88 HISTORY tOF THE IROQÜÔIS.
non-industrious race** seated about Green bay,
and expended a part vof their annuities in the
payment. TMs; turned out a wise; measure.
They'soon began to remove, and have at this
time a very flourishing settlement on Duck river;
in that territory. At that location they*'have
established schools, temperance societies and a
church. They hear a good reputation for morals
and industry, and are advancing in civilization
and the arts.
ify an official return of the. date of 1844,-they
numbered 722 persons at that settlement. *Twp
hundred and ten are still seated withifi-the bourn
daries of New York, mostly in „Qnéida county.
They are a mild "people, of a good stature, and
easy manners* and speak a soft dialect of the
Iroquois, abounding in the liquid*/, which; -.together
with a mild enunciation, imparts at *ptea.s-
ing character to thëir.speëch. ^
Onondaga was, from the remotest times, 4-he
s e a t of the Iroquois.government, granting: erc^
dence to the account of their own 'ori-gi^on the
high gïóunds or falls of the Oswego,:, they had
not proceeded far up the course of the widely
gathered waters of this stream, when a portion
of them planted their wigwams, in this fertile
region. Whatever was the cause of their migrating
from their primary council fire, nothing,
was more natural than that, hy pursuing .this
stream upward, they should separate into independent
tribes^ and by further tracing out its far
spread forks, gradually expand themselves, as
they were found by the discoverers and first set-
. tiers* over the •entire area of western New York.
Gn reaching the grand junction of Three River
point} a part went up the, Seneca river, who subsequently
dividing, formed the Senecas and Cay-
ugas. The bands who took the eastern fork, or
Qneida river, pushed forward over the Deowain-
sta or Rome summit, into, the first, large stream,
flowing east, and became .'the Mohawks. The
central or Onondaga fork was chosen by the
portion who, from the hill country they first located
in, took this name; and from them, the
Qneidas, pursuing in fact the track of the Mohawks,
were, an off-shoot. That such was the
general- route, and causes of their* separation,
appears as evident as strong probabilities, in
'coincidence with their own traditions and modern
discovery, can make it. That the whole
of die original number who started from the
south banks of Lake Ontario, did not keep together
till they reached the valley of the Hudson
and the sea, and then .go back to the west—for
so their- general tradition has it—-is also both reasonable
and probable to suppose. * Large bodies
of hunters cannot keep long together. They
must separate to procure food, and would separate
from other causes. The first effect of their
separation and spread into various rich valleys,
abounding -in game, nuts and fish, was a rapid
increase in population. The next, to become
13 *