John Seely Hart

“ It would hardly be supposed that a people who had forsaken their own country for the sake of these hallowed customs, could easily merge them into the rude and reckless mass of provincial habits,—every feeling of national love, every principle of their sacred religion forbade it ”

“ The common interest of safety, not less than old prejudices in favour of this mode of life, seemed to warrant the propriety of combining that strength, which, when divided, might not be sufficient to protect their lives from the Indian’s scalping knife, or their customs and property from the invasions of the roving, unsettled, and shifting tide of white population. ”

“ An ignorance of the common methods of agriculture practised here, as well as strong prejudices in favour of their former habits of living, prevented them from seizing with avidity on large bodies of land by individual possession ”