JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 57 
night she was near to the town of Hon-ey-oye. She directed ‘her 
way to the house of the head chief and gave him her information. 
She was immediately secreted by the chief, and runners were des- 
patched to all the tribes summoning them to grand council. When 
they were convened, the chief arose, and in the most solemn manner, 
told the audience that a bird had appeared to him in a vision of the 
night, and that a great war party of the Eries was preparing to make 
a secret and sudden descent upon them to destroy them, that nothing 
could save them but an immediate rally of all the warriors of the 
Five Nations to meet the enemy before they had time to strike the 
meditated blow. These solemn announcements were heard in breath- 
less silence. When the chief sat down there was one yell of men- 
acing madness, and the earth fairly shook when the mass of frenzied 
Iroquois stamping the ground with fury, and brandishing high in the 
air war clubs, demanded to be led against the invaders. No time was 
to be lost, delay might prove fatal. A body of five thousand war- 
riors was formed, with a corps of reserve of one thousand young men 
who had never seen battle. The bravest chiefs from all the tribes 
were put in command, spies sent out in search of the enemy, the 
whole body taking up a line of march-in the direction from whence 
they expected an attack. Meanwhile, Erie scouts brought word to 
Buffalo of the approach of an armed force. Gegosasa, with over two 
thousand warriors besides women and children, took refuge within 
the palisaded fort or fortifications. This fortress, at present Buffalo, 
stood on a fine plain, and was surrounded by a high wall, formed of 
huge trunks of trees driven into the ground side by side, and wedged 
together. These were crossed within and without by smaller and 
longer pieces bound to them by bands made of split trees and wild 
vines. The whole was plastered with a kind of mortar, made of clay 
and straw stamped together, which filled every chink and crevice in 
the woodwork, so that it appeared as if smoothed with a trowel. 
Throughout its whole surface, the wall was pierced at the height of a 
man with loopholes, whence arrows might be discharged at any 
enemy, and at every fifty paces it was surmounted by a tower, capa- 
ble of holding seven or eight fighting men. Whole villages were 
build of reeds and straw. These forts were built in quadrangle form 
and palisaded. The four sides were each four hundred paces in 
length from side to side, two other palisades divided it into separate 
