On the 10th August, M. de Bienville was informed that M. St. Denis and some Canadians had invaded the territory of our allies to capture slaves, which he ordered to be restored.

On the 1st October, M. Davion, missionary, and Father Limoge, a Jesuit, arrived from the Mississippi, to give notice that one of their brethren and three Frenchmen had been murdered on the Yasous river, by two young Courois, who had acted as their guides.

On the 11th November, Don Francisco Martin arrived from Pensacola, with the news that France and Spain were at war with England, and asked for a supply of arms and powder, which was given him.

On the 28th, two shallops, with two Spanish officers, arrived at the fort from St. Augustine, Florida, and brought a letter from Don Joseph de Souniga y Serda, Governor of that place, informing M. de Bienville that it was besieged by fourteen English vessels and two thousand Indians. He further requested that a small vessel might be sent to the Viceroy of Mexico, informing him of what had happened. M. de Bienville sent him one hundred muskets and five hundred pounds of powder. Bénard de la Harpe, Historical Journal of the Establishment of the French in Louisiana, in B. F. French, Historical Collections of Louisiana (New York, 1851), Part III, 19–28 passim.

IIO.

110. Danger from the French Mississippi Settlements (1718)

BY LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR ALEXANDER SPOTSWOOD

Spotswood was an efficient governor of Virginia; his letters and state papers are of great historical value. - Bibliography: Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, IV, 196-202; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 90.

H

AVING of a long time endeavour'd to informe myself of ye scituation of the French to the Westward of Us, and the Advantages they Reap by an uninterrupted Communication along ye Lake, I shall here take the Liberty of communicating my thoughts to Yo'r Lord'ps, both of the dangers to w'ch his Majesty's Plantations may be exposed by this new Acquisition of our Neighbours, and how the same may be best prevented. I have often regretted that after so many Years as these Countrys have been Seated, no Attempts have been made to discover the Sources of Our Rivers, nor to Establishing Correspond

ence with those Nations of Indians to ye Westw'd of Us, even after the certain Knowledge of the Progress made by French in Surrounding us w'th their Settlements. . . .

Having also informed myself of that extensive Communication w'ch the French maintain by means of their water Carriage from the River St. Lawrence to the mouth of Mississippi, I shall here set down the route from Montreal, (a place well known and distinguished in ye ordinary Mapps,) to Maville, their Chief Town in their New Settlement of Louisiana, according to the account given me by three Fr. Men, who had often Travelled that way, and were taken in a late Expedition under the Command of the Gov'r and L't-Gov'r's Sons, of Montreal, and is as follows:

From Montreal up St. Lawrence River, to Fort,
Frontenac, at the Entra[n]ce of Lac Ontario, is
The Length of Lac Ontario, which is Navigable, -
Up the River to the Falls of Niagara, where there
is a necessity of Land Carriage,

From Niagara to the Lake Erie,

Up the River Mic., w'ch falls into Lake Erie,

From the River Mic. to the River Occabacke, a
Land Carriage of

Down the River Occaback till it falls into the River
Mississippi,

Thence down Mississippi to Maville,

FR. LEAGES.

60

60

3

100

60

3

200

360

By this Communication and the forts they have already built, the Brittish Plantations are in a manner Surrounded by their Commerce w'th the numerous Nations of Indians seated on both sides of the Lakes; they may not only Engross the whole Skin Trade, but may, when they please, Send out such Bodys of Indians on the back of these Plantations as may greatly distress his Maj'ty's Subjects here, And should they multiply their Settlem'ts along these Lakes, so as to joyn their Dominions of Canada to their new Colony of Louisiana, they might even possess themselves of any of these Plantations they pleased. Nature, 'tis true, has formed a Barrier for us by that long Chain of Mountains w'ch run from the back of South Carolina as far as New York, and w'ch are only passable in some few places, but even that Natural Defence may prove rather destructive to us, if they are not possessed by us before they are known to them. To prevent the dangers w'ch Threaten

his Maj'ty's Dominions here from the growing power of these Neighbors, nothing seems to me of more consequence than that now while the Nations are at peace, and while the French are yet uncapable of possessing all that vast Tract w'ch lies on the back of these Plantations, we should attempt to make some Settlements on ye Lakes, and at the same time possess our selves of those passes of the great Mountains, w'ch are necessary to preserve a Communication w'th such Settlements.

As the Lake Erie lyes almost in the Center of the French Communication, and, as I observed before, not above 5 days' March from the late discovered passage of Our great Mountains, That seems the most proper for forming a Settlement on, by w'ch we shall not only share w'th the French in the Commerce and friendship of those Indians inhabiting the banks of the Lakes, but may be able to cutt off or disturb the communication between Canada and Louisiana, if a War should happen to break out. If such a Settlement were once made, I can't see how the ffrench could dispute our Right of Possession, the Law of Nations giving a Title to the first Occupant, and should they think fitt to dispossess us by force, We are nearer to Support than they to attack.

