THE MOHAWK LANGUAGE. 185 



tween the English and French, and to them England, most undoubt- 

 edly owes her possessions in America. Their fidelity and the strength 

 of their friendship will better appear when it is taken into considera- 

 tion that they had not only no personal interest to serve, but also 

 tempting ofPers were frequently made to them by the foes of England, 

 to remain at least neutral. But their invariable reply was : "When 

 my brother is glad, we rejoice ; when he weeps, we weep also." 



At the close of the revolutionary war, the Mohawks — having 

 throughout fought for their brother the King, though the American 

 Government generously offered them the undisturbed possession of 

 their territory, — left their "hunting grounds and the graves of their 

 forefathers," and sought a new home in the wilds of Canada, in order 

 still to preserve their alliance with their great brother, the King, 



A portion settled upon the shores of the Bay of Quinte, where there 

 are now about /OO, while the remainder passed up to their present 

 reservation at the Grand River, numbering at the present day about 

 2,500. So, again, in the War of 1812, these people gave good evi- 

 dence, at " Beaver's Dam," " Lundy's Lane," and " Queenston 

 Heights," that the spirit of their forefathers had not entirely died 

 out. As illustrating the " ruling passion," strong even in the din and 

 'smoke of battle, the father of the writer, who took a leading part in 

 all the engagements on the Niagara Frontier, being present at the 

 burning and sacking of Buffalo, selected from a rich, varied, and costly 

 assortment, as his share of the plunder, a keg of rum. 



With this bare outline, we shall now proceed with our subject 

 proper. 



Although all the traditions represent the Six Nations as originally 

 separate and distinct tribes, there can be no doubt of their common 

 origin when we come to examine the dialects. 



The migration of a family, away from the rest, and living in isola- 

 tion, would, in time, give the dialectic differences now existing 

 among the languages spoken by the Six Nations. If this be true, we 

 must naturally suppose that the greatest similarity would be found to 

 exist between the languages spoken by tribes located contiguous to 

 each other, and on the contrary the greatest dissimilarity between the 

 languages of tribes that are most remote from each other. On re- 

 ference to the geographical position of the tribes, we find that, accord- 

 ing to this, the Mohawk and Oneida ought to be most alike. 



An examination will prove this fact ; while the Tuscarora differs 



