The red men had been a force to be reckoned with only because the French had supplied them with the sinews of war, but they might now be treated like other denizens of the forest--the bears, the wolves, and the wild cats.

For this mistaken policy the British colonies were to pay a heavy price.
The French and the Indians, save for one exception, had been on terms of amity from the beginning.

The reason for this was that the French had treated the Indians with studied kindness.

The one exception was the Iroquois League or Six Nations.

Champlain, in the first years of his residence at Quebec, had joined the Algonquins and Hurons in an attack on them, which they never forgot; and, in spite of the noble efforts of French missionaries and a lavish bestowal of gifts, the Iroquois thorn remained in the side of New France.