Page:American History Told by Contemporaries, v2.djvu/345

No. 110] w'th 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 :

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