Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 1 1 1 



tier and pioneer have at bottom had justice on their 

 side; this great continent could not have been kept 

 as nothing but a game preserve for squalid savages. 

 Moreover, to the most oppressed Indian nations the 

 whites often acted as a protection, or, at least, they 

 deferred instead of hastening their fate. But for 

 the interposition of the whites it is probable that the 

 Iroquois would have exterminated every Algonquin 

 tribe before the end of the eighteenth century; ex- 

 actly as in recent time the Crows and Pawnees 

 would have been destroyed by the Sioux, had it not 

 been for the wars which we have waged against 

 the latter. 



Again, the loose governmental system of the In- 

 dians made it as difficult to secure a permanent peace 

 with them as it was to negotiate the purchase of the 

 lands. The sachem, or hereditary peace chief, and 

 the elective war chief, who wielded only the influ- 

 ence that he could secure by his personal prowess 

 and his tact, were equally unable to control all of 

 their tribesmen, and were powerless with their 

 confederated nations. If peace was made with 

 the Shawnees, the war was continued by the 

 Miamis; if peace was made with the latter, never- 

 theless perhaps one small band was dissatisfied, 

 and continued the contest on its own account; and 

 even if all the recognized bands were dealt with, 

 the parties of renegades or outlaws had to be 

 considered; and in the last resort the full recog- 

 nition accorded by the Indians to the right of pri- 

 vate warfare, made it possible for any individual 



