HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK IROQUOIS 149 



All traditions of the original league say that the Senecas were 

 the last to join, and their own date may be cited from Schoolcraft : 

 '' There is a tradition among portions of the Senecas, that the 

 present confederation took place four years before Hudson sailed 

 up the river bearing his name. This gives A. D. 1605." Then 

 Schoolcraft learned that Ephraim Webster was told by the Onon- 

 dagas that the true date was " about the length of one man's life 

 before the white men appeared." What white men this inland 

 nation meant may be a question. On the date J. V. H. Clark 

 cited the same person : " Webster, the Onondaga interpreter, and 

 good authority, states it at about two generations before the 

 white people came to trade with the Indians." 



In 1875 some Onondaga chiefs told Mr Hale that " it was their 

 belief that the confederacy was formed about six generations 

 before the white people came to these parts." He allowed 25 

 years to a generation or 150 years for all. Deduct these from 

 1609 and there remains Morgan's date of 1459. The same Onon- 

 dagas afterward testified in court that the date was about 1600. 

 It is evident that such statements are not reliable. What does 

 history, what does the Iroquois country itself say? 



In 1535 Jacques Cartier ascended the St Lawrence to Quebec 

 and Montreal, finding Iroquois spoken more or less all the way, 

 and preserving many words and names. At Montreal he visited 

 and described the Iroquois town of Hochelaga. They long 

 remembered that visit and seem to have mentioned it in a council 

 at Albany, June 2, 1691, though they may have referred to 

 Captain Jacobs, who reached Albany in 1623, or perhaps con- 

 fused both with Hudson''s coming. 



We have been informed by our Forefathers that in former 

 times a Ship arrived here in this Country which was matter of 

 great admiration to us, especially our desire was to know what 

 was within her Belly. In that Ship were Christians, amongst 

 the rest one Jaques with whom we made a Covenant of friend- 

 ship, which covenant hath since been tied together with a chaine 

 and always ever since kept inviolable by the Brethren and us. 



A probable reference to Cartier's visit by the TMohawks is found 

 on the map of 1616, and is thus translated : " But as far as one can 



