Occupying the stretch of country to the south of the
Algonquins was the famous race known as the Iroquoian
Family. We generally read of the Hurons and the Iroquois
as separate tribes. They really belonged, however, to
one family, though during the period of Canadian history
in which they were prominent they had become deadly
enemies. When Cartier discovered the St Lawrence and made
his way to the island of Montreal, Huron Indians inhabited
all that part of the country. When Champlain came, two
generations later, they had vanished from that region,
but they still occupied a part of Ontario around Lake
Simcoe and south and east of Georgian Bay. We always
connect the name Iroquois with that part of the stock
which included the allied Five Nations--the Mohawks,
Onondagas, Senecas, Oneidas, and Cayugas,--and which
occupied the country between the Hudson river and Lake
Ontario. This proved to be the strongest strategical
position in North America. It lies in the gap or break
of the Alleghany ridge, the one place south of the St
Lawrence where an easy and ready access is afforded from
the sea-coast to the interior of the continent. Any one
who casts a glance at the map of the present Eastern
states will realize this, and will see why it is that
New York, at the mouth of the Hudson, has become the
greatest city of North America. Now, the same reason
which has created New York gave to the position of the
Five Nations its great importance in Canadian history.
But in reality the racial stock of the Iroquois extended
much farther than this, both west and south. It took in