the stream, and, as yet, unterrified by the sight of man; the fishes darting in the pellucid wave, and nature in her array of June!

Marquette and Joliet now retraced their course to the the Illinois; entered and ascended that river and beheld the beautiful fertility of its summer prairies, abounding in game. They visited Chicago, and in September were again at Green Bay. The next year, Marquette retired for devotion, from the company with which he was journeying, to pray by a rude altar of stones beneath the silent shade. There, half an hour afterwards, his dead body was found. He was buried on the shore of the lake, and the Indians fancy that his spirit still controls the

storms.

On the return, Joliet found at Frontenac, M. de la Salle, who was then commandant of the Fort. It may be expected that he did not undervalue their discovery or underrate the beauty of the river and country which he had explored. La Salle at once gave up his imagination and his thoughts to this discovery. He was a man of standing, courage and talent, and well fitted for the enterprise. At the close of the summer of 1679, he had, by the greatest exertions, equipped a small vessel, called the Griffin, at the lower end of Lake Erie, and launched it upon its waters. This was the first vessel that ever navigated lake Erie. On his journey across the lakes he was accompanied by father Hennepin, a Jesuit, and forty men. He marked Detroit as a suitable place for a colony; gave name to Lake St. Clair, planted a trading house at Mackinaw, and finally cast anchor in Green Bay. At length, through many discouragements by disaster, treachery and defeat, they reached the great Illinois. Here La Salle sent out a party, under Hennepin, to explore the sources of the Mississippi; while he returned on foot to Frontenac. The next year, having returned to the Illinois, he built a small vessel and sailed down the Mississippi

until he reached its mouth. He also erected forts and established settlements at various points. Fully satisfied of the vast importance of prosecuting the system of colonization thus commenced, he proceeded to France and communicated his ideas to the French government. The minister of the French king readily entered into a scheme, which not only promised an immense accession of valuable territory, but seemed likely to create a permanent and efficient barrier to the western extension of the English colonies. An expedition was fitted out for the prupose of planting a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi river, and command given to La Salle. This expedition failed, and its illustrious but unfortunate commander perished, a victim to the treachery of his own men.

This expedition did not, however, quench or abate the ardor of the French in the prosecution of their great plan. A second expedition sailed from France, under the command of M. D'Iberville. This officer explored the Mississippi river for several hundred miles, and permanent settlements were made at different points; and from this time, the French colony west of the Alleghanies, though occasionally harassed by the English and the Spaniards, steadily increased in numbers and in strength.

Before the completion of the first quarter of the eighteenth century the colony had been divided into quarters, each having its local governor or commandant and judge; but all were subject to the superior council-general of Louisiana. One of these quarters was established north-west of the Ohio. Forts had also been erected on the Mississippi, on the Illinois, on the Maumee and on the lakes. Still, however, the communication with Canada was through Lake Michigan, as the nearer route through the Ohio river and Lake Erie had not yet been discovered. This discovery was, however, made soon afterwards. Before the year 1750, a French fort had been fortified at the

mouth of the Wabash; and a communication was established, through that river and the Maumee, with Canada. About the same time and for the purpose of checking the progress of the French, the Ohio Company was formed and made some attempts to establish trading-houses among the Indians. This event, however, only hastened what it was designed to prevent. A third chain of fortifications was established, extending from the confluence of the Monongahela and the Alleghany to the sources of French creek, and to Lake Erie. The French were now in actual possession of the whole valley of the Mississippi; and the English government became seriously alarmed. Negotiations took place, in the course of which, England proposed to limit her American colonies on the west, by a line drawn from Lake Erie through French creek to its mouth, and thence direct, to the nearest mountains of Virginia. These negotiations availed nothing, and the contending parties referred their controversies to the arbitrament of war. The events of the contest which ensued do not belong to this sketch, but its issue decided the momentous question, whether the vast central valley of North America should bear through all coming time, the impress of English or French civilization.

By the treaty of 1763, France ceded to Great Britain all her possessions in North America east of the Mississippi, and on this foundation, the title of the former power to the region included by the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the great lakes, rests more safely, according to the international law of Europe, than on any other. Long before this time, however, English charters had been granted, including within their limits the whole of this country. In 1609, a grant was made to the London company, of all territory which extends along the coast for two hundred miles north and south from Point Comfort and "up into the land throughout from sea to sea, west and northwest." In 1624, this company was dissolved upon a writ of

quo-warranto, and the grant was resumed by the crown.

In

1662, Charles II. granted to certain settlers upon the Connecticut, all the territory between the parallels of latitude which include the present state of Connecticut, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The pretensions which Massachusetts advanced during the revolutionary war, to an interest in the western country, were founded upon a similar charter granted thirty years before. Notwithstanding these extensive grants, the English government, after the peace of 1763, evinced a determination to confine the colonies to the coast, and to prevent the settlement of the interior. By a royal proclamation, all the lands west of the sources of the Atlantic rivers, were declared to be reserved under the sovereignty, protection and dominion of the king of Great Britain for the use of the Indians, and all persons were forbidden to settle or remain within the reserved territory. In consequence of this proclamation, no settlements were made north-west of the Ohio until after the declaration of independence, when the detached colonies of Britain became free and united states. Until that period, the soil remained in the hand of the rightful proprietors, undisturbed by the wandering hunter or the vagrant trader. Over the whole vast extent, except where the prairie spread its luxuriant vegetation, and where the settlements of the French or the villages of the Indians dotted the wilderness, there stretched a mighty and unbroken forest, yet ignorant of the woodman's steel.

During the war of the Revolution, the frontiers of Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York were harassed by the murderous incursions of the savages from this region and from Canada; and, in 1783, an expedition was concerted against the Wyandot village, lying upon the waters of the Sandusky. Great exertions were made to procure volunteers. Every man who should equip himself with a horse and rifle was to be exempted from two tours of militia duty; and, any loss, either of arms

or horses was to be repaired out of the plunder of the Indian towns. The volunteers were to rendezvous on the 20th of May, at an old Mingo village on the western shore of the Ohio, about forty miles above Fort Pitt, and the unfortunate Colonel Crawford was unanimously selected as the leader of the expedition. On the appointed day, four hundred and fifty mounted volunteers assembled at the Mingo village and impatiently awaited the arrival of their colonel. Crawford instantly accepted the appointment, which had been so unanimously pressed upon him, and, a few days before the day of rendezvous, passed through Pittsburgh, on his way to the appointed place. He there prevailed upon Dr. Knight to accompany the detachment as surgeon, and having provided such medical stores as were likely to be useful on the expedition, he lost no time in putting himself at the head of his troops.

On Saturday, the 25th of May, the little army commenced its march, striking at once into a pathless wilderness, and directing their course due west. On the fourth day, they halted at the ruins of the old Moravian town, about sixty miles from the Ohio, where a few of the volunteers gave a sample of the discipline which was to be expected from them, by abandoning the party and returning home. however, still seemed eager to prosecute the the march was continued with unabated spirit.

The main body,

expedition, and On the mornBean, being a

ing of the 30th, Major Brunton and Captain few hundred yards in advance of the troops, observed two Indians skulking through the woods, apparently observing the motions of the detachment. They instantly fired upon them, but without success. Secrecy now being out of the question, it only remained to press forward with all practicable dispatch, and afford the enemy as little time for preparation as possible. As the wilderness began to deepen around them and the critical moment approached in which their courage would be tried, it