It will be little or no obstacle to our future improving the very country they may retain whenever we shall want it, for as our own settlements approach their country, they must, from the scarcity of game, which that approach will induce to, retire farther back...

Washington later wrote that the disappearance of Native Americans was inevitable: “the gradual extension of our Settlements will as certainly cause the Savage as the Wolf to retire...and this can be had by purchase at less expense.”

...dispose of their lands, unless they dwindle comparatively to nothing, as all savages have done, who gain their sustenance by the chase, when compelled to live in the vicinity of civilized people, and thus leave us the country without the expense of a purchase, trifling as that will probably be.