280          ILLINOIS HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS
Attendance on that business, and some expence he is at it is reasonable for him to take it when freely offered, and the Indian Trader flatters himself that he may find his Account in it, for if he should happen a little to exceed the rules of fair Trade with the Indians, he should not be called to so severe an Account on his return, now will not every man in his situation feel his own Emolument, and thereby be influenced to make such representations as tend to secure his own importance, and if he can but convince his Majesty that the Indians are of such unsettled, fickle tempers, that no Body can safely have any concern with them but himself and those under his direction dos not he at once not only make himself of importance but really Essential to the Crown, and what greater emolument, than that can any Man have in view in America; And is not every representation which falls in with a Mans private emolument to be suspected, or can a Man be found who will not see his own Emolument when the object is presented fairly to his View or that he will not feel it when he sees it, it is a Maxim that interest will not lye, because every Man has so quick and sensible a feeling of it, and is not the Permanent Laws of nature much safer to judge by, than any man's Opinion in this Situation; and can any such reports be sufficient to convince a Rational Mind, that a free Open and friendly Acquaintance and infant Education will not take hold of the mind of the Tauny Tribe, and have the same effect, it has on all the rest of the Human Specie, when it never once failed of the same effect on their Minds when it has ever been tried; which has been often, but if the Commissioner should send an Officer to each of the most considerable Nations of Indians to protect their Trade; will it not be much easier to gain his assent to pass by some irregularity in Trade than it would be if the Trade was to be managed at a large Settlement where there was a Sort of a national acquaintance and intimacy and a mutual Confidence subsisting between them where the English would be ready enough to exclaim against any Indian Trader who should use the Indians unfairly and doubtless would be very forward to encourage Prosecutions for their remedy which would tend to heighten their friendly confidence and to discourage any Officer from behaving ill, for there could be no such thing as bribing the Multitude, And no wonder if such an Officer from an Opinion that it would serve the interest and increase the importance of his Constituent and consequently to continue his own