368 THE SENECA NATION 



of Lake Erie, stretching probably from Eighteen Mile Creek in 

 Erie County, N. Y., westward through Pennsylvania into Ohio. 

 After their overthrow, it is extremely probable that the Senecas 

 established a few villages along Lake Erie. The early Seneca 

 sites on Cattaraugus Creek may mark this occupancy. South- 

 ward, also, lay the Andastes or Gandastogues, another Iroquoian 

 nation, whose seat was in the Susquehanna valley. Their 

 northern boundary, which would probably have been the southern 

 boundary of the Senecas, is unknown, but the marches between 

 them constituted a battleground upon which flickered a continual 

 war of reprisals. 



All that is possible for us to say is that the main body of 

 Senecas, when at home, lived in the country between the Genesee 

 River and Seneca Lake. This restricted area is now included in 

 the counties of Ontario, Monroe and Livingston. 



THE SENECA TOWNS. 



Before the coming of the Jesuit missionaries to the Senecas 

 the number and location of the Seneca towns were unknown. To 

 be sure, traders from Albany, and perhaps from Montreal also, 

 had visited their villages as early as 1635, or even earlier, but no 

 written record of their visits, or report based upon these visits is 

 now available. It was quite generally known, both by the French 

 and Dutch, and later by the English, that the Seneca Nation lived 

 in "castles" or fortified villages, somewhere west of the Onon- 

 dagas. But no accurate information prior to 1658 has come 

 down to us. 



The first systematic effort to secure first hand information 

 regarding the Seneca villages was made in 1655. In that year 

 two priests, Joseph Chaumonot and Claude d'Ablon, were sent by 

 the Jesuit Superior from Quebec to Tsonnontouan on a reconnoi- 

 tering expedition. (*l) They reported to the Superior, and their 

 report is mentioned in the Jesuit Relation of the next year as 

 having been made, but the Relation of 1655 does not take them 

 farther than Onondaga. 



In the relation of 1656-58, (*2) the writer states that the coun- 

 try of the Sonnontouans "contains two large villages and a num- 

 ber of small ones, besides the Huron village called St. Michel." 



*i Jes. Rel., Burrows ed. ( Vol. 43, p. 99. 

 *2 Jes. Rel., Burrows ed., Vol. 44, p. 21. 



