1 8 The Winning of the West 



in devising the laws under which they were to live 

 and prosper. 



But the pioneers were speedily drawn into a life- 

 and-death struggle which engrossed their whole at- 

 tention to the exclusion of all merely civil matters ; 

 a struggle in which their land became in truth what 

 the Indians called it a dark and bloody ground, a 

 land with blood-stained rivers. 29 



It was impossible long to keep peace on the border 

 between the ever-encroaching whites and their fickle 

 and bloodthirsty foes. The hard, reckless, often 

 brutalized frontiersmen, greedy of land and embit- 

 tered by the memories of untold injuries, regarded 

 all Indians with sullen enmity, and could not be per- 

 suaded to distinguish between the good and the 

 bad. 30 The central government was as powerless 

 to restrain as to protect these far-off and unruly citi- 

 zens. On the other hand, the Indians were as treach- 

 erous as they were ferocious ; Delawares, Shawnees, 

 Wyandots, and all. 31 While deceiving the com- 

 mandants of the posts by peaceful protestations, they 

 would steadily continue their ravages and murders ; 



89 The Iroquois, as well as the Cherokees, used these ex- 

 pressions concerning portions of the Ohio Valley. Hecke- 

 welder, 118. 



30 State Department MSS., No. 147, Vol. VI, March 15, 1781. 



31 As one instance among many see Haldimand MSS.. letter 

 of Lt.-Col. Hamilton, August 17, 1778, where Girty reported, 

 on behalf of the Delawares, the tribe least treacherous to the 

 Americans, that even these Indians were only going in to 

 Fort Pitt and keeping up friendly relations with its garrison 

 so as to deceive the whites, and that as soon as their corn was 

 ripe they would move off to the hostile tribes. 



