the same inference from the mention made to Cartier by the Hochelagans
of certain enemies from the south whose name and direction had a
likeness to later Iroquois conditions. Charlevoix was persuaded by
persons who he considered had sufficiently studied the subject that
their seats before they left for the country of the Five Nations were
about Montreal. The late Horatio Hale[1] put the more recently current
and widely accepted form of this view as follows: "The clear and
positive traditions of all the surviving tribes, Hurons, Iroquois and
Tuscaroras, point to the Lower St. Lawrence as the earliest known abode
of their stock. Here the first explorer, Cartier, found Indians of this
stock at Hochelaga and Stadacona, now the sites of Montreal and Quebec.
Centuries before his time, according to the native tradition, the
ancestors of the Huron-Iroquois family had dwelt in this locality, or
still further east and nearer to the river's mouth. As the numbers
increased, dissensions arose. The hive swarmed and band after band moved
off to the west and south."

"Their first station on the south side of the lakes was at the mouth of
the Oswego River.[2] Advancing to the southeast, the emigrants struck
the River Hudson" and thence the ocean. "Most of them returned to the
Mohawk River, where the Huron speech was altered to Mohawk. In Iroquois
tradition and in the constitution of their League the Canienga (Mohawk)
nation ranks as 'eldest brother' of the family. A comparison of the
dialects proves this tradition to be well founded. The Canienga language
approaches nearest to the Huron, and is undoubtedly the source from
which all the other Iroquois dialects are derived. Cusick states
positively that the other families, as he styles them, of the Iroquois
household, leaving the Mohawks in their original abode, proceeded
step by step to the westward. The Oneidas halted at their creek, the
Onondagas at their mountain, the Cayugas at their lake and the Senecas