132 The Winning of the West 



of arms or by diplomacy, the forts they held at 

 Niagara, Detroit, and Michilimakinac. Detroit 

 was the most important, for it served as the head 

 quarters of the Western Indians, who formed for 

 the time being the chief bar to American advance. 

 The British held the posts with a strong grip, in the 

 interest of their traders and merchants. To them 

 the land derived its chief importance from the fur 

 trade. This was extremely valuable, and, as it 

 steadily increased in extent and importance, the 

 consequence of Detroit, the fitting-out town for the 

 fur traders, grew in like measure. It was the centre 

 of a population of several thousand Canadians, who 

 lived by the chase and by the rude cultivation of 

 their long, narrow farms; and it was held by a gar 

 rison of three or four hundred British regulars, 

 with auxiliary bands of American loyalist and 

 French Canadian rangers, and, above all, with a 

 formidable but fluctuating reserve force of Indian 

 allies. 25 



It was to the interest of the British to keep the 

 American settlers out of the land; and therefore 

 their aims were at one with those of the Indians. 

 All the tribes between the Ohio and the Missouri 

 were subsidized by them, and paid them a pre 

 carious allegiance. Fickle, treacherous, and fero 

 cious, the Indians at times committed acts of out 

 rage even on their allies, so that these allies had 

 to be ever on their guard; and the tribes were 

 often at war with one another. War interrupted 



Haldimand Papers, 1784, 5, 6. 



