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From the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada

Second Series--1899-1900

Volume V Section Ii

English History, Literature, Archæology, Etc. 

HOCHELAGANS AND MOHAWKS

A Link in Iroquois History

by

W. D. LIGHTHALL, M. A. , F. R. S. L. 

For Sale by J. Hope & Sons, Ottawa; The Copp-Clark Co. , TorontoBernard Quaritch, London, England

1899

II. Hochelagans and Mohawks; A Link in Iroquois History. 

By W. D. LIGHTHALL, M. A. , F. R. S. L. 

(Presented by John Reade and read May 26, 1899. )

The exact origin and first history of the race whose energy so stuntedthe growth of early Canada and made the cause of France in Americaimpossible, have long been wrapped in mystery. In the days of the firstwhite settlements the Iroquois are found leagued as the Five Nations intheir familiar territory from the Mohawk River westward. Whence theycame thither has always been a disputed question. The early Jesuitsagreed that they were an off-shoot of the Huron race whose strongholdswere thickly sown on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, but the Jesuitswere not clear as to their course of migration from that region, itbeing merely remarked that they had once possessed some settlements onthe St. Lawrence below Montreal, with the apparent inference that theyhad arrived at these by way of Lake Champlain. Later writers have drawnthe same inference from the mention made to Cartier by the Hochelagansof certain enemies from the south whose name and direction had alikeness to later Iroquois conditions. Charlevoix was persuaded bypersons who he considered had sufficiently studied the subject thattheir seats before they left for the country of the Five Nations wereabout Montreal. The late Horatio Hale[1] put the more recently currentand widely accepted form of this view as follows: "The clear andpositive traditions of all the surviving tribes, Hurons, Iroquois andTuscaroras, point to the Lower St. Lawrence as the earliest known abodeof their stock. Here the first explorer, Cartier, found Indians of thisstock at Hochelaga and Stadacona, now the sites of Montreal and Quebec. Centuries before his time, according to the native tradition, theancestors of the Huron-Iroquois family had dwelt in this locality, orstill further east and nearer to the river's mouth. As the numbersincreased, dissensions arose. The hive swarmed and band after band movedoff to the west and south. "

"Their first station on the south side of the lakes was at the mouth ofthe Oswego River. [2] Advancing to the southeast, the emigrants struckthe River Hudson" and thence the ocean. "Most of them returned to theMohawk River, where the Huron speech was altered to Mohawk. In Iroquoistradition and in the constitution of their League the Canienga (Mohawk)nation ranks as 'eldest brother' of the family. A comparison of thedialects proves this tradition to be well founded. The Canienga languageapproaches nearest to the Huron, and is undoubtedly the source fromwhich all the other Iroquois dialects are derived. Cusick statespositively that the other families, as he styles them, of the Iroquoishousehold, leaving the Mohawks in their original abode, proceededstep by step to the westward. The Oneidas halted at their creek, theOnondagas at their mountain, the Cayugas at their lake and the Senecasor Sonontowans, the great hill people, at a lofty eminence which risessouth of the Canandaigua Lake. " Hale appeals also to the Wyandottradition recorded by Peter Dooyentate Clark, that the Huron originallylived about Montreal near the "Senecas, " until war broke out and drovethem westward. He sets the formation of the League of the Long House asfar back as the fourteenth century. 

All these authors, it will be seen, together with every historian whohas referred to the League, --treat of the Five Nations as _alwayshaving been one people_. A very different view, based principally onarchæology, has however been recently accepted by at least several ofthe leading authorities on the subject, --the view that the IroquoisLeague was a _compound of two distinct peoples_, the Mohawks, in theeast, including the Oneidas; and the Senecas, in the west, including theOnondagas and Cayugas. Rev. W. M. Beauchamp, of Baldwinsville, the mostthorough living student of the matter, first suggested a late date forthe coming of the Mohawks and formation of the League. He had noticedthat the three Seneca dialects differed very greatly from the twoMohawk, and that while the local relics of the former showed they hadbeen long settled in their country, those of the latter evidenced a veryrecent occupation. He had several battles with Hale on the subject, the latter arguing chiefly from tradition and change of language. "Theprobability, " writes Mr. Beauchamp--privately to the writer--"is that adivision took place at Lake Erie, or perhaps further west; some passedon the north side and became the Neutrals and Hurons; _the vanguardbecoming the Mohawks or Hochelagans, afterwards Mohawks and Oneidas_. Part went far south, as the Tuscaroras and Cherokees, and a morenorthern branch, the Andastes; part followed the south shore and becamethe Eries, Senecas and Cayugas; part went to the east of Lake Ontario, removing and becoming the Onondagas, when the Huron war began. "

