The territory of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, the most celebrated of Indian confederations, extended from Albany to Buffalo, that is, over just the country through which the New York Central runs. The name is that given to them by the French and is said to be formed of two ceremonial words constantly used by the tribesmen meaning "real adders." The league was originally composed of five tribes or nations--the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas and Cayugas. The confederation probably took place about 1580. In 1722 the Tuscaroras were admitted, the league then being called that of the Six Nations. Without realizing the far-reaching effect of his action, Samuel D. Champlain (1567-1635), the French explorer, probably changed the entire course of history by joining the Algonquins and Hurons in an attack in 1608 on the Iroquois near the present town of Ticonderoga. The Iroquois never forgave the French for the part they played in this battle and naturally turned first to the Dutch and then to the English for allies. "Thus did New France," says Parkman, "rush into collision with the redoubted warriors of the Five Nations. Here was the beginning, and in some measure doubtless the cause, of a long series of murderous conflicts, bearing havoc and flame to generations yet unborn." Parkman estimates that in the period after the Tuscaroras joined the Iroquois, the Six Nations had a population of about 12,000 with not more than 2,150 fighting men. It is a matter of some surprise that so small a fighting force could wield so great a power in the early days. But Theodore Roosevelt, in speaking of the Indians as warriors, says: "On their own ground they were far more formidable than the best European troops. It is to this day doubtful whether the superb British regulars at Braddock's battle or the Highlanders at Grant's defeat a few years later, were able to so much as kill one Indian for every hundred of their own men who fell." Although up to that time they had been loyal friends of the colonists, in the War of Independence the Iroquois fought on the English side, and by repeated battles their power was nearly destroyed. From very early times a silver "covenant chain" was used as a symbol of their treaties with the Whites, and each time a new treaty was signed the covenant chain was renewed or reburnished. There are perhaps 17,000 descendants of the Iroquois now living in reservations in New York State, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Canada. [Illustration: Stephen Van Rensselaer