people whom they expelled. from western ftew
York, and who are,supposed by some to be the
the Ererions, or Erie&? We maf
proceed from small and single facts to deeper
inquiries. Etymology may noUalways: be a safe
guide, but in a classpf languages so peculiar as
the Indian, it is a species;of research entitled to
fespèqh r The inquiry as to the fate of the Eries
is equally obscure and interesting.. Enough is
manifest to denote that they were not exterminated,
hy that war. Seneca tradition detailed in
another part of thesepa|fers shews concdu#py|r
that the Kah-kwahs were defeated and driyên
off, making their escape dowp, the Alleghany,
partly by their superior dexterity in deceiving
and eluding their pursuers.
That the Twah^twahs were objects of the
hatred and attacks of 4he Iroquojs, during their
residence oil the Miami of the lakes, and'the
Miami of the Ohio, is Well known. According
to the French missionary authors, they fell on
the Miamies and Ohictaghicks or Illinois, who
were intimate allies, and were encamped together
on the banks of the Maumee river in the
year 1680, being twenty-five years alter the final
defeat of the Eries in western Këw York. In
this attack they killed thirty and took three
hundred prisoners. But the Illinois and Miamies
rallied, and by a dexterous movement, got ahead
of the retreating Iroquois, waylaid their path,
and recovered their prisoners, killing many of
the enemy. (CharlevQix. La Hontan.) As the
Miamies are,- however, ethnologically of the
great iAlgohqum family, this enmity is no proof
ÿfiafiy alliance or connection with the Eries.
The'Iroquois pursued all the members of the
Algonquin stock with unrelenting fury. The
déclaration of Le Moineih*16S3, dénotes clearly,
that the Eries were neither - Algonquins nor
Hurons; That they Yvere of -the géneric type of ',
the Iroquois, seems the most probable conjecture.
The'tradition Tuscaroras, as stated by
Qéiuik, affirm a kindredship. The elder mis-:
sionary fathers *dso speak of the Eries a« a confederacy
of a language èognate with the Iroquois.
Ihey give their v illa s , and-separate locations.
The - only people;""of kindred stock, whom the
Iroquois are • certainly known to have driven
west, are the Quaghtogies* * Are we then to look
to the descendants of these, in the west, for the
defeated Kah-kwahs.?
:-The Miamies rendered themselves-^conspicuous,
after the -close of the American revolution,
and during Gen. Washington’s administration,
for their hostility to the'"United States, At successive
periods, they Mefeated the armies .under
Harmer and St.-Clair, and only yielded-to the
superior caution, intrepidity and perseverance of
Gen. Wayne. During »the .first treaties made
with them, there appeared, to their chiefs and
leading counsellors, an advantage in their being
recognised by dhe United States, under three
separate divisions, and thjs is the true cause why
we have* ever since treated with portions of the