SW_HJ1830_002

PREFACE. The following account of the Seneca Indians, was published some months since, in the columns of The Friend, or Advocate of Truth; but is now presented to the public, on a larger type, to be sold sepa-rately, or bound up with an original work upon the Civilization of the Indian Natives, recently published from the pen of the same author. A number of corrections have been made in the original essays, and some interesting extracts added, from the speeches of the celebrated Chief, Cornplanter, during an interview with President Washington. Those who feel an interest in the welfare of these Aborigines of our country, have now an opportunity to rescue from oblivion this sketch of their history, at a very cheap rate, and in a form much more satis-factory than that of detached fragments, interspersed with various other matter, and scattered through several numbers of a periodical in fine type. It may not be out of place to insert the following explanatory note, from the proprietor of the Friend or Advocate of Truth, formerly an inhabitant of the state of New York:- When the interior of the state of New York was first explored by Europeans, it was found in the posses- ion of five distinct and powerful Indian nations, viz.-the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. These five nations, though independent, like the individual states of the present American union, had formed themselves into a confederated government, for the purpose of general defence, and held their grand national councils at Onondaga, the centre point of the five separate sovereignties. In the early part of the last century, the Tuscaroras removed from the south to the western part of the state of New York, and were received into the confederacy, from which time the term 'Six Nations' has been used for general distinction.