HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK HWOUOIS 133 



and, on their release by Tarenyawagon, went down the Mohawk 

 and Hudson to the sea. Six families returned, five settling suc- 

 cessively as Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and 

 Senecas, varying their language and becoming distinct nations. 

 The sixth passed Lake Erie, part crossing the Mississippi and 

 part remaining behind. The latter turned eastward, entered 

 North Carolina and became the Tuscaroras. In later days a 

 league was formed. Though some have accepted this order of 

 settlement, an examination of sites discredits this westward 

 march, the Mohawks entering New York last of all. 



Nicholas Perrot, the French interpreter, an early and good 

 authority, said : '' The country of the Iroquois was formerly 

 Montreal and Three Rivers. . .Their removal was in con- 

 sequence of a quarrel unexpectedly occurring between them and 

 the Algonquins. . .This explains why these also claim the 

 island of Montreal as the land of their ancestors." 



This alludes to a well known tale, and Champlain said, still 

 earlier, that the Iroquois left there " more than 60 acres of de- 

 serted land which are like prairies." The Iroquois whom he knew 

 were Mohawks, though he encountered the Oneidas. 



Lafitau quoted an early tradition, mentioned by him alone: 

 ** The Mohawk Iroquois, it is said, assert that they wandered a 

 long time under the conduct of a woman named Gaihonariosk ; 

 this woman led them about through all the north of America, 

 -and made them pass to a place where the town of Quebec is now 

 situated. . . This is what the Agniers tell of their origin." 



In M. Pouchot's Meinoirs, he speaks of Sandy creek in Jeffer- 

 son county, N. Y. : 



The River Au Sables, in Indian Etcataragarenre, is remarkable 

 in this, that at the head of the south branch, called Tecanonoua- 

 ronesi, is the place where the traditions of the Iroquois fix the 

 spot where they issued from the ground, or rather, according to 

 their ideas, where they were born. 



Indian forts are frequent there, and it seems an early home of 

 the Onondagas. On their migration farther south that people 

 had a similar tale of their first fort at Oswego Falls. There they 



