24 Benjamin Franklin [1 
intercept and cut off our convoys, unless guarded 
continually by great bodies of men. 
The second kind of security will not be obtained 
by such forts, unless they were connected by a wall 
like that of China, from one end of our settlements 
to the other. If the Indians, when at war, marched 
like the Europeans, with great armies, heavy can- 
non, baggage, and carriages; the passes through 
which alone such armies could penetrate our coun- 
try, or receive their supplies, being secured, all might 
be sufficiently secure. But the case is widely differ- 
ent; they go to war, as they call it, in small parties; 
from fifty men down to five. Their hunting life has 
made them acquainted with the whole country, and 
scarce any part of it is impracticable to such a party. 
They can travel through the woods even by night, 
and know how to conceal their tracks. They pass 
easily between your forts undiscovered; and pri- 
vately approach the settlements of your frontier 
inhabitants. They need no convoys of provisions 
to follow them; for whether they are shifting from 
place to place in the woods, or lying in wait for an 
opportunity to strike a blow, every thicket and every 
stream furnishes so small a number with sufficient 
subsistence. When they have surprised separately 
and murdered and scalped a dozen families, they 
are gone with inconceivable expedition through un- 
known ways; and it is very rare that pursuers have 
any chance of coming up with them. In short, long 
experience has taught our planters that they cannot 
rely upon forts as a security against Indians; the 
inhabitants of Hackney might as well rely upon the 
ns 7 Gr