When the French Jesuit missionary Joseph de La Roche Daillon reached this area in 1627, the Oil Springs were held by the now defunct Wenro, an Iroquoian-speaking tribe. The Wenro abandoned the area in 1639, hoping to retrench with their allies the Huron further northwest, as their eastern neighbors, the Seneca of the Iroquois Confederacy, were attacking these tribes and rapidly conquering territory in order to expand their hunting grounds for the fur trade. The Seneca, Mohawk, and other three nations of the Iroquois Confederacy were trying to dominate the lucrative fur trade with the French in this area.