entury longer, they would have
presented a compact representative empire in North America, far more
stable, energetic and sound, if not so brilliant as that of Mexico. They
were a people of physically better nerve and mould. Of ample stature and
great personal activity and courage, they were capable of offering a
more efficient resistance to their invaders. The climate itself was more
favorable to energetic action; and it can scarcely be deemed fanciful to
assert, that had Hernando Cortez, in 1519, entered the Mohawk Valley,
instead of that of Mexico, with the force he actually had, his ranks
would have gone down under the skillfulness of the Iroquois' ambuscades,
and himself perished ingloriously at the stake.

The number of warriors they could bring into the field, was large,
although it has probably been over-rated. Let it not be overlooked, in
estimating the ancient vigor and military power of this race, that in
1677, one year after the _final_ transfer of political power, in
New-York, from the Stadtholder of Holland to the British crown, the
Iroquois wielded more than 2000 hatches. [Clint's Dis. N. Y. Col. Vol.
2, p. 80.] Sixteen hundred of these warriors, are estimated to have
ranged themselves on the side of Great Britain, in the memorable contest
of the Revolution.

Misled in this contest, they certainly were--doubting long which of two
branches of the same white race, they should side with, but overpowered
by external pomp, by specious promises, and by false appearances, they
committed a fatal mistake. They fought, in fact, against the very
principles of republican confederation, which they had so long upheld in
their own body, and which, I may add, had so long upheld them. They
perilled all upon the issue; and the issue went against them. Their
great and eloquent leader Thayendanegea, better known as Joseph Brant,
had been educated in British schools, he could speak two tongues, and
his counsels prevailed. He was not in the old line of the
chieftainship, but had placed himself at the head of the confederacy by
his brilliant talents, and by favorable circumstances. That line fell
with the great Mohawk sachem Hendrick, at the battle of lake George, in
1755, and with the wise civilian Little Abraham, who in right of his
mother, succeeded him, and died at his Castle at Dionderoga. Brant was,
however, a man of great energy of character, of shrewd principles of
policy, and of great personal, as well as moral courag