It is noticeable that the earliest accounts of the Five Nations speak ofthem as of two kinds--Mohawks and "Sinnekes, " or as termed by the Frenchthe Inferior and Superior Iroquois. For example Antony Van Corlear's_Journal_, edited by Gen. James Grant Wilson, also certain of theNew York documents. The most thorough local student of early Mohawktown-sites, Mr. S. L. Frey, of Palatine Bridge, N. Y. , supports Mr. Beauchamp in his view of the late coming of the Mohawks into the MohawkRiver Valley, where they have always been settled in historic times. According to him, although these people changed their sites every 25 or30 years from failure of the wood supply and other causes, only fourprehistoric sites have been discovered in that district, all the otherscontaining relics of European origin. Mr. Beauchamp believes even thisnumber too large. Both put forward the idea that the Mohawks were theancient race of Hochelaga, whose town on the island of Montreal wasvisited by Jacques Cartier in 1535, and had disappeared completely in1608 when Champlain founded Quebec. "What had become of these people?"writes Mr. Frey, in his pamphlet "The Mohawks. " "An overwhelming forceof wandering Algonquins had destroyed their towns. To what new land hadthey gone? I think we shall find them seated in the impregnablestrongholds among the hills and in the dense forests of the MohawkValley. "

It is my privilege to take up their theory from the Montreal end and inthe light of the local archaeology of this place and of early Frenchhistorical lore, to supply links which seem to throw considerable lighton the problem. 

The description given by Cartier of the picturesque palisaded townof Hochelaga, situated near the foot of Mount Royal, surrounded bycornfields, has frequently been quoted. But other points of Cartier'snarrative, concerning the numbers and relations of the population, havescarcely been studied. Let us examine this phase of it. During his firstvoyage in 1534, in the neighbourhood of Gaspé, he met on the water thefirst people speaking the tongue of this race, a temporary fishingcommunity of over 200 souls, men, women and children, in some 40canoes, under which they slept, having evidently no village there, butbelonging, as afterwards is stated, to Stadacona. He seized and carriedto France two of them, who, when he returned next year, called the placewhere they had been taken _Honguédo_, and said that the north shore, above Anticosti Island, was the commencement of inhabited country whichled to _Canada_ (the Quebec region), Hochelaga, (Montreal) and thecountry of _Saguenay_, far to the west "whence came the red copper" (ofwhich axes have since been found in the débris of Hochelaga, and which, in fact, came from Lake Superior), and that no man they ever heard ofhad ever been to the end of the great river of fresh water above. Herewe have the first indication of the racial situation of the Hochelagans. At the mouth of the Saguenay River--so called because it was one of theroutes to the Sagnenay of the Algonquins, west of the Upper Ottawa--hefound four fishing canoes from Canada. Plenty of fishing was prosecutedfrom this point upwards. In "the Province of Canada, " he proceeds, "there are several peoples in unwalled villages. " At the Isle ofOrleans, just below Quebec, the principal peace chief, or, Agouhanna of"Canada, " Donnaconna, came to them with 12 canoes from the town (ville)of Stadacona, or Stadaconé, which was surrounded by tilled land on theheights. Twenty-five canoes from Stadacona afterwards visited them;and later Donnaconna brought on board "10 or 12 other of the greatestchiefs" with more than 500 persons, men, women and children, somedoubtless from the neighbouring settlements. If the same 200 persons asin the previous year were absent fishing at Gaspé, and others in otherspots, these figures argue a considerable population. 

