, whereupon Col.
M'Douall, the British commandant at Michillimackinac, wrote to General
Drummond:[189] ... "I saw at once the imperious necessity which existed
of endeavoring by every means to dislodge the American Genl from his new
conquest, and make him relinquish the immense tract of country he had
seized upon in consequence & which brought him into the very heart of
that occupied by our friendly Indians, There was no alternative it must
either be done or there was an end to our connection with the Indians
for if allowed to settle themselves by dint of threats bribes & sowing
divisions among them, tribe after tribe would be gained over or subdued,
& thus would be destroyed the only barrier which protects the great
trading establishments of the North West and the Hudson's Bay Companys.
Nothing could then prevent the enemy from gaining the source of the
Mississippi, gradually extending themselves by the Red river to Lake
Winnipic, from whense the descent of Nelsons river to York Fort would in
time be easy."

The British traders, voyageurs and Indians[190] dislodged the Americans,
and at the close of the war England was practically in possession of the
Indian country of the Northwest.

In the negotiations at Ghent the British commissioners asserted the
sovereignty of the Indians over their lands, and their independence in
relation to the United States, and demanded that a barrier of Indian
territory should be established between the two countries, free to the
traffic of both nations but not open to purchase by either.[191] The
line of the Grenville treaty was suggested as a basis for determining
this Indian region. The proposition would have removed from the
sovereignty of the United States the territory of the Northwest with the
exception of about two-thirds of Ohio,[192] and given it over to the
British fur traders. The Americans declined to grant the terms, and the
United States was finally left in possession of the Northwest.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 161: Va. Hist. Colls., N.S., II, 329.]

[Footnote 162: N.Y. Col. Docs., V., 726.]

[Footnote 163: Indian relations had a noteworthy influence upon colonial
union; see Lucas, Appendiculae Historicae, 161, and Frothingham, Rise of
the Republic, ch. iv.]

[Footnote 164: Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, I., 59; Sparks, Washington's
Works, II., 302.]

[Footnote 165: Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, I., 21.]

[Footnote 166: _Ibid._ II., 403.]

[Footnote 167: Bigelow, Frank