s. So the fur traders became
important features of the forest life, and their business grew to be so
immensely profitable that its control was one of the prime objects for
which England and France fought in America. The little forts that the
French scattered over the country were only trading-posts, and at them,
so long as their builders ruled, the Indians were treated with a
fairness and courtesy that won their firm friendship and made them
stanch allies in times of war. But when the French power was broken,
and the Indians, without at all understanding why, found that they must
hereafter deal only with English fur traders, all this was changed.

There was no longer a war on hand nor a rival power in the land,
therefore the necessity for conciliating the Indian and gaining his
friendship no longer existed. The newcomers did not care so much for
furs as they did for land. For this they were willing to trade rum,
but not guns, knives, powder, or bullets. These must be kept from the
Indian, lest he do mischief. He no longer found in the white man a
friend, but a master, and a very cruel one at that.

It was now considered good economy to withhold the presents that in war
time had been so lavishly bestowed on the Indians, and the one problem
that the English sought to solve was how to get rid of the undesirable
red man as cheaply and quickly as possible. The little trading-posts,
in which he had been made a welcome guest, were now filled with
red-coated soldiers, who called him a dog and treated him as such. He
became ragged and hungry, was driven from the homes of his fathers, and
finally began to perceive that even the privilege of living was not to
be granted him much longer. He grew desperate, and his hatred against
those who had driven away his kind French friends and brought about all
his present misery became very bitter. He saw plainly that if he did
not drive these redcoats back to the sea whence they came, they would
soon sweep his race from the face of the earth. There seemed to be
only a few white men and many Indians; but while the former were united
under one great leader, the latter were divided into many tribes with
many little leaders. If they, too, would only find some great chief,
under whom all the tribes could unite, how quickly would they wipe out
the hated redcoats and teach the English to respect their rights.
Perhaps as soon as they began to fight for themselves the white-coated
soldi