A history of the American people . rywhere into the Mississippi,—the Il-linois country, the country round about the Ohio, theregions by the Cumberland,—all the boundless backcountry which lay directly behind the colonies atthe west. The Lords Commissioners for Trade andPlantations in London wished to keep settlers out ofthese lands, in order that they might be left as a greathunting ground for the Indians, and so remain a per-manent source of supply for the fur skins which en-riched trade between the mother country and her meanwhile, whether settlers made their way thitheror not,
A history of the American people . rywhere into the Mississippi,—the Il-linois country, the country round about the Ohio, theregions by the Cumberland,—all the boundless backcountry which lay directly behind the colonies atthe west. The Lords Commissioners for Trade andPlantations in London wished to keep settlers out ofthese lands, in order that they might be left as a greathunting ground for the Indians, and so remain a per-manent source of supply for the fur skins which en-riched trade between the mother country and her meanwhile, whether settlers made their way thitheror not, it was necessary to carry Englands power amongthe Indians, and make them know that she, and notthe King of France, was now sovereign there. Thisthe Indians were slow to believe. They could not knowwhat treaty-makers in Europe had decided: they didnot believe that the French would leave and the Eng-lish come in in their stead at the western forts; and itmoved them hotly to think of such a change. The126 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. ywy ? BOUNDARY MONUMENT ON THE ST. CROIX French had made them welcome at their frontier posts,and did not drive off the game, as Duquesne had toldthem, ere this fatal war began. The French had beenwilling to be comrades with them, and had dealt withthem with a certain gracious courtesy and considera-tion ; while the English treated them, when they dared,like dogs rather than like men, drove them far into theforests at their front as they advanced their settlementsbullied them, and often cheated them in trade. Itwas intolerable to the northern Indians to think of thesemen whom they feared and hated being substitutedfor the French, with whom they round it at least possi-ble to live. They were dangerous neighbors, and the danger wasnear and palpable. The war with the French was127 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE hardly over when English settlers began to pour acrossthe Alleghanies from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Vir-ginia,—men of the stern and sober
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