"WHERE IS LAKE SAKAEGAN?" ALLEGHENY, Pa., October 20, 1885. To the Editor of the MAGAZINE OF WESTERN HIS

TORY:

As no reply has been made to this question in the September number of the MAGazine of Western HISTORY, I will refer "L." to the Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Vol. IX, pp. 130-4, where it is shown that Lake Sakaegan is "the rightful name Lake Pewaukee." I. C.

CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

To the Editor of the MAGAZine of WesteRN HIS

TORY:

A quarterly meeting of the Chicago Historical society was held in its hall on the evening of October 20, 1885, Hon. E. B. Washburne, president, occupying the chair.

Albert D. Hager, librarian, reported the accession of 392 bound volumes and 1,058 unbound books and pamphlets since the meeting in July. These added to former accessions make a total of 11,571 bound books, and 35,121 pamphlets. Of these, 1,108 books have been purchased with the income of the " 'Lucretia Pond Fund."

The librarian made special allusions to the generous donations to the society by the Wisconsin, Minnesota and Massachusetts historical societies, and from the Public Library of Boston, the State Library of Massachusetts, and from several college libraries who had generously furnished catalogues, addresses, etc. He reported that 662 volumes had been bound during the past summer. A large percentage of these are composed of pamphlets and the publications of sister societies, scientific associations, and newspaper files.

Henry H. Hurlbut was then introduced and read an interesting paper on Samuel de Champlain, and on the conclusion presented the society with an oil portrait of the great explorer, which had been painted by his daughter, Miss Harriet P. Hurlbut. Thanks were tendered for the address and the portrait, and a request that a copy of the former be furnished the society for publication.

A. D. HAGER, Secretary.

To the Editor of the MAGAZINE OF WEstern HISTORY:

In the October number of the "Catholic Historical Researches," the editor in a note, on page 67,writing of "S. de la Saussaye," says: "I have not been so fortunate as to find any reference to this officer in my reading." As I have been a little more fortunate, I give the meagre result of my reading in the hope that some reader of the Magazine of Western HISTORY may add to the history of this French officer who was killed when returning to Fort Du Quesue from an expedition to Fort Cumberland, Maryland.

On the thirteenth of October, 1743, the Marquis de Beauharnois, governor of Canada, wrote from Quebec to Count de Maurepas, minister of the marine and colonies: "The suspicions, my lord, which you had conceived in regard to the migration of the Chaouanouns ought, it seems, to disappear in consequence of the conduct they have observed. I annex the address of these Indians and my answers, which I have already had the honor to send you, from which you will perceive, my lord, that they have accepted the propositions I made them to go and settle at the prairie of the Maskontins, and they have set out with that design. I have written to Sieur de Joncaire to let the Senecas know before hand, and to tell them that it is by your orders that the Chaouanouns take up their fire to remove it to the place I have indicated to them. I have adopted this precaution in order that the Iroquois should not take umbrage against the Chaouanouns, who requested me, themselves in council, to do so, in consequence of the apprehension they entertained of the former. I have besides enjoined on Sieur la Saussaye, who went up this summer to where they were collected together, not to neglect anything in regard to this migration, so that it may not be deferred any longer."

On the twenty-seventh of February, 1755, Messrs. de Drucour & Prévost wrote to M. Du Quesne from Louisbourg :

"SIR-It is certain that the English are preparing to make their appearance on the lands bordering on the Ohio, or Beautiful river; we also know that there have been for a long time frequent meetings between the governors and deputies of the

provinces of Boston, New York, Merylan and Pennsylvania, both for the purpose of agreeing on the projected operations on the frontiers, and of urging the court of London on this subject, and perhaps to demand of it the reinforcements and orders generally in regard to the navigation and to the provisions exporting from New England to our colonies. You may have learned, sir, something about them; these preparations on the part of our neighbors are of too much importance to the service and to the measures you have to adopt for us to neglect communicating to you everything that we learn respecting them, which also makes us conclude to dispatch, this day, Sieur de la Saussaye, an officer of this garrison, by sea to the river St. John, whence he will proceed to place in your hands the despatches we have the honor to write you, whereunto we annex the extracts of an enigmatical letter that Mr. Prévost has received from New York three days ago, written by a man of your acquaintance, who has spent a part of the winter of seventeen hundred and fifty-three and seventeen hundred and fifty-four in Canada, and as he has since made use of the same style in the advices he has had to communicate to that commissary, we have looked together for the meaning this last may contain, which you will find reported in the margin of that extract. In fine, sir, there is every appearance, and we believe that your new posts will be vigorously attacked in the spring. The English are desirous of making a diversion and harassing the posts they may be able to reach by the rivers situated on the east of their continent, in order to oblige you to diminish the forces you may have destined for the upper part. We lose not an instant to transmit you what knowledge we possess in this regard, and we believe that Mr. de Drucour could not confide it to any person more capable than Sieur de la Saussaye of making an expeditious journey; it is, moreover, a new occasion of improving the zeal and services of that officer, whom you yourself have already employed, if you are satisfied with them.

