272 THE INDIAN OCCUPANCY 



ized nations. One would think that the labor they engaged in 

 and the traffic they undertook were done to acquire the means 

 wherewith to pay distinguished honor to their dead. The pro- 

 digious quantities of furs, hatchets and wampum, and in fact 

 the wealth of the country, are gathered for years for this great 

 burial ceremony. I have seen many of them go almost naked, 

 even in winter time, while in their tents were valuable furs 

 which they were reserving as presents for their dead". 



For some reason the Neutrals did not trade directly with 

 either the French or the Dutch. Probably the Hurons, Iro- 

 quois and even the Algonkins, acted as middlemen, and being 

 anxious to keep such a lucrative trade they put every obstacle 

 possible in the way of direct intercourse. For instance, Father 

 Dallion wished Yroquet, an Algonkin hunter to show him the 

 marks at the mouth of the Niagara River, so that he could 

 bring French traders to the Neutrals. Yroquet refused to show 

 him. It was in that year that he and twenty of his followers 

 had secured those five hundred beaver skins in the Neutral 

 country and he did not wish competition. The Hurons saved 

 their trade with the Neutrals by spreading reports of the 

 French, calculated to arouse prejudice against them. 



In spite of their efforts however, parties of traders from 

 both Albany and Quebec reached the Neuters. Father Jerome 

 Lalement stated that the French traded in the Neutral country ; 

 (i) and Dutch traders evidently penetrated to their eastern 

 frontiers, for the Fathers were bitter against such parties who 

 visited the Wenrohronons (2). 



The Neuters had a thriving trade of their own. They 

 raised tobacco and sold it to less favored nations; and their 

 trading parties penetrated far to the south for "Vignots" the 

 great conch shells which were among their most precious 

 belongings, (3). 



In 16 1 5 Champlain gave to this nation the name by which 

 it is known, and for a generation after that time the nation had 

 observed the neutrality that had caused him to bestow that 

 name. Because the stirring events of that generation made it 

 impossible to longer preserve that neutrality and the immunity 

 from danger dependent upon it, the nation perished miserably. 



1. Father Lalement, Jes. Rel. Vol, 21, P. 203, Burrows Ed. 



2. Jes. Rel. 1653, Vol. 39, P. 141, Burrows edition. 



3. Father L,alement, Jes. Rel., Vol. 21, P. 201, Burrows edition. 



