r volunteers gathered in case of war. Such war columns
were rarely strong in numbers. The most important expeditions of the
Indians, even for long distances, were undertaken by insignificant
forces. If more than one group joined for a great expedition, every
group obeyed its own leader. The uniformity of the campaign plan was
secured as well as possible by a council of these leaders. This is the
mode of warfare among the Allemani in the fourth century on the Upper
Rhine, as described by Ammianus Marcellinus.

7. In some tribes we find a head chief, whose power, however, is
limited. He is one of the sachems who has to take provisional measures
in cases requiring immediate action, until the council can assemble and
decide. He represents a feeble, but generally undeveloped prototype of
an official with executive power. The latter, as we shall see, developed
in most cases out of the highest war chief.

The great majority of American Indians did not go beyond the league of
tribes. With a few tribes of small membership, separated by wide
boundary tracts, weakened by unceasing warfare, they occupied an immense
territory. Leagues were now and then formed by kindred tribes as the
result of momentary necessity and dissolved again under more favorable
conditions. But in certain districts, tribes of the same kin had again
found their way out of disbandment into permanent federations, making
the first step towards the formation of nations. In the United States we
find the highest form of such a league among the Iroquois. Emigrating
from their settlements west of the Mississippi, where they probably
formed a branch of the great Dakota family, they settled at last after
long wanderings in the present State of New York. They had five tribes:
Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas and Mohawks. They lived on fish,
venison, and the products of rough gardening, inhabiting villages
protected by stockades. Their number never exceeded 20,000, and certain
gentes were common to all five tribes. They spoke closely related
dialects of the same language and occupied territories contiguous to one
another. As this land was won by conquest, it was natural for these
tribes to stand together against the expelled former inhabitants. This
led, not later than the beginning of the fifteenth century, to a regular
"eternal league," a sworn alliance that immediately assumed an
aggressive character, relying on its newly won strength. About 1675, at
the summit o