There is in the Doc. Hist. of New York (i. p. 17) "an enumeration of the Indian tribes connected with the government of Canada in 1736." It is difficult, if not impossible, to identify many of the tribes in this estimate.[1348]
Elias Boudinot, in A Star in the West; or an humble attempt to discover the long lost tribes of Israel, preparatory to their return to their beloved city, Jerusalem (1816), devotes a small portion of his discussion to the question of population (p. 131 et seq.).[1349]
"A Table of the principal Indian Tribes" was printed in the American Pioneer, a monthly periodical (Cincinnati, i. pp. 257, 408, and ii. 188), where it was credited to Drake's Indian Biography; but in fact it was taken from the Book of the Indians by the same author, which is prefaced with an alphabetical enumeration of the Indian tribes and nations. The numbers of the different tribes are given, and the date of the estimates from which the numbers were derived. Franklin furnished a partial list of warriors in 1762, which may prove useful for comparison, and is included by Benjamin Vaughan in the Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces, &c., written by Benjamin Franklin, &c., &c. Now first collected (London, 1779).[1350]
Colonel Force, in the American Archives, gives a vast amount of material on the employment of Indians as soldiers by the Americans, which before had been lost from sight in scattered publications. The indexes to these volumes do not suitably analyze their contents. The chief corresponding British repositories are Almon's Remembrancer,[1351] a mine which was worked by all the earlier writers upon the Revolutionary War, and to-day the original authority for much of our information; and the Parliamentary Register, often called the Parliamentary Debates,[1352]—more specific accounts of which, as well as of the Annual Register, the Gentleman's Magazine, and the Scots Magazine, will be found in another place. All of these help to show us the information upon which the British public formed their opinions.
The attitude of Congress upon the Indian question has been traced by means of the Journals and Secret Journals of Congress.[1353]
The fact that the powers conferred upon Carleton for the suppression of rebellion in the provinces probably influenced opinion somewhat in the colonies has been already adverted to, as well as the further fact, shown by extracts from other commissions, etc., that there was no special meaning to be attached to the language used in the commissions. That it did have weight and was used as an argument in the discussion is shown in a review of The plan of the Colonies, or the charges brought against them by Lord M——d and others, in a letter to his Lordship, printed in The Monthly Review or Literary Journal (liv., for 1776, p. 408). "Let him review Gen. Carleton's last commission", says the writer. "Your Lordship has already seen it once too often. For what purpose was he authorized to arm the Canadians, and then to march into any other of the plantations, and his majesty's rebellious subjects there to attack, and, by God's help, them to defeat and put to death? For what purpose did Guy Johnson deliver black belts to all the Indian tribes in his district, and persuade them to lift up the hatchet against the white people in the colonies? The Congress is possessed of those very war-belts; they have a copy of Governor Carleton's commission; they have long since possessed the whole plan."
Unfortunately, the chief American compilation, aiming to be a reflex of current news,—Moore's Diary of the American Revolution,—is singularly deficient in excerpts respecting the opinions on employing Indians.[1354] There is need of but brief references to the consideration of the subject among the later writers,—such as Ryerson in his Loyalists of America (ii. ch. 33); Mahon (ch. 52) and Lecky (iv. 14), in their respective histories of England. There is special treatment of the matter by William W. Campbell in "The direct agency of the English Government in the employment of the Indians in the Revolutionary War", published in the New York Hist. Society Proc. (1845, p. 159).[1355]
Frederic Kidder, in The Expeditions of Capt. John Lovewell (Boston, 1865, p. 114), says: "The last trace of them [the Pequakets] as a tribe is in a petition to the government of Massachusetts, dated at Fryeburg, in which they ask for guns, blankets, and ammunition for thirteen men who are willing to enroll themselves on the patriot side. This document was indorsed by the proper authorities, and the request was granted."[1356]
On the 10th of July, 1775, Adjutant-General Gates, at Cambridge, in a circular letter of instructions for the use of recruiting officers, says: "You are not to enlist any deserter from the ministerial army, nor any stroller, negro, or vagabond, or person suspected of being an enemy to the liberty of America, nor any under 18 years of age." "You are not to enlist any person who is not an American born, unless such person has a wife and family, and is a resident in this country" (Niles's Principles and Acts, etc.). Though no mention is made of Indians, the fact of their not being excepted is often pointed out as of significance.
Letters in the N. H. Provincial Papers[1357] betray the fears, along the border, of Carleton and Johnson, and reveal the friendly disposition of the Canadian Indians.