Below Stadacona, were four "peoples and settlements": _Ajoasté, Starnatam, Tailla_ (on a mountain) and _Satadin_ or _Stadin_. Above_Stadacona_ were _Tekenouday_ (on a mountain) and _Hochelay_ (_Achelacy_or _Hagouchouda_)[3] which was in open country. Further up were_Hochelaga_ and some settlements on the island of Montreal, and variousother places unobserved by Cartier, belonging to the same race; whoaccording to a later statement of the remnant of them, confirmed byarchæology, had several "towns" on the island of Montreal and inhabited"_all the hills to the south and east_. "[4] The hills to be seen fromMount Royal to the south are the northern slopes of the Adirondacks;while to the east are the lone volcanic eminences in the plain, Montarville, Beloeil, Rougemont, Johnson, Yamaska, Shefford, Orford andthe Green Mountains. All these hills deserve search for Huron-Iroquoistown-sites. The general sense of this paragraph includes an implicationalso of settlements towards and on Lake Champlain, that is to say, whentaken in connection with the landscape. (My own dwelling overlooks thislandscape. ) At the same time let me say that perhaps due inquiries mightlocate some of the sites of Ajoaste and the other villages in the Quebecdistrict. In Cartier's third voyage he refers obscurely, in treatingof Montreal, to "the said town of _Tutonaguy_. " This word, with Frenchpronunciation, appears to be the same as that still given by Mohawks tothe Island, --_Tiotiaké_, meaning "deep water beside shallow, " that isto say, "below the Rapid. " In the so-called Cabot map of 1544 the nameHochelaga is replaced by "_Tutonaer_, " apparently from some map ofCartier's. It may be a reproduction of some lost map of his. Lewis H. Morgan gives "Tiotiake" as "Do-de-a-ga. " Another place named by Cartieris _Maisouna_, to which the chief of Hochelay had been gone two dayswhen the explorer made his settlement a visit. On a map of Orteliusof 1556 quoted by Parkman this name appears to be given as Muscova, adistrict placed on the right bank of the Richelieu River and oppositeHochelay, but possibly this is a pure guess, though it is a likely one. It may perhaps be conjectured that Stadacona, Tailla and Tekenouday, being on heights, were the oldest strongholds in their region. 

All the country was covered with forests "except around the peoples, who cut it down to make their settlement and tillage. " At Stadacona hewas shown five scalps of a race called _Toudamans_ from the south, withwhom they were constantly at war, and who had killed about 200 of theirpeople at Massacre Island, Bic, in a cave, while they were on the way toHonguédo to fish. All these names must of course be given the old Frenchpronunciation. 

Proceeding up the river near Hochelaga he found "a great number ofdwellings along the shore" inhabited by fisherfolk, as was the custom ofthe Huron-Iroquois in the summer season. The village called Hochelay wassituated about forty-five miles above Stadacona, at the Richelieu rapid, between which and Hochelaga, a distance of about 135 miles, he mentionsno village. This absence of settlements I attribute to the fact that theintermediate Three Rivers region was an ancient special appurtenance ofthe Algonquins, with whom the Hochelagans were to all appearance then onterms of friendly sufferance and trade, if not alliance. In later daysthe same region was uninhabited, on account of Iroquois incursions bythe River Richelieu and Lake Champlain. In the islands at the head ofLake St. Peter, Cartier met five hunters who directed him to Hochelaga. "More than a thousand" persons, he says, received them with joy atHochelaga. This expression of number however is not very definite. It isfrequently used by Dante to signify a multitude in the _Divina Comédia_. The town of Hochelaga consisted of "about fifty houses, in length aboutfifty paces each at most, and twelve or fifteen paces wide, " made ofbark on sapling frames in the manner of the Iroquois long houses. Theround "fifties" are obviously approximate. The plan of the town given inRamusio shows some forty-five fires, each serving some five families, but the interior division differs so greatly from that of early Huronand Iroquois houses, and from his phrase "fifty by twelve or fifteen, "that it appears to be the result of inaccurate drawing. There istherefore considerable room for difference as to the population of thetown, ranging from say 1, 200 to 2, 000 souls, the verbal descriptionwhich is much the more authoritative, inclining in favour of the latter. Any estimate of the total population of the Hochelagan race on theriver, must be a guess. If, however, those on the island of Montreal beset at 2, 000, and the "more than 500" of Stadacona be considered as afair average for the principal town and 300 (which also was the averageestimated by Père Lalemant for the Neutral nation) as an average for theeight or so villages of the Quebec district, (the absentees, such as the200 at Gaspé from Stadacona being perhaps offset by contingents from theplaces close to Stadacona) we have some 4, 900 accounted for. Those onall the hills to the south and east of Mount Royal would add anywherefrom say 3, 000 to an indefinitely greater number more. Perhaps 5, 000, however, should not be exceeded as the limit for these hills and LakeChamplain. We arrive therefore at a guess of from 7, 900 to 9, 900 as thetotal. As the lower figures seem conservative, compared with the earlyaverage of Huron and Iroquois villages, the guess may perhaps be raiseda little to say from 10, 000 to 11, 000. "This people confines itself totillage and fishing, for they do not leave their country and are notmigratory like those of Canada and Saguenay, although the said Canadiansare subject to them, _with eight or nine other peoples who are onthe said river_. " Nevertheless the site of Hochelaga, unearthed in1860, shows them to have been _traders_ to some extent with the west, evidently through the Ottawa Algonquins. What Cartier did during hisbrief visit to the town itself is well known. The main point for us isthat three men led him to the top of Mount Royal and showed him thecountry. They told him of the Ottawa River and of three great rapids inthe St. Lawrence, after passing which, "one could sail more than threemoons along the said river, " doubtless meaning along the Great Lakes. Silver and brass they identified as coming from that region, and "therewere Agojudas, or wicked people, armed even to the fingers, " of whomthey showed "the make of their armor, which is of cords and wood lacedand woven together; giving to understand that the said Agojudas arecontinually at war with one and other. " This testimony clearly describesthe armour of the early Hurons and Iroquois[5] as found by Champlain, and seems to relate to war between the Hurons and Senecas at that periodand to an aversion to them by the people of the town of Hochelagathemselves; who were, however, living in security from them at the time, apparently cut off from regular communication with them by Algonquinpeoples, particularly those of the Ottawa, who controlled Huroncommunication with the lower St. Lawrence in the same way in Champlain'sdays. 

