their/

upon Lakes Superior and Nipigon, but also upon Lake of the Woods, Lake Winnipeg, the upper Missouri, the Red River of the north, and the Saskatchewan.

Agriculture was neglected, except at Detroit, and at the colonies in Illinois. Forts were built at many other points to protect the traders, and to make secure the ascendancy of the French over the Indians. As early as 1721, Charlevois predicted that the posts in Illinois would become the granary of Louisiana; and in 1746, there were sent from these colonies to New Orleans fifty tons of flour, besides a large quantity supplied to the Indians.* Two years later M. Vaudreuil enumerated its productions, among which were flour, corn, bacon, hams, and various other edibles. I make these statements for the purpose of showing that small colonies of French were scattered over various parts of the continent, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Mississippi, advantageously planted to secure the fur-trade, to form the nuclei of larger settlements, and to keep the English colonies confined within their settled limits, south of the water shed of the St. Lawrence, and east of the Alleghany mountains.

The policy of France in extending her possessions, necessitated cautious watchfulness on the part of England and her colonies. The French rested their claim to the whole valley of the Mississippi upon the explorations of Marquette and La Salle, upon actual occupation, and upon the construction they gave to the Treaties of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-laChapelle. With characteristic negligence, the British plenipotentiaries, at Aix-la-Chapelle, had left their boundary along its whole line, determined only by the very vague agreement, that it should be, when peace was restored, what it had been before the war began. Previous to the war it had, for a quarter of a century, been a matter of dispute. The Treaty simply postponed a settlement. In this doubtful condition of undetermined limits of sovereignty, the two peoples made haste to

* Imlay says that 800,000 pounds of flour-a quantity equal to 4,285 barrels-was exported in 1746 from Illinois to New Orleans.

occupy as much of the disputed territory as possible, without flagrantly violating their treaty obligations. The English claimed all the country lying west of their colonies upon the coast. They based their claim upon prior occupation of the coast, upon opposite constructions of treaties, and upon the cession to them of Indian rights by the Indians themselves.

The charters granted by the kings to all the old colonies, expressly extended their grants westward to the South Sea. These claims, though held in abeyance, were never relinquished. The English colonies being fixed agricultural communities, seeking to draw their wealth from the soil, rather than by profits upon trade with the Indians, were, for this reason, not likely to explore the country further than they were prepared to colonise it; yet they were not willing that their opportunity for indefinite expansion should be destroyed, by a loss of a large part of the territory covered by their charters. The French colonies were trading, military, and missionary establishments, and it is easy to understand why they became familiar with the whole valley of the Mississippi, before the English colonists passed the Alleghanies.

The country beyond the mountains was not, however, wholly unknown to the English.

Explorations had been made by means of individual enterprise, and efforts were put forward at a very early day to induce the English Government to colonise the valley of the Mississippi. Charles I., in 1630, granted to Sir, Robert Heath all the continent between thirty-one and thirty-six degrees north latitude, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. In 1638, it was consigned to the Earl of Arundel. It was afterwards transferred to one Coxe.* It is related by his son, that in the prosecution of this claim, the valley of the Mississippi was explored by Col. Wood and a Mr. Needham between 1654 and 1664; that in 1698, several persons went from New England nearly five hundred miles west of the Mississippi; that Dr.Coxe

*See Coxe's Memorial to King William, 1699.

had fitted out two vessels under Captain Barr, one of which ascended the Mississippi, in 1698, a hundred miles; and that they designed to establish there a Huguenot settlement; but the project was frustrated by the death of its chief promoter, Lord Lonsdale. The south pass over the Rocky Mountains is described.

The country west of the Mississippi is said to be well suited for the use of camels, and the gold of California. is noticed. The statements in this remarkable book, being without contemporary corroboration, were never relied on as the basis of any right to the Povince of Carolana.*

As early as 1710, Alexander Spottswood, the Governor of Virginia, induced the Legislature of that province to make an appropriation to defray the expenses of exploring the country beyond the Alleghanies, and to discover, if possible, a pass to the Ohio or Mississippi valley. He presented a memorial to the English Government in which he described the French plan of military occupation, and pointed, out with wonderful sagacity, the effort that would be made to keep the English east of the mountains. †

The chief ground upon which the British claimed the country west of the Alleghany mountains was, that they had purchased the country from the Iroquois nations.

The Iroquois held the country by original possession, or by conquest, from the Ottawa to the Mississippi. They had left most of the tribes they conquered to manage their internal affairs as they chose, but they claimed, as conquerors, the right to dispose of the country. On this right thus acquired the Iroquois confederacy sold to the British Government what is now Western Virginia, Kentucky, and a large part of Illinois. In 1684 they made a deed of sale to the British authorities, at Albany, of the country from the Illinois river eastward into Canada,‡ and in 1726 they conveyed all their lands in trust to

* Coxe's Description of Carolana, called by the Spanish Florida, and by the French Louisiana, London, 1772.

