In the Current of the Revolution 291 



war, they had learned to defend themselves better, 

 and yet the ratio was probably as ten to one; 55 

 whereas in this war, if we consider only males of 

 fighting age, it is probable that a good deal more 

 than half as many Indians as whites were killed, and 

 even including women and children, the ratio would 

 not rise to more than three to one. Certainly, in all 

 the contests waged against the Northwestern In- 

 dians during the last half of the eighteenth century 

 there was no other where the whites inflicted so 

 great a relative loss on their foes. Its results were 

 most important. It kept the Northwestern tribes 

 quiet for the first two years of the Revolutionary 

 struggle; and above all it rendered possible the set- 

 tlement of Kentucky, and therefore the winning 

 of the West. Had it not been for Lord Dunmore's 

 war, it is more than likely that when the colonies 

 achieved their freedom they would have found their 

 western boundary fixed at the Alleghany Moun- 

 tains. 56 



Nor must we permit our sympathy for the foul 

 wrongs of the two great Indian heroes of the con- 

 test to blind us to the fact that the struggle was 

 precipitated, in the first place, by the outrages of the 

 red men, not the whites ; and that the war was not 

 only inevitable, but was also in its essence just and 

 righteous on the part of the borderers. Even the 

 unpardonable and hideous atrocity of the murder 



66 These are Smith's estimates, derived largely from Indian 

 sources. They are probably excessive, but not very greatly so. 



56 It is difficult to understand why some minor historians 

 consider this war as fruitless. 



