270 September 



as almoft all their food eonfiils of the fiefii 

 of the animals, which they hunt; or they 

 would be irritated to fuch a degree as to at- 

 tack the Europeans. The Indians have hi- 

 therto never tried to make muskets or fimi- 

 lar fire-arms ; and their great indolence 

 does not even allow them to mend thofe 

 muskets which they have got. They leave 

 this entirely to the Europeans. As the Eu- 

 ropeans came into North- America, they were 

 very careful not to give the Indians any fire- 

 arms. But in the wars between the French 

 and Englifo, each party gave their Indian 

 allies fire-arms, in order to weaken the 

 force of the enemy. The French lay the 

 blame upon the Dutch fettlers in Albany* 

 faying, that they began, in 1642, to give 

 their Indians fire-arms, and taught them 

 the ufe of them, in order to weaken the 

 French. The inhabitants of Albany, on 

 the contrary, affert, that the French firft 

 introduced this cuftom, as they would have 

 been too weak to refift the combined force 

 of the Dutch and Englifh in the colonies. 

 Be this as it will, it is certain that the In- 

 dians buy rnulkets from the Europeans, and 

 know at prefent better how to make ufe of 

 them, than fome of their teachers. It is 

 Jikewife certain, that the Europeans gain 



coniiderably- 



