At the great centres of trade--Montreal, Three
Rivers, and Quebec--the chiefs were royally received with
roll of drum and salute of guns. The governor himself
--the 'Big Mountain,' as they called him--would extend
to them a welcoming hand and take part in their feastings
and councils. At the inland trading-posts the Indians
were given goods for their winter hunts on credit and
loaded with presents by the officials. To such an extent
did the custom of giving presents prevail that it became
a heavy tax on the treasury of France, insignificant,
however, compared with the alternative of keeping in the
hinterland an armed force. The Indians, too, had fought
side by side with the French in many notable engagements.
They had aided Montcalm, and had assisted in such triumphs
as the defeat of Braddock. They were not only friends of
the French; they were sword companions.
The British colonists could not, of course, entertain
friendly feelings towards the tribes which sided with
their enemies and often devastated their homes and murdered
their people. But it must be admitted that, from the
first, the British in America were far behind the French
in christianlike conduct towards the native races. The
colonial traders generally despised the Indians and
treated them as of commercial value only, as gatherers
of pelts, and held their lives in little more esteem than
the lives of the animals that yielded the pelts.
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