and dependence upon, the mother country... It does appear
to us that the extension of the fur trade depends entirely
upon the Indians being undisturbed in the possession of
their hunting-grounds... Let the savages enjoy their
deserts in quiet. Were they driven from their forests
the peltry trade would decrease, and it is not impossible
that worse savages would take refuge in them.'

Much has been written about the stamp tax and the tea
tax as causes of the American revolution, but this
determination to confine the colonies to the Atlantic
seaboard 'rendered the revolution inevitable.' [Footnote:
Roosevelt's _The Winning of the West_, part i, p. 57.]
In 1778, three years after the sword was drawn, when an
American force under George Rogers Clark invaded the
Indian country, England's weakly garrisoned posts, then
by the Quebec Act under the government of Canada, were
easily captured; and, when accounts came to be settled
after the war, the entire hinterland south of the Great
Lakes, from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, passed
to the United States.




BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The main source of information regarding the siege of
Detroit is the 'Pontiac Manuscript.' This work has been
translated several times, the best and most recent