Their last conflict had been at. least a drawn battle, and having formed a peace with them as well as with the governor of Canada,

whose allies they were, they declined, as they did in 1704, to reopen a conflict which might involve their own existence.

The name of Mohawk ! if it once had terror 2 for the fugitive Pequot,

upon whose head a price was set, had none

for those

who boasted that they received the first kiss of the morning sun the tribute which they paid was not to the Iroquois.

The record of the years immediately subsequent is but a disconnected detail of migrations and reorganizations among the Indian tribes. In 1 726, two of the sachems of the Pennacooks, at Schaticook, being dead, Governor Burnet appointed Wawiachech Instead of increasing in numbers^as^they had

in their place.

Colonial History, v, 723, 725.

This is one of the fables of history,

which is quoted by almost "every writer.

THE INDIAN TRIBES

anticipated, they steadily decreased by desertions to Canada. These desertions were explained, by those who remained, as

being caused by debts which they had incurred and were unable to pay, or the payment of which they wished to escape. 1 this explanation was

While

not without some truth, the overtures made

by the French, and the entreaties of their relatives, were pro Houses, lands, pro bably the predominant impelling motives. tection, and a more complete recognition by the government,

were temptations that these wanderers, who, like Esau, had parted with their birthright for a mess of pottage, could not resist.