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engaged suddenly and unexpectedly in a fearful struggle, which in- 
volved not only their high prestige as arbitrators of America, and ~ 
also as the glorious custodians of the National Pipe of Peace, but 
the fate of their national existeuce now hung on the issues of the 
day. They were intensely proud, the word of their Queen, “‘ Mother 
of Nations,” had from immemorial time been unquestioned ilaw—a 
power felt and a superiority acknowledged by all the surrounding 
tribes. All these considerations flashed upon the minds of the bold 
Eries, and nerved every arm with almost supernatural strength and 
power. 
On the other hand, the united forces of the once weaker tribes, 
but seventy years joined together as a league and confederacy by 
Hiawatha, and made strong in their union, fired by a spirit of emu- 
lation and excited to the highest pitch among the warriors of the 
different tribes brought for the first time to act in concert ; inspired 
with zeal and confidence by the counsels of the wisest chiefs, and led 
on by the most experienced warriors of all the united tribes, the 
five nations were invincible. Though staggered at the first desperate 
onslaught of the Eries, the Iroquois soon rallied and made a stand, 
and now the din of battle rises higher and higher, the war club, the 
tomahawk and the scalping knife, wielded by herculean arms, do 
terrible deeds of battle and death. During the hottest of the con- 
flict, which was fierce and long, the corps of reserve, amounting to 
one thousand young men, were, by a skilful movement under their 
experienced chief and leader, placed in rear of the Eries on the op- 
posite side of the stream in ambush. The Eries had been driven 
seven times across the stream and as often regained their ground, 
but the eighth time at a given signal from their leader, the corps of 
reserve in ambush rushed upon the almost exhausted Eries with a 
tremendous yell. 
Shorikowana, the Seneca war chief, was, fortunately for the Eries, 
killed by an arrow, when Gegosasa proposed terms of peace, which 
were accepted, and the remnant of her warriors, bearing with them 
their wounded and as many of the dead bodies of their leaders as 
they could find, returned to Buffalo. This first war ended in 1634, 
Upon her return home Gegosasa found internal affairs in a terrible 
condition. ‘The campaign from which she had just returned proved 
n the long run the destruction of the neutral Confederacy. Prophets 
