all who choose tp remain, as vestiges of a once
powerful race, to whose wisdom and bravery we
owe the preservation of the domain. It would he
unjust to expect the industrious and forehanded
Iroquoistoredivide th ^lan d s with the poor, and,
to some extent, thriftless numbers of the cantons;;
while it may at the same time be observed, that
it would be very difficult, if not impossible to M
vide, by legislation, suitable guards against their
deterioration and depopulation in their present
locations, with put destroying wholly the fobric of
their confederation, chieftainships and. laws. -
Whether the Iroquois have advaneed in population
since they have laid aside the character,
of warriors and hunters, and adopted agriculture
as their only means of support, we have unite* v
curate data for determining. That their ancient
population was overrated, and very1 much overrated*
at aft periods of our history* there can be
little question. We may dismiss many of these
rude conjectures of the elder writers, as entitled to
little notice, particularly that of La Houton, who
estimates each canton ax 14,000 souls. Still,
after making every abatement -for this tendency
in the earlier authors to exaggerate their actual
numbers, it could have been no small population
which, at one time, attacked the island of
Montreal with twelve hundred armed warriors,
and atanother (1683.irmarched a thousand men
against the Ottagamies.* ^ ;
Smith puts the whole number of fighting men
Colden’s F itfcVN^ddf.
. in 1756, with a moderation which is remarkable,
compared to others who had touched the subject,
at about'twelve hundred. Giving to each warrior
a hom« population of Jive, which is found to
hold good, in modern days, in the great area of
the west, we should have an aggregate of 6,000,
a result which is, probably, too low. Douglass,
four yeam afterwards, gives us data for raising,
-this estimate to 7„50Q. .-Col. Boquet, still four
years later, -raises this latter estimate by 250. It
must be Evident that,their.perpetual wars had a
t%dency to keep down their numbers, notwithstanding
dheir policy of aiding their natural increase
;by the adoption and incorporation into
the cantons, in full independence, of prisoners
and captives-;
Mr. Jefferson estimates the population of the
Powhatanic confederacy or group of tribes, ; at
one individual to the square mile.* Gov. Clin-
tbui -who ably handled1 the subject m a discourse
in 1811, estimates that, if this rule be applied to
the domain of the Iroquois in . New York, an aggregate
of not less than 30,000 would be produced
but he does not pass his opinon upon
the estimate.
At a conference with the .five. cantons at Al-
hany, in 1677, the number of warriors Was carefully
made out at 2,150, giving, on the preceding
mode of computation, a population 0^10,750, and
tills was the strength of the confederacy reported
by an agent of the governor of Virginia, who
* Notes oil Virginia.' t Coll. N.%. Hist. Soc., vol. 2. -