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Erie, and
Ontario, had been the dwelling-place of the
five confederated tribes of the Hurons.
After their defeat by the Five Nations, a part descended the
St. Lawrence, and their progeny may still be seen near
Quebec; a part were adopted, on equal terms, into the tribes of their conquerors; the Wyandots fled beyond
Lake Superior, and hid themselves in the dreary wastes that divided the Chippewas from their western foes.
In 1671, they retreated before the powerful
Sioux, and made their home first at St. Mary's and at Michilimackinac, and afterwards near the post of
Detroit.
Thus the Wyandots within our borders were emigrants from
Canada.
Having a mysterious influence over the Algonquin tribes, and making treaties with the Five Nations, they spread along
Lake Erie, and, leaving to the Miamis the country beyond the
Miami of the
Lakes, they gradually acquired a claim to the whole territory from that river to the western boundary of New York.
The immediate dominion of the
Iroquois—where the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, were first visited by the trader, the missionary, or the war parties of the
French—stretched, as we have seen, from the borders of
Vermont to Western New York, from the lakes to the head waters of the
Ohio, the
Susquehannah, and the
Delaware.
The number of
their warriors was declared by the
French, in 1660, to
have been two thousand two hundred; and, in 1677, an English agent, sent on purpose to ascertain their strength, confirmed the precision of the statement.
Their geographical position made them umpires in the contest of the
French for dominion in the west.
Besides, their political importance was increased by their conquests.
Not only did they claim some supremacy
