It is not strictly correct to say that "castles were frequently removed." Villages that were not palisaded may have been frequently changed to new sites, but the evidence is that palisaded towns remained in one place for a number of years unless the tribe occupying was driven out by an enemy or by continued unhealthfulness. as the known history of all the old castles shows ; nor were they ever removed to any considerable distance from their original sites. Van Curler's description of the castle has been quoted. He did not say that it was palisaded, but he did call it a "fort," which means the same thing. Rev. Megapolcnsis wrote, in 1644: "These [the Tortoise tribe] have built a fort of palisades and call their castle Assarue." It was not an old castle when Van Curler visited it in 1635, or when Father Jogues was a prisoner in it in 1642, but

212 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES.

in its then short existence it had had an incident in the wars between the Mohawks and the Mahicans of which there is no mention in our written histories. On his return trip Van Curler wrote that after leaving Onekagoncka and walking about "two miles," or about six English miles, his guide pointed to a hig'h hill on which the immediately preceding castle of the tribe had stood and from which it had been driven by the Mahicans "nine years" previously, i. e. in 1627, when the war was raging between the Mohawks and the Mahicans of which Wassenaer wrote. It was obviously about that time that the tribe, retreating from its enemies, rallied west of Schohare Creek and founded the castle of which we are speaking, and there it remained until it was driven out by the French under De Tracey in 1666, when its occupants gathered together at Caughnawaga on the north side of the Mohawk, where they remained until 1693 when their castle was again desitroyed by the French, and the tribe found a resting place on the west side of the mouth of Schohare Creek.