estern
expeditions. The shrewd mind of Teganisoris knew that some new thing
must be planned. He announced his decision at his own village, after the
triumphal progress among the tribes had at length been concluded.

"Since they have sent us no presents," said he, with that daring
diplomacy which made him a leader in red statesmanship, "let those who
stayed at home be given some prisoner in pay for those of their people
who have been killed. Moreover, let us offer to the Great Spirit some
sacrifice in propitiation; since surely the Great Spirit is offended."
Such was the conclusion of this head man of the Onondagos, and fateful
enough it was to the prisoners.

The great gorge through which poured the vast waters of the Northern
seas was a spot not always visited by those passing up the Great Lakes
for the Western stations, nor down the Lakes to the settlements of the
St. Lawrence. Yet there was a trail which led around the great cataract,
and the occasional _coureurs de bois_, or the passing friars, or the
adventurous merchants of the lower settlements now and again left that
trail, and came to look upon the tremendous scene of the great falling
of the waters. Here where the tumult ascended up to heaven, and where
the white-blown wreaths of mist might indeed, even in an imagination
better than that of a savage, have been construed into actual forms of
spirits, the Indians had, from time immemorial, made their offerings to
the genius of the cataract--strips of rude cloth, the skin of the beaver
and the otter, baskets woven of sweet grasses, and, after the advent of
the white man, pieces of metal or strings of precious beads. Such valued
things as these were in rude adoration placed upon rocks or uplifted
scaffolds near to the brink of the abyss. This was the spot most
commonly chosen by the medicine man in the pursuit of his incantations.
It was the church, the wild and savage cathedral of the red men.

Following now the command of their chieftain, the Iroquois left their
stationary lodges and moved in a body, pitching a temporary camp at a
spot not far from the Falls. Here, in a great council lodge, the older
men sat in deliberation for a full day and night. The dull drum sounded
continually, the council pipe went round, and the warriors besought the
spirits to give them knowledge. The savage hysteria, little by little,
yet steadily, arose higher and higher, until at length it reached that
point of frenzy where naught