creek, about the last of April; and in the following
July (after the expedition against the Wappatomica towns, under Col.
McDonald) he says, "the Indiens are not angry on account of those
murders, but only myself." The fact is, that hostilities had commenced
before the happening of the affair at Captina, or that near Yellow
creek; and these, instead of having produced that event, were the
consequence of the previous hostile movements of the Indians.

[107] Those who lived more immediately in the neighborhood of the
scene of action at that time, were generally of opinion, that the
Indians were urged to war by the instigation of emissaries from
Great Britain, and of the Canadian traders; and, independently of
any knowledge which they may have had of the conduct of these,
circumstances of a general nature would seem to justify that opinion.

The relative situation of the American colonies and the mother
country, is matter of general history, and too well known to require
being repeated here. It is equally well known too, that from the first
establishment of a colony in Canada, the Canadians obtained an
influence over the Natives, greater than the Anglo-Americans were ever
able to acquire; and that this influence was frequently exercised by
them, to the great annoyance, and manifest injury of the latter.
France and England have been long considered as natural enemies; and
the inhabitants of their respective plantations in America,
entertained strong feelings of jealousy towards each other. When by
the treaty of Paris, the French possessions in North America (which
had not been ceded to Spain,) were transferred to Great Britain, those
feelings were not subdued. The Canadians still regarded themselves as
a different people. Their national prejudices were too great to be
extinguished by an union under the same prince. Under the influence of
these prejudices, and the apprehension, that the lucrative commerce of
the natives might, by the competition of the English traders, be
diverted from its accustomed channels, they may have exerted
themselves to excite the Indians to war; but that alone would hardly
have produced this result. There is in man an inherent partiality for
self, which leads him to search for the causes of any evil, elsewhere
than in his own conduct; and under the operation of this propensity to
assign the burden of wrong to be borne by others, the Jesuits from
Canada and Louisiana were censured for the continuat