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412 IRONTON IROQUOIS Paul's, London. In 1870 he was chosen Bamp- ton lecturer, and the same year became rector of Wadingham, Lincolnshire, and rural dean. Dr. Irons has published a number of works, the most important of which are : " The Whole Doctrine of Final Causes" (1836); "Parochial Lectures" (three series, 1837-'47); "The The- ory of Development examined " (1846) ; " Ser- mons for the People " (2 vols., 1859) ;" The Bible and its Interpreters, its Miracles and Prophe- cies;" "The Idea of the National Church" (1861), in the volume of " Replies to Essays and Reviews;" and " Christianity as taught by St. Paul " (Bampton lectures, 1870). IRONTON, a city and the county seat of Law- rence co., Ohio, on the Ohio river, 142 m. above Cincinnati, and 100 m. S. by E. of Columbus; pop. in 1860, 3,691 ; in 1870, 5,686. It is built above the highest floods, at the foot of lofty hills, in the centre of the "Hanging Rock" iron region, embracing a portion of S. Ohio and N. E. Kentucky, of which it is the princi- pal business point. Its iron trade amounts to about $7,000,000 a year, and is rapidly increas- ing. The Iron railroad, 13 m. long, connects it with the N. part of the county. It is light- ed with gas, supplied with water by the Holly system, and contains four blast furnaces, two rolling mills, a nail factory, a machine shop, a stove and hollow ware foundery, two boiler works, a hoe factory, two saw and planing mills, a boat-building establishment, a tannery, two breweries, two national banks, several graded public schools including a high school, a tri- weekly, a semi-weekly, and three weekly (one German) newspapers, and 15 churches. Ironton was laid out in 1849 by the Ohio iron and coal company, and was incorporated as a city in 1865. IROQUOIS, or Six Nations, a confederation of Indians formerly occupying central New York, and exercising controlling influence over all surrounding tribes. They consisted when first known to the French of five nations : the Ag- megue (called Maquas or Mohawks by their Algonquin neighbors), the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. Lakes or rivers bearing these names still mark the places of their resi- dence. As a league they called themselves Ho- denosaunee or Hotinonsionni, meaning " they form a cabin." Of this cabin the fire was in the centre at Onondaga, and the Mohawk was the door. Each tribe had its name as a collection of individuals, and a symbolical name as a body corporate; thus the Mohawk tribe was the She Bear. According to their own tradition, they resided on the St. Lawrence as far down as Gaspe, but were driven back south of Lake Ontario by the Algonquin tribes. From this it may be inferred that those found by Cartier at Montreal in 1534 were really Iroquois. Soon afterward the Susquehannas, a kindred tribe, nearly exterminated the Mohawks. When Champlain began to settle Canada he found the Iroquois at war with all the Canada Indians, from the Hurons on Lake Huron to the Micmacs in the gulf of St. Lawrence. In May, 1609, Champlain with some Hurons and Montagnais defeated an Iroquois force on Lake Champlain. In 1615 he joined the Hurons in an expedition against a town not far from Onondaga. But the Iroquois made a firm peace with the Dutch, and, obtaining firearms, invaded Canada in 1621. They also made war on the Mohegans, and killed the Dutch commander at Albany, who had joined their enemies. When the French recovered Canada in 1632 they found the Iroquois dominant. In 1639 they destroy- ed a town of the Dinondadies ; in 1642 they cut off all communication between the Hurons and the French, defeated a large party, and cap- tured a Jesuit missionary. They made peace in 1645, but renewed the war in 1646, killing Father Jogues and Piskaret, a great Monta- gnais chief. They then beset the French and their allies with large forces, compelling the Hurons to abandon some towns. Others were taken by storm in 1648-'9, and numbers of the Hurons perished with their missionaries. One whole division of the Hurons submitted and were incorporated among the Senecas. The Iroqnois then subdued the Dinondadies and the Neutral nation. In 1651 they nearly anni- hilated the Attikamegues and besieged Three Rivers, killing the French governor of the town. They then absorbed many of the fugitive Hu- rons who had taken refuge with the French ; but being pressed by the Eries and Susquehan- nas, they made peace with the French, who began a settlement at Onondaga in 1655. They also renewed their alliance with the Dutch. While French missionaries were laboring to convert them, they crushed the Eries, Tiogas, and other tribes, and carried their operations from the Abenakis on the east to the Illinois on the west and the Susquehannas on the south. They soon made war on the French and defied New England. Garakonthie, the Onondaga chief, restored peace with the French in 1665, although the Mohawks and Oneidas kept up the war till 1666, when the French twice in- vaded the Mohawk country. Then for a time French missions were renewed in their coun- try. They subdued the Susquehannas in 1675 after a long war, and attacked the Shawnees and Mohegans. The English as masters of New York began to use the Iroquois to carry out their designs ; they sent them against the Illinois, Miamis, and Ottawas, in order to sub- due those tribes and control the fur trade. The French under De la Barre and Denonville invaded the Iroquois cantons in 1684 and 1687. Though peace was made in 1688, the Iroquois the next year attacked and destroyed Lachine in Canada, killing 200, which led the French to re- taliate by destroying Schenectady in 1690. The Iroquois took part in English operations against Canada in 1690 and 1691, but the French in 1693 and 1696 ravaged the Mohawk and Onon- daga territory. This war was very destructive to the league, which lost 1,500 out of 2,800 fighting men, and became averse to further