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 claimed all territory from sea to sea. In 1684 and 1726 she had purchased all the land laying north-west of the Ohio from the Six Nations, who claimed to hold it. As early as 1724 English settlers were found along the Ohio River.—Upon these grounds England based a claim to this country, and the Governor of Virginia had repeatedly called the attention of the legislators to the importance of protecting their claim against the encroachments of the French.

It was not until 1748 that anything was done by the English to openly assert their right to the territory. It was then resolved that the most effectual way to secure their possessions was to settle them. The Ohio company was organized with a grant of a half a million acres of land and several other companies of a similar nature were formed. These sent out emigrants, established settlements, opened farms, built store-houses and began a traffic with the Indians.

The Governor of Canada learning the movements of the British, caused inscriptions to be made upon plates of lead, setting forth the fact that the territory belonged to France, and had them placed on stakes in different parts of the disputed possessions. But this effort to stay the encroachment of the English proving futile, an irregular warfare was begun between the French settlers and their allies—the Indians—on the one side, and the English settlers on the other, until finally one neighborhood of the latter was utterly destroyed.

Meanwhile the Governor of Canada constructs military roads and forts in different parts of the territory. The executive of Virginia learning of the sad destruction of an English settlement on the banks of the Ohio by the French and their other warlike demonstrations, despatched a messenger (Geo. Washington) to the commander of one of the French forts to inquire what business he had upon his Majesty's domains and require his removal from the territory. This messenger having met with a decided refusal by the French General to comply with these requisitions,