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Show r56 CANADA PAMPHLET. [A: B.T.] Canada aficurizfy ; outfirt‘r 710m. 1 57 has taught our planters, that theycannot rely forts as a fecurity againf'clndians: The inha upon bitants ed by fuch forts, unlefs they were connected by a wall like that of China, from one end or our fettlements to the other. If the Indlans when at war, marched like the Europeans, with great armies, heavy cannon, baggage and carriages ; the paffes Dunn of all might be fufiiciently fecure; but the cafe 'IS widely different. They go to war, as they call it, in {mall parties ; from fifty men down to five. Their hunting life has made them acqualntedwith the whole country, and fearce any part of 1t 15 impracticable to fuch a party. They can travel the fettlements of your frontier Inhabitants. They need no convoys of provifions to follow them; for whether they are fhifting from place to place in the woods, or lying in wait for an opportunity to {trike a blow, every thicket and every ftream furnifhes fo {mall anumberwith fuflicient fubfii'tence. When theyhavefurprized feparately, andtnurdered and fealped a dozen families, they are gone With inconceivable expedition through unknown ways ; and 'tis very rare that purfuers have any chance of coming up with them *. In fliort, long experiellice ias "‘ ‘ Although thclndians live feattered, as ahunter's life requn‘es, ‘ they may be collected together from almoit any diitance; as they ‘ can find their {ubfiitence from their gun in their travelling. But ‘ let the number of the Indian: be what it will, they are not formi‘ dable merely on account of their numbers; there are many other ‘ cucumllauces are extended over a large trafl‘ ofland, 500 leagues in length on the {ea lhore; and although fome of their trading towns are thick fettled, their fertlements in the country towns mull be at a diftancc from each other : befides, that in a new country where lands are cheap, people are fond of acquiring large tracts to themfelves; and therefore in the out-fettlements, they mutt be more remote: and as the people that move out are generally poor, they fit down either where they can ealiefl procure land, or foonefl raife a fubfiflence. Add to this, that the Eng/[fl have fixed fettled habitations, the eafiefl and {hortell paflhges to which the Indium, by conflantly hunti ng in the woods, are perfectly well acqua inted with ; whereas the £72ng know little or nothing of the Indian countly, nor of the paffages through the woods that lead to it. The Indian way ofmaking war is by {adden attacks upon expof [con as they have done mifchief, they retire, ed places; and as and either go home by the fame or fome different route, as they think fafeit; or go to fame other place at a diftance to renew their firoke. Ifa ful‘hcient party {hould happily be ready to purfu e them, it isa great chance, whether in a country confifling of woods and {\vamps, which the £72ng are not acqua inted with, the enemy do not lie in ambufh for them in fome convenient place, and from thence dellroy them. Ifthis fltould not be the cafe, but theEIzg/z' 2 {hould purfue them, as (0011 as they have gained the rivers, by means oftheir canoes, (to the ufe of which they are brought up from their infancy) they prefently get out of their reach: furthe r, if a body ofmen were to march into their country, to the places where they are fettled, they can, upon the leallnotice, without great difadvantage , quit their prcfent habitations, and betak e themfclves to new ones.' Clark's Obfervalions, p. i3. ‘ It has been nag-"o... They pats eafily between your forts undifcovered; and privately approach aaha.Anahlnnnnn through the woods even by night, and know how to conceal their tracks. circumfiances that give them a greatadvan tage over the Englilh. The Englifh inhabitants, though numerous, lannannhaNAQ through which alone fuch armies could penetrate our country or receive their fupplies, being fecuied, already remarked, that the tribes of the Indians living upon the lakes and rivers that run upon the back of the Eng11': lbttlements in Nari/2 America, are very numerous, and can furnilh a great number offighting men, all perfeftly well acquainted with the ufe of arms as (con as capabl e of carrying them, as they get the Whole of their {ublillenee from hunting; and that this army, large as it may be, can be maintained by the French without any expcnce. From their numbers, the rivers that run into the Eng/VJ lettlements,their filtration, and it is eat} to cow» 3 ~ (ewe |
