Sacrament to the Fall 

 of Niagara; and upwards of 40 leagues from IST. to S., viz., from 

 the springhead of the River Agniers to the Ohio, which, together 

 with Pennsylvania, forms the southern boundary. * * * They 

 are divided into several cantons, the five principal of which are the 

 Tsonontonons, Goyogoans, Onnontagues, Ounogoats, and Agniez. 

 These five nations have each a large village, consisting of mean 

 huts, about 30 leagues from one another, mostly seated along the 

 southern coast of Lake Ontario." The Hurons are " savages inhabit- 

 ing the country contiguous to the lake of the same name in Canada. 

 Their true name is Y-en-dats. The country inhabited by these people 

 at the beginning of the last century, [e.g., 17th], had the Lake Erie 

 to the south, the Lake Huron to the west, and Lake Ontario to the 

 east. It is situated between Lat 42 and 45 N. Here they have a 

 good many cantons or villages, and the whole nation still consists of 

 between 40,000 and 50,000 souls." After speaking of the forests : — 

 "Here are some stones that can be fused into metal, and contain 

 veins of silver. This country is well situated for commerce, whence, 

 by means of the lakes by which it is almost surrounded, it would be 

 an easy matter to push on discoveries even to the extreme parts of 

 North America." A long article is devoted to the Esquimaux, who, 

 in 1759, were in the habit of coming down to lower latitudes than 

 they are wont to do at the joresent time. They are spoken of with 

 great horror : — "Their name is supposed," the Gazetteer says, "to be 

 originally Esqu.imantsic, which, in the Albenaquin dialect, signifies 

 eaters of raw flesh, they being almost the only people in those parts 

 that eat it so, though they use also to boil, or dry it in the sun. 

 * * * They hate the Europeans, and are always ready to do 

 them some mischief, so that they will come to the water side, and 

 cut their cables in the night, hoping to see them wrecked upon their 

 coast against the next morning. '■' * * The Esquimaux are the 

 only natural inhabitants ever seen on the coasts of Newfoundland, 

 who pass thither from the mainland of Labrador, in order to hunt 

 and for the sake of trafiic with Europeans. One of their women 

 was brought to England and presented at Court in 1773." [This, is 



