The name has clung,
in spite of the attempts of scientists to fasten upon them the name
Amerinds, to distinguish them from the inhabitants of India. Indians
they will probably always remain, a standing evidence of the confusion
of thought of the early voyagers.
That the Indians owned the country there can be no question; but
civilization has never stopped to consider the claims of savage peoples,
and it did not in this case. Might made right; besides, the Indians,
consisting of scattered, semi-nomadic tribes, seemed to have no use for
the great territory they occupied. Indeed, they themselves, at first,
welcomed the white-skinned newcomers; but they soon grew jealous of
encroachments which never ceased, and at last fought step by step for
their country. They were driven back, defeated, exterminated. But in the
early years, no settlement was safe, and every man was, in a sense, a
pioneer.
The French, in their eagerness for empire, allied themselves with the
Indians, supplied them with arms, and offered a bounty for scalps; and
for nearly three quarters of a century, a bitter and bloody contest was
waged, which ended only with the expulsion of the French from the
continent. Deprived of their ally, the Indians retreated beyond the
mountains, where their war parties gathered to drive back the white
invader.
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