CHAPTER VIII. 



1763. 

 INDIAN PREPAKATION. 



I INTERRUPT the progress of the narrative to 

 glance for a moment at the Indians in their mili- 

 tary capacity, and observe how far they were qual- 

 ified to prosecute the formidable war into which 

 they were about to plunge. 



A people living chiefly by the chase, and there- 

 fore, of necessity, thinly and widely scattered ; 

 divided into numerous tribes, held together by no 

 strong principle of cohesion, and with no central 

 government to combine their strength, could act 

 with little efficiency against such an enemy as was 

 now opposed to them. Loose and disjointed as a 

 whole, the government even of individual tribes, 

 and of their smallest separate communities, was too 

 feeble to deserve the name. There were, it is true, 

 chiefs whose office was in a manner hereditary ; 

 but their authority was wholly of a moral nature, 

 and enforced by no compulsory law. Their prov- 

 ince was to advise, and not to command. Their 

 influence, such as it was, is chiefly to be ascribed 

 to the principle of hero-worship, natural to the 



