dles in general exclamations, or perplexes by undigefted narratives; to fhew whence happiness or calamity is derived, and whence it may be expected; and honestly to lay before the people what inquiry can gather of the past, and conjecture can estimate of the future.

The general fubject of the prefent war is fufficiently known. It is allowed on both fides, that hoftilities began in America, and that the French and English quarrelled about the boundaries of their fettlements, about grounds and rivers to which, I am afraid, neither can fhew any other right than that of power, and which neither can occupy but by ufurpation, and the difpoffeffion of the natural lords and original inhabitants. Such is the contest, that no honeft man can heartily wifh fuccefs to either party.

It may indeed be alleged, that the Indians have granted large tracts of land both to one and to the other; but thefe grants can add little to the validity of our titles, till it be experienced how they were obtained: for if they were extorted by violence, or induced by fraud; by threats, which the miferies of other nations had fhewn not to be vain, or by promifes of which no performance was ever intended, what are they but new modes of ufurpation, but new inftances of cruelty and treachery?

And indeed what but falfe hope or refiftlefs terror Can prevail upon a weaker nation to invite a ftronger into their country, to give their lands to ftrangers whom no affinity of manners, or fimilitude of opinion, can be faid to recommend, to permit them

to

to build towns from which the natives are excluded, to raise fortreffes by which they are intimidated, to fettle themselves with fuch ftrength, that they cannot afterwards be expelled, but are for ever to remain the mafters of the original inhabitants, the dictators of their conduct, and the arbiters of their fate?

When we see men acting thus against the precepts of reafon, and the inftincts of nature, we cannot hesitate to determine, that by fome means or other they were debarred from choice; that they were lured or frighted into compliance; that they either granted only what they found impoffible to keep, or expected advantages upon the faith of their new inmates, which there was no purpofe to confer upon them. It cannot be said, that the Indians originally invited us to their coafts; we went uncalled and unexpected to nations who had no imagination that the earth contained any inhabitants fo distant and fo different from themselves. We aftonished them with our fhips, with our arms, and with our general fuperiority. They yielded to us as to beings of another and higher race, fent among them from fome unknown regions, with power which naked Indians could not refift, and which they were therefore, by every act of humility, to propitiate, that they, who could fo eafily deftroy, might be induced to spare.

To this influence, and to this only, are to be attributed all the ceffions and fubmiffions of the Indian princes, if indeed any fuch ceffions were ever made, of which we have no witness but those who claim from them, and there is no great malignity

L 2

lignity in fufpecting, that thofe who have robbed

have alfo lied.

Some colonies indeed have been established more peaceably than others. The utmost extremity of wrong has not always been practifed; but those that have fettled in the new world on the faireft terms, have no other merit than that of a fcrivener who ruins in filence, over a plunderer that feizes by force; all have taken what had other owners, and all have had recourse to arms, rather than quit the prey on which they had fastened.

The American difpute between the French and us is therefore only the quarrel of two robbers for the fpoils of a paffenger; but as robbers have terms of confederacy, which they are obliged to obferve as members of the gang, fo the English and French may have relative rights, and do injustice to each other, while both are injuring the Indians. And fuch, indeed, is the prefent conteft: they have parted the northern continent of America between them, and are now difputing about their boundaries, and each is endeavouring the deftruction of the other by the help of the Indians, whofe intereft it is that both fhould be destroyed.

Both nations clamour with great vehemence about infractions of limits, violation of treaties, open ufurpation, infidious artifices, and breach of faith. The English rail at the perfidious French, and the French at the encroaching English; they quote treaties on each fide, charge each other with afpiring to univerfal monarchy, and complain on either part of the infecurity of poffeffion near fuch turbulent neighbours.

Through

Through this mist of controverfy it can raife no wonder that the truth is not easily discovered. When a quarrel has been long carried on between individuals, it is often very hard to tell by whom it was begun. Every fact is darkened by distance, by interest, and by multitudes. Information is not eafily procured from far; thofe whom the truth will not favour, will not ftep voluntarily forth to tell it; and where there are many agents, it is easy for every single action to be concealed.

All these causes concur to the obfcurity of the question, "By whom were hoftilities in America "commenced?" Perhaps there never can be remembered a time in which hoftilities had ceased. Two powerful colonies enflamed with immemorial rivalry, and placed out of the fuperintendence of the mother nations, were not likely to be long at reft. Some oppofition was always going forward, some mischief was every day done or meditated, and the borderers were always better pleafed with what they could fnatch from their neighbours, than what they had of their own.

In this difpofition to reciprocal invafion a cause of difpute never could be wanting. The forefts and deferts of America are without land-marks, and therefore cannot be particularly fpecified in ftipulations: the appellations of thofe wide-extended regions have in every mouth a different meaning, and are understood on either fide as inclination happens to contract or extend them. Who has yet pretended to define how much of America is included · in Brazil, Mexico, or Peru? It is almost as easy to divide the Atlantic ocean by a line, as clearly to afcertain

L3

afcertain the limits of thofe uncultivated, uninhabitable, unmeafured regions.

It is likewife to be confidered, that contracts concerning boundaries are often left vague and indefinite without neceffity, by the defire of each party, to interpret the ambiguity to its own advantage when a fit opportunity fhall be found. In forming ftipulations, the commiffaries are often ignorant, and often negligent; they are fometimes weary with debate, and contract a tedious difcuffion into general terms, or refer it to a former treaty, which was never understood. The weaker part is always afraid of requiring explanations, and the ftronger always has an intereft in leaving the queftion undecided: thus it will happen, without great caution on either fide, that after long treaties folemnly ratified, the rights that had been difputed are ftill equally open to controversy.

In America, it may eafily be fuppofed, that there are tracts of land not yet claimed by either party, and therefore mentioned in no treaties, which yet one or the other may be afterwards inclined to occupy; but to thefe vacant and unfettled countries each nation may pretend, as each conceives itself intitled to all that is not exprefsly granted to the other.

Here then is a perpetual ground of contest: every enlargement of the poffeffions of either will be confidered as fomething taken from the other, and each will endeavour to regain what had never been claimed, but that the other occupied it.

Thus obfcure in its original is the American conteft. It is difficult to find the first invader, or to

tell