the found. This nation had a clofe alliance with the Shawa- nefe, who lived on the Sufquehanna and to the weftward of that river, as far as the AUeghaney mountains, and carried on a long war with another powerful nati>on or confederacy of Indians, which lived to the north of them between the Kittatinney mountains, or highlands, and the lake Onta- rio, and who call themfelves Mingoes, and are called by the French writers Iroquois, by the Englifh the Five Nations, and by the Indians to the fouthward, with whom they were at war, Maflawomacs. This war was carrying on in its greateft fury, when captain Smith firft arrived in Virginia. The Mingo warriors had penetrated down the Sufquehannah to the mouth of it. In one of his excurfions up the bay, at the mouth of Sufquehannah, in 1608, captain Smith met with fix or feven of their canoes full of warriors, who were coming to attack their enemies in the rear. In an excurfion which he had made a few weeks be- fore, up the Rappahannock, and in which he had a fkirmifh with a party of the Manahoacs, and taken a brother of one of their chiefs prifoner, he firft heard of this nation. For when he allied the prifo- ner, why his nation attacked the EngHfh?
the prifoner faid, becaufe his nation had heard that the Enghfh came from under the world to take their world from them.
Being afked, how many worlds he knew?
he faid, he knew but one, which was under the iky that covered him, and which con- fided of Powhatans, the Manakins, and the Maffawomacs. Being queftioned con- cerning the latter, he faid, they dwelt on a great water to the North, that they had many boats, and fo many men, that they waged with all the reft of the world. The Mingo confederacy then confifted of five tribes; three who are the elder, to wit, the Senecas, who live to the Weft, the Mohawks to the Eaft, and the Onondagas between them; and two who are called the younger tribes, namely, the Cayugas and Oneidas. All thefe tribes fpeak one Ian- guage, and were then united