HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK IROQUOIS 135 



by produced a pestilence. The story seems to belong to but 

 one of the two great bands of the Senecas. The spot had its 

 common name from being bare of trees when first known to the 

 whites. 



Aside from Cusick's legend all that we know of the Tuscaroras 

 falls within historic times. 



Of the Iroquois nations mentioned, five were already in New 

 York when Champlain and Hudson entered it in 1609. The 

 Mohawks had come by way of Lake Champlain from the north ; 

 the Oneidas from the same direction, apparently leaving the St 

 Lawrence at Oswegatchie river and tarrying in that region for a 

 time ; the Onondagas had gradually migrated from Jefferson 

 county to the Oswego and Seneca rivers, hastening their move- 

 ments and seeking the hills farther south when the great war 

 broke out late in the i6th century; the Cayugas and Senecas 

 had come by way of Niagara river much earlier than this, moving 

 eastward unmolested. Thus are differences of dialects recon- 

 ciled with other facts. 



Something may be said of the family elsewhere as well as here. 

 The Five Nations were known to Champlain as the Iroquois 

 and Entouhonorons, and to the Dutch as Maquas and Senecas ; 

 both indicating the Mohawks by the first name and classing four 

 others under the second. Their territory included Schoharie val- 

 ley on the east, not reaching the Hudson. Westward their villages 

 then almost reached Genesee river, and they probably had towns 

 farther west before the Huron war. West of them was the 

 Neutral nation, occupying both sides of Niagara river and the 

 north side of Lake Erie, permitting the passage of Huron and 

 Iroquois warriors, ])ut forbidding violence in this. North of these 

 were the Hurons or Wyandots, the good Iroquois of Champlain, 

 and sometimes the Ochateguins, from one of their chiefs. They 

 termed the Neutrals Attiwandaronks, Those of a Language a 

 little different, and had the same name in turn. North of these 

 were the Tionontaties, People beyond the Mountains, so called 

 from the hills between them and the Hurons, but better known 

 as the Petun or Tobacco nation, from raising and trading with 



