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(6 pp) "As to the natives of this country, I find
them entirely savage and wild, strangers to all
decency, yea, uncivil and stupid as garden poles,
proficient in all wickedness and godlessness;
devilish men, who serve nobody but the Devil …"
Reverend Jonas Michaelius in 1628. This attitude,
generally expressed by the colonists, allowed them
to trade "trinkets" for furs. Various internal
structures were already in place in the Iroquois
Confederacy, which then dovetailed into the desire
for European goods, and accelerated warfare among
the woodland tribes. The fur trade was definitely
a component in play, but not the actual cause of
increased and deadly warfare, nor the accumulation
of territory. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
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