Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/109

 SECT. II.] ALGONKIN-LENAPE AND IROQUOIS NATIONS. 73 generally known by the name of " the Neutral Nation." Their policy did not preserve them from destruction, which soon fol- lowed that of their kindred tribe. The only further notice we have of them is, that, in the year 1669, Father Fremin, whilst on an unsuccessful mission amongst the Five Nations, came to a village named Gandougarac, inhabited by a remnant of that nation and by some Hurons, who were living there under the control of the Senecas. The Eries, Erigas, or Cat Nation, were seated on the south- ern shores of the lake which still bears their name. The French never had any mission amongst them. We only know that they were an Iroquois tribe, and that they were destroyed, in 1655, by the Five Nations. Charlevoix gives the date, and Evans mentions the fact. The Andastes or Guandastoo-ues were a more formidable o nation ; and the war of the Five Nations against them appears to have lasted more than twenty years. Although the French Missionaries never penetrated amongst them, those who resided amongst the Five Nations repeatedly allude to the alternate successes of the war. They saw and conversed with many of the prisoners, who were always put to death, and ascertained that their language was an Iroquois dialect. As fir as can be collected from their notices, the Andastes were seated on the Alleghany River, extending thence westwardly along the Ohio. Father Lallemand, in the Relation of the year 1663, states that, in the month of April, eight hundred warriors of the Five Nations had proceeded from the western extremity of Lake Ontario to a fine river, nearly equal (semblaMe) to the St. Lawrence, the navigation of which is free of falls, and which they descended one hundred leagues to the Andastogue vil- lage. He must have meant the principal village, and it could not have been far from the site of Pittsburgh. The village was well fortified and the aggressors were repulsed. But, though assisted by the Shawnoes and the Miamis, the Andas- tes were finally destroyed in the year 167-2.* It seems probable that they were a kindred tribe of the Wyandots, and that which left the name of Guyandot to one of the southern tributaries of the Ohio. VOL. II. 10
 * 1) Charlevoix.