158 BRADSTREET'S ARMY ON THE LAKES. [17G3, 1764. 



the supposition that the Indian tribes must gradually 

 dwindle and waste away, it might well have awak- 

 ened the utmost fears of that unhappy people. 

 Yet none but an enthusiast or fanatic could con- 

 demn it as iniquitous. To reclaim the Indians 

 from their savage state has again and again been 

 attempted, and each attempt has failed. Their 

 intractable, unchanging character leaves no other 

 alternative than their gradual extinction, or the 

 abandonment of the western world to eternal bar- 

 barism ; and of this and other similar plans, 

 whether the offspring of British or American 

 legislation, it may alike be said that sentimental 

 philanthropy will find it easier to cavil at than to 

 amend them. 



Now, turning from the Indians, let us observe 

 the temper of those whose present business it was 

 to cudgel them into good behavior ; that is to say, 

 the British officers, of high and low degree. They 

 seem to have been in a mood of universal discon- 

 tent, not in the least surprising when one consid- 

 ers that they were forced to wage, with crippled 

 resources, an arduous, profitless, and inglorious 

 war ; while perverse and jealous legislatures added 

 gall to their bitterness, and taxed their patience 

 to. its utmost endurance. The impossible require- 

 ments of the commander-in-chief were sometimes 

 joined to their other vexations. Sir Jeffrey 

 Amherst, who had, as we have seen, but a slight 

 opinion of Indians, and possibly of everybody else 

 except a British nobleman and a British soldier, 

 expected much of his officers ; and was at times 



