[Sidenote] A war among the Indians seasonable for the settlement. At this period, to form alliances with Indian tribes was an object of great importance with the governor and council. One circumstance proved favourable to the colony at the time of its settlement. The Westoes, a powerful and numerous tribe, who harboured an irreconcileable aversion to the white faces of strangers, would have proved a dangerous enemy to them, had not their attention been occupied by the Serannas, another Indian nation. A bloody war between these two tribes providentially raged, and was carried on with such fury, that in the end it proved fatal to both. This served to pave the way for the introduction and establishment of this British settlement, which otherwise might have shared the same unhappy fate with the first adventurers to Virginia. Many tribes besides that might no doubt have extirpated the colony, but it is probable the governor studied by every means to avoid giving them any provocation, and to conciliate their affection and esteem. [Sidenote] Of Indians in general. While we now and then turn our eyes to those wild hunters who ranged through the American woods, we must guard against such false and horrid descriptions of them, as some who have suffered from their warlike temper have exhibited to the world. Many authors have discovered unreasonable prejudices against them, and shewn that they either wanted judgment to distinguish, or candour to make due allowances for, the failings peculiar to all nations in the same rude and uncultivated state. When Julius Cesar carried the Roman arms into Britain, and Germanicus over-run the forests of Germany, did they not find the silvestres of those countries little, if at all, more civilized than the brown natives of America? If the Indians were offended at the encroachments made by strangers on lands which they had possessed unmolested for time immemorial, that is nothing wonderful or uncommon. Lands may be called the first property of all nations on the face of the earth. While unacquainted with the advantages of pasturage and agriculture, a greater extent of hunting lands are requisite for their subsistence. Through this territory, now possessed by Europeans, they had been accustomed to range, independent, fearless and free. If they were ready to defend their property at the risque of life, this practice is nothing more than what all nations in the same barbarous state have followed. Until laws were made to prevent and redress wrongs, and men delivered up their arms to the civil magistrate, have they not, in every age, had recourse to forcible means for the defence of their property? The natives of Carolina were doubtless displeased at the encroachments of strangers on their inheritance, and if they had not advanced a single step towards civilization, no man can reasonably expect from them a conduct incompatible with their natural circumstances. The