lear caasant presque autant de perte qu'a leurs ennemis, elles ont
tellement depeuple leurs Bourgs, qu'on y compte plus d'Estfangers que de
naturels du pays. Onnontaghe a sept nations differentes qut s'y sont
venues establir, et il s'en trouve jusqu'a onze dans Sonnontoiian."
_Relation of_ 1657, p. 34. "Qui feroit la supputation des francs
Iroquois, auroit de la peine d'en trouver plus de douze cents
(i. e. combattans) en toutes les cinq Nations, parce que le plus grand
nombre n'est compose que d'un ramas de divers peuples qu'ils ont
conquestez, commes des Hurons, des Tionnontateronnons, autrement Nation
du Petun; des Attiwendaronk, qu'on appelloit Neutres, quand ils estoient
sur pied; des Riquehronnons, qui sont ceux de la Nation des Chats; des
Ontwaganha, ou Nation du Feu; des Trakwaehronnons, et autres, qui, tout
estrangers qu'ils sont, font sans doute la plus grande et la meilleure
parties des Iroquois." _Ret. de_ 1660, p. 7. Yet, it was this
"conglomeration of divers peoples" that, under the discipline of
Iroquois institutions and the guidance of Iroquois statesmen and
commanders, held high the name of the Kanonsionni, and made the
Confederacy a great power on the continent for more than a century after
this time; who again and again measured arms and intellects with French
generals and diplomatists, and came off at least with equal fortune; who
smote their Abenaki enemies in the far east, punished the Illinois
marauders in the far west, and thrust back the intruding Cherokees into
their southern mountains; who were a wall of defence to the English
colonies, and a strong protection to the many broken bands of Indians
which from every quarter clustered round the shadow of the "great pine
tree" of Onondaga.] No other Indian community, so far as we know, has
ever pursued this policy of incorporation to anything near the same
extent, or carried it out with anything like the same humanity. Even
towards the most determined and the most savage of their foes, the
Kanonsionni, when finally victorious, showed themselves ever magnanimous