192 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



which the latter were defeated with much loss. As a result, the 

 French rejoiced to see 60 Huron canoes in the river, laden with 

 furs, though the Iroquois were troublesome. About this time the 

 French asked Massachusetts to aid them against the Mohawks. 



Early in 1647 ^^^ Onondaga band, on the Huron frontier, was 

 pursued with serious loss. One of the captives threw himself into 

 a great kettle of boiling water to escape the tortures reserved for 

 some. Annenraes, a noted chief, was spared, but toward spring 

 he was again in danger and was aided to escape by the Huron 

 chiefs. On the southern shore of Lake Ontario he found 300 

 Onondagas making canoes, in which to cross to avenge his death. 

 There were already 800 Cayugas and Senecas on the road to aid 

 them. The Onondagas gave up their warlike plans and returned 

 home, sending a peace embassy from their towns to the Hurons. 

 The Senecas continued their march and destroyed a town of the 

 Aondironnons, a Neutral village nearest of all to the Hurons. 

 The Neutrals did not resent this act, for which the Senecas had 

 some excuse. The independent character of each of the Five 

 Nations appears again. The Onondagas treated of peace ; the 

 Mohawks and Senecas kept the field. 



In the spring of 1647 the Hurons sent deputies to the Andastes 

 dwelling on the lower Susquehanna and Delaware, in response 

 to an offer of aid made by them. They were in despair and asked 

 these kinsmen to hear " the voice of their dying father land." 

 They were several weeks on their way, arriving early in June 

 with their pathetic tale : 



The speech that Charles Ondaaiondiont made at his arrival 

 was not long. He told them that he came from the land of the 

 Souls, where war and the terrors of the enemy had laid every- 

 thing waste, where the fields were covered only with blood, 

 where the cabins were filled only with corpses, and that there 

 remained to them no life except what was needed to come to tell 

 their friends that they might have pity on a land that was draw- 

 ing to its end. 



The Onondaga proposals gave the Hurons some hope, but the 

 deputies from that nation found a people divided in opinion. 

 Several councils were held before they agreed to send ambassa- 



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