I . . . shall only here apply my Self to what I conceive more immediately necessary, w'ch are that of the Mississippi Settlement, and the Importance of adding St. Augustine to the British Acquisitions on this Continent. As to the first, there can be no doubt but that the French Settlement on Mississippi will, (without timely precautions,) greatly effect both the Trade and Safety of these, his Maj'ty's Plantations. Tobacco, Rice and other Commoditys, w'th w'ch the greatest part of Europe is now supplyed from these Plantations, will, no doubt, be cultivated and produced in this new French Settlement, and they w'll become our Rivals in that Trade in all fforeign Mark'ts. By this means his Maj'ty's Subjects employed here in that Manufacture will be discouraged; the British Navigation must decrease in proportion as the French advance in that Trade, and the Revenue of the Crown, of course, very much diminished. The danger w'ch threatens these, hist Maj'ty's Plantations, from this new Settlement, is also very considerable, for by the Communication w'ch the French may maintain between Canada and Mississippi by the conveniency of the Lakes, they do, in a manner, surround all the British Plantations. They have it in their power, by these Lakes and the many Rivers running into them and into the Mississippi to engross all the Trade of the Indian Nations, w'ch are now supplyed from hence. They may, by possessing themselves of the

Passes of the Great Mountains, w'ch ly between Us and the Lakes, Either by themselves or their Indians, fall upon and over-run w'ch of these Provinces they think fit, And seeing, by their late Siezure of Pensacola from the Spaniards, their design seems to be to extend their Dominions Eastward from Mississippi towards South Carolina, It is certainly the British Interest to put a stop to their Advancing any further that way, w’ch, in my Opinion, w'll be best Effected by possessing our selves with some places on the Coast of Florida, and forming a Settlement as near as can be to cramp their's, w'ch leads me to consider the other part Yo'r Lord'ps desire to be informed in, vizt: The Importance of taking St. Augustine from the Spaniards.

.

St. Augustine is a small Fort on the North East part of the Coast of Florida, w'th a Village adjoyning inhabited by about 2 or 300 Spaniards. This place may be of vast Consequence to Britain whenever a War shall happen with either of these Crowns, it being impossible for their Ships to pass through the Gulph without being discovered from either one side or the other, and, therefore, lyable to become prize to any of our Men of War or Privateers that may be placed on y't Station; So that, in Case of a Rupture w'th France, the whole Trade of their Mississippi Colony may, by that means, be destroyed. But I would also humbly propose, that besides the taking of St. Augustine, the small Fort, or rather Battery of St. Mark, may be attempted. . . . From hence it is I would propose to forme a Settlement to check that of y't of Mississippi, and to extend Westward upon it, whereby we might Share w'th them at least in the Indian Trade, and keep a Balla. of those Indian Nations in our Interest, and in Case of a War, be able to annoy them from thence. Besides these two Settlements, it may not be improbable but that a good Harbour may be found among ye Islands at the Cape of Florida, w'ch might be a proper Station for Men of War or Privateers to interrupt the Spanish or French Trade from the Bay of Mexico, that Promontory lying almost in sight of the Havanna, and no other way for their Ships to return to Europe but through that Passage. This would also prove a security to our own Trade from Jamaica, w'ch, for want of places of retreat for MerchantMen and Cruising Ships on that Coast, are often exposed to the danger of Enemy's Privateers, as well as to Storms w'ch frequently happen there. That your Lord'ps may have a Clearer Idea of the places I have now been describing, I herewith transmit a Draught of the River Mississippi and the Rivers Communicating with it and also of the Sea

Coasts along the Bay of Mexico and Gulph of Florida. . . . In it yo'r Lord'ps w'll see the many Navigable Rivers that branch out from the Mississippi towards the English Plantations, and the Situation of the several Indian Nations w'th whom both we and the French Trade. Yo'r Lord'ps w'll thereby observe that most of those Nations are more contiguous to the French Settlements than the English, and have been hitherto kept in our Interest by being more plentifully supplyed with Goods from the English than the French could afford them. I an also here to observe that the French have of late begun a traffique with the Coosta Indians, living upon a River of that name not far from the Cherokees, and it is to be feared they will soon gett footing too among the latter, the people of So. Carolina having already abandoned y't Trade.

The Official Letters of Alexander Spotswood (Virginia Historical Society, Collections, New Series, II, Richmond, 1882), II, 295–331 passim.

III. The French and the Fur Trade (1724)

BY SURVEYOR-GENERAL CADWALLADER COLDEN

Colden was surveyor-general of New York, becoming later lieutenant-governor. He is author of a valuable book on the Five Nations of Indians. In his later years he was bitterly hated by provincials on account of his enforcement of English measures. Bibliography: Tyler, American Literature, II, 213-215; Smith, History of New York, Appendix, ch. iii; Channing and Hart, Guide, §§ 105, 133.

IT

T has of late been generally believed, that the Inhabitants of the Province of New-York are so advantageously situated, with respect to the Indian Trade, and enjoy so many Advantages as to Trade in general, that it is in their Power not only to rival the French of Canada, who have almost entirely engrossed the Furr-Trade of America, but that it is impossible for the French to carry on that Trade in Competition with the People of this Province. The enquiring into the Truth of this Proposition, may not only be of some Consequence, as to the Riches and Honour of the British Nation, (for it is well known how valuable the Furr-Trade of America is) but likewise as to the Safety of all the British Colonies in North-America. New-France (as the French now claim) extends from the Mouth of the River Misissippi, to the Mouth of the River St. Lawrence, by which the French plainly show their Intention of enclosing the British Settlements, and cutting us off from