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Copy of a Letter From Charles Read - 7

to us as they have been to the French. To consider them in a true Light, we should recollect, that on this Continent their Numbers are very great; that every Individual will purchase some Article of British Manufacture; that it is Trade only that enables Britain to maintain armies, and send forth Fleets, which terrify the World, and raises the British Name in the most distant Parts of the Universe; and the Indians will (as soon as they are undeceived, and Peace is established with them) make us Masters of the most valuable Trade for Furs and Peltry in the World, and thereby contribute to the Riches and Glory of the Nation.

There are People so sanguine that, without considering, would wish the whole Race of Indians extinct, but they shew their Ignorance of the real Interest of the Nation; they would have us set about destroying them Root and Branch-It needs but little Reflection to convince them, that while such immense Tracts of Land lie to the Westward, such Attempt is vain, nor would all the Forces that have last War

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