This volume tells the story of how, almost from the first arrival of French and English colonists in eastern North America in the 16th century, the settlers were forced to raise militias to protect themselves from the Indians. French and English soon made alliances with different tribes and fought alongside them against their Native American and European enemies during a long series of frontier wars. In the absence of more than tiny forces of European troops it was the colonists themselves who had to bear the brunt of the periodic fighting. Remote forts were planted on the vital waterways and along the advancing frontiers and these were often the objectives of long, dangerous expeditions through the wilderness.