How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
[And] we, or those who may succeed us, would have been as ignorant of martial matters as the ancient Indians. (A.10)
Paine believes that America must attack the British immediately while they still have men in their country with good military knowledge. If they wait too long, these people will get old and die off. Then they'll be left with no more military knowledge than the "ancient Indians" of America. In other word, he thinks America will go into a primitive state of knowledge, which of course assumes that the traditional knowledge of Native Americans is worthless and primitive.