EL DORADO OF THE FRENCHMAN.

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the early discoverers of the west, have not descended to us.

The dim mist of years now brooding over the early history of the country, throws an illusory interest over it, fascinating in the extreme. The El Dorado of the Frenchman, whether in the character of the trader or the missionary, he thridded the forest-shaded streams and plunged into the gloom of the wilderness, with a fondness as untiring as unparalleled.

Now in our latter days, when our leviathans ride upon these same waters, where sported the light batteaus of that sprightly people, and our villages rise where gleamed the council fires of the red natives, when they held "talks," with the adventurous foreigners, the change in the scene, is as striking as the change of actors. And when at the present day, the solitary wanderer from 'La Belle France,' may visit these places where his enterprising countrymen acted so prominent a part, in the history of the country, it may not be reckoned strange, that the gloom of the recollection, for the time, should darken the flow of his naturally animated spirits.

CHAPTER 11.

The Massawomees, first known residents in the Ohio region.-Five Nations and Lenni-Lenape beyond the Mississippi.-Their migration and warfare with the Allegawe.-Their settlements east of the Mountains and near the St Lawrence.-War of the Five Nations with the Adirondacks. Their subsequent victories over numerous nations.-Migration of the Delawares and Shawnees to the Ohio.-Joncaire.-His mission to the Ohio.-Disaffection of the English colonies towards the French.

AT the time the Ohio Valley became known to the whites, it was the abode of a large confederacy of savage tribes, called by the eastern Virginia Indians, the Massawomees; a portion of whom, perhaps, were scattered bands of the Five Nations, as that people was likewise known by the same name, and their traditions rather confirm the supposition.

The Massawomee confederacy, however, to a great extent, seems to have been composed of numerous remnants of broken tribes, who had been subdued by the Five Nations, and afterwards taken under their protection, and, in consequence of living under the government of their conquerors, received their general name.*

The earliest accounts we have of this portion of the country, commences with the traditionary history of the Five Nations and the Lenni-Lenape, or Delawares.†

*The Five Nations, in common with these early inhabitants of the Ohio region, were called by the eastern Virginia Indians, the Massewomekes or Massawomees. They were called by the Dutch, Maquos or Makakause, and to the French they were known as Iroquois. "Their appellation at home was the Mingos, and sometimes the Aganuschion or United People."

†Lenni-Lenape, or Original People, was the proper name of this na

EXTERMINATION OF THE ALLEGAWE.

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These warlike, nations it would appear, originally dwelt beyond the Mississippi; who at an ancient period migrated hence; and being numerous, subdued in the course of their march, all the primitive residents of the country on this side.

The most powerful opposition they met with, according to accounts lately extant among the Delawares, was from a people, no less formidable than themselves, called the Allegawe, who inhabited the banks of the Allegheny, and from whom they say this stream derives its name.*

This ancient and once powerful race of people, are represented as being unusually tall and athletic, and possessing other characteristics which distinguished them from all other nations of the country. They are said to have arrived to a comparatively high degree in the use of the arts, and many of the fortifications that still remain in the vicinity of their abode, it is stated by other Indian nations, were erected by them.†

On the approach of the combined forces of the Five Nations and Delawares, a long and bloody contest ensued. The Allegawe, resident from time immemorial on the soil they had ever successfully defended, valiantly repulsed, for a time, the more numerous forces of the invaders. But at length, the united strength of their enemies proved superior; and the patriotic primitives were totally routed, or exterminated.

The triumphant emigrants continuing their march

tion. They were sometimes called by their neighbors Wapanache. They received the name of Delaware from Lord De La Ware, who entered the Delaware Bay in 1610, which he named after himself; the Lenni-Lenape then residing on the banks of this river, were in consequence given the name.

*Heckewelder. +Cumming's Sketches, page 455.

eastward, separated on leaving the region of the west. The Delawares, composed of three tribes, the Turkey, the Turtle, and the Wolf or Munsy, commenced their settlements east of the mountains, occupying the country from the Hudson to the Potomac.

The Five Nations, known as the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Cayugas, the Onondagas, and the Senecas, settled in the country north of the Lenni-Lenape; and when the French arrived on the St. Lawrence, early in the seventeenth century, they found them living where Montreal now stands.

At this time they were at war with the Adirondacks— "a powerful tribe residing three hundred miles above Trois Rivieres." By this valiant tribe the confederacy was at length effectually repulsed, and driven back from the St. Lawrence to the borders of the lakes. After remaining here inactive for a time, their belligerant enthusiasm was again enkindled, and a war was waged against the Satanas or Shawanans,* dwelling on Ontario and Erie. Being more successful against these new antagonists, they completely vanquished and drove them from the country.

"Encouraged by success and strengthened by discipline," they now resolved on a renewal of hostilities against their old enemies and conquerors of the north, who had continued, from time to time, to annoy them by irruptions into their neighborhood.

The result was, the Adirondacks were repulsed in turn, and driven back even as low on the St. Lawrence as the settlements of the French. Assisted and encouraged by the French, who seem to have been somewhat alarmed for their own safety, they rallied again, but the issue was their nigh extermination.

*Supposed to be the same nation, known afterwards as the Shawnees,

VICTORIOUS WARS OF THE FIVE NATIONS.

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With the fall of the Adirondacks commenced the victorious career of these Romans of the New World, called by the French the Iroquois.* Directing their course, again, westward, they exterminated the Erigas or Eries, living on the south side of Lake Erie. The Ottowas and Hurons fled before them; and the numerous Illinois were conquered. The remaining Satanas, or Shawanans, were come up with and nearly destroyed.† The Nipercenians of the St. Lawrence, fled to the Aritibes on Hudson's Bay, and the Delawares and Susquehannas escaped not their fury. "The Mohawk was a name of terror to the farthest tribes of New England; and though but one of that formidable people should appear, for a moment, on the hills of Connecticut or Massachusetts, the villages below would be in an uproar of confusion and fear."

They likewise failed not to carry their conquests far towards the south; and the Cherokees and Catawbas, long afterwards, held them at dislike.

By this decisive victory over all the tribes of the West, as well as over many far to the North and East, the Five Nations laid supreme claim to the country. And on returning from one of the most triumphant campaigns, preserved in Indian tradition, it is probable, many portions of their tribes remained on the Ohio and its tributaries, who with their descendants, and the adop

*"Le nom d'Iroquois est purement François, et a ete forme du terme Hiro, qui signifie, J'ai dit; et par quel ces sauvages finissent tous leurs discours, comme les Latins faisoient autrefois par leur Dixi, et de Koue, qui est un cri, tantot de tristesse' lorsqu'on le prononce et trainant, et tantot de joye, quand on le prononce plus court. Leur nom propre est Agonnonsionni, qui veut dire Faiseurs de Cabannes; parce qu'ils les batissent beaucoup plus solides, que la plupart des autres sauvages." Charlevoix, i.270.

+1653, the date mentioned by Charlevoix.