On returning to Stadacona, Cartier, by talking with Donnaconna, learntwhat showed this land of Saguenay so much talked of by these people, tobe undoubtedly the Huron country. "The straight and good and safest roadto it is by the _Fleuve_ (St. Lawrence), to above Hochelaga and by theriver which descends from the said Saguenay and enters the said Fleuve(as we had seen); and thence it takes a month to reach. " This is simplythe Ottawa route to Lake Huron used by the Jesuits in the next century. What they had seen was the Ottawa River entering the St. Lawrence--fromthe top of Mount Royal, whence it is visible to-day. The name Saguenaymay possibly be _Saginaw_, --the old _Saguenam_, the "very deep bay onthe west shore of Lake Huron, " of Charlevoix, (Book XI. ) though it isnot necessarily Saginaw Bay itself, as such names shift. "And they gaveto understand that in that country the people are clothed with clotheslike us, and _there are many peoples in towns_ and _good persons_ andthat they have a great quantity of gold and of _red copper_. And theytold us that _all the land from the said first river to Hochelagea andSaguenay is an island surrounded by streams and the said great river(St. Lawrence)_; and that after passing Saguenay, said river (Ottawa)enters _two or three great lakes of water, very large; after which afresh water sea is reached_, whereof there is no mention of having seenthe end, _as they have heard from those of the Saguenay; for they toldus they had never been there themselves_. " Yet later, in chapter XIX. , it is stated that old Donnaconna assured them he had been in the landof the Saguenay, where he related several impossible marvels, such aspeople of only one leg. It is to be noted that "the peoples in towns, "who are apparently Huron-Iroquois, are here referred to as "goodpeople, " while the Hochelagans speak of them as "wicked. " This isexplicable enough as a difference of view on distant races with whomthey had no contact. It seems to imply that the "Canada" people were notin such close communication with the town of Hochelaga as to have thesame opinions and perhaps the Canada view of the Hurons as good personswas the original view of the early settlers, while the Hochelagansmay have had unpleasant later experiences or echo those of the OttawaAlgonquins. But furthermore they told him of the Richelieu River whereapparently it took a month to go with their canoes from Sainte Croix(Stadacona) to a country "where there are never ice nor snow; but wherethere are constant wars one against another, and there are oranges, almonds, nuts, plums, and other kinds of fruit in great abundance, andoil is made from trees, very good for the cure of diseases; there theinhabitants are clothed and accoutred in skins like themselves. " Thisland Cartier considered to be Florida, --but the point for our presentpurpose is the frequenting of the Richelieu, Lake Champlain and landsfar south of them by the Hochelagans at that period. At the beginning ofthe seventeenth century Capt. John Smith met the canoes of an Iroquoispeople on the upper part of Chesapeake Bay. 

