Page:Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison Vol. 1.djvu/79

Rh Colonel [Benjamin] Hawkins and the agents of the factories at Tellico in Tennessee, and in Georgia, will communicate immediately with the secretary of war as usual.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of esteem, your humble servant. 

 February 26, 1802 Dawson, Harrison, 16-20

The subject of the boundary line between us and the Indians, has engaged my attention for some time past; and as I consider myself possessed of all the information relating to it which I am likely to obtain in this quarter, I have thought it best to state to you the result of my inquiries and reflections.

If the obvious construction of the treaty of Greenville is to be taken as the ground upon which our claim to land in this country is to be supported, I believe it will be found to be much more extensive than is generally imagined. The tract which the United States may rightfully claim, extends on the Wabash from Point Coupee, 12 leagues above the mouth of White river, to 12 leagues below this town, and in width from the river on the east, 40 leagues, and on the west 30 leagues.

The grant of the land is said to have been made to Monsieur De Vincennes, a captain in the French army, and the founder of the colony which bears his name, for the use of the French settlers, and although the instrument of conveyance (if there ever was one in writing) is lost, the fact is ascertained not only by the testimony of all the old French inhabitants, but is completely authenticated by a clause in a subsequent deed, made by the Indians to the Wabash Company in the year 1775, in which the bounds of the tract before granted to the French are laid down, for the purpose of excepting it from the sale then about to be made. An extract from the said deed, which is on record here, is 