Ethan replied, “British officials are not the same as us. Most of them that are shaping the treaties are Englishmen who look forward to going home someday. They don’t need land over here and will give the natives whatever they want to get them to join in the wars against the Spanish and French and to let British merchants get rich from trade. We settlers are different. We are wedged in a tiny sliver of land between the Savannah and the Ogeechee, and we’re usually victims in trading with the same merchants. There are vast areas of land west of here, with just a few redskin villages scattered around with little patches of good soil cleared for producing crops. They’re too lazy to live any way except hand-to-mouth, dwelling in skin and mud huts, just barely getting by from one season to another.”

Kindred had an uneasy, sinking feeling that the conversation was opening up wounds between them that would be difficult to heal, but he felt too strongly about the subject to remain silent or pretend to agree.

“The British are right, and the rest of us are wrong,” he replied. “I know there are some bad Indians like there are evil white folks, but the vast majority are good people. They just want to live in peace, with the kind of life they’ve known for centuries, but they’ve almost been wiped out with our diseases and get cheated every day. Do you know how much they have to pay for a metal bucket or a yard of cloth?”

Ethan waved his hand dismissively. “Well, they surely don’t have to trade if they don’t want to. It’s their own greed that will force them westward. I’ve been finding skinned deer carcasses with the meat totally wasted except to feed foxes and vultures. All they want these days is more and more hides to buy the kinds of goods you claim we’re forcing on them. When they’ve killed all the deer this side of the Ogeechee, they’ll have to move on, and we’ll just move another step into their old lands.”

Kindred admitted the truth of this statement and added, “Now when a bundle of hides is delivered to the trader, more than half are applied to existing debts, and the rest is not enough to pay for what they take home.”

Ethan said, “You’re right, and this is the best lever we have to use on them. When they run out of hides or credit, they’ll just have one thing left, and that’s land.”

They were soon to part ways as they approached the side path leading to Kindred’s homestead, and he tried to ease the obvious tension.