HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK IROOUOIS I5I 



weakness, and then turned their arms against the Adirondacks 

 or Algonquins with success. Charlevoix adds that, while the 

 Algonquins took no precautions against surprise, '' the Iroquois 

 alone use more circumspection in war, and there is no dou1)t that 

 it is one of the principal causes of the superiority which they have 

 acquired over the enemies who have never yielded to them in 

 valor, and might easily have crushed them by numbers." That 

 this war was recent when Champlain came is evident. Though 

 this had caused them to abandon the islands of Lake Champlain, 

 the Indians with the great explorer in 1609 told him that the Ver- 

 mont shore belonged to the Iroquois, and that there were beau- 

 tiful valleys and fertile cornfields there. Even in 1636 a mission- 

 ary on the St Lawrence said : '' The savages have shown me some 

 places where the Iroquois formerly cultivated the land." He 

 advised them to use these, so that they could not have greatly 

 changed. 



There is a reference to the beginning of this war in Champlain's 

 account of the proposed peace between the Iroquois and Algon- 

 quins in 1622. The Indians said '' they were tired and weary of 

 wars which they had had for more than fifty years ; and that 

 their fathers had never wished to enter into treaty, on account of 

 the desire for vengeance which they wished to obtain for the 

 murder of their friends, who had been killed ; but, having con- 

 sidered the good which might result, they resolved, as has been 

 said to make peace." 



This would place the beginning of the Iroquois war about 1570. 

 In the Relation of 1660 there is a sketch of the varying fortunes 

 of the Mohawks since 1600 and before. '' Toward the end of the 

 last century the Agnieronnons had been brought so low by the 

 Algonquins that there appeared almost no more of them upon 

 the earth. In a few years they overcame their foes and reduced 

 them to the same state. Then the Andastes harassed them, and 

 they were in great fear. The Dutch came and gave them guns ; 

 they were again victors and never lost their advantage. All that 

 the French could learn of their military history went not far 

 back in the i6th century." 



