Sacred Hunger - Barry Unsworth [233]
Obscurely displeased at this comparison, Erasmus made no immediate reply. Redwood waited a moment, then said, ‘You were talking of the Calumet ceremony, the peace pipes. I have seen it often. They have come singing and dancing to their ruin with those pipes in their hands all over America.’
‘It is hardly ruin, Redwood – you are exaggerating. They will be left in possession of large tracts of land, as I understand the matter from Colonel Campbell.’
‘For how long? We daren’t do otherwise at present, or they will rise against us and sweep us into the sea. Campbell is a reasonable man in his way. He knows the Creeks and has a feeling for them. But he is set on getting a favourable treaty – his career hangs on it, and that makes him wonderfully single-minded. That Indian who spoke today, who complained of trade prices, he wasn’t so wide of the mark.’
‘Not wide of the mark? He accused Watson of breaking promises he had never made. He wasn’t even talking of Florida, but of Georgia.’
‘That is the point. He has seen thousands of land-hungry white settlers pouring into the Georgia back-country from Virginia and the Carolinas. Many of them have crossed the treaty line and fenced the land on the other side. Nothing has been done to stop it and nothing will be done. And why? You know the answer as well as I do, Kemp. I suggest you know it much better. You have been having a look round, haven’t you? This is prime land, there are fortunes to be made out of it – but it is worth a lot more with no Indians on it.’
Redwood sat back, smiling with the slightly bitter carelessness characteristic of him. There were brief sounds from above them, voices, steps on the stairs; then silence. ‘And it is hardly necessary for us to use force of arms,’ he continued. ‘They are prevailed upon to cede their lands by treaty. Trade is the thing that has undone them, this great blessing of trade. Watson tells them they should be grateful for the advantages of trade. Campbell tells them they should give up land to their English brothers for the sake of the trade goods they will get by it. They have hunted over these lands for centuries without ever knowing that what they needed for happiness were muskets and looking-glasses and beads and bits of printed cotton. Now they are persuaded that they cannot live without these things. Strange, is it not?’
Erasmus smiled, but without much warmth. He found himself caring less and less for the other’s company. What he had taken for a good-natured, rather thoughtless expansiveness, seemed quite other to him now: Redwood obtruded his views more than a man should, without first making sure they were welcome. And what he was saying was perverse, subversive even. Trade brought benefits to both sides – so much was common knowledge. Erasmus had always disliked people who took a view contrary to what was broadly agreed by men of sense. ‘If the Indians want blankets and guns, that is their business,’ he said. ‘They should try to get them on the best terms. Our business is to supply their wants on terms as favourable to ourselves as we can secure. This is bound to be mutually beneficial in the long run. It is only common sense. You take a very negative view of things, if I may say so, Redwood.’
There had been a curtness of reproof in this which Redwood obviously noticed, as his smile faded and his brows drew together slightly. ‘In the long run, you say? But we have only got the short run, Kemp – you and me and the Creeks. If you had fought alongside Indians as I have, and seen what they will do for friendship’s sake, you might take a more complicated view. Campbell knows it too, none better, but he is a wonderfully single-minded fellow, that’s the difference. You are a single-minded fellow too, aren’t you? Let’s see now. Months taken from your business, a chartered schooner awaiting your pleasure in the harbour, fifty troops to maintain, a hazardous journey before you into wild country. And all for an old loss that is unlikely to be recovered now. Yes, I would call that single-minded. I do my duty, at