From the ignorance of Englishmen with respect to the policy and customs of these wild tribes, they must have been exposed to numberless dangers in the earlier periods of their commercial intercourse. At first, the rude manners of the western savages must have been equally strange to the European, as the civilized manners of eastern nations to the Indian. The commerce itself served to enhance the danger; for although Indians lived much dispersed, yet they united under one chief, and formed different towns, all the lands around which they claimed as their property. The boundaries of their hunting grounds being carefully fixed, each tribe was tenacious of its possessions, and fired with resentment at the least encroachment on them. Every individual looked on himself as a proprietor of all the lands claimed by the whole tribe, and bound in honour to defend them. This may serve to account for many umbrages (which we shall afterwards have occasion to mention) taken by Indians in general at purchases made and titles obtained by private persons, and even by particular provinces: for no Indian, however great his influence and authority, could give away more than his own right to any tract of land, which, in proportion, is no more than as one man to the whole tribe. To all such gifts the concurrence and consent of the whole nation must be obtained. Here a large source of difference and quarrels opened, and a foolish bargain of an individual often exposed the European settlers to the fury and vengeance of the whole clan. [Sidenote] General remarks on the manners, government and religion, _&c._ of the Indians.