We may now draw some conclusions. Originally the population of the St. Lawrence valley seems to have been occupied by Algonquins, as thesepeople surrounded it on all sides. A question I would like to seeinvestigated is whether any of these built villages and grew corn here, as did some of the Algonquins of the New England coast and those ofAllumette Island on the Ottawa. This might explain some of the desertedIndian clearings which the early Jesuits noted along the shore of theriver, and of which Champlain, in 1611, used one of about 60 acresat Place Royale, Montreal. Cartier, it is seen, expressly explainssome of them to be Huron-Iroquois clearings cultivated under his ownobservation. The known Algonquins of the immediate region were allnomadic. 

In 1534 we have, from below Stadacona (Quebec) to above Hochelaga(Montreal), and down the Richelieu River to Lake Champlain, the valleyin possession of a Huron-Iroquois race, dominated by Hochelaga, a townof say 2, 000 souls, judging from the Huron average and from Cartier'sdetails. The descendants of the Hochelagans in 1642 pointed out thespots where there were "several towns" on the island. Mr. Beauchampholds, with Parkman, Dawson and other writers, that "those who pointedout spots in 1642 were of an _Algonquin_ tribe, not descendants of theMohawk Hochelagans, but locally their successors. " But I cannot acceptthis Algonquin theory, as their connection with the Hochelagans istoo explicit and I shall give other reasons further on. The savages, it is true, called the island by an Algonquin name; "the island wherethere was a city or village, "[6] the Algonquin phrase for which wasMinitik-Outen-Entagougiban, but these later terms have small bearing. The site of one of the towns on the island is conjectured, from thefinding of relics, to have been at Longue Pointe, nine miles belowHochelaga; a village appears from Cartier's account of his thirdvoyage to have existed about the Lachine Rapids; and another was somemiles below, probably at Point St. Charles or the Little River atVerdun. Fourteen skeletons, buried after the Mohawk fashion, have beendiscovered on the upper slope of Westmount, the southern ridge of MountRoyal, about a mile from Hochelaga and not far from an old Indian well, indicating possibly the proximity of another pre-historic town-siteof the race, and at any rate a burying ground. The identificationand excavations were made by the writer. If, however, the southernenemies, called Toudamans, five of whose scalps were shown Cartier atStadacona were, as one conjecture has it, Tonontouans or Senecas, theIroquois identity theory must be varied, but it is much more likelythe Toudamans were the Etchemins. At any rate it seems clear that theHochelagan race came down the St. Lawrence as a spur (probably anadventurous fishing party) from the great Huron-Iroquois centre aboutLake Huron[7]; for that their advent had been recent appears from thefewness of sites discovered, from the smallness of the population, considering the richness of the country, and especially from the factthat the Huron, and the Seneca, and their own tongues were stillmutually comprehensible, notwithstanding the rapid changes of Indiandialects. Everything considered, their coming might perhaps be placedabout 1450, which could give time for the settlements on Lake Champlain, unearthed by Dr. D. S. Kellogg and others and rendered probable by theirpottery and other evidence as being Huron-Iroquois. [8] Cartier, as wehave seen, described the Hochelagan towns along the river. 

[Illustration: SHALLOW GRAVE IN PREHISTORIC BURYING GROUND AT WESTMOUNTON MOUNT ROYAL SHOWING ATTITUDE OF SEPULTURE. ]

The likeness of the names Tekenouday and Ajoasté to that of the Hurontown Tekenonkiaye, and the Andastean Andoasté, shows how close was therelationship. Nevertheless the Hochelagans were quite cut off fromthe Hurons, whose country as we have found, some of them point to anddescribe to Cartier as inhabited by evil men. As the Stadacona people, more distant, independently refer to them as good, no war could havebeen then proceeding with them. 

In 1540 when Roberval came--and down to 1543--the conditions were stillunchanged. What of the events between this date and the coming ofChamplain in 1605? This period can be filled up to some extent. 

