Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/106

 70 A SYNOPSIS OF THE INDIAN TRIBES. [iNTROD. Quatoghee by the Five Nations ; and one of their tribes, Uionondadies or Tuiiiontatck. They were visited in 1615 bj Champlain, and, in 1624, by Father Sagard. And the Jesuits, who subsequently established missions among them, have given, in the " Relations of New Fiance," some account of their language, and ample information of their means of sub- sistence, manners, and religious creed or superstitions. They had, probably on account of their wars with the Five Nations, concentrated their settlements in thirty-one villages, not extend- ing more altogether than twenty leagues either way, and sit- uated along or in the vicinity of Lake Huron, about one hun- dred miles southwardly of the mouth of French River. They consisted of five confederated tribes, viz. the Ataronch-ronons, four villages ; the Attiqucnongnahai, three villages ; the Attig- naoucntcm, or "Nation de l'Ours," twelve villages ; the Ahren- dah-ronons, the most northeastern tribe and that with which Cham plain resided, three villages; and the Tionontate, or " Nation of the Petun," the most southwesterly, which former- ly had been at war with the other tribes, and had entered the confederation recently, nine villages.* The smallpox carried off about twelve hundred souls in the year 1639. The Missionaries, principally with a view of bap- tizing dying children, visited at that time every village, and, with few exceptions, every cabin ; and embraced the opportunity of making a complete enumeration of the whole nation. They give the general result in round numbers, seven hundred cabins and two thousand families, which they estimate at twelve, but which could not have exceeded ten thousand souls.f They were not only more warlike, but, in every respect, more advanced in civilization than the Northern Algonkins, particularly in agri- culture, to which they appear, probably from their concentrated situation, to have been obliged to attend more extensively than any other northern Indian nation. The Missionaries had at first great hardships to encounter, and found them less tractable than the Algonkins. But, whether owing to the superior talents of Father Brebeuf, and his associates, or to the national character, they made ultimately more progress in converting the Hurons, and have left a more permanent impression of their labors in the remnant of that tribe, than appears to have been done by them, in any other nation without the boundaries of the French settlements.
 * Father Lallemand, 1640. Relations, &c. f Ibid.