Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 2).djvu/83

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EARLY THOROUGHFARES WESTWARD
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heads of the lake rivers and those flowing southward into Susquehanna and Allegheny. This watershed was followed westward two hundred miles to Fort Sclosser (as Guy Johnson's map gives it) on Niagara river just south of the falls, making the Iroquois trail one of the longest independent thoroughfares on the continent.

Clearing the valley of the Mohawk, the Iroquois trail entered the "Long House," as the territory of the Six Nations was familiarly known in pre-Revolutionary days. It ran first through Oneida, the capital of the country of the Oneidas, situated just south of the lake bearing that name. Passing along the watershed, Onondaga (near Syracuse, New York), the capital of the Onondagas, was the next village of importance. This was the great meeting-place of the Six Nations where, through many years, the orator's appeal so often decided for peace or war. From Onondaga the great trail turned southward to keep clear of the valley of the Seneca until that river was crossed in the country of the Cayugas, a little west of their capital, Cayuga