HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK IROQUOIS l8l 



captured 30 Hurons. A band of 150 Iroquois was also near the 

 French settlements, making their presence known. " This they 

 knew from the little sticks attached to a tree, to show who they 

 were and how many." 



The older Hurons now wished peace, but some young warriors 

 began war against the Senecas. It meant ruin, but it was resolved 

 to support them. It was then that the Ouenrohronons, a border 

 tribe of the Neutrals, sought refuge with the Hurons and were 

 hospitably received. They seem to have lived in New York and 

 suffered much in their removal, the French estimating their jour- 

 ney at 240 miles. 



In 1639, ^ party led by Oronkouaia, an Oneida chief, was 

 defeated by the Hurons, who killed nearly a score. The leader 

 was tortured fearfully, and his hand was thrown into the house 

 of the Jesuits, with insolent words, they having baptized him. 

 This war involved the Algonquins, who feared the presence of 

 the Iroquois everywhere and gave the French a thousand 

 alarms. 



In 1640 Brebeuf and Chaumonot visited the Neutral country 

 but not New York, their outposts being mostly withdrawn. 

 Their strength was then estimated at 12,000 people in 40 villages. 

 Parkman thought that "they, and not the Fries, wxre the Kah- 

 kwahs of Seneca tradition." The Hurons would allow neither 

 these nor the Petuns to pass their country to trade with the 

 French, and the Neutrals were too poor boatmen to brave the 

 waves of Lake Ontario. 



Mr O. H. Marshall also thought the Kahkwahs and Neutrals 

 the same. On Coronelli's map of 1688 a village was placed near 

 the site of Buffalo called Kakouagoga, A Nation destroyed, and 

 Eighteen Mile creek is called by the Senecas Gah-gwah-geh, 

 Residence of the Kahkwahs. This was probably the southern 

 boundary of the Neutrals, and Gallatin gives kahquahgoh as the 

 Seneca word for south, so that the name might refer to the 

 nation, or position, or both. The Senecas told Schoolcraft that 

 they destroyed the Kahkwahs at this creek in 1755, and he 

 thought 100 years should be deducted from this. He also gave 



