BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES 283 



first became known to the Europeans they began to substitute for 

 their primitive and ineffective belongings the more effective, con- 

 venient and beautiful tools, ornaments and weapons introduced 

 by the Dutch traders. Brass kettles gradually supplanted those 

 make of clay, though because of the cheapness of the home-made 

 clay kettles, these seem to have persisted for a long time. Iron 

 axes at once supplanted those of stone, and stone arrow-points 

 were gradually superseded by points of iron which were imported 

 along with guns, powder and bullets. They obtained sheet brass 

 from which they cut their own arrow points and ornaments. 

 Immense quantities of glass and shell beads rapidly came into 

 use. Wampum was eagerly bought. In the half century fol- 

 lowing the coming of Henry Hudson in 1609, the Senecas 

 changed from a Stone Age people, able to provide for their sim- 

 ple needs from the natural resources about them, to an iron age 

 people, dependent for their every need upon the store at Albany. 



In the early occupancy of the Niagara Frontier the Senecas 

 seem to have had no share. They had some scattering villages 

 west of the Genesee River, but these never approached nearer to 

 the Niagara than perhaps fifty miles. 



In 1654, the year after the Senecas had conquered the Neu- 

 trals, they became embroiled with the Eries. This nation was 

 of Iroquoian stock, numerous and sedentary. They lived on the 

 shores of Lake Erie, south of the Wenrohronons and west of the 

 Senecas. Once more the Senecas met their match. Though 

 unacquainted with firearms, the Eries carried on the war into 

 Sonnontouan, burned Seneca villages and defeated a Seneca war 

 party. Again the Senecas called on their colleagues for aid; and 

 once more the organization of the League saved them. The 

 Eries were defeated and as a nation they ceased to exist. 



The Senecas did not occupy the land on both sides of Lake 

 Erie and the Niagara was thus desolated and depopulated for a 

 long time. A few villages sprang up, one at Youngstown (1) as 

 early as 1650, and another, Otinawatawa, at the head of Lake 

 Ontario. It was in this village that LaSalle met Joliet in 1669. 

 After Joncaire had succeeded in establishing a post at Lewiston, 

 a Seneca village grow up there. In 1718 (2) there were ten 



i. L. H. Morgan, League of the Iroquois, P. 97, Vol. 2, Ei. of 1901. 



2. Frank H. Severance, "The Story of Joncaire", P. 29, Doc. Rel. to 

 the Col. Hist, of N. Y. Vol. 9, P. 885. Peter A. Porter, Historical Sketch of 

 Niagara, P. 15. 