About 1560 the Hurons came down, conquered the Hochelagans and theirsubject peoples and destroyed Hochelaga. I reach this date as follows:In 1646 (Relation of 1646, p. 34) Père Lalemant reports that "under theAlgonquin name" the French included "a diversity of small peoples, "one of which was named the Onontchataronons or "the tribe of Iroquet, ""whose ancestors formerly inhabited the island of Montreal, " and one oftheir old men "aged say eighty years" said "my mother told me that inher youth _the Hurons_ drove us from this island. " (1646, p. 40. ) Thismakes it clear that the inroad was _Huron_. Note that this man of eightyyears does not mention having _himself_ lived on the island; and alsothe addition "_in her youth_. " This fact brings us back to before 1566. But in 1642, another "old man" states that his "grandfathers" had livedthere. Note that he does not say his parents nor himself. These twostatements, I think, reasoning from the average ages of old men, carryus back to about 1550-60. Champlain, in 1622, notes a remark of twoIroquois that the war with the Hurons was then "more than fifty years"old. The Huron inroad could not likely have occurred for several yearsafter 1542, for so serious an incursion would have taken some yearsto grow to such a point out of profound peace. 1550 would thereforeappear a little early. The facts demonstrate incidentally a period ofprosperity and dominance on the part of the Hurons themselves, forinstead of a mere incursion, it exhibits, even if made by invitation ofthe Algonquins, a permanent breaking through of the barriers between theHuron country and the Montreal neighbourhood, and a continuance of theirpower long enough and sufficiently to press forward against the enemyeven into Lake Champlain. It also shows that the Superior Iroquois werenot then strong enough to confine them. Before the League, the latterwere only weak single tribes. When Dutch firearms were added to theadvantage of the league, the Hurons finally fell from their power, whichwas therefore apparently at its height about 1560. 

Charlevoix, _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_, end of Bk. V. , afterdescribing the first mass at Ville Marie, in 1642, says: "The evening ofthe same day M. De Maisonneuve desired to visit the Mountain which gavethe island its name, and two old Indians who accompanied him thither, having led him to the top, told him they were of the tribe who hadformerly inhabited this country. " "We were, " they added, "_verynumerous_ and all the hills (_collines_) which you see to the south andeast, were peopled. The Hurons drove thence our ancestors, of whom apart took refuge among the Abénakis, _others withdrew into the Iroquoiscantons_, a few remained with our conquerors. " They promised Maisonneuveto do all they could to bring back their people, "but apparently couldnot succeed in reassembling the fragments of this dispersed tribe, which doubtless is that of the Iroquois of which I have spoken in my_Journal_. "

A proof that this people of Iroquet were not originally Algonquins isthat by their own testimony they had cultivated the ground, one of themactually took up a handful of the soil and called attention to itsgoodness; and they also directly connected themselves in a positivemanner with the Hochelagans by the dates and circumstances indicatedin their remarks as above interpreted. The use of the term "Algonquin"concerning them is very ambiguous and as they were merged amongAlgonquin tribes they were no doubt accustomed to use that language. Their Huron-Iroquois name, the fact that they were put forward tointerpret to the Iroquois in Champlain's first excursion; and that aportion of them had joined the Iroquois, another portion the Hurons, andthe rest remained a little band by themselves, seem to add convincinglyto the proof that they were not true Algonquins. Their two names"Onontchataronons" and "Iroquet" are Iroquois. The ending "Onons" (Onwe)means "men" and is not properly part of the name. Charlevoix thoughtthem Hurons, from their name. They were a very small band and, whilementioned several times in the Jesuit Relations, had disappeared by theend of the seventeenth century from active history. It was doubtlessimpossible for a remnant so placed to maintain themselves against thegreat Iroquois war parties. 

A minor question to suggest itself is whether there is any connectionbetween the names "Iroquet" and "Iroquois". Were they originally formsof the same word? Or were they two related names of divisions of apeople? Certainly two closely related peoples have these closely similarnames. They were as clearly used as names of distinct tribes however, in the seventeenth century. The derivation of "Iroquois" given byCharlevoix from "hiro"--"I have spoken" does not seem at all likely;but the analogy of the first syllables of the names Er-ié, Hur-ons, Hir-oquois, Ir-oquet and Cherokee may have something in it. 

