BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES 295 



the Iroquois in 1708 (1). They are alleged to have defeated 

 the Iroquois in 1705 or thereabouts at Fort Frontenac. 



The Missisaugas have a tradition regarding their relations 

 with the Ii-oquois, (2). According to this the Ojibways, from 

 whom they are descended, "conquered" the Iroquois "in 1759", 

 after a war which had lasted a hundred years. The Mohawks 

 who were at that time settled at Cataraqui, escaped and fled to 

 New York, but later received permission from their Ojibway 

 conquerers to return to Canada, and accepted a grant of land 

 between the Shannon and the Napanee Rivers. Here they 

 afterwards settled. 



According to another version of the same tradition, (3) the 

 Ojibways defeated the Nottoways (Iroquois) in several skir- 

 mishes and in a final battle at Burlington Bay, utterly defeated 

 them. This victory resulted in the expulsion of the Iroquois 

 from the Niagara Peninsula and its occupation by the Missisaugas. 



The Iroquois, also, had traditions having to do with the 

 Missisaugas. According to Mr. Cusick's version (4) of these the 

 Twakanhahs (Missisaugas) possessed the bank of the Niagara 

 River a thousand years before Columbus discovered America. 

 Two hundred years later they ceded the country lying between 

 the Kea-nau-hau-sent (Oak Orchard Creek) and the Onyakarra 

 (Niagara River) to the Iroquois. Four hundred years later the 

 "Twakanah began to wage a war against the five nations; the 

 Senecas on the frontier were most engaged in the warfare. " 



In whatever manner they may have acquired the country, 

 they appear frequently in its history until the middle of the last 

 century. Always migratory, they appear and disappear most 

 unexpectedly. In a French census made in 1736 the enumera- 

 tor says: (5) 'The Missisagues are dispersed along this lake 

 (Ontario) some at Kente, others at the river Toronto, and finally 

 at the head of this lake, to the number of 150 in all, and at 

 Machedash. The principal tribe is that of the Crane". In 

 August, 1745, (6) "65 Mississaguez from the head of Lake On- 



1. Doc. Rel. to the Col. Hist, of N. Y., Vol. IX, P. 815. 



2. A. F. Chamberlain, Journal American Folk-Lore, Vol. 1, P. 150. 



3. "Peter Jones and the Ojibway Indians", P. 113, quoted in Coynes 

 Historical Sketches of Elgin County, P. 28. 



4. Cusick, "Sketches of the Ancient History of the Six Nations", P. 23-29. 



5. Doc. Rel. to the Col. Hist, of N. Y., Vol. IX, P. 1054. 



6. Doc. Rel. to the Col. Hist, of N. Y., Vol. X, P. 34. 



