33 2 The Winning of the West 



therefore the natural allies of the British Govern- 

 ment. They had constantly to fear the advance of 

 the Americans, while from the fur traders, Indian 

 agents, and army officers who alone represented 

 Britain, they had nothing but coveted treasures of 

 every kind to expect. They seemed tools forged 

 for the hands of the royal commanders, whose own 

 people lay far beyond the reach of reprisals in kind ; 

 and it was perhaps too much to expect that in that 

 age such tools should not be used. 16 We had less 

 temptation to employ them, less means wherewith 

 to pay them, and more cause to be hostile to and 

 dread them; and moreover our skirts are not quite 

 clear in the matter, after all, for we more than once 

 showed a tendency to bid for their support. 



But, after all is said, the fact remains that we 

 have to deal, not with what, under other circum- 

 stances, the Americans might have done, but with 

 what the British actually did; and for this there 

 can be many apologies, but no sufficient excuse. 

 When the commissioners to the southern Indians 

 wrote to Lord George Germain, "we have been in- 

 defatigable in our endeavors to keep up a constant 

 succession of parties of Indians to annoy the 

 rebels," 17 the writers must have well known, what 

 the king's ministers should also have made it their 

 business to know, that the war-parties whom they 



16 Though it must be remembered that in our own war with 

 Mexico we declined the proffered and valuable aid of the 

 Comanches. 



17 State Department MSS. "Intercepted Letters," Pensa- 

 cola, July 12, 1779. 



