us back to about 1550-60. Champlain, in 1622, notes a remark of two
Iroquois that the war with the Hurons was then "more than fifty years"
old. The Huron inroad could not likely have occurred for several years
after 1542, for so serious an incursion would have taken some years
to grow to such a point out of profound peace. 1550 would therefore
appear a little early. The facts demonstrate incidentally a period of
prosperity and dominance on the part of the Hurons themselves, for
instead of a mere incursion, it exhibits, even if made by invitation of
the Algonquins, a permanent breaking through of the barriers between the
Huron country and the Montreal neighbourhood, and a continuance of their
power long enough and sufficiently to press forward against the enemy
even into Lake Champlain. It also shows that the Superior Iroquois were
not then strong enough to confine them. Before the League, the latter
were only weak single tribes. When Dutch firearms were added to the
advantage of the league, the Hurons finally fell from their power, which
was therefore apparently at its height about 1560.

Charlevoix, _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_, end of Bk. V., after
describing the first mass at Ville Marie, in 1642, says: "The evening of
the same day M. de Maisonneuve desired to visit the Mountain which gave
the island its name, and two old Indians who accompanied him thither,
having led him to the top, told him they were of the tribe who had
formerly inhabited this country." "We were," they added, "_very
numerous_ and all the hills (_collines_) which you see to the south and
east, were peopled. The Hurons drove thence our ancestors, of whom a
part took refuge among the Abénakis, _others withdrew into the Iroquois
cantons_, a few remained with our conquerors." They promised Maisonneuve
to do all they could to bring back their people, "but apparently could
not succeed in reassembling the fragments of this dispersed tribe,
which doubtless is that of the Iroquois of which I have spoken in my