“Few of the more enlightened of our citizens give into the belief” said the Major; “still it will give me especial pleasure to have it in my power to contradict the assertion from the lips of General Brock himself.”

“That we have entered into a treaty of alliance with the Indians,” observed Colonel D’Egville, “is most certainly true; but it is an alliance wholly defensive.  I must further observe that in whatever light the policy of the Government of the United States, in its relations with the Indians, may be privately viewed, we are, under all circumstances, the last people in the world who should condemn it as injurious to our public interests, since it has been productive of results affecting the very existence of these provinces.  Had the American Government studied conciliation, rather than extension of territory, it is difficult to say to what side the great body of the Indians would, in the impending struggle, have leaned.  The possibility of some such event as the present had not only been foreseen, but anticipated.  It has long been obvious to us that the spirit of acquisition manifested by the United States, would not confine itself to its customary channels; but on the contrary, that, not contented with the appropriation of the hunting grounds of the Indians, it would finally extend its views to Canada.  Such a crisis has long been provided against.  Presents, to a large amount, have certainly been distributed among the Indians, and not only this, but every courtesy, consistent at once with our dignity and our interest, has been shown to them.  You have seen, for instance,” continued he with a smile, “my three friends, who have just left the room; they are not exactly the happiest specimens of Indian grace, but they have great weight in the council, and are the leading men in the alliance to which you hare alluded, although not wholly for the same purpose.  In the wars of Pontiac—­and these are still fresh in the recollection of certain members of my own family—­the English Commanders, with one or two exceptions, brought those disasters upon themselves.  Forgetting that the Indians were a proud people, whom to neglect was to stir into hatred, they treated them, with indifference, if not with contempt; and dearly did they pay the penalty of their fault.  As we all know, they, with one only exception, were destroyed.  In their fall expired the hostility they themselves had provoked, and time had wholly obliterated the sense of injustice from the minds of the several nations.  Were we then with these fearful examples, yet fresh in our recollection, to fall into a similar error?  No; a course of conciliation was adopted, and has been pursued for years; and now do we reap the fruit of what, after all, is but an act of the most justifiable policy.  In my capacity of superintendant of Indian affairs, Major Montgomerie, even more than at a Canadian brought up among them, I have had opportunities of studying the characters of the heads of the several