given to the members of the Great Council. They were enjoined (in the
figurative language employed throughout the Book) not to allow the
murder to be discussed in a national assembly, where the exasperation of
the young men might lead to mischief, but to reserve it for their own
consideration; and they were required as soon as possible to bury all
animosities that might arise from it. The figure employed is impressive.
They were to uproot a huge pine-tree--the well-known emblem of their
League--disclosing a deep cavity, below which an underground stream
would be swiftly flowing. Into this current they were to cast the cause
of trouble, and then, replacing the tree, hide the mischief forever from
their people.

How strictly in spirit these injunctions were followed, and with what
good effect, their whole history shows. A notable instance of the
readiness and ingenuity of their statesmen in finding the means of
public reconciliation in such cases is given in the Jesuit narrative. On
the 24th of July, 1657, a great council was held at Onondaga to consider
three matters, all of special import. First in order was the necessity
of appeasing a threatened quarrel between two of the leading nations,
the Senecas and the Caniengas, caused by a misadventure in which a
Seneca "captain" had been killed by some warriors of the eastern
nation. Next in importance was the reception of a large party of
Frenchmen, headed by Father Francis le Mercier, the Superior of the
Jesuit missionaries in Canada, who had come to form a settlement among
the Iroquois. And, finally, they had to prepare the plan and the means
for an expedition against some hostile tribes. Before the meeting of
the Council the Frenchmen had paid a formal visit to the Seneca
delegates, whom they found "filling the air with songs of mourning" for
their slaughtered chief, and had manifested their sympathy by a present,
"to alleviate the grief" of the mourners. This incident seems to have