These _Five Nations_, are, beyond all the other Indian tribes, the most distinguished for their understanding, their valour, and above all, for their glorious spirit of liberty: in which respect even Britons may be proud to call them _their brethren_. Of these, again, the Mohawks are the first in rank, (in regard to the aforementioned virtues) though at present the smallest in number: to which circumstance they have been reduced, from being the most numerous, by their continual wars. The union of the five nations, somewhat resembles that of the Dutch United Provinces; and this republican league, or confederacy, in which no one nation hath any superiority over the other, have subsisted so long, that the Europeans, says Mr. Colden, know nothing of its origin. Their most northern settlement, says Mr. Rogers, 'is a town called Chockonawago, on the south of the river St. Lawrence, opposite to Montreal; but their largest settlements are between Lake Ontario and the provinces of New York and Pensylvania, or the heads of the Mohock, Tanesee, Oneoida and Onondaga rivers. They claim all the country south of the river St. Lawrence to the Ohio, and down the Ohio to the Wabach, from the mouth of the Wabach to the bounds of Virginia; westerly, to the Lakes Ontario and Erie, and the river Miamee; their eastern boundaries are lake Champlain, and the British colonies. When the English first settled in America, they could raise 15,000 fighting men; but now, including the Delawares and Shawanees, they do not amount to more than between three or four thousand, having been thus reduced by the incessant wars they have maintained with the other Indians, and with the French, in Canada.' Speaking of the great military exploits of the Mohawks, our Author assures us, that they have been inveterate enemies to the French, ever since their first settlement in Canada; that they once burned the city of Montreal; and that they are almost the only Indians within many hundred miles, that have been proof against the solicitations of the French to turn against us; but the greatest part of them have maintained their integrity, and been our stedfast friends and faithful allies.--As to their persons, Mr. Rogers remarks, that there is rarely found, among the Indians, a person that is any way 'deformed, or that is deprived of any sense, or decrepid in any limb, notwithstanding the little care taken about the mother in the time of her pregnancy, the neglect the infant is treated with when born, and the fatigues the youth is obliged to suffer; yet generally they are of a hale, robust, and firm constitution; but spirituous liquors, of which they are insatiably fond, and the women as well as the men, have already surprizingly lessened their numbers, and will, in all probability, in one century more nearly clear the country of them.'