Perhaps you are not ignorant, sir, that Governor Shirely is at present at New York, and that he has dispatched thither the regiment bearing his name. We are also informed that the Governor of Halifax has furnished six officers of the troops of his garrison to organize and drill the new militia."

"As for the rest, everything appears quiet in Acadia, but 'tis true that we have had no news from there since the end of November or the beginning of December. Meanwhile, Sieur de la Saussaye will call

on Father Germain and Sieur de Boishébert, in order to render you a faithful account of events, and the situation of our posts in regard to our neighbors,"

July, 12, 1757, M. de Vaudreuil wrote from Montreal to Peireune de Moras, minister of the marine and colonies. "The English have not had any other advantages over us up to the fifteenth of June, when we lost Messrs. de la Saussaye, St. Ours and Belletre, the first an ensign of the foot in the troops of the Isle Royale, and the two others second ensigns in those of this colony. These three officers were returning with three Canadians from Fort Cumberland, where they had no opportunity to strike, and were killed with three Canadians a little on this side of the height of land, by twenty Englishmen or Indians, who were lying in ambush there, and who shot them point blank."

On page 70, in a note, the editor referring to the French claim to the Ohio valley, says: "Their title to this territory was based on the alleged discovery of La Salle, in 1669-1670, and as forming part of the basin drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries." If there is any evidence that the French ever based their claim on the alleged discovery by La Salle, in 1669-1670, I would like to see it. There is no doubt that the French did base their claim on La Salle's discovery in 1682. M. de Congueuil, governor of Canada, in a letter to M. de Rouillé, minister of foreign affairs, dated April 21, 1752, says: "It is notorious that M. de la Salle took possession of the Beautiful river in the king's name at the time of the discovery of the Mississippy."

On page 71, in a note on the name "Sonontouans," the editor says: "Whether the orthography is incorrect, or the tribe is so insignificant as not to find a place in history, I know not; but I have never before met the name." This is a very singular statement coming from the editor of a Catholic historical magazine, as the name is frequently mentioned in the works of the early Catholic missionaries. It was the French name of one of the Five Nations, the Nundawaono, by the English called Senecas; they certainly were not an insignificant tribe, and assuredly they have a place in history. The name is spelled in various ways: Hennepin the recollect, wrote it Tsonontonans. Le Clercq another recollect, wrote it Sonnontoüans, Sonnontrüans, Thesonnontonans, Tshonnotouans and Tsonnontouans. Parkman has it Tsonontouans. Others wrote Sonontouns, Isonontonanes and Tonontouans. ISAAC CRAIG. Allegheny, Pa., Oct. 9, 1885.

VOL. III.

No. 2.

Go, tourist, where the Genesee

Takes rise among the southern hills;

And, swollen by a thousand rills,

Flows on, at last unclogged and free.

Go, tourist, where the Genesee

In falling shakes the solid land
Cam, Avon, Tevoit, and Dee,

Roll not through scenes more truly grand. -Bard of Avon, N. Y. MORE than two hundred years ago the Senecas, as the western and most powerful tribe of the Iroquois confederacy, kept the gate that led to the Mississippi while the Mohawks kept the eastern gate that led to the St. Lawrence and the Atlantic. Springing forth from the ground at the head of Canandaigua and, like Minerva, full-armed, the Senecas, "the great hill people," became the leaders in every desperate venture. From their "long house" at Caneadea started forth the bands that attacked the Wyoming valley and made their name a terror from Quebec to Manhattan and to the banks of the Mississippi.

They laughed at Champlain; and when Denonville thought he had annihilated them they continued to hunt all about his army as usual; bestowed the name of "The Hater" upon the governor of New France, and refused all the later blandishments of Vaudreuil, Beauharnois and the French interpreters who came to their country. They treated with contempt the efforts made at Whitehall, and elsewhere, to carve their territory into slices; drove out Governor Dongan, and only consented to place their territory under the care of the English when they saw that the Algonquins had joined the French and that the latter were trying to limit the Anglo-Saxons to the Atlantic slope. The friendship of the Iroquois thus gave the continent to the English.

The more interesting portion of the Senecas' lands was afterward known to the white settlers as "the Genesee country," a tract lying across the state of