he
adjacent States after the British had failed in their designs against
them in the spring and summer of 1776, gave an opportunity of carrying
war into the Indian country. This was done, not so much to punish what
was past, as to prevent all future co-operation between the Indians and
British in that quarter. Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and
Georgia sent about the same time a considerable force, which traversed
the Indian settlements, burned their towns, and destroyed their fields
of corn. Above 500 of the Cherokees were obliged, from want of
provisions, to take refuge in Florida, and were fed at the expense of
the British Government."[84]

It is to be observed that this was not an invasion of the white
settlements by the Indians, but an invasion of the Indian settlements by
the whites; it was a "carrying war into the Indian country;" it was not
provoked by the Indians, but "was done to prevent all future
co-operation between the Indians and British in that quarter." Yet this
war of _invasion_, this war of _precaution_, was also a war more
destructive to the Indians than any which they, even under the French,
had inflicted on the white colonists; for not an Indian cornfield was
left undestroyed, nor an Indian habitation unconsumed.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 70: The royal historian, Dr. Andrews, says:

"The colonies were particularly exasperated at the introduction of
foreign troops into this quarrel. They looked upon this measure as an
unanswerable proof that all regard for their character as Englishmen was
fled, and that Great Britain viewed them as strangers, whom, if she
could not conquer and enslave, she was determined to destroy. This
persuasion excited their most violent indignation; they considered
themselves as abandoned to plunder and massacre, and that Britain was
unfeelingly bent on their ruin, by whatsoever means she could compass
it.

"While the colonists represented this measure in so sanguinary a light,
it was depicted at home in the same colour by their partisans. It was
even reprobated by many individuals who were not averse to the other
parts of the Ministerial plan, but who could not bring themselves to
approve of the interference of foreign mercenaries in our domestic
feuds.

"It was not only throughout the public at large this measure occasioned
so much discontent; after having in Parliament undergone the keenest
censure of the Opposition, it fell under the displeasure of a
consi