is
nigher than this place and more convenient to transport themselves and
packs by water, inasmuch as they must bring everything hither on their
backs. N.B.--The ascending of the Susquehanna river is one week longer
than the descending."

In 1684, the Onondaga and Cayuga sachems made an oration before Lord
Howard of Effingham at Albany, from which the following extracts are
taken. I have preserved the original spelling:

"Wee have putt all our land and ourselfs under the Protection of the
great Duke of York, the brother of your great Sachim. We have given
the Susquehanne River which we wonn with the sword to this Government
and desire that it may be a branch of that great tree, Whose topp
reaches to the Sunn, under whose branches we shall shelter our selves
from the French, or any other people, and our fire burn in your houses
and your fire burns with us, and we desire that it always may be so,
and will not that any of your Penn's people shall settle upon the
Susquehanna River; for all our folks or soldiers are like Wolfs in
the Woods, as you Sachim of Virginia know, we having no other land to
leave to our wives and Children."

In 1691, the governor and council of the province of New York sent an
address to the king of England, from which the following extract is
made:

"Albany lies upon the same river, etc. Its commerce extends itself as
far as the lakes of Canada and the Sinnekes Country in which is the
Susquehannah River."

It appears that the ownership of the Susquehanna was the subject of no
little dispute among the tribes composing the Six Nations.[A] The
Onondagas claimed the country.

[Footnote A: From a record of a meeting of the mayor and aldermen of
Albany in 1689 the Onondagas are called Ti-onon-dages.

In an old map found among the papers of Sir Guy Johnson the Schenevus
creek or valley is called Ti-ononda-don. The prefix _Ti_ appears to
have been quite common among Indian names, sometimes used and
sometimes omitted. Doubtless _Ononda_ is the root of the word
_Ti-ononda-don_. As the Onondagas had claimed the Susquehanna country,
the Indian etymologist might naturally inquire whether there was any
kinship between Tionondaga, Tionondadon, Onondaga and the word
Oneonta. His belief in a common etymon might be somewhat strengthened
by a quotation from a "Journal of What Occurred between the French and
Savages," kept during the years 1657-58. (See Doc. Hist., Vol. I, p.
44*: [*Transcriber's Note: last d