ij 8 The Winning of the West 



The policies for which they warred were hostile 

 and irreconcilable; the interests of the nations they 

 represented were, as regards the Northwestern wild 

 erness, not only incompatible but diametrically op 

 posed. The commanders of the British posts, and 

 the men who served under them, were moved by 

 a spirit of stern loyalty to the empire, the honor 

 of whose flag they upheld, and endeavored faith 

 fully to carry out the behests of those who shaped 

 that empire's destinies; in obedience to the will of 

 their leaders at home they warred to keep the North 

 west a wilderness, tenanted only by the Indian 

 hunter and the white fur trader. The American 

 frontiersmen warred to make this wilderness the 

 heart of the greatest of all Republics; they obeyed 

 the will of no superior, they were not urged onward 

 by any action of the supreme authorities of the land ; 

 they were moved only by the stirring ambition of 

 a masterful people, who saw before them a con 

 tinent which they claimed as their heritage. The 

 Americans succeeded, the British failed; for the 

 British fought against the stars in their courses, 

 .while the Americans battled on behalf of the destiny 

 of the race. 



Between the two sets of rivals lay leagues on 

 leagues of forest, in which the active enemies of 

 the Americans lived and hunted and marched to 

 war. The British held the posts on the lakes; the 

 frontiersmen held the land south of the Ohio. In 

 the wilderness between dwelt the Shawnees, Wyan- 

 dots, and Delawares, the Wabash Indians, the Mi- 



