Think of the huge lakes, the great rivers, the illimitable forests, beyond them the plains over which the buffalo herds roam in millions, and beyond them, so they say, range on range of mountains and forests without end." "I have been thinking of them," said Robert, "but I've been thinking of them in a British way." De Galisonniere laughed again and then grew serious.
"It's natural," he said, "that you should think of them in a British way, while I think of them in a French way.

I suppose we shall have war, Mr.Lennox, but doesn't it seem strange that England and France should fight about American territory, when there's so much of it?
Here's a continent that civilized man cannot occupy for many generations.

Both England and France could be hidden away in its forests, and it would take explorers to find them, and yet we must fight over a claim to regions that we cannot occupy." Robert decided then that he liked young de Galisonniere very much.

Some such thoughts had been passing through his own mind, and he was glad that he could talk frankly about the coming war with one who would be on the other side, one who would be an official but not a personal enemy.
As the _Frontenac_ slid on through the tumbling green current they talked earnestly.

Willet, sitting near, glanced at them occasionally, but he too had plenty of thoughts of his own, while Tayoga, saying nothing, gazed at the high green southern shore.