Description
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912 edition. Excerpt: …resolved on by the Indians for the prosecution of the war was that of a general massacre of all the inhabitants of the English settlements in the western country, as well as of those on the lands on the Susquehanna, to which they laid claim. Never did military commanders of any nation display more skill, or their troops more steady and determined bravery, than did those red men of the wilderness in the prosecution of their gigantic plan for the recovery of their country from the possession of the English. It was, indeed, a war of utter extermination on an extensive scale, a conflict which exhibited human nature in its native state, in which the cunning of the fox is associated with the cruelty of the tiger. We read the history of this war with feelings of the deepest horror; but why? On the part of the savages, theirs was the ancient mode of warfare, in which there was nothing of mercy. If science, associated with the benign influence of the Christian system, has limited the carnage of war to those in arms, so as to give the right of life and hospitality to women, infancy, old age, the sick, wounded and prisoners, may not a farther extension of the influence of those powerful but salutary agents put an end to war altogether? May not future generations read the history of our civilized warfare with equal horror and wonder, that, with our science and piety, we had wars at all! The English traders among the Indians were the first victims in this contest. Out of one hundred and twenty of them, among the different nations, only two or three escaped being murdered. The forts of Presque Isle, St. Joseph and Michilimackinac were taken, with a general slaughter of their garrisons. The fortresses of Bedford, Ligonier, Niagara, Detroit and Pitt were…
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