ngly, a consultation was held, at
which King George, Governor, and all the other head men, contended that
'The Americans were strangers _who had forgot their attachment to the
land of their fathers_; for if not, why had they not renounced their
connexion with white men altogether, and placed themselves under the
protection of the kings of the country? King George had already been
under the necessity of removing from his town, and leaving the Cape in
their hands. This was but the first step of their encroachments. If left
alone, they must, in a very few years, master the whole country. And as
all other places were full, their own tribe must be without a home, and
cease any longer to remain a nation.'[E] This appeal (which evinces an
intimate acquaintance with human nature and much foresight) induced the
attack to which allusion has been made. A single paragraph from the
Rev. Mr Ashmun's account of the battle with the natives may suffice to
give the reader an idea of its destructiveness:

'A few musketeers with E. Johnson at their head, by passing
round upon the enemy's flank, served to increase the
consternation which was beginning to pervade their unwieldy
body. In about twenty minutes after the settlers had taken their
stand, the front of the enemy began to recoil. But from the
numerous obstructions in their rear, the entire absence of
discipline, and the extreme difficulty of giving a reversed
motion to so large a body, a small part only of which was
directly exposed to danger, and the delay occasioned by the
practice of carrying off all their dead and wounded, rendered a
retreat for some minutes longer, impossible. The very violence
employed by those in the front, in their impatience to hasten
it, by increasing the confusion, produced an effect opposite to
that intended. The Americans perceiving their advantage, now
regained possession of the western post, and instantly brought
the long nine to rake the whole line of the enemy. Imagination
can scarcely figure to itself a throng of human beings in a more
capital state of exposure to the destructive power of the
machinery of modern warfare! Eight hundred men were here pressed
shoulder to shoulder, in so compact a form, that a child might
easily walk upon their heads from one end of the mass to the
other, presenting in their rear a breadth of rank equal to
twenty or thirty men,