THE COLONISTS AND NATIVE TRIBES. Ill 



settler, possess in general neither the temper nor the 

 ability requisite for extensive and accurate observa- 

 vation on such a subject. But the numerous expe- 

 riments made by the Colonial Government, during 

 the last thirty or forty years, have established some 

 important facts, and enable us to lay down, without 

 any risk, several most pleasing maxims for future 

 practice. 



" Our relation with the native tribes at the com- 

 mencement of that period, was one of inveterate hos- 

 tility — of plunder on the one side, and extirpation on 

 the other. Resentment had been worked up to the 

 highest pitch of malice by mutual and constantly- 

 recurring injuries. The colonist, robbed of his cattle, 

 hunted the native like a beast — the native, driven 

 from his country, hated the invader as a fiend. 

 The voice of law, of government, of humanity, was 

 drowned, baffled, or perverted by the well-grounded 

 reproaches which the advocates of the opposite par- 

 ties poured upon each other. As for religion, her 

 sway was limited by prejudice in the only party 

 accessible to her persuasions, and it was boldly af- 

 firmed that her principles could not apply in a con- 

 test with a race not included in the plan of salvation. 

 Such was the result of the first experiment, which 

 rested for success on terror. It has often been re- 

 peated since, with every circumstance that could be 

 devised to give it effect, and the consequences have 

 been invariably the same — wars of the most harass- 



