226 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



and taken over 600 prisoners, mostly women and children. De 

 Tonty was wounded and a Recollect friar killed. The Miamis 

 feared the Iroquois so much that they got the Illinois to seek 

 an accommodation. The Iroquois justified the war against the 

 latter. It began 20 years before, and the vanquished Illinois left 

 the country. Then the Iroquois carried on the war against the 

 Andastes vigorously and subdued them. Meantime the Illinois 

 returned and killed 40 Iroquois as they went to hunt beaver in the 

 abandoned country. War followed, and La Salle unwisely 

 increased the difficulty. The Illinois again fled, and the Iro- 

 quois pursued them to the Mississippi, killing and capturing 

 hundreds. They were busy elsewhere. In 1680 the Massa- 

 chusetts commissioners said the Afohawks had killed or captured 

 60 of their friendly Indians in three years. 



Till 1681 Onondaga had been at various places near Lime- 

 stone creek, but in that year it was removed to a new site west 

 of this, on Butternut creek. Though such removals were fre- 

 quent, Father Lamberville's account of this one is unique. He 

 said: 



On my arrival I found the Iroquois of this village occupied in 

 transporting their corn, their effects and their cabins to a place 

 2 leagues distant from their former residence, where they had 

 dwelt for 19 years. They make this change in order to have there 

 their firewood in convenient proximity, and to secure fields more 

 fertile than those that were abandoned. This is not done without 

 difficulty; for, inasmuch as carts are not used here, and the 

 country is very hilly, the labor of the men and women, who carry 

 their goods on their backs, is consequently harder and of longer 

 duration. To supply the lack of horses the inhabitants of these 

 forests render reciprocal aid to one another, so that a single fam- 

 ily will hire sometimes 80 or 100 persons ; and these are in turn 

 obliged to render the same service to those who may require it 

 from them, or they are freed from the obligation by giving food 

 to those whom they have employed. 



In September 1681 some Kiskakons captured a Seneca, who 

 was killed by Illinois visitors in their village near Michilimacki- 

 nac. This alarmed the Ottawas, who feared utter destruction 

 and appealed to the French. The western Indians came to Mon- 

 treal on this business in 1682, and the Iroquois were invited there. 