See Graham's Colonial History.

Plain Facts: Philadelphia, 1781, pp. 22-3.

England to be protected and defended by his Majesty to and for the use of the grantors and their heirs. * † ‡

* Pownall's Administration of the Colonies, vol. 1.

+ In 1673 Allouez and Dablon found the Miamis upon Lake Michigan dreading a visit from the New York Confederates. In 1680 La Salle found them upon the Illinois, and Tonti was in the country when they drove the Illinois beyond the Mississippi; but through the influence of the French, confederacies were formed against them, and their title to such extended regions became very questionable. See Colden's History of the Iroquois ; Early History of Pennsylvania; and Parkman's Discovery of the Great West.

The French nation, having always been desirous to extend their dominion in America, have lost no opportunity of encroaching upon their neighbours there. And although your Majesty and your royal ancestors have an uncontestable right as well by discovery as possession to the several British colonies in America; yet the French Kings have at sundry times made grants thereof to their subjects. Such were the

letters patent of Louis the 13th, in favour of the French West India Company, bearing date the 29th of April 1627; and those of Louis the 14th to Monsr. Croisot, sometime since surrendered to the United India Company of France, upon which they build their title to the Mississippi. Many other instances of like nature might be given, were they necessary to the present purpose; but these two, which comprehend almost all your Majesty's dominions in America, may be sufficient to show the unlimited inclination the French have to encroach upon your Majesty's territories in those parts.

However, as the French are convinced that a charter without possession can never be allowed by the law of nations to change the property of the soil; they have employed another artifice, and without embarrassing themselves about former discoveries. made by the subjects of other Princes, have built small forts at the heads of lakes and rivers along that vast tract of land from the entry of the River St. Lawrence to the embouchure of the Mississippi into the Bay of Mexico; not so much with the intention probably to bound their own territories, as to secure what they have already got, till a more favourable juncture shall give them occasion to make further intrusions upon their neighbours. And if the late war in Europe, where the Allies made so successful efforts against the exorbitant power of France, had not found Louis the 14th employment at home, it is very likely the French would have been much more formidable than they now are in America. Notwithstanding the treaty of neutrality for those parts made in London in 1686, ought to have secured to Great Britain the several colonies whereof your Majesty's royal predecessors stood possessed at the time of making the said treaty, but the little regard the French have had to that treaty will evidently appear by the evasions and frivolous pretences set on foot by their Ministers during the debate in the year 1687 at London, where the Lords Sunderland, Middleton and Godolphin were appointed by King James to confer with the then French Ambassadors, Monsr. de Barrillon and the Sieur Dusson de Bonrepeaux concerning the boundaries of the Hudson's Bay Company, and although that Conference terminated in the aforesaid treaty of neutrality, together with a resolution of settling the boundaries between the English and French colonies in America by proper commissaries, which resolution has since been enforced by the 10th article of the Treaty of Utrecht; yet the French could never be induced to enter sincerely upon so necessary a work, notwithstanding commissaries were lately appointed for that purpose, and met with others deputed by the French Court at Paris. -London Doc. 22; Sept. 8,1721; N. Y. Hist. Col. vol. 5. pp. 619-20.

In 1744 the Treaty of Lancaster, and in 1752 the Treaty of Logstown, were made, renewing the provisions of former treaties between England and the Iroquois, and large tracts of land were granted to various companies for purposes of colonization in the Valley of the Ohio. *

Upon the 10th of May 1744, Vaudreuil wrote to the Government of France, pointing out the danger to the French possessions of allowing the English to build trading houses among the Creeks.

In the summer of 1749, Gallissoniere, who was then Governor of Canada, resolved to place in the valley of the Ohio, evidences of the French possession of the country, sent Louis Celeron with a company of soldiers to bury lead plates, in the mounds, and at the mouths of rivers, on which were written the claims of the King of France to the river and land on both sides, as a possession enjoyed by preceding kings, maintained by their arms, and by treaties; especially by the treaties of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle.

When the English colonists crossed the mountains, the French were collecting military stores on Lake Erie. They erected a fort at Presqu'Isle in the north western part of Pennsylvania, Fort Le Bœuf on French Creek, Fort Venango at the junction of French Creek with Alleghany river, and nearly opposite to Fort Venango, Fort Michault, and Fort Du Quesne at the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers. All these forts were erected in 1753 and 1754. Washington was sent by Dinwiddie, the Governor of Virginia, to the commander of the French forces in the wilderness of North-western Pennsylvania, to demand from them a statement of their object in invading the British possessions; to ascertain their numbers on the Ohio; how they were likely to be assisted from Canada; what forts they had erected, and where; how they were garrisoned; and what had given occasion to the expedition.† These instructions were given in Oc* Early History of Pennsylvania, App. 12. Plain Facts, pp. 22-3. Spark's Washington, Vol. 2.