d by French troops. These posts were under the
government of Louisiana; but even these the American
colonies were prepared to claim, basing the right on
their 'sea to sea' charters.

The British in America had found the strip of land between
the Alleghanies and the Atlantic far too narrow for a
rapidly increasing population, but their advance westward
had been barred by the French. Now, praise the Lord, the
French were out of the way, and American traders and
settlers could exploit the profitable fur-fields and the
rich agricultural lands of the region beyond the mountains.
True, the Indians were there, but these were not regarded
as formidable foes. There was no longer any occasion to
consider the Indians--so thought the colonists and the
British officers in America. The red men had been a force
to be reckoned with only because the French had supplied
them with the sinews of war, but they might now be treated
like other denizens of the forest--the bears, the wolves,
and the wild cats. For this mistaken policy the British
colonies were to pay a heavy price.

The French and the Indians, save for one exception, had
been on terms of amity from the beginning. The reason
for this was that the French had treated the Indians with
studied kindness. The one exception was the Iroquois
League or Six Nations. Champlain, in the first years of
his residence at Quebec, had joined the Algonquins and
Hurons in an attack on them, which they never forgot;
and, in spite of the noble efforts of French missionaries
and a lavish bestowal of gifts, the Iroquois thorn remained
in the side of New France. But with the other Indian
tribes the French worked hand in hand, with the Cross
and the priest ever in advance of the trader's pack.
French missionaries were the first white men to settle
in the populous Huron country near Lake Simcoe. A missionary
was the first European to catch a glimpse of Georgian
Bay, and a missionary was probably the first of the French
race to launch his canoe on the lordly Mississippi. As
a father the priest watched over his wilderness flock;
while the French traders fraternized with the red men,
and often mated with dusky beauties. Many French traders,
according to Sir William Johnson--a good authority, of
whom we shall learn more later-were 'gentlemen in manners,
character, and dress,' and they treated the natives
kindly. At the great centres of trade--Montreal, Three
Rivers, and Quebec--the chiefs were royall