"Accordingly," says Post, "I stuck to the fire as if I had been
chained there. On the next day the Indians, with a great many French
officers, came out to hear what I had to say. The officers brought with
them a table, pens, ink, and paper. I spoke in the midst of them with a
free conscience, and perceived by their looks that they were not pleased
with what I said." The substance of his message was an invitation to the
Indians to renew the old chain of friendship, joined with a warning that
an English army was on its way to drive off the French, and that they
would do well to stand neutral.
He addressed an audience filled with an inordinate sense of their own
power and importance, believing themselves greater and braver than
either of the European nations, and yet deeply jealous of both. "We have
heard," they said, "that the French and English mean to kill all the
Indians and divide the land among themselves." And on this string they
harped continually. If they had known their true interest, they would
have made no peace with the English, but would have united as one man to
form a barrier of fire against their farther progress; for the West in
English hands meant farms, villages, cities, the ruin of the forest, the
extermination of the game, and the expulsion of those who lived on it;
while the West in French hands meant but scattered posts of war and
trade, with the native tribes cherished as indispensable allies.
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