The Iroquets or Hochelagans attributed their great disaster, --thedestruction of their towns and dispossession of their island, --to theHurons, but Charlevoix[9] records an Algonquin victory over them whichseems to have preceded, and contributed to, that event, though thelateness of Charlevoix renders the story not so reliable in detail asthe personal recollections of the Iroquets above given: His story[10]given "on the authority of those most versed in the old history of thecountry", proceeds as follows: "Some Algonquins were at war with theOnontcharonnons better known under the name of Tribe of Iroquet, andwhose former residence was, it is said, in the Island of Montreal. Thename they bear proclaims, they were of Huron speech; nevertheless itis claimed that it was the Hurons who drove them from their ancientcountry, and who in part destroyed them. However that may be, they wereat the time I speak of, at war with the Algonquins, who, to finishthis war at one stroke, thought of a stratagem, which succeeded". Thisstratagem was an ambush placed on both sides of the River Bécancournear Three Rivers, with some pretended fishermen out in canoes asdecoys. The Iroquets attacked and pursued the fishermen, but in themoment of victory, a hail of arrows issued from the bushes along bothshores. Their canoes being pierced, and the majority wounded, they allperished. "The tribe of Iroquet never recovered from this disaster; andnone to day remain. The quantity of corpses in the water and on thebanks of the river so infected it, that it retains the name of RivièrePuante"; (Stinking River). 

Charlevoix[11] gives, as well supported, the story of the origin of thewar between the Iroquois and Algonquins. "The Iroquois had made withthem a sort of alliance very useful to both. " They gave grain forgame and armed aid, and thus both lived long on good terms. At last adisagreement rose in a joint party of 12 young hunters, on account ofthe Iroquois succeeding while the Algonquins failed in the chase. TheAlgonquins, therefore, maliciously tomahawked the Iroquois in theirsleep. Thence arose the war. 

In 1608, according to Ferland[12] based evidently upon the statement ofChamplain, the remnant of the Hochelagans left in Canada occupied thetriangle above Montreal now bounded by Vandreuil, Kingston and Ottawa. This perhaps indicates it as the upper part of their former territory. Sanson's map places them at about the same part of the Ottawa in themiddle of the seventeenth century and identifies them with La PetiteNation, giving them as "Onontcharonons ou La Petite Nation". Thatremnant accompanied Champlain against the Iroquois, being of courseunder the influence of their masters the Hurons and Algonquins. Doubtless their blood is presently represented among the Huron andAlgonquin mission Indians of Oka, Lorette, Petite Nation, etc. , andperhaps among those of Caughnawaga and to some extent, greater or less, among the Six Nations proper. 

From the foregoing outline of their history, it does not appear asif the Hochelagans were exactly the Mohawks proper. It seems morelikely that by 1560, settlements, at first mere fishing-parties, thenfishing-villages, and later more developed strongholds with agriculture, had already been made on Lake Champlain by independent offshoots of theHochelagan communities, of perhaps some generations standing, and notunlikely by arrangement with the Algonquins of the Lake similar to theunderstanding on the river St. Lawrence, as peace and travel appear tohave existed there. The bonds of confederacy between village and villagewere always shifting and loose among these races until the Great League. To their Lake Champlain cousins the Hochelagans would naturally fly forrefuge in the day of defeat, for there was no other direction suitablefor their retreat. The Hurons and Algonquins carried on the war againstthe fused peoples, down into Lake Champlain. When, after more thanfifty years of the struggle, Champlain goes down to that Lake in 1609, he finds there the clearings from which they have been driven, andmarks their cabins on his map of the southeast shore. This testimonyis confirmed by that of archaeology showing their movement at the sameperiod into the Mohawk Valley. Doubtless their grandchildren among theIroquois, like their grandchildren among the Algonquins, rememberedperfectly well the fact of their Huron and Algonquin wrongs, and ledmany a war party back to scenes known to them through tradition, andwhich it was their ambition to recover. It seems then to be the factthat the Mohawks proper, or some of their villages, while perhaps notexactly Hochelagans, were part of the kindred peoples recently sprungfrom and dominated by them and were driven out at the same time. Thetwo peoples--Mohawks and Iroquets--had no great time before, if not atthe time of Cartier's arrival--been one race living together in the St. Lawrence valley: In the territory just west of the Mohawk valley, theyfound the "Senecas" as the Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas together wereat first called, and soon, through the genius of the Mohawk Hiawatha, they formed with them the famous League, in the face of the commonenemy. By that time the Oneidas had become separated from the Mohawks. These indications place the date of the League very near 1600. Thestudies of Dr. Kellogg of Plattsburgh on the New York side of LakeChamplain and of others on the Vermont shore, who have discoveredseveral Mohawk sites on that side of the lake may be expected to supplya link of much interest on the whole question, from the comparison ofpottery and pipes. On the whole the Hochelagan facts throw much lightboth forward on the history of the Iroquois and backwards on that of theHuron stock. Interpreted as above, they afford a meagre but connectedstory through a period hitherto lost in darkness, and perhaps a ray bywhich further links may still be discovered through continuedarchæological investigation. 

