George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 3, 15th edition.

[339] of Utrecht, the subjects and friends of both nations

Chap. XXIII.}

might resort to each other for the reciprocal benefit of their trade; and an active commerce subsisted between Albany and Montreal by means of the Christian Iroquois. In the administration of Burnet, that commerce was prohibited; and, amidst the bitter hostility of the merchants whose trade was interrupted, New York established a commercial post at Oswego. This was

1722

the first in the series of measures which carried the bounds of the English colonies towards Michigan, and, in public opinion, annexed the north-west to our country. In 1727, this trading-post was converted into a fortress, in defiance of the discontent of the Iroquois and the constant protest of France. It was the avenue through which the west was reached by English traders, and the Miamis, and even the Hurons from Detroit, found their way to Albany.

The limit of jurisdiction, as between England and France, was not easy of adjustment. Canada, by its original charter, comprised the whole basin of the St. Lawrence; and that part of Vermont and New York which is watered by streams flowing to the St. Lawrence, had ever been regarded by France as Canadian territory. The boat of Champlain had entered the lake that makes his name a familiar word, in the same summer in which Hudson ascended the North River. Holland had never dispossessed the French; and the conquest and surrender of New Netherlands could transfer no more than the possessions of Holland There was, therefore, no act of France relinquishing its claim till the treaty of Utrecht. The ambiguous language of that treaty did, indeed, refer to ‘the Five Nations subject to England;’ but French diplomacy would not