means of knowing the name of the author of this volume, since it has not been attached to its pages. I ought also to mention "The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson," by Col. DeWitt C. Peters, which came into my hands a few days before this volume was given to the publishers. It is a deeply interesting, strictly authentic work, that reflects scarcely less honor upon the name of the famous mountaineer than credit upon his biographer. Several important passages in this work have their origin in the labors of this author. The brief account of the Seminole war, which closes this volume has been compiled and written from Mr. Joshua R. Giddings' valuable book entitled, "The Exiles of Florida," a neat little work of surpassing interest. I wish to claim for myself only the earnest labor of a compiler, and in presenting this book to the public, I do so in the belief that the materials have been so arranged as to constitute the most complete and satisfactory history of the wars with the Indians of the United States and Territories that has yet been written. CHARLES R. TUTTLE. CHICAGO, March, 1874. HISTORY OF THE BORDER WARS. CHAPTER I. MYTHS AND DWELLINGS, VIL THE INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LAKE REGION - GENERAL CHARACTER- BEFORE entering upon an account of the scenes and incidents of the Border Wars of the Northwest, I will give the reader a faint glimpse of the condition of the Indian tribes of the lake region about the date at which our narrative commences 1700. The territory east of the Mississippi was occupied, excepting where the whites had intruded their colonial settlements, by three great families, differing from each other by a radical peculiarity of language. They were called the Iroquois, Algonquin and Mobilian nations. The Mobilians embraced the confederacy of the Creeks and the Choctaws, but as they took no active part in the ensuing narrative, I will avoid any details of their history. But the Iroquois and the Algonquin nations, being conspicuously identified with the last great struggle of the savages against civilization, demand a closer attention. Foremost in eloquence, war and intellect stood the Iroquois. To use their own words, they "were a mighty and warlike . people," and they extended their conquests from Quebec to the Carolinas, on the seaboard, and to the Mississippi on the west. Everywhere in this broad country they established their name and power, and, indeed, throughout the country they were the terror alike of whites and Indians. In the south they had conquered the Delawares, and were, at this time, forcing them to a heavy tribute; in the north, they had completely subjected the Wyandots, and prohibited them the use of arms; in the west they exterminated the Eries, and in the east "a single Mohawk war cry was sufficient to terrify all the Indians in New England." But the Indians were not alone in terror of the Iroquois. All Canada trembled beneath their infuriated onset. More than once Champlain fled with his troops to the forts for refuge, leaving his pursuing conquerers to destroy and plunder the defenseless French settlements. Certainly the history of such a powerful nation should not be slighted, yet to trace it beyond the dark border of the discovery is beyond the power of human penetration. As we glance at them in 1700, we find their central government located within the present limits of the state of New York, where, in the Valley of the Onondaga, the chiefs of the several tribes of this great family held their civil and military councils for many generations. The Iroquois nation consisted of, first five, and, at a later period, six tribes, called the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, the Senecas and the Tuscaroras. These tribes were bound together by a loose confederacy, being, in a small measure, subject to a general congress, but each tribe had its own organization, and independent tribal government. Each tribe had several sachems, who, with the subordinate chiefs and principal men, regulated all its civil and military affairs; but when foreign powers were to be consulted, or important treaties made, all the sachems of the several tribes convened in general assembly at the great council house-the Iroquois capitol in the valley of the Onondaga. Here the Congressmen of the Six Nations were received, the great council fire kindled, treaties made and difficulties settled. Here the simple Iroquois sachem sat and listened to the eloquent speeches of the leading chiefs, who spoke their honest sentiments in accordance with the most ancient usages of their nation. When Jacques Cartier first visited the St. Lawrence he found the savages of the Six Nations occupying the country along the north bank of the river, and, as early as 1535, he discovered a town of the Huron-Iroquois, consisting of about fifty huts, near the present site of the city of Montreal. This village was situated in the midst of large fields of Indian corn, and must, even at this early day, have been a place of considerable importance, or, to use the words of another, "the metropolis of the neighboring country." Mr. Stone, in his able writings on the Indians of the Six Nations, gives the following description of this village: "It was surrounded by palisades or trunks of trees set in a triple row. The outer and inner ranges of palisades inclined tili they met and crossed near the summit, while the upright row between them, aided by transverse braces, gave to the whole an abundant strength. Within were galleries for the defenders, rude ladders to mount them, and magazines of stone to throw down on the heads of the assailants. A single entrance was secured with piles and stakes, and every precaution adopted against sudden attack or seige. The town consisted of about fifty oblong houses, each fifty feet in length by twelve or fifteen in breadth, built of wood and covered with bark. Each house contained small chambers built round an open court in the centre, in which many fires were kindled. The inhabitants were devoted to husbandry and fishing, and the lands in the vicinity were well cultivated." According to the history of Cartier's voyage, the Indians of Hochelaga-now Montreal-were unusually civilized, for barbarians, and greatly in advance of their nation a century afterwards; but in 1600 no trace of this village could be found. According to their own traditions the people of the Six Nations originally came from the north, but they date the period of their migration a long number of centuries back. Cusick, the Tuscarora author-and the only Indian who has written upon the subject-dates the event more than five hun |