METALLIC IMPLEMENTS OF NEW YORK INDIANS 61 
latter removed their town soon after, and when Corlaer visited 
; them in December. 1634, a chief told him that “the Frenchmen 
_had come thither to trade with six men, and had given him good 
gifts, because they had been trading in this river with six men 
in the month of August of this year. We saw very good axes 
t to cut the underwood.” They saw razors also. 
_ In this case it is quite probable that by the river they meant 
§ the St Lawrence, rather than any stream in the country of the 
‘ Oneidas. It was easy to misunderstand. 
In the pictures accompanying the account of the nine Iroquois 
_ tribes or clang in 1666, the Turtle and the Beaver carry the typi- 
eal trade ax, but the Eagle has a hatchet expanding equally on 
- each side. Wooden clubs were at first called tomahawks, but 
after a time axes were known by this name. Taking up and lay- 
_ ing down the hatchet became terms for war and peace, modified 
_ to suit the occasion. According to Colden the expression was 
enforced by acts at times. He relates the proceedings at a 
council in Albany in 1684. Speeches and explanations had -been 
made to avert hostilities. “Then the axes were buried in the 
southeast end of the courtyard, and the Indians threw the earth 
| upon them.” ‘The council was really held in 1681. 
~ When war was unsuccessful the Indians said the ax was poor 
‘or broken, and some battles have been known by this name. 
Axes were figured on or attached to war belts. In 1692 Tata- 
conicere, an Oneida at a French mission post in Canada, learned © 
that the wife of the Onondaga chief, Black Kettle, was trying to 
escape. He at once killed her, and “struck his hatchet into the 
gate as a sign that he would not grant pardon to any one.” Old 
documents and speeches are full of these symbolic uses. 
In his camp at Onondaga lake, July 2, 1756, Sir William Jobn- 
son made a remarkable speech of this kind to the Indians assem- 
bled there. He had advised them to return the French hatchet 
and had sharpened their own by a belt. To this they had made a 
‘suitable response and waited his further pleasure. He said: 
Brethren—two days ago you returned me thanks for sharpen- 
ing your own Hatchet and said you had found mine last year at 
Oswego was not good. I told you then that I had some weapons 
