tricts-of Genesee, Niagara and Orleans counties.
From tke accounts? of , the Tuscaroras,, this pëó-
ple were governed in early times By a queën,
who rule#« over twelve forts in that quarter.
North of them, embracing the Niagara ridge and
the country below it, dwelt a branch of the Ah
gonquin nation, who are called by the Same
authority, Twankannas. ï Other names'' occur,
which are believed to he either synonymes- for
thèse.,"^br minor divisions’ of the three principal
tribes named, of which some further notice will
be taken in a subsequent paper on the antiquarian
remains of the country.
That these Trans-Genèsëan people were populous'
and warlike, not only maintaining their
grounds against the Senecas, but often defeating
them and driving them back, is proved not.only
by the traditions of the Senecas themselves; but
by the striking evidences of their military
strength and skill, denoted by thé remains Of
forts and intronehments and eemeteries-yÿét existing
throughout the extensive area included
between the Geneseè.and the, Niagara,Extend*
ing up thé southern shore's of Lake Erie to Chau-
tauque and the'other principal known Indian
routes to the waters of the Allegany and Ohio.
There is, at least, one authority {Cwfoifc) for believ-:
ing that the Eries themselves were remotely descended
from the Senecas, and we have living
tradition to prove that, at the time of their final
defeat and so called extermination, some of
them fled west, whilst the remainder of them,
scattered, cut up and depressed; were incorporated
in the Seneca, canton.
To the Twankannas, the Neuter Nation, and
other tribes and bands, not being Eries, who
lived in this portion qf sthe state, the Iroquois
applied the general term of Adirondaeks,* a
bold, warlike, northern race, who spread over
many degrees of latitude and longitude in former
days, covering by generic* affiliation with other
tribes, all New England and the Atlantic coast, to
North Carolina, and who are still, in their numerous
and subdivided descendants, in the
upper lakes and the wesiy the most numerous of
any of .the aboriginal stocks yet existing east of
the Mississippi and Missouri. ; iSo; long as the
Iroquois .remained- divided, the Eries and their
Algonquin ullies kept their ground; and there is
no "reason to believe that they began ta decline
until a considerable period after «the eramf the
Onondaga league. That was at first but little
more than an agreement to stand by each other,
.and to send delegates; and forward mews to a
Central council; but it put an end to intestine
“wars, and its popular capacities "soon developed
themselves,-and made. it .formidable to their
neighbors. Thus, much by way of prelude to
their wars/jtQ 'Tae noticed hereafter.
, The Senecas were from the earliest times the
most powerful of the Iroquois, nearly doubling,
in its best estate, the Mohawks.' Their population
in -past days has been variously estimated,
M p A lg o n tp in s by the French'.