THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
than 15,000 souls, if so many—hardly one-third the present population of Otsego County. When their influence was greatest, and they had not begun to suffer from the white man's vices, they are believed to have numbered perhaps 25,000, though never more. As late as 1873, official reports placed the total number then living at 13,660. At the close of the Revolution their population was considerably less than at the beginning; instead of 15,000 it probably did not equal the number returned in 1873. More of the Iroquois may, therefore, be living now than were living at the close of the Revolution.[1]
Those Iroquois lands of which this volume mainly treats, had been the property of the Mohawks and Oneidas.[2] The Unadilla River and part of the present town of Unadilla, with perhaps all of it, were Oneida territory. Farther east were Mohawk lands. The Oneidas are known to have sold land as far east as Herkimer and Delhi. Evidence, however, which Morgan regards as safe, begins the line of division at a point five miles east of Utica and extends it directly south to Pennsylvania, making Unadilla border-land between the two nations. Lands in several parts of Otsego County were sold by the Mohawks, but none lay as far west as Unadilla. John M. Brown, who went to Schoharie in 1750, says that after 1763 or
- ↑ Schoolcraft, writing in 1846, after taking a census, gave much lower estimates than any of these. At the beginning of the Revolution their number, he thought, was under 10,000, and in 1846 only 6,942. Of the latter total, 4,836 were then living in the United States and 3,843 in New York State alone. He thought their worldly condition at that time such as would promote a considerable increase within a short period.
- ↑ Mohawk, or the other form of the word, Maqua, has been commonly defined as meaning bear. It has also been said to signify a maneater. The word Oneida, means people of the stone.
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