* * * * * [FN-1] Speech of of Minavavana. [FN-2] Rogers' Account, p. 242. On the whole, we have seen no evidence, and we know of no reason for presuming, that he was ever any farther attached to "the British interest," or rather any otherwise affected towards the idea of becoming attached, than is indicated by the very independent declaration made as above stated. In regard to the question why he never did become attached to the British interest,--taking that for the correct representation of the fact,--history is silent, as unfortunately it is in regard to most of the remarkable occurrences on the frontiers which accompanied and followed his enterprise. The conjectures of any one man, who has intelligently investigated and reflected upon such history as there is, may be worth as much as those of any other. It seems to be probable, however, that although hostilities might have been prevented by a system of good management on the part of the English, (in which their predecessors could have given them a lesson,) they did not arise from any particular acts of aggression. Pontiac _reasoned_ as well as felt. He reasoned as Philip had done before him, and as Tecumseh will be found to have done since. He had begun to apprehend danger from this new government and people; danger to his own dominion and to the Indian interest at large; danger from their superiority in arms, their ambition, their eagerness in possessing themselves of every military position on the Northern waters;--and we may add also, their want of that ostensible cordiality towards the Indians, personally, to which the latter had been so much accustomed and attached in the golden days of the French, and which they were apt to regard as a necessary indication of good faith as of good will. In the language of the Chippewa orator, the French had lived in the same lodge with them. They had sent them missionaries; and invited them to councils, and made them presents, and talked and traded with them, and manifested an interest in their affairs, [FN] always suspected by the Indians less, and yet always effecting their own purposes better and farther, than any other people. * * * * * [FN] Discourse of Schoolcraft. The English, on the other hand, if they committed no aggressions,--(the expedition of Rogers was perhaps considered one; but _that_ Pontiac forgave,)--yet manifested but a slight disposition for national courtesy, or for individual intercourse, or for a beneficial commerce of any description. In other words, they "neglected"--to use Pontiac's phrase,--all those circumstances which made the neighborhood of the French agreeable, and which might have made their own at least tolerable. The conduct of the latter never gave rise to suspicion. _Theirs_ never gave rest to it.