tensivoly itsed, both fbr the 1 anguage and thé
this people.; and is preferable, on enlarged
considerations, to any other- The term
Five Nations, used by Golden, and in popular
rise during the earlier periodof the colony, ceased
to be appropriate after the Tuscarora revolt in
North Carolina, and the reunion of this tribe
with the parent stock, subsequent to 1712. From
that period they were called the Six Nations,*
and continued to acquire increased reputation
,as a confederacy, uödèr this name, until the termination
of the American Revolution in 1783,
and the flight of the Mohawks and Cayugas' to
Canada, when this partial separation and breaking
up of the confederacy^ rendered it no longer
applicable^
The term Neiv York Indians, applied to them
ip modern days, by the eminence in their position,
is liable to be confounded by the common
reader, with the names of several tribes of the
generic Algonquin family, who formerly occupied
the southern part of the state, down to they Atlantic.
Some of these tribes KVed in the w'ëst*
and öwhed and occupied lands, among the Iroquois,
until within a few years. And, at any
rate, it is too vague and imprecise a term to be
employed in philology or history.
By the people themselves, however, neither
the first nor the last of the foregoing terms appear
ever to have been adopted, nor are they
* In 17123'they adopted thé Neeariages, as a seventh nation,
as will be noticed under the appropriate head.
now used, They have no word to signify New
York, in avenge more specific, than as the territory;
possessed, by themselves—a claim which
they :^ere certainly, justified in making, at the
era, of the discovery, <#vhen they are admitted,
on a ll,hands, tq have carried their conquests to
the sea, ->f
The term Ongwe Honme, or a people surpassing
tall.others, which Colde'n was, in/qrmed they applied
proudly to themselves, may be strictly true*
if limited, as they did, to, mean a people surpassing
all other red men. This they believed,, and
this was the. sense in which ;they boastfully ap-
plied it./; But it was, a: term older than.the discovery,,
and had no reference to European races.
The word honme, as will^appear by thq vocabulary
hereto appended,« means man. By the
prefixed term ongw&, it is qualified according to
various interpretations, to mean real, as contradistinguished
from sham men, or cowards; . it
may also mean strong, wise or expert men, and,
by ellipsis, men excelling others in manliness.
But it was in no other «sense distinctive of them.
It was the common term for the red race of this
continent, jj which they would appear, : by jthe
phrase, to acknowledge as a unity, and is, the
word as I fouhd it, used at this day, as the equivalent
for our term Indian.
Each tribe had, at some period of their progress,
a distinctive appellation, as Onondaga,
Oneida, &c., of which some traditionary matter
will be stated, further on. When they came to