152 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The early writers treat their recent residence on the St Law- 

 rence as a well known fact, but some mention Algonquins who 

 were present at the founding of Montreal in 1642. One said his 

 grandfather lived there, and added : '' The Hurons, who were then 

 our enemies, chased our ancestors from this country ; some 

 retired toward the land of the Abnaquiois, the others to the land 

 of the Iroquois, and one part turned to the Hurons themselves, 

 uniting- with them, and behold the land was made almost a 

 desert." This either combines the expulsion of the Iroquois 

 with that of the Algonquins, or makes it precede this, and agrees 

 with the Huron account that they received another nation about 

 1590, making due allowance for Indian dates. Indeed those 

 Algonquins who went to the Iroquois may have inflamed them 

 against the great body of the Hurons, and thus led to war. 



These early references to the exodus of the Mohawks from 

 Canada have recently had the aid of archeology, and one ques- 

 tion now is, what evidences of early Iroquois occupation does 

 the lower Mohawk valley present ? There are camps and graves, 

 and some insignificant hamlets belonging to prehistoric times 

 and of brief occupancy. But three prehistoric forts are known, in 

 two of which one or two ornaments of European make have been 

 found. Both of these forts are north of the river, and both are 

 distinctly related to the succeeding historic towns. The third is 

 a few miles south of the Mohawk, and was at first said to yield 

 European articles, but later explorers have found none. Its 

 relics have not such distinct relations to succeeding town sites, 

 but its Iroquois character is clear. These are all the town sites 

 known to belong to the New York Mohawks of precolonial times. 

 It is possible one or two more may be found. 



It is well known that the Mohawks once had three tribal 

 towns, one for each of their three clans, differing in this from 

 the other Iroquois, but this feature did not last long. It is also 

 well known that early Iroquois towns changed their sites every 

 10 or 15 years on an average. Making the removal of these three 

 occur in 1600, and allowing them a period of 20 years, their set- 

 tlement would have been about 1580. Another 20 years or less 



