the Iroquois Council. The amplest apology was made, and for every slain
warrior a pack of furs was delivered. The ancient treaty was at the same
time renewed, with every formality. Nothing could more clearly show the
anxiety of the Iroquois rulers to maintain their national faith than
this apology and reparation, so readily made by them, at the time when
their people were at the height of their power and in the full flush of
conquest. [Footnote: The Ojibway historian, Copway, in his
"_Traditional History of the Ojibway Nation_" (p. 84), gives the
particulars of this event, as preserved by the Ojibways themselves. Even
the strong national prejudice of the narrator, which has evidently
colored his statement, leaves the evidence of the magnanimity and
prudence of the Iroquois elders clearly apparent.] These efforts,
however, to preserve the ancient amity proved unavailing. Through whose
fault it was that the final outbreak occurred is a question which the
annalists of the two parties differ. But the events just recounted, and,
indeed, all the circumstances, speak strongly in favor of the Iroquois.
They had shown their anxiety to maintain the peace, and they had nothing
to gain by war. The bleak northern home of the Ojibways offered no
temptation to the most greedy conqueror. To the Ojibways, on the other
hand, the broad expanse of western Canada, now lying deserted, and
stretching before them its wealth of forests full of deer, its lakes and
rivers swarming with fish, its lovely glades and fertile plains, where
the corn harvests of the Hurons and Neutrals had lately glistened, were
an allurement which they could not resist. They assumed at once the
wrongs and the territories of their exiled Huron friends, and plunged
into the long-meditated strife with their ancient allies. The contest
was desperate and destructive. Many sanguinary battles took place, and
great numbers of warriors fell on both sides. On the whole the balance
inclined against the Iroquois. In this war they were a southern people,
contending against a hardier race from the far north. They fought at a