Iroquois prosperous settlements in the 19th century, supporting themselves via farming and the sale of sleds, snowshoes, boats, and baskets. In 1884, about 100 Canadian Iroquois were hired by the British government to serve as river pilots and boatmen for the relief expedition for the besieged General Charles Gordon in Khartoum in the Sudan, taking the force commanded by Field Marshal Wolsely up the Nile from Cairo to Khartoum. On their way back to Canada, the Canadian Iroquois river pilots and boatmen stopped in London, where they were personally thanked by Queen Victoria for their services to Queen and Country. In
Iroquois translate as "murderers". The Five Nations historically referred to themselves by a different autonym, Haudenosaunee, meaning "People of the Longhouse". It is also occasionally preferred by scholars of Native American history, who consider the name "Iroquois" to be derogatory in origin. This name derives from two phonetically similar but etymologically distinct words in the Seneca language: "Hodínöhšö:ni:h", meaning "those of the extended house," and "Hodínöhsö:ni:h", meaning "house builders". The name "Haudenosaunee" first appears in English in Lewis Henry Morgan (1851), where it is written as "Ho-dé-no-sau-nee". The spelling "Hotinnonsionni" is also attested from later in the nineteenth century. An alternate