the well-known tribe of the Eries, and also the Indians
of Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac. It included even the
Tuscaroras of the Roanoke in North Carolina, who afterwards
moved north and changed the five nations into six.

The Iroquois were originally natives of the plain,
connected very probably with the Dakotas of the west.
But they moved eastwards from the Mississippi valley
towards Niagara, conquering as they went. No other tribe
could compare with them in either bravery or ferocity.
They possessed in a high degree both the virtues and the
vices of Indian character--the unflinching courage and
the diabolical cruelty which have made the Indian an
object of mingled admiration and contempt. In bodily
strength and physical endurance they were unsurpassed.
Even in modern days the enervating influence of civilization
has not entirely removed the original vigour of the
strain. During the American Civil War of fifty years ago
the five companies of Iroquois Indians recruited in Canada
and in the state of New York were superior in height and
measurement to any other body of five hundred men in the
northern armies.

When the Iroquoian Family migrated, the Hurons settled
in the western peninsula of Ontario. The name of Lake
Huron still recalls their abode. But a part of the race
kept moving eastward. Before the coming of the whites,
they had fought their way almost to the sea. But they
were able to hold their new settlements only by hard
fighting. The great stockade which Cartier saw at Hochelaga,