ABORIGINAL USE OF WOOD IN NEW YORK 



99 



In 1634, Arent Van Curler (Corlaer) visited the Mohawks and 



Oneidas. In the first Mohawk castle, he said : 



There stood but 36 houses, in rows like streets, so that we could 

 pass nicely. The houses are made and covered with bark of trees, 

 and mostly are flat at the top. Some are 100, 90, or 80 paces long, 

 and 22 and 23 feet high. There were some inside doors of hewn 

 boards, furnished with iron hinges . . . The houses were full 

 of corn that they lay in store, and we saw maize ; yes, in some of the 

 houses more than 300 bushels. Wilson, p.87 



In another castle were "16 houses, 50, 60, 70 or 80 paces long, and 

 one of 16 paces, and one of 5 paces, containing a bear to be fattened." 

 Another had " 32 houses, like the other ones. Some were 100, 90 or 

 80 paces long; in every house we saw four, five, or six fireplaces 

 where cooking went on. Wilson, p.89 



In the fourth castle, called Tenotoge, were "55 houses, some 100 

 and other ones more or less paces long." The hight of these houses, 

 as reported, agrees with the Huron houses of the same year. At 

 Oneida his estimates were higher : " There are 66 houses, but much 

 better, higher, and more finished than all the others we saw. A good 

 many houses had wooden fronts that are painted with all sorts of 

 beasts. There they sleep mostly on elevated boards, more than any 

 other savages." Wilson, p.93 



In the Greenhalgh journal of 1677 large Seneca houses are men- 

 tioned. Tiotohatton contained " about 120 houses, being ye largest 

 of all the houses wee saw, ye ordinary being 50 or 60 foot long with 

 12 or 13 fires in one house." This makes the fires very close. 



It must be confessed that arithmetical results hardly harmonize 

 with these statements in Greenhalgh. He estimates that there were 

 324 houses for 1000 Seneca warriors, an average of a little over three 

 to a house. This would give from 12 to 15 inmates to each. The 

 100 Cayuga houses had 300 warriors; the 164 Onondaga cabins had 

 350 fighting men ; not much over two to a house. The Oneida ratio 

 was still less, or 100 houses for 200 warriors. For the 300 Mohawk 

 braves there were about 96 houses. From these figures it is plain that 

 the numbers in anv large house imply a decrease in others, and that 

 very many lived in cabins intended for a single family. A careful 

 reading of some early journals shows this to have been the case. 

 Field cabins often had but one or two tenants among the Onondagas. 



