which they perfectly understood, and by which they profited to the
utmost. Patient and politic as they were ferocious, they were not only
conquerors of their own race, but the powerful allies and the dreaded
foes of the French and English colonies, flattered and caressed by both,
yet too sagacious to give themselves without reserve to either. Their
organization and their history evince their intrinsic superiority.
Even their traditionary lore, amid its wild puerilities, shows at times
the stamp of an energy and force in striking contrast with the flimsy
creations of Algonquin fancy. That the Iroquois, left under their
institutions to work out their destiny undisturbed, would ever have
developed a civilization of their own, I do not believe. These
institutions, however, are sufficiently characteristic and curious,
and we shall soon have occasion to observe them.

[ The name Iroquois is French. Charlevoix says: "Il a ete forme du terme
Hiro, ou Hero, qui signifie J'ai dit, et par lequel ces sauvages
finissent tous leur discours, comme les Latins faisoient autrefois par
leur Dixi; et de Koue, qui est un cri tantot de tristesse, lorsqu'on le
prononce en trainant, et tantot de joye, quand on le prononce plus
court."--Hist. de la N. F., I. 271.--Their true name is Hodenosaunee,
or People of the Long House, because their confederacy of five distinct
nations, ranged in a line along Central New York, was likened to one of
the long bark houses already described, with five fires and five
families. The name Agonnonsionni, or Aquanuscioni, ascribed to them by
Lafitau and Charlevoix, who translated it "House-Makers," Faiseurs de
Cabannes, may be a conversion of the true name with an erroneous
rendering. The following are the true names of the five nations
severally, with their French and English synonymes. For other synonymes,
see "History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac," 8, note.