1760-1763.] THE FOREST GARRISONS. 157 



Boeuf, and Venango, which had passed into the 

 hands of the English soon after the capture of 

 Fort du Quesne. The feeble garrisons of all these 

 western posts, exiled from civilization, lived in the 

 solitude of military hermits. Through the long, 

 hot days of summer, and the protracted cold of 

 winter, time hung heavy on their hands. Their 

 resources of employment and recreation were few 

 and meagre. They found partners in their loneli- 

 ness among the young beauties of the Indian camps. 

 They hunted and fished, shot at targets, and played 

 at games of chance ; and when, by good fortune, a 

 traveller found his way among them, he was greeted 

 with a hearty and open-handed welcome, and plied 

 with eager questions touching the great world from 

 which they were banished men. Yet, tedious as it 

 was, their secluded life w^as seasoned wdth stirring 

 danger. The surrounding forests were peopled 

 with a race dark and subtle as their own sunless 

 mazes. At any hour, those jealous tribes might 

 raise the war-cry. No human foresight could pre- 

 dict the sallies of their fierce caprice, and in cease- 

 less watching lay the only safety. 



When the European and the savage are brought 

 in contact, both are gainers, and both are losers. 

 The former loses the refinements of civilization, 

 but he gains, in the rough schooling of the wil- 

 derness, a rugged independence, a self-sustaining 

 energy, and powers of action and perception before 

 unthought of. The savage gains new means of 

 comfort and support, cloth, iron, and gunpowder ; 

 yet these apparent benefits have often proved but 



