WAMPUM AND SHELL ARTICLES 433 



after which the belt was unfolded and another message was added. 

 In one case the river Indians presented Gov. Fletcher with half a 

 belt of wampum in 1693. Arratio spoke for the upper Iroquois to 

 Frontenac in 1697. His second belt was divided between two mes- 

 sages. By one half he expelled sorrow from Onnontio's heart; by 

 the other he arrested the hatchets of the young Onondagas. To 

 three strings of wampum, each bearing a message, Count Frontenac 

 joined a belt to the Onondagas in 1697. Each half of this carried 

 a message. '' The belt was folded double. The one halfe was a 

 token of the affection he had for Odatsigtha, and the other halfe 

 was to show the Five Nations the inclination he had to make peace 

 with them." The Onondagas resolved to send two chiefs to 

 Canada " with a belt of wampum folded double." 



Colden gives the only account of the great council held at Onon- 

 daga in January 1690. The principal Iroquois chief held one of 

 the belts sent by Frontenac, by the middle, and gave one message. 

 Then he said, " What I have said relates only to one Half of the 

 Belt, the other Half is to let us know, that he intends to kindle 

 again his Fire at Cadaraqui next Spring." A captive Cayuga chief 

 sent a number of belts at this time, one of which was folded. His 

 address appears without date in the Documents relative to the colonial 

 history of the state of Nezv York. The greater prominence of belts 

 of this kind in Canada was probably due to the scarcity of 

 wampum there, all of this coming from New York. Indeed 

 Frontenac according to his enemies did not approve the use of 

 wampum. In 1679 ^^^^X wrote to France of what he did when 

 the Ottawas brought beavers to trade. " The Indians having 

 included in their presents to the governor some old moose 

 hides and a belt of wampum, which they appreciate highly 

 and which the French do not value as much as they do beaver, he 

 caused his interpreter to tell them, according to their mode of speak- 

 ing, that such did not open his ears, and that he did not hear them 

 except when they spoke with beaver. This the Indians were 

 obliged to do in order to have liberty to trade." The same writer 

 said that a coureur de hois, whom Frontenac favored, took beaver 

 skins to Albany in order to get wampum to trade with the Ottawas. 



