THE HURON RACE AND ITS HEAD-FORM. 117. 



But the Iroquois combined with the Delawares, or Lenape Nation, to 

 crush that ancient people. After vainly struggling to withstand the 

 united foe, the surviving remnant were driven down the Mississippi, 

 and their name disappeared from among the Indian nations of the con- 

 tinent. They had long occupied populous towns and villages in the 

 Ohio valley; and are even assumed by Mr. Schoolcraft, in his "History 

 of the Indian Tribes," to have been the actual JVIound-Builders. But, 

 whoever they were, the very name of the Ohio is of Iroquois origin, 

 and given to the native river of the Allegans by their supplanters. 

 The Andastes, or Susquehannocks, who are believed to have been a 

 kindred people, and acknowledged an ancient friendship with the more 

 distant Hurons, excited the ire of the Iroquois, and were in like 

 manner extirpated. At a later date the Delawares, with whom they 

 had been in temporary league, fell under their ban ; and a miserable 

 remnant of survivors abandoned the shores of the beautiful river which 

 perpetuates their name, and wandered back into the unknown west. 

 So in like manner, the Shawnees, Nanticokes, Unamis, Minsi, and 

 Illinois, were vanquished, and for the most part driven out or extermi- 

 nated. Settlements of the conquerors were frequently established in 

 the conquered lands ; and the only redeeming feature in this savage 

 warfare was their system of adopting prisoners of war. in the place of 

 lost members of their own tribes ; and of admitting to a species of 

 serfdom the surviving remnant of conquered nations. This process of 

 admixture of native races will form a legitimate subject of review when 

 considering different cranial types recovered from the cemeteries of 

 the allied Hurons. 



The nations thus driven out or exterminated were probably all of 

 diverse affinities from their conquerors. But a comparison of the 

 dialects of the Iroquois language with those of the tribes of Western 

 Canada shows that they were of kindred stock. Yet this proved no 

 protection. The first explorers of the St. Lawrence found the occu- 

 pants of the country little better than ephemeral nomades ; and their 

 extermination or displacement is wholly ascribable to native wars. In 

 the brief interval between Cartier's first discovery of Canada, in 1535, 

 and its exploration and settlement by Champlain, the whole country 

 between the Ottawa and Lake Simcoe appears to have been depopu- 

 lated ; and the surviving Ouane-dote or Wyandot tribes, driven west- 

 ward by the implacable Iroquois, found new hunting grounds, or mingled 

 with nations of a common affinity, in the country to the north of Lake 



