THE HURON RACE AND ITS HEAD-FORM. 119 



But whatever may have been its true source, it is certain that they 

 possessed a knowledge and experience in agriculture wholly independent 

 of European influence, and that they carried it into practice to an extent 

 which has not been attained by the Algonquin Indians since settled 

 on the Indian reserves of the deserted Huron country. 



To the south-west, between the Georgian Bay and Lake Erie, the 

 allied nation of the Tiontonones dwelt, and they also carried on agri- 

 cultural operations on a scale which suggested the name of Petuns, 

 given to them by the French, from the extent to which they cultivated 

 tobacco. The Niagara district was in like manner filled up by the 

 Attiwandaronks, or Neuters, of the same stock; and all along the river 

 banks and smaller lake shores, traces of Indian villages and cemeteries 

 prove that the country was formerly filled with a corresponding native 

 population. But the Wyandots or Hurons only became known to 

 Europeans in their decline, and immediately before their extirpation. 

 They were then in alliance with the Adirondacks and other Algon- 

 quins, against their common Iroquois foe. 



The Mississagas, Ottawas, Nipissings, and Adirondacks, all belonged 

 to a distinct stock; and to them, as to all nations speaking languages un- 

 intelligible to the Hurons, they applied the common name Ahwanalce : 

 corresponding to the Teutonic application of the term Welsh. But to 

 the people occupying the Niagara peninsula, — notwithstanding the 

 neutrality the latter maintained in the wars between them and the 

 Iroquois, which led to their being designated by the French The 

 Neuters, — the Hurons gave the name of Attkoendaronk, signifying, 

 according to Breboeuf, a ^'■people of a language a little different^ 



Beyond this, on the south west, lay the extensive region of the 

 Eries, another allied race, whose elaborate rock-sculpture on Cunning- 

 ham's Island, Lake Erie, attracts interest as the most elaborate picto- 

 rial inscription of its class hitherto found on the Northern Continent 

 But both Neuters and Eries perished by the violence of kindred 

 nations before any accurate knowledge could be obtained of either. 

 The year 1655 is assigned by Charlevoix for the destruction of the 

 former. Of the latter so little is known that in the earliest French 

 maps an imaginary river connects Lakes Huron and Ontario ; the very 

 existence of Lake Erie being then unknown. 



It was otherwise with the Huron's country. It was visited bj 

 Champlain himself in 1615; and in the latter part of the seventeenth 

 century became the scene of the indefatigable operations of a succession 



