( m J 



fbuthward, btify themfelves very little In cultivating 

 the ground, but live almoft entirely by fifhing and 

 hunting, and are likewife very little difpoled to a fe- 

 dentary life. A plurality of wives is in ufe ambngft 

 forne of them yet, fo far from encreafing, they dimi- 

 nifh every day. There is not one nation in which- 

 there are reckoned above fix thoufand fouls, and in" 

 fome there are not above two thoufand. 



The Huron language is not fo extenfive as the 

 Algonquin, which is undoubtedly owing to the na- 

 tions who fpeak it, having always been of a lefe 

 wandering difpofition than the Algonquins. I fay, 

 the Huron language, to conform myfelf to the 

 opinion moil commonly received, for fome ftil! 

 maintain, that the Iroquoife is the mother tongue ; 

 be this as it will, all the Indians to the fouthward 

 of the river St. Laurence, from the river Sorel to 

 the extremity of Lake Erie, and even bordering 

 upon Virginia, belong to this language, and who- 

 ever is acquainted with the Huron underftands 

 them all. Its dialects are multiplied extremely, and 

 there are almoft as many asthere are villages. The 

 five cantons which compofe the Iroquois republic^ 

 have each their own, and all that was heretofore in- 

 differently called Huron was not the fame lan- 

 guage. I have not been able to learn to what lan- 

 guage the Cherokees belong, a pretty numerous na- 

 tion, inhabiting thofe vafl: meadows between Lak£ 

 Erie and the Mifliffippi. 



But it ought to be ob'ferved, that as the greateft 

 part of the Indians of Canada have had at all times 

 an intercourfe with one another, fometimes as allies, 

 fometimes as enemies, though the three mother- 

 tongues of which I have fpoken have no fort of 

 affinity or analogy with one another, thefe people, 



have 



