been reared mainly by his labors. But the Five Nations, while
yielding abundant honor to the memory of Dekanawidah, have never regarded
him with the same affectionate reverence which has always clung to the
name of Hiawatha. His tender and lofty wisdom, his wide-reaching
benevolence, and his fervent appeals to their better sentiments, enforced
by the eloquence of which he was master, touched chords in the popular
heart which have continued to respond until this day. Fragments of the
speeches in which he addressed the council and the people of the league
are still remembered and repeated. The fact that the league only carried
out a part of the grand design which he had in view is constantly
affirmed. Yet the failure was not due to lack of effort. In pursuance
of his original purpose, when the league was firmly established, envoys
were sent to other tribes to urge them to join it or at least to become
allies. One of these embassies penetrated to the distant Cherokees, the
hereditary enemies of the Iroquois nations. For some reason with which
we are not acquainted--perhaps the natural suspicion or vindictive pride
of that powerful community--this mission was a failure. Another,
despatched to the western Algonquins, had better success. A strict
alliance was formed with the far-spread Ojibway tribes, and was
maintained inviolate for at least two hundred years, until at length the
influence of the French, with the sympathy of the Ojibways for the
conquered Hurons, undid to some extent, though not entirely, this portion
of Hiawatha's work.

His conceptions were beyond his time, and beyond ours; but their effect,
within a limited sphere, was very great. For more than three centuries
the bond which he devised held together the Iroquois nations in perfect
amity. It proved, moreover, as he intended, elastic. The territory of
the Iroquois, constantly extending as their united strength made itself
felt, became the "Great Asylum" of the Indian tribes. Of the conquered
Eries and Hurons, many hundreds were received and adopted among their
conquerors. The Tuscaroras, expelled by the English from North Carolina,
took refuge with the Iroquois, and became the sixth nation of the League.
From still further south, the Tuteloes and Saponies, of Dakota stock,
after many wars with the Iroquois, fled to them from their other enemies,
and found a cordial welcome. A chief still sits in the council as a
representative of the Tuteloe