THE NEUTRAL NATIONS. 
THE ERIES. 
Read before the Hamilton Sctentific Association 
BY MARY E, ROSE HOLDEN. 
““Who then lives to mourn us? None. 
What marks our extermination? Nothing.’ SRT, 
“Not Hindoo, Afgan, Cushite or Parsee, 
The Indian his own prototype must be.” 
The occupants of the shores of this lake by the ancient and 
extinct tribe of the Eries, who were once the acknowledged pacifi- 
cators of the neighboring Indians, and who preceded the Iroquois in 
warlike and civic power within that basin, gives a melancholy interest 
to whatever in the existing archaeological remains of the country, 
serves to restore the memory of their power. 
They appear to have been in the plentitude of pre-eminence 
and of a civilized strength and influence at the period of the first 
discoveries of the French in the beginning of the seventeenth cen- 
tury. The Wyandot-Hurons at that time had not been disturbed 
from the possession of their ancient territories on the shores and 
valley of the St. Lawrence. The Eries seem to possess unique claim 
to remembrance, which cannot be urged by any other American 
tribe—a claim still older than the days of Hiawatha, viz.: that of 
kindling the Council Fires of Peace forall the tribes of the continent. 
According to the French Missionaries, the Eries were at the 
head of the stagular league known as the Neutral Nations. Their 
territory extended from the extreme west to the eastern shores of 
Lake Erie, including the Niagara valley, and of whom the Kau- 
Kuas, of Seneca fame and tradition, were manifestly only one of the 
powers. The dispersion of the Eries, according to European writers, 
took place in 1656 ; according to Cusick that event occurred at the 
time of Cabot. 
The following facts are well authenticated: The Neutres kept 
their neutrality until 1634 ; they had 36 villages in 1641 and a gar- 
