1767.] FRESH DISTURBANCES. 307 



and hunting like an ordinary warrior. With the 

 succeeding spring, 1767, fresh murmurings of dis- 

 content arose among the Indian tribes, from the 

 lakes to the Potomac, the first precursors of the 

 disorders which, a few years later, ripened into a 

 brief but bloody war along the borders of Virginia, 

 These threatening symptoms might easily be traced 

 to their source. The incorrigible frontiersmen had 

 again let loose their murdering propensities ; and a 

 multitude of squatters had built their cabins on 

 Indian lands beyond the limits of Pennsylvania, 

 adding insult to aggression, and sparing neither 

 oaths, curses, nor any form of abuse and maltreat- 

 ment against the rightful owners of the soil.^ The 

 new regulations of the fur-trade could not prevent 

 disorders amon«: the reckless men ens^ao^ed in it. 

 This was particularly the case in the region of the 

 Illinois, where the evil was aggravated by the 

 renewed intrigues of the French, and especially of 

 those who had fled from the English side of the 

 Mississippi, and made their abode around the new 

 settlement of St. Louis.^ It is difficult to say how 

 far Pontiac was involved in this agitation. It is 

 certain that some of the English traders regarded 

 him with jealousy and fear, as prime mover of the 

 whole, and eagerly watched an opportunity to 

 destroy him. 



The discontent among the tribes did not diminish 



1 " It seems/' writes Sir William Johnson to the lords of trade, " as 

 if the people were determined to bring on a new war, though their own 

 ruin may be the consequence." 



2 /)oc. Hist. N. Y. II. 861-893, etc. MS. Johnson Papers. MS. Gage 

 Papers. 



