Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/105

 CHAPTER VI. UNDER EUROPEAN KINGS. French and English Claims — Spanish Rule — The Louisiana Pur- chase — A Part of Louisiana Territory — Under Successive Jurisdiction of Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa — No Man's Land — General Sibley's Duties — Minnesota a Terri- tory — In Statehood Days — A Full-Fledged County. To trace the earl}' political history of Goodhue county, from the time of the undisputed possession by the Indians, is a some- what difficult task, owing to the fact that in the early days boun- daries, as given in treaties, and sometimes even in territorial acts, were rather indefinite, and sometimes obviously incorrect. The French and the English, who for so long, and for so many varied reasons, had caused Europe to flow with the blood of their rivalries, early became contestants for supremacy on the newly explored continent. By reason of the early explorations of De Soto, La Salle and others, both from the Gulf up the Mis- sissippi, and from the St. Lawrence down the Great Lakes, and thence overland, the French claimed as their possession the entire Mississippi valley, extending as far east as the Alleghany mountains, and westward indefinitely. The British claims to sovereignty was based on the fact that the early English explorers along the Atlantic coast had, in planting the English standard, laid claim to the country "from sea to sea," as was the recognized custom among the explorers sent out by the civi- lized nations of that day. This claim was further strengthened by the activities in the disputed territory of the Hudson Bay and Northwest Fur companies, more or less connected with the English government, who had established outposts to their Cana- dian trading stations, extending well into the Mississippi valley. These rival claims were the cause of the early French and Indian wars of the New England colonies, and it will be remembered were the cause of Braddock's memorable trip to Fort Duquesne, in which is now western Pennsylvania, upon which occasion Washing- ton took a part, and which has now become a portion of the annals of early United States history. At 'the close of these wars, 1763, 71