ed,
they set forth to hunt, as on common occasions, resuming their station
near the besieged place as soon as they are supplied.

It must he confessed, that they had many motives to this persevering and
deadly hostility, apart from their natural propensity to war. They saw
this new and hated race of pale faces gradually getting possession of
their hunting grounds, and cutting down their forests. They reasoned
forcibly and justly, that the time, when to oppose these new intruders
with success, was to do it before they had become numerous and strong in
diffused population and resources. Had they possessed the skill of
corporate union, combining individual effort with a general concert of
attack, and directed their united force against each settlement in
succession, there is little doubt, that at this time they might have
extirpated the new inhabitants from Kentucky, and have restored it to
the empire of the wild beasts and the red men. But in the order of
events it was otherwise arranged. They massacred, they burnt, and
plundered, and destroyed. They killed cattle, and carried off the
horses;--inflicting terror, poverty, and every species of distress; but
were not able to make themselves absolute masters of a single station.

It has been found by experiment, that the settlers in such predicaments
of danger and apprehension, act under a most spirit-stirring excitement,
which, notwithstanding its alarms, is not without its pleasures. They
acquired fortitude, dexterity, and that kind of courage which results
from becoming familiar with exposure.

The settlements becoming extended, the Indians, in their turn, were
obliged to put themselves on the defensive. They cowered in the distant
woods for concealment, or resorted to them for hunting. In these
intervals, the settlers, who had acquired a kind of instinctive
intuition to know when their foe was near them, or had retired to
remoter forests, went forth to plough their corn, gather in their
harvests, collect their cattle, and pursue their agricultural
operations. These were their holyday seasons for hunting, during which
they often exchanged shots with their foe. The night, as being most
secure from Indian attack, was the common season selected for journeying
from garrison to garrison.

We, who live in the midst of scenes of abundance and tranquillity can
hardly imagine how a country could fill with inhabitants, under so many
circumstances of terror, in addition to all th