PREFACE 



TO THE SIXTH EDITION. 



I CHOSE the subject of this book as affording bet- 

 ter opportunities than any other portion of Ameri- 

 can history for portraying forest Hfe and the Indian 

 character ; and I have never seen reason to change 

 this opinion. In the nineteen years that have 

 passed since the first edition was pubhshed, a con- 

 siderable amount of additional material has come 

 to light. This has been carefully collected, and is 

 incorporated in the present edition. The most 

 interesting portion of this new material has been 

 supplied by the Bouquet and Haldimand Papers, 

 added some years ago to the manuscript collections 

 of the British Museum. Among them are several 

 hundred letters from officers engaged in the Pontiac 

 war, some official, others personal and fcmiiliar. 

 affording: verv curious illustrations of the events of 

 the day and of the characters of those engaged in 

 them. Among the facts which they bring to hght, 

 some are sufficiently startling ; as, for example, the 

 proposal of the Commander-in-Chief to infect the 



