rye 1 Essays -} 
even the people of our own colonies have frequently 
been so exasperated against each other, in their dis- 
putes about boundaries, as to proceed to open vio- 
lence and bloodshed. 
2. Erecting Forts in the back Settlements, almost in no 
Instance a sufficient Security against the Indians 
and the French; but the Possession of Canada 
implies every Security, and ought to be had, while 
in our Power. 
But the Remarker thinks we shall be sufficiently 
secure in America, if we “raise English forts at such 
passes as may at once make us respectable to the 
French and to the Indian nations.* The security 
desirable in America may be considered as of three 
kinds: 1. A security of possession, that the French 
shall not drive us out of the country. 2. A security 
of our planters from the inroads of savages, and the 
murders committed by them. 3. A security that the 
British nation shall not be obliged, on every new 
war, to repeat the immense expense occasioned by 
this, to defend its possessions in America. 
Forts in the most important passes may, I ac- 
knowledge, be of use to obtain the first kind of secur- 
ity; but, as those situations are far advanced beyond 
the inhabitants, the expense of maintaining and 
supplying the garrisons will be very great, even in 
time of full peace, and immense on every interrup- 
tion of it; as it is easy for skulking parties of the 
enemy, in such long roads through the woods, to 
I Remarks, p. 25. 
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