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
Country can refer both to sovereign states and to other political entities, while other times it can refer only to states. For example, the "CIA World Factbook" uses the word in its "Country name" field to refer to "a wide variety of dependencies, areas of special sovereignty, uninhabited islands, and other entities in addition to the traditional countries or independent states". The word "country" comes from Old French "contrée", which derives from Vulgar Latin ("terra") "contrata" ("(land) lying opposite"; "(land) spread before"), derived from "contra" ("against, opposite"). It most likely entered the English language after the Franco-Norman invasion during the 11th