 NOTE. Like the numbers of the Hochelagan race, the question how long they had been in the St. Lawrence valley must be problematical. Sir William Dawson describes the site of Hochelaga as indicating a residence of several generations. Their own statements regarding the Huron country--that they "had never been there", and that they gathered their knowledge of it from the Ottawa Algonquins, permits some deductions. If the Hochelagans--including their old men--had never been westward among their kindred, it is plain that the migration must have taken place more than the period of an old man's life previous--that is to say more than say eighty years. If to this we add that the old men appear not even to have derived such knowledge as they possessed from their parents but from strangers, then the average full life of aged parents should be added, or say sixty years more, making a total of at least one hundred and forty years since the immigration. Something might, it is true, be allowed for a sojourn at intermediate points: and the scantiness of the remarks is also to be remembered. But there remains to account for the considerable population which had grown up in the land from apparently one centre. If the original intruders were four hundred, for example, then in doubling every twenty years, they would number 12, 800 in a century. But this rate is higher than their state of "Middle-Barbarism" is likely to have permitted and a hundred and fifty years would seem to be as fast as they could be expected to attain the population they possessed in Cartier's time. 

FOOTNOTES:

[1] "Iroquois Book of Rites, " p. 10. 

[2] _Ibid. _, p. 13. 

[3] The latter I conjecture not to be the real name of the place butthat the Stadacona people had referred to Hochelay as "Agojuda" orwicked. The chief of Hochelay on one occasion warned Cartier of plots atStadacona, and there appears to have been some antagonism between theplaces. The Hochelay people seem to have been Hochelagans proper notStadacona Hochelagans. Hochelay-aga could mean "people of Hochelay. "

[4] Relation of 1642. 

[5] Similar armour, though highly elaborated, is to be seen in the suitsof Japanese warriors, made of cords and lacquered wood woven together. 

[6] Relation of 1642, p. 36. 

[7] Two of the Huron nations settled in Canada West about 1400; anotherabout 1590; the fourth in 1610. See Relations, --W. M. Beauchamp. 

[8] Dr. Kellogg, whose collection is very large and his studiesvaluable, writes me as follows: "In 1886 Mr. Frey sent me a little boxof Indian pottery from his vicinity (the Mohawk Valley). It containedchiefly edge pieces of jars, whose ornamentation outside near the topwas in _lines_, and nearly every one of these pieces also had the _deepfinger nail indentation_. I spread these out on a board. Many had alsothe small circle ornamentation, made perhaps by the end of a hollowbone. This pottery I have always called Iroquois. At two sites nearPlattsburg this type prevails. But otherwise whenever we have found thistype we have looked on it curiously. It is _not_ the type prevailinghere. The type here has ornamentations consisting of dots and dottedlines, dots in lines, scallop stamps, etc. These dots on a single jarare hundreds and perhaps thousands in number. Even in Vermont theIroquois type is abundant. This confirms what Champlain's Indian friendstold him about the country around the mountains in the east (i. E. InVermont) being occupied by their enemies. .. . The pottery here indicatesa much closer relation with that at Hochelaga than with that at PalatineBridge (Mohawk Valley, N. Y. ). "

[9] Journal, Vol. I. , pp. 162-4. 

[10] Journal Historique d'un Voyage à L'Am. , Lettre VI. 

[11] Journal, end of Letter XII. 

[12] Hist. Du Canada, Vol. I. , p. 92.