HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OHIO
FRENCH HISTORY.
All through early French history, is the fact especially prominent that in their explorations and expeditions, they united piety and business. They were zealous in sending out their missionaries, but they were always attended by traders and those who were as skilled in the world's profit and loss as their companions were in propagating Christianity. Prior to the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers upon Plymouth Rock the Upper Lakes were visited by the French, and records prove that during the first half of the seventeenth century, a vagabondish set, working in the interests of the fur company of New France, understood the geographical position of the lakes and their tributary streams. M. Perrot, an intelligent explorer made overtures of peace to the Indian tribes around these bodies of water and efected a treaty, which, it is claimed, established the right for the French in the name of their king, to hold the place near St. Mary's Falls. They further assert that the Mississippi was discovered by the French from Lake Superior but this is not authenticated, and Father Marquette and M. Joliet are accepted as the first who found this large stream, in 1763. The good missionary won his way with his patient and sympathetic nature. Ohio was, like the other portions of the West, originally in the possession of aborigines or Indians. Of their origin, many suppositions are advanced, but no certainties sustained. From practical evidences, the Mound-Builders were active in Ohio, and here as elsewhere, their work marked retrogression rather than advancement. The territory of Ohio was claimed by the French, and included in that wide tract between the Alleghanies and the Rockies, held by them under the name of Louisiana. Before the year 1750, a French trad- ng-post was established at the mouth of the Wabash, and communication was established between that point and the Maumee, and Canada. Between the years 1678 and 1682, the intrepid La Salle and Father Hennepin, assisted by Fondi, an Italian, with a small band of followers, inaugurated a series of explorations about the great lakes and the Mississippi, building forts on their way and planting the French priority. In 1680, La Salle erected a stockade at the foot of the rapids of the Maumee, which was a general rendezvous for mission- aries, traders and explorers, besides constituting a primitive "stock exchange." The English colonies were at this time east of the Alleghanies, while the French were establishing themselves west of this range, gaining an entrance north and south, the two portions separated by hostile and barbarous foes. La Salle's spirit of adventure led him into new fields, but Father Hennepin was detailed to investigate that part of the world now known as the State of Ohio. The records assert that he published a volume containing an account of his observations "in the country between New Mexico and the frozen ocean," in 1684, together with maps of Lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan, and a plat of the larger streams in Ohio.Apparently, the French more speedily comprehended the value of their advantages in the New World than the English, and vigorously inaugurated and sustained commercial and religious projects. They were essentially benefited by the mediation of the Catholic priests between settlers and Indians, this really earnest class everywhere ingratiating themselves with the savages. The Order of Jesuits were very vigorous, and representatives were stationed at every trading-post, village and settlement. The English colonists engaged mostly in agriculture, while the French took a lively interest in the fur trade with the natives, probably from their former settlement in Quebec and thereabouts, where the climate is advantageous for this business. This added to the influence of the priests, and the natural assimilation of French and the Indians, through .the tact and amiability of the former, the French possessions gained more rapidly than the English or Spanish. They courted their daughters and married them. They engaged in. feasts and trades, and took advantage of those unimpeded times to extend their dominion with surprising celerity. A chain of trading, missionary and military posts extended from New Orleans to Quebec, by way of the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, thence via Mackinaw and Detroit to Lakes Erie and Ontario. This route was shortened thereafter by following the Ohio River to the Wabash, following the latter upward, and down the Maumee to Lake Erie. About the same time, and to check the advancement of the French, the Ohio Company was formed by the English. This was an outgrowth of the contest between these two nations for the ascendency, whether empire, settle- ment or individual. After thirty years' peace between these two nations, "King George's War" opened the campaign in 1744, but terminated in 1748, the treaty at Aix-la-Chapelle unfortunately omitting a settlement of any division of claims in America. The English, French and Spanish were the first to enter America, and the right of possession by each monarch or empire was held by right of a first discovery. The only right that England could advance regarding Ohio was that the portion of the Six Nations found in the Ohio Valley had placed some of their lands under British jurisdiction, and that other portions had been purchased at Lancaster, Penn., by means of a treaty with the same nations. All this was strenuously denied and ignored by the French. Thus several conflicting influences swept carnage over fair Ohio. The Indians were allied to one side and the other, and were against each other. The Indians and French would advance against the English, and they, in retaliation, would make a raid into the Indian territory and overcome a French settlement. Whenever they could as well, Indians would take the cause in their own keep- ing and fight each other. The wide, verdant fields of Ohio were drenched ghastly red under a glowing sun, and the great forests echoed moans from the dying and distressed. The English colonists had partially overcome their deprivation, caused by a struggle for subsistence, and means to guard against the savages---this distress augmented by campaigns against Canada---by their