1763, July.] BOUQUET AND AMHERST. 39 



posts at Presqu' Isle, Le Boeuf, and Venango." 

 He at once sent the news to Amherst ; who, 

 though he persisted in his original plan of opera- 

 tions, became at length convinced of the formidable 

 nature of the Indian outbreak, and felt bitterly the 

 slenderness of his own resources. His correspond- 

 ence, nevertheless, breathes a certain thick-headed, 

 blustering arrogance, w^orthy of the successor of 

 Braddock.^ In his contempt for the Indians, he 

 finds fault with Captain Ecuyer at Fort Pitt for 

 condescending to fire cannon at them, and with 

 Lieutenant Blane at Fort Ligonier for burning 

 some outhouses, under cover of which " so despic- 

 able an enemy " were firing at his garrison. This 

 despicable enemy had, however, pushed him to such 

 straits that he made, in a postscript to Bouquet, the 

 following detestable suggestion : — 



" Could it not be contrived to send the Small 

 Pox among those disafi'ected tribes of Indians'? 

 We must on this occasion use every stratagem in 

 our power to reduce them." 



(Signed) J. A. 



1 The following is a characteristic example. He is writing to John- 

 son, 27 Aug. 176o : " I shall only say that it Behoves the Whole Race of 

 Indians to Beware (for I Fear the best of them have in some Measure 

 been privy to, and Concerned in the Late Mischief) of Carrying Matters 

 much farther against the English, or Daring to form Conspiracys ; as the 

 Consequence will most Certainly occasion Measures to be taken, that, in 

 the End, will put a most Effectual Stop to their Very Being." 



The following is his view of the Indians, in a letter to Bouquet, 

 7 Aug. 1763 : — 



"I wish there was not an Indian Settlement within a thousand miles 

 of our Country, for they are only fit to live with the Inhabitants of the 

 woods : (i.e., wild beasts), being more allied to the Brute than the human 

 Creation." 



