the following June; but the testimony seems conclusive that he was
active in instigating hostility from the time of his arrival.]


Lt-Gov. Henry Hamilton. Scalp Buying.

Hamilton was for the next two years the mainspring of Indian hostility
to the Americans in the northwest. From the beginning he had been
anxious to employ the savages against the settlers, and when the home
government bade him hire them he soon proved himself very expert, as
well as very ruthless, in their use. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Germaine
to Carlton, March 26, 1777.] He rapidly acquired the venomous hatred of
the backwoodsmen, who held him in peculiar abhorrence, and nicknamed him
the "hair-buyer" general, asserting that he put a price on the scalps of
the Americans. This allegation may have been untrue as affecting
Hamilton personally; he always endeavored to get the war parties to
bring in prisoners, and behaved well to the captives when they were in
his power; nor is there any direct evidence that he himself paid out
money for scalps. But scalps were certainly bought and paid for at
Detroit; [Footnote: See the "American Pioneer," I., 292, for a very
curious account of an Indian, who by dividing a large scalp into two got
fifty dollars for each half at Detroit.] and the commandant himself was
accustomed to receive them with formal solemnity at the councils held to
greet the war parties when they returned from successful
raids. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS; _passim;_ also Heckewelder, etc.] The
only way to keep the friendship of the Indians was continually to give
them presents; these presents were naturally given to the most
successful warriors; and the scalps were the only safe proofs of a
warrior's success. Doubtless the commandant and the higher British
officers generally treated the Americans humanely when they were brought