194 INDIAN PREPARATION. [1763. 



be carried on with effect, it was the part of the 

 Indian leaders to work upon the passions of their 

 people, and keep alive their irritation ; to whet 

 their native appetite for blood and glory, and cheer 

 them on to the attack ; to guard against all that 

 might quench their ardor, or cool their fierceness ; 

 to avoid pitched battles ; never to fight except under 

 advantage ; and to avail themselves of all the aid 

 which craft and treachery could afford. The very 

 circumstances which unfitted the Indians for con- 

 tinued and concentrated attack were, in another 

 view, highly advantageous, by preventing the enemy 

 from assailing them with vital effect. It was no 

 easy task to penetrate tangled woods in search of 

 a foe, alert and active as a lynx, who would seldom 

 stand and fight, whose deadly shot and triumphant 

 whoop were the first and often the last tokens of 

 his presence, and who, at the approach of a hostile 

 force, would vanish into the black recesses of for- 

 ests and pine swamps, only to renew his attacks 

 with unabated ardor. There were no forts to cap- 

 ture, no magazines to destroy, and little property 

 to seize upon. No warfare could be more perilous 

 and harassing in its prosecution, or less satisfactory 

 in its results. 



The English colonies at this time were but ill 

 fitted to bear the brunt of the impending war. 

 The army which had conquered Canada was 

 broken up and dissolved ; the provincials were 

 disbanded, and most of the regulars sent home. 

 A few fragments of regiments, miserably wasted 

 by war and sickness, had just arrived from the 



