when they were small and feeble. They fell into contention, and wasted and
destroyed each other. Each tribe fortified his own position, and dwelt in
constant fear of being surprised and overcome by his neighboring foe.

At length one of their sachems, distinguished for his wisdom and address,
proposed that they should cease from a strife, which was only destroying
themselves, and unite their energies against the Alleghans, the
Adirondacks, the Eries, and other ancient and warlike tribes, who were
their superiors in their isolated and divided condition. Already weary of
their unprofitable conflicts, the proposal was received with favor, and
Ato-tar-ho, an Onandaga chieftain, unequalled in valor, and the fame of
whose skill and daring was known among all the tribes, became the leading
spirit of this confederacy, and by common consent was placed at its head.
So fully did experience demonstrate the wisdom of this arrangement, that
they used every means to strengthen the bands of their union, and by the
most solemn engagements of fidelity to each other, they became the Ko-nos-
hi-o-ni, or United people. [Footnote: Schoolcraft's Report.]

How long this confederacy had existed before their discovery by the
whites, is unknown. There is a tradition which places it one age, or the
length of a man's life, before the white people came to this country.
[Footnote: Pyrlaus, a missionary at the ancient site of Dionderoga, or
Fort Hunter, writing between 1742 and 1748, gives this as the best
conjecture he could form, from information derived from the Mohawks. It is
thought however that this time is too short, to account for the degree of
development attained by the Iroquois, in their united capacity, at the
time of their first discovery by the whites.]

The union of these several tribes was the means of securing their pre-
eminence over the other Indians in this country. Their individual traits