Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/49

 HISTORY OF OHIO.

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��CHAPTER III.

ENGLISH EXPLORATIONS— TRADERS— FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR IN THE WEST — ENGLISH

POSSESSION,

��AS has been noted, the French title rested on the discoveries of their missionaries and traders, upon the occupation of the country, and upon the construction of the treaties of Ryswick, Utrecht and Aix hi Chapelle. The English claims to the same region were based on the fact of a prior occupation of the corresponding coast, on an opposite construction of the same treaties, and an alleged cession of the rights of the Indians. The rights acquired by discovery were conventional, and in equity were good only between European powers, and could not aflPect the rights of the natives, but this distinction was dis- regarded by all European powers. The inquiry of an Indian chief embodies the whole controversy: " Where are the Indian lands, since the French claim all on the north side of the Ohio and the English all on the south side of it?"

The English charters expressly granted to all the original colonies the country westward to the South Sea, and the claims thus set up in the West, though held in abeyance, were never relinquished. The primary distinction between the two nations governed their actions in the New World, and led finally to the supremacy of the English. They were fixed agricultural communities. The French were mere trading-posts. Though the French were the prime movers in the exploration of the West, the English made discoveries during their occupation, however, mainly by their traders, who penetrated the Western wilderness by way of the Ohio River, entering it from the two streams which uniting form that river. Daniel Coxie, in 1722, published, in London, "A description of the English province of Carolina, by the Spaniards called Florida, and by the French called La Louis- iane, as also the great and famous river Mescha- cebe, or Mississippi, the five vast navigable lakes of fresh water, and the parts adjacent, together with an account of the commodities of the growth and production of the said province." The title of this work exhibits very clearly the opinions of the English people respecting the West. As early as 1680, Charles I granted to Sir Robert Heath " All that part of America lying between thirty-

��one and thirty-six degrees north latitude, from sea to sea," out of which the limits of Carolina were afterward taken. This immense grant was con- veyed in 1638, to the Earl of Arundel, and after- ward came into the possession of Dr. Daniel Coxie. In the prosecution of this claim, it appeared that Col. Wood, of Virginia, from 1654 to 1664, ex- plored several branches of the Ohio and " Mescha- cebe," as they spell the Mississippi. A Mr. Need- ham, who was employed by Col. Wood, kept a journal of the exploration. There is also the ac- count of some one who had explored the Missis- sippi to the Yellow, or Missouri River, before 1676. These, and others, are said to have been there when La Salle explored the outlet of the Great River, as he found tools among the natives which were of European manufiicture. They had been brought here by English adventurers. Also, when Iberville was colonizing the lower part of Louis- iana, these same persons visited the Chickasaws and stirred them up against the French. It is also stated that La Salle found that some one had been among the Natchez tribes when he returned from the discovery of the outlet of the IMississippi, and excited them against him. There is, however, no good authority for these statements, and they are doubtless incorrect. There is also an account that in 1678, several persons went from New England as far south as New Mexico, " one hundred and fifty leagues beyond the Meschacebe," the narrative reads, and on their return wrote an account of the expedition. This, also, cannot be traced to good authority. The only accurate account of the English reaching the West was when Bienville met the British vessel at the "English Turn," about 1700. A few of their traders may have been in the valley west of the Alleghany Mount- ains before 1700, though no reliable accounts are now found to confirm these suppositions. Still, from the earliest occupation of the Atlantic Coast by the English, they claimed the country, and, though the policy of its occupation rested for a time, it was never ftilly abandoned. Its revival dates from 1710 properly, though no immediate endeavor was made for many years after. That

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