So fully did experience demonstrate the wisdom of this arrangement, that
they used every means to strengthen the bands of their union, and by the
most solemn engagements of fidelity to each other, they became the Ko-nos-
hi-o-ni, or United people. [Footnote: Schoolcraft's Report.]
How long this confederacy had existed before their discovery by the
whites, is unknown. There is a tradition which places it one age, or the
length of a man's life, before the white people came to this country.
[Footnote: Pyrlaus, a missionary at the ancient site of Dionderoga, or
Fort Hunter, writing between 1742 and 1748, gives this as the best
conjecture he could form, from information derived from the Mohawks. It is
thought however that this time is too short, to account for the degree of
development attained by the Iroquois, in their united capacity, at the
time of their first discovery by the whites.]
The union of these several tribes was the means of securing their pre-
eminence over the other Indians in this country. Their individual traits
are thus very fittingly represented;--"in their firm physical type, and in
their energy of character, and love of independence, no people among the
aboriginal race have ever exceeded, if any has equalled the Iroquois."
[Footnote: Schoolcraft.] They occupied a region surpassed by no other on
the continent, for grandeur and beauty united, and inherited from this or
some other source, a mental constitution of noble structure, which placed
them in the fore-front of their race, and when united, no tribe on this
continent could stand before them.
Pages:
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39