And yet, if habit have any effect in forming the temper and character of a rude people, it must of course follow, that the savage who lives in eternal sunshine upon flowery plains, and hunts on horseback with a troop of tribesmen around him, must be a different being from the solitary deer-stalker, who wanders through the dim forest, depending upon his single arm for a subsistence for his wife and children." But the higher state of social organization among the Six Nations greatly increased the difference. They had many towns and villages giving evidence of permanence. They were organized into communities, whose social and political institutions, simple as they were, were still as distinct and well-defined as those of the American confederacy. They had now acquired some of the arts, and were enjoying many of the comforts, of civilized life. Not content with small patches of cleared lands for the raising of a few vegetables, they possessed cultivated fields, and orchards of great productiveness, at the West. Especially was this the fact with regard to the Cayugas and Senecas. The Mohawks having been driven from their own rich lands, the extensive domains of the two westernmost tribes of the confederacy formed the granary of the whole. And in consequence of the superior social and political organization just referred to, and the Spartan-like character incident to the forest life, the Six Nations, though not the most numerous, were beyond a doubt the most formidable, of the tribes then in arms in behalf of the Crown. [FN-2] It was justly considered, therefore, that the only way to strike them effectively, would be to destroy their homes and the growing products of their farms; and thus, by cutting off their means of supply, drive them from their own country deeper into the interior, and perhaps throw them altogether upon their British allies for subsistence. It was likewise the design to extend the operations of the expedition as far as Niagara, if possible--that post, of all others in the occupation of the enemy, enabling his officers to maintain an extensive influence over his savage allies. [FN-3] * * * * * [FN-1] Charles F. Hoffman, Esq. [FN-2] "The Six Nations were a peculiar and extraordinary people, contra-distinguished from the mass of Indian nations by great attainments in polity, in negotiation, in eloquence, and in war."--_Discourse of De Wilt Clinton before the New-York Hist. Society--_1811.