[Footnote: _Do._ Letter of A. McKee,
Dec. 24, 1786; McKee to Sir John Johnson, Feb. 25, 1786; Major Ancrum,
May 8, 1786.] The Indians received counsel and advice from the British,
and drew from them both arms and munitions of war, and while the higher
British officers were usually careful to avoid committing any overt
breach of neutrality, the reckless partisan leaders sought to inflame
the Indians against the Americans, and even at times accompanied their
war parties.
Life at a Frontier Post.
The life led at a frontier post like Detroit was marked by sharp
contrasts. The forest round about was cleared away, though blackened
stumps still dotted the pastures, orchards, and tilled fields. The town
itself was composed mainly of the dwellings of the French _habitans_;
some of them were mere hovels, others pretty log cottages, all swarming
with black-eyed children; while the stoutly-made, swarthy men, at once
lazy and excitable, strolled about the streets in their picturesque and
bright-colored blanket suits. There were also a few houses of loyalist
refugees; implacable Tories, stalwart men, revengeful, and goaded by the
memory of many wrongs done and many suffered, who proved the worst
enemies of their American kinsfolk.
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