1883.) 9 [Hale. 
their town brought them into direct contact with the white settlements. 
Their frames, enfeebled by dissipation, were an easy prey to the diseases 
which followed in the track of the new population. In 1832, the Asiatic 
cholera found many victims on the Indian Reserve. The Tuteloes, in pro- 
portion to their numbers, suffered the most. The greater part of the tribe 
perished. Those who eseaped clung to their habitations a few years longer. 
But the second visitation of the dreadful plague in 1848 completed the 
work of the first. The Tutelo nation ceased to exist. The few survivors 
fled from the Heights to which they have left their name, and took refuge 
among their Cayuga friends. By intermarriage with these allies, the small 
remnant was soon absorbed ; and in the year 1870, only one Tutelo of the 
full blood was known to be living, the last survivor of the tribe of stalwart 
hunters and daring warriors whom Lawson encountered in Carolina a hun- 
dred and seventy years before. 
This last surviving Tutelo lived among the Cayugas, and was known to 
them by the name of Nikonha. Okonha in the Cayuga dialect signifies 
mosquito. Wikonha was sometimes, in answer to my inquiries, rendered 
“‘mosquito,’? and sometimes ‘‘little,’”? perhaps in the sense of mosquito- 
like. His Tutelo name was said to be Waskiteng ; its meaning could not 
be ascertained, and it was perhaps merely a corruption of the English word 
mosquito. At all events, it was by the rather odd cognomen of “Old 
Mosquito,’”’ that he was commonly known among the whites; and he was 
even so designated, I believe, in the pension list, in which he had a place 
as having served in the war of 1812. What in common repute was deemed 
to be the most notable fact in regard to him was his great age. He was 
considered by far the oldest man on the Reserve. His age was said to ex- 
ceed a century ; and in confirmation of this opinion it was related that he 
had fought under Brant in the American war of Independence. My friend, 
Chief George Johnson, the government interpreter, accompanied us to the 
residence of the old man, a log cabin, built on a small eminence near the 
centre of the Reserve. His appearance, as we first saw him, basking in the 
sunshine on the slope before his cabin, confirmed the reports which I had 
heard, both of his great age and of his marked intelligence. ‘‘ A wrinkled, 
smiling countenance, a high forehead, half-shut eyes, white hair, a 
scanty, stubbly beard, fingers bent with age like a bird’s claws,’’ is the 
description recorded in my note-book. Not only in physiognomy, but 
also in demeanor and character, he differed strikingly from the grave and 
composed Iroquois among whom he dwelt. The lively, mirthful disposi- 
tion of his race survived in full force in its latest member. THis replies to 
our inquiries were intermingled with many jocose remarks, and much 
good-humored laughter. 
He was married to a Cayuga wife, and for many years had spoken only 
the language of her people. But he had not forgotten his proper speech, 
and readily gave us the Tutelo renderings of nearly a hundred words. At 
that time my only knowledge of the Tuteloes had been derived from the 
few notices comprised in Gallatin’s Synopsis of the Indian Tribes, where 
PROC, AMER, PHILOS. SOC, XxI. 114. B. PRINTED MARCH 26, 1883, 
