266 THE INDIAN OCCUPANCY 



The name, "Neutral Nation", by which it is best known, is 

 the anglicized form of the French name, "Neutre Nation". 

 This name was applied to it in 1615 by Samuel de Cham plain, 

 because, in the incessant warfare carried on between the 

 Hurons and the Iroquois, this nation, though on the main thor- 

 oughfare between the contending nations, remained strictly 

 neutral; and not only did they observe neutrality themselves, 

 but in their villages they enforced peace between any chance- 

 met warriors of the belligerent nations. It mattered not how 

 well merited was the vengeance or how close were the pursuers, 

 inside the gate of a Neutral town a fugitive was safe. 



The Hurons called the people of this nation Attiwanda- 

 ronks, meaning, "People who speak a language slightly differ- 

 ent from ours", or "Their speech is awry." (t). This was not 

 a tribal name. A man of the Neutral Nation might properly 

 apply it either to the Hurons or to the Eries. Probable variants 

 of this name are the names "Atiraguenrek" and "Atirhangen- 

 rets" sometimes applied to them. The Senecas called them 

 "Je-go-sa-sa", or the Cat Nation, (2), a name applied by the 

 Jesuits to the Eries. 



The Neutral Nation occupied the peninsula lying between 

 Lake Ontario on the north, Lake Erie on the south and Lake 

 Huron on the west. Champlain wrote of them: (3) "There is 

 also at a distance of two days' journey from them (the Hurons) 

 in a southerly direction, another savage nation that produces a 

 large amount of tobacco. This is called the Neutral Nation. 

 They number 4000 warriors and dwell westward of the lake of 

 the Entouhonoronons". 



According to Lalement, the Neutral Nation lay four or five- 

 days or 40 leagues south, possibly in latitude 42°3o'. From 

 the village nearest the Hurons to the "entrance of the river of 

 that nation" (4) was four days south or southeast. Further he 

 says: "There are three or four (villages) beyond (the river) 

 ranging from east to west towards the nation of the Cat or 

 Eriechronons". The last village on the east was Onguiaahra (5). 



Bureau Am. Eth. Handbook of the Am. Indians, P. 585. 



Morgan, Ind. Miscellanies. 



Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Scribner edition. P. 304. 



Jesuit Relation, 1641-2, Vol. 21, Burrows edition. 



Jes. Rel. 1641-2, Vol. 21, P. 209, Burrows edition. 



