The Andastes shared the same fate, but their resistance postponed their dispersion until 1672, when their ruin was also accomplished. It seems likely that a tribe called by the Iroquois, Satanas, by the French, Chaouanons, and whom we suppose to have been the Shawanese, were, about this period, driven from the valley of the Ohio to the vicinity of the Mexican Gulf. Thus, at the commencement of the eighteenth century, the territory now Ohio was derelict, except as the indomitable confederates of the North made it a trail for further hostilities, or roamed its hunting grounds.

Attached to "Baron La Hontan's Voyages and Adventures in North America between 1683 and 1694," is a map, upon which, near the source and mouth of the Sandusky River, are indices of "savage villages destroyed by ye Iroquese." The latter would be the site of Sandusky, or the vicinity near the outlet of the Bay and River. Parallel with the southern shore of "Errie or Conti Lake," and apparently at an average distance of thirty miles, is a line drawn connecting the Mississippi with Western New York, which, according to the map, "represents ye way that ye Illinese march through a vast tract of ground to make War against ye Iroquese: The same being ye Passage of ye Iroquese in their incursions upon ye other Savages, as far as the river Missisipi." Upon the Maumee River a tribe of "Errieronons are put down, and in the country south of the source of the Sandusky river, "Andastognerons" are mentioned, probably remnants of the Eries and Andastes.5

the Eries, remarks, that "there can be no question, from the early accounts of the French missionaries, that they were at the head of that singular confederation of tribes called the Neutral Nation, which extended from the extreme west to the extreme eastern shores of Lake Erie, including the Niagara."

5) The outline of Lake Erie on La Hontan's map is curious enough. It

This incidental reference to detachments of the Eries and Andastes, which we presume that La Hontan here makes, confirms the belief that they were not exterminated by the war of 1655. Like the conquered Hurons, they were fugitives from their villages on the borders of the lake, but it is quite likely that they became the allies of the formidable Miamis or Twahtwahs, whose residence was on the Miami of the Lakes and the Miami of the Ohio. According to the French missionary authors, cited by Schoolcraft, the Iroquois fell on the Miamis and Chictaghicks or Illinois (enraged, we may suppose, at their friendly reception of the vanquished Indians) who were encamped together on the banks of the Maumee River in the year 1680, being twentyfive years after the final defeat of the Eries. In this attack they killed thirty and took three hundred prisoners. But the Illinois and Miamis rallied, and by a dexterous movement, got ahead of the retreating Iroquois, waylaid their path, and recovered their prisoners, killing many of the enemy.

The future fate of the Eries is involved in obscurity. General Lewis Cass has expressed the opinion that the Kickapoos and Shawanese are remnants of the Eries, and adds that the Canadians, to this day, term the Shawanese the Nation of the Cat or Raccoon, which is well known to be the

is made broader at the eastern extremity than elsewhere, the shore running due south from the mouth of Niagara River to the southeast corner, where is the mouth of a "Conde River"-as if the line from Buffalo to Erie was due south. Thence at right angles, but slightly indented now and then, we have the southern shore, without any streams until the Sandusky and Maumee Rivers are noted with a fair degree of accuracy, except that Sandusky Bay is not put down otherwise than as the mouth of the river. There is a liberal allowance of islands opposite, and the river itself is represented as rising at a distance of 100 miles (according to the scale given) in a circular lake of at least 15 miles in diameter.

origin of the word Erie. On the other hand, some traditions of the Catawbas of the South, render it not improbable that they are the survivors of the vanquished Eries.

6) For further details of these traditionary tribes, see Appendix No. I.

CHAPTER II.

THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF IROQUOIS CONQUEST IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.

THE extent of Iroquois conquest in the seventeenth century was the subject of much controversy between the French and English, while Canada was under the dominion of the former. The French title, by discovery of the Lakes and the Mississippi, was sought to be overcome by a grant of sovereignty from the Five Nations. This sovereignty was claimed to result from a conquest of the entire country east of the Mississippi. Colden in 1727, and Clinton in 1811, are the prominent champions of the Iroquois pretension—the former advancing it as a matter of vital importance to the English colonies, and the latter reiterating it with the interest of an antiquarian and the pride of a New Yorker. It is interesting to observe how closely recent writers have pursued the authority, almost the text, of Gov. Clinton. The following extract discloses the partisan tenor of his discourse:

"The conquests of the Iroquois, previous to the discovery of America, are only known to us through the imperfect channels of tradition; but it is well authenticated, that since that memorable era, they exterminated the nation of the Eries or Erigas, on the south side of Lake Erie, which has given a name to that Lake. They nearly extirpated the Andastes and the Chouanons; they conquered the Hurons, and drove them and their allies, the Ottawas, among the Sioux, on the head waters of the Mississippi. They also

subdued the Illinois, the Miamis, the Algonkins, the Delawares, the Shawanese, and several tribes of the Abenagins. The Illinois fled to the westward, after being attacked by the Confederates, and did not return until a general peace; and were permitted in 1760, by the Confederates, to settle in the country between the Wabash and the Scioto rivers. The banks of Lake Superior were lined with Algonkins, who sought an asylum from the Five Nations. They also harassed all the Northern Indians, as far as Hudson's Bay, and they even attacked the nations on the Missouri. When La Salle was among the Natchez, in 1683, he saw a party of that people who had been on an expedition against the Iroquois. Smith, the founder of Virginia, in an expedition up the Bay of Chesapeake, in 1608, met a war party of the Confederates then going to attack their enemies. They were at peace with the Cowetas or Creeks, but they warred against the Catawbas, the Cherokees, and almost all the Southern Indians. The two former sent deputies to Albany, where they effected a peace through the mediation. of the English. In a word, the Confederates were, with a few exceptions, the conquerors and masters of all the Indian nations east of the Mississippi.

"In consequence of their sovereignty over the other nations, the Confederates exercised a proprietary right in their lands. In 1742 they granted to the province of Pennsylvania certain lands on the west side of the Susquehannah, having formerly done so on the east side. In 1744 they released to Maryland and Virginia certain lands claimed by them in those colonies; and they declared at this treaty, that they had conquered the several nations living on the Susquehannah and Potomac rivers, and on the back of the Great Mountains in Virginia. In 1754, a number of the