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 designation, Ganonsyoni, is occasionally encountered as well. This term derives from the Mohawk "kanǫhsyǫ́·ni" ("the extended house"), or from a cognate expression in a related Iroquoian language, and is frequently encountered in earlier sources variously spelled "Kanosoni", "akwanoschioni", "Aquanuschioni", "Cannassoone", "Canossoone", "Ke-nunctioni", or "Konossioni". More transparently, the Iroquois confederacy is also often referred to simply as the Six Nations (or, for the period before the entry of the Tuscarora in 1722, the Five Nations). The word is Rotinonsionni in the Mohawk language. The Iroquois Confederacy is believed to have been founded by the Peacemaker in 1142, bringing together five distinct