s in danger of starvation.

Such were the various causes, which combined first to alarm, and then to
goad into madness, this unhappy people. They were troublesome, and were
repelled. Wantonly wounded and shot down, they retaliated. Fresh wrongs
produced their kind: at length, every white man was a _guerilla_, and
every black an assassin. The original temper of both parties was
changed. Dread detestation and treachery embittered every mind: even the
humane yielded to the general sentiment. It became a question, which
race should perish, and every man's verdict was in favor of his own.

From this, however, it is not to be inferred, that the natives were
originally treacherous and cruel. It was stated by the Aborigines'
Committee, in the middle of the conflict, that such dispositions were
the substratum of their character, which, though disguised, only waited
for time and opportunity. The colonists in general, at last, believed
them to delight in blood, by an innate cruelty of temper--to find
pleasure in the terrors they excited, and the convulsive agonies of the
dying; but the records of mankind are full of such moral
transformations. The Indians of America, we are informed by Dr. Dwight,
became corrupt, to a degree "enormous and dreadful: full of malice,
cruelty, and murders." But he himself, elsewhere remarks, that within
his observation white men, commonly sober, moral, and orderly, on
joining a mob, lost every one of these qualities; and, in a few hours of
excitement, exhibited more vice than he had witnessed for years. The
causes of degeneracy are not examined, when its mischief is suffered.
Sir George Arthur, in his despatches, asserted that the natives were,
and had been, "a most treacherous race,"--a view, which the Committee
adopted: these opinions were afterwards greatly modified; nor would it
be just to admit their truth, without stronger evidence than history
affords. Among the aborigines, some were distinguished for ferocity:
such was a woman who led on the Big River tribe, and who was called by
Mr. Robinson, the "Amazon." A few were guilty of the crimes imputed to
the race: and who were often their oppressors, rather than their
avengers.

Though individuals, undoubtedly, displayed the vices imputed, who will
condemn the natural disposition of a people for actions committed at
lone intervals, by solitary assassins and marauders? The English alone
could preserve a record of the past, and after a careful exam