Sir William Johnson described the British traders as 'men of no zeal or capacity: men who even sacrifice the credit of the nation to the basest purposes.' There were exceptions, of course, in such men as Alexander Henry and Johnson himself, who, besides being a wise official and a successful military commander, was one of the leading traders.
No sooner was New France vanquished than the British began building new forts and blockhouses in the hinterland.
[Footnote: By the hinterland is meant, of course, the regions beyond the zone of settlement; roughly, all west of Montreal and the Alleghanies.] Since the French were no longer to be reckoned with, why were these forts needed?
Evidently, the Indians thought, to keep the red children in subjection and to deprive them of their hunting-grounds! The gardens they saw in cultivation about the forts were to them the forerunners of general settlement.

The French had been content with trade; the British appropriated lands for farming, and the coming of the white settler meant the disappearance of game.
Indian chiefs saw in these forts and cultivated strips of land a desire to exterminate the red man and steal his territory; and they were not far wrong.
Outside influences, as well, were at work among the Indians.

Soon after the French armies departed, the inhabitants along the St Lawrence had learned to welcome the change of government.

They were left to cultivate their farms in peace.

The tax-gatherer was no longer squeezing from them their last sou as in the days of Bigot; nor were their sons, whose labour was needed on the farms and in the workshops, forced to take up arms.
They had peace and plenty, and were content.