The English parliament establishes the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England. The first organization to promote Protestant conversion efforts in North America, the society will sponsor most of the missionary work in the English colonies before the American Revolution, including that of the influential clergymen John Eliot (see entries for 1651 and 1663) and Thomas Mayhew (see entry for AUGUST 22, 1670).
The Iroquois nearly annihilate the Huron.
With the expansion of the fur trade, old rivalries between the Iroquois and Huron (see entries for
SUMMER 1609 and AUGUST 1615) grow increasingly intense. The powerful Iroquois particularly resent the Huron’s success as middlemen. The Huron have amassed great wealth by trading corn to tribes in the north for beaver pelts, which they then trade to their French allies for European manufactured goods.
Armed with guns obtained from the Dutch (see entry for 1643), warriors from the Mohawk and Seneca tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy storm the Huron villages, attacking with a ferocity scarcely seen before in Indian warfare. The Huron population, already ravaged by smallpox (see entry for 1633), is decimated by the Iroquois assault. The few survivors are forced to flee their homeland forever. Some escape to what is now Quebec, Canada, while others, later called the Wyandot, head west to lands in present-day Michigan and Ohio. A number of Huron are also adopted by their Iroquois enemies, to replace warriors killed in battle.
World History
