The lost Atlantis, and other ethnographic studiesWilson, Daniel, Sir
History
The lost Atlantis, and other ethnographic studies
Wilson, Daniel, Sir
America -- Antiquities; Atlantis (Legendary place); Ethnology -- America; Indians of North America -- Antiquities
From one after another of the outlying southern offshoots of the common
stock, additions were made from time to time, to restore the numbers of
the decimated Iroquois. Westward of the confederacy was the country of
the Eries, an offshoot of the Seneca nation, occupying the southern
shore of the great lake which perpetuates their name. Immediately to the
north of the Eries, within the Canadian frontier, the Attiwendaronks, or
Neuters, occupied the peninsula of Niagara, while the Tiontates or
Petuns, and other tribes of the same stock, were settled in the fertile
region between Lakes Erie and Huron. In 1714, the Tuscaroras, when
driven by the English out of North Carolina, were welcomed by their
Iroquois kinsmen, and received into the league which thenceforth bore
the name of the Six Nations. Towards the middle of the same century the
waste of war made them ready to welcome any additions to their numbers;
and the Tuteloes and Nanticokes, both apparently Algonkin, furnished
fresh accessions to the diminished numbers of the confederacy, but
without taking their place as distinct nations.
But of all the nations of the stock thus widely spread westward and
southward, the Hurons are the native historical race of Canada,
intimately identified with incidents of its early settlement and of
friendly intercourse with _La Nouvelle France_. Their language is now
recognised as the oldest form of the common speech of the
Huron-Iroquois, and it is not creditable to Canadian philologists that
its grammar still remains unrepresented in any accurate printed form.
The Literary and Historical Society of Quebec did, indeed, publish in
its _Transactions_, in 1831, the translation of a Latin MS., compiled
with much industry by a missionary who had laboured among the Hurons of
Lorette, and whose anonymous work was found amongst the papers of the
mission. But it is the production of one ignorant of the science of
language, and gives no adequate idea either of the grammatical structure
or of the variety and richness of the Huron tongue.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account