ation. A tradition, which is in
itself highly probable, represents him as devoting himself to the
congenial work of clearing away the obstructions in the streams which
intersect the country then inhabited by the confederated nations, and
which formed the chief means of communication between them. That he
thus, in some measure, anticipated the plans of De Witt Clinton and his
associates, on a smaller scale, but with perhaps a larger statesmanship,
we may be willing enough to believe. A wild legend, recorded by some
writers, but not told of him by the Canadian Iroquois, and apparently
belonging to their ancient mythology, gives him an apotheosis, and makes
him ascend to heaven in a white canoe. It may be proper to dwell for a
moment on the singular complication of mistakes which has converted this
Indian reformer and statesman into a mythological personage.

When by the events of the Revolutionary war the original confederacy was
broken up, the larger portion of the people followed Brant to Canada.
The refugees comprised nearly the whole of the Mohawks, and the greater
part of the Onondagas and Cayugas, with many members of the other
nations. In Canada their first proceeding was to reestablish, as far as
possible, their ancient league, with all its laws and ceremonies. The
Onondagas had brought with them most of their wampum records, and the
Mohawks jealously preserved the memories of the federation, in whose
formation they had borne a leading part. The history of the league
continued to be the topic of their orators whenever a new chief was
installed into office. Thus the remembrance of the facts has been
preserved among them with much clearness and precision, and with very
little admixture of mythological elements. With the fragments of the
tribes which remained on the southern side of the Great Lakes the case
was very different. Except among the Senecas, who, of all the Five
Nations, had had least to do with the formation of the league, the
ancient families which had furnished the members of their senate, and
were the conservators of their history, had mostly fled to Canada or the
West. The result was that among the interminable stories with which the
common people beguile their winter nights, the traditions of Atotarho and
Hiawatha became intermingled with the legends of their mythology. An
accidental similarity, in the Onondaga dialect, between the name of
Hiawatha and that of one of their ancient diviniti