Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/46

36 complain to the governors and authorities of their respective State or Territory, and in many cases to the federal government; but justice is not always done to them, nor any satisfaction given. A series of these outrages at length wearies their patience; and when they find a fit opportunity, they take vengeance into their own hands, attack those who enter their grounds to lay them waste, or drive off their cattle, and either murder them, or sometimes pursue them beyond the frontier, committing reprisals upon the American possessions, with the ferocity belonging to their nature. When either of these events happens, the cry of alarm and indignation resounds through the whole United States, and the government sends an army to chastise the Indians.

Such is the motive or apparent cause of the deadly and exterminating wars, which have been hitherto waged against these unhappy beings. The government always entrusts the conduct of them to impetuous generals, who suffering themselves to be carried away by a passion for war, even to the overwhelming in ruin these almost defenceless and wretched aboriginals, pursue them with fire and sword, burn their miserable cabins, and put to destruction all who are not so fortunate as to escape to distant forests or inaccessible mountains.

At the end of the campaign, a treaty is entered into with the unfortunate victims, who have