299 
obtain from the French fur traders on the lower St. Lawrence. This 
^ave the Iroquois a sif 2 ;nal advanta^’e which they j 2 ;rasped witliout 
delay. In lt)4S, wlien the JIurons had been already weakened by 
smallpo.x and other diseases introduced by Europeans, the League 
of the Five Nations launched a determined attack on their settle- 
ments and destroyed three or four villages. Then, instead of return- 
ing to their homes as usual, they secretly passed the winter in 
southeastern Ontario, and renewed their attacks in the following 
spring before the snow had left the ground. Many of the Hurons 
were killed or cari'ied away into cajitivity. The remainder fled in 
all directions, to the Tobacco nation, the Neutrals, the Eries, and 
even to the French settlements on the lower St. Lawrence. Against 
each of these people in turn the victorious Iroquois turnetl their 
arms. First they drove out the Tobacco nation, together with the 
llurons who had found shelter among them. Then they destroyed 
the Neutrals, although the latter, in violation of their neutrality, 
were holding large niimbei'S of Iluion refugees as prisoners.^ Finally, 
they attacked and destroyed the Erie nation. Througli these cam- 
paigns the survivors of the llurons became scattered far and wide. 
One portion took refuge with the Potawatonii tribe in the Ignited 
States, and after many vicissitudes, including a temporary stay on 
Manitoulin island, in lake Huron, settled in Oklahoma, where their 
descendants in 1905 numbered 378 individuals. Those who fled to 
the French near Quebec had the choice between further warfare and 
voluntary absorption by the Iroquois. The majority chose the latter 
alternative, and are now indistinguishable from other members of tlie 
Mohawk and Onondaga tribes. A small number clung to their 
alliance with the French, and ultimately obtained a reservation at 
Lorette, a few miles outside the city of Quebec. There they still 
live, their village returning a population of 399 in the census of 1924. 
Few if any of these Lorette Indians, however, are of pure blood, and 
many show not the slightest trace of their part-1 ndian lineage. 
With hardly an exception, too, they have adapted themselves to 
the civilization around them, and settled down to the same life of 
peaceful industry and toil as their neighbours in French Canada. 
1 Tlie reiuiianls of tiiis coiiff'deracyi mxl i< ft’"' ol tlie Hurons, \vi*r(‘ nbsorhed by (ho Sonoca tribo 
of Iroquois. 
