act that a Spanish sailor
had previously entered the St. Lawrence and established a port at the
mouth of Grand river--neither of those powers seriously contested the
right of France to its possession.--Yet it was frequently the theatre
of war; and as early as 1629 was subdued by England. By the treaty of
St. Germains in 1632 it was restored to France, as was also the then
province of Acadie, now known as Nova Scotia. There is no doubt but
that this latter province was, by priority of settlement, the property
of France, but its principal town having been repeatedly reduced to
possession by the English, it was ceded to them by the treaty of
Utrecht in 1713.

To the country bordering the Mississippi river, and its tributary
streams, a claim was made by England, France and Spain. The claim of
England (based on the discovery by the Cabots of the eastern shore of
the United States,) included all the country between the parallels of
latitude within which the Atlantic shore was explored, extending
westwardly to the Pacific ocean--a zone athwart the continent between
the thirtieth and forty-eighth degrees of North latitude.

From the facility with which the French gained the good will and
friendly alliance of the Natives in Canada, by intermarrying with, and
assimilating themselves to the habits and inclinations of, these
children of the forest, an intimacy arose which induced the Indians to
impart freely to the French their knowledge of the interior country.
Among other things information was communicated to them, of the fact
that farther on there was a river of great size and immense length,
which pursued a course opposite to that of the St. Lawrence, and
emptied itself into an unknown sea. It was conjectured that it must
necessarily flow either into the Gulph of Mexico, or the South Sea;
and in 1673 Marquette and Joliet, French missionaries, together with
five other men, commenced a journey [7] from Quebec to ascertain the
fact and examine the country bordering its shores.

From lake Michigan they proceeded up the Fox river nearly to its
source; thence to Ouisconsin; down it to the Mississippi, in which
river they sailed as far as to about the thirty-third degree of north
latitude. From this point they returned through the Illinois country
to Canada.

At the period of this discovery M. de La Salle, a Frenchman of
enterprise, courage and talents but without fortune, was commandant of
fort Frontignac. Pleased with the desc