Francis Whiting Halsey

“ An Iroquois Fort In war genius they have been equalled by no race of red men. The forts which they erected around their villages were essentially impregnable. An overwhelming force alone could enter them; artillery alone could destroy them. ”

“ These Indians, the most powerful tribe in Maryland, were among the fiercest enemies of the Iroquois, by whom and by the white men of Virginia they were at last subdued. A greater enemy, however, had been found in the small-pox, which in 1661 and later years reduced the number of the warriors from seven hundred to three hundred, and thenceforth for a hundred years they remained "a weak and dwindling people." ”

“ Other Indians assured him that the Mohawks "made war upon all the world."
Everywhere these New York Indians were conquerors. They gained at last a recognized mastery over territory that now forms States and might make an empire, their influence reaching its height at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Morgan declares that in point of sway they had reared the most powerfull empire that ever existed in America north of the Aztec monarchy. ”

“ Past the confluence of the Unadilla and Susquehanna rivers, messengers of peace or war, warriors going to battle and returning from victories in the south, made their way.
[3] People of the mountain is the translation Dr. Beauchamp gives for Onondaga. This strategic advantage in very notable manner was to serve the Indians in the eighteenth century when menaced by a conflict between Europeans — the English and the French — for possession of their country. No one understood the advantage better than the Indians themselves. ”

“ He often visited the New York Indians on their reservations and was adopted by the Senecas. He wrote other books on aboriginal life in America, the scientific nature of which has been much esteemed. But "The League of the Iroquois" is the best known. It has long been out of print and scarce. Hardly more than one copy a year turns up at auction sales. ”

“ These men lived on the highest land of the continent east of the Mississippi. They were at the head-waters of great rivers, and thus were able to reach nations less powerful than themselves, whom repeatedly they brought into subjection. ”

“ Of the latter total, 4,836 were then living in the United States and 3,843 in New York State alone. He thought their worldly condition at that time such as would promote a considerable increase within a short period. Those Iroquois lands of which this volume mainly treats, had been the property of the Mohawks and Oneidas. [5] The Unadilla River and part of the present town of Unadilla, with perhaps all of it, were Oneida territory. Farther east were Mohawk lands. The Oneidas are known to have sold land as far east as Herkimer and Delhi. ”