53 Danger from the French Mississippi Settlements (1718)
Having of a long time endeavored to inform myself of the situation of the French to the westward of us and the advantages they reap by an uninterrupted communication along the Lake, I shall here take the liberty of communicating my thoughts to Your Lordships, both of the dangers to which his Majesty’s Plantations may be exposed by this new acquisition of our neighbors and how the same may be best prevented. I have often regretted that after so many years as these countries have been seated, no attempts have been made to discover the sources of our rivers, nor to establishing correspondence with those nations of Indians to the westward of us, even after the certain knowledge of the progress made by French in surrounding us with their settlements.
Having also informed myself of that extensive communication which the French maintain by means of their water carriage from the River St. Lawrence to the mouth of Mississippi, I shall here set down the route from Montreal (a place well known and distinguished in the ordinary maps) to Maville, their chief town in their new settlement of Louisiana, according to the account given me by three French men who had often travelled that way and were taken in a late Expedition under the Command of the Governor and Lt. Governor’s sons of Montreal, and is as follows:
From Montreal up St. Lawrence River to Fort Frontenac, at the Entrance of Lake Ontario, is – – 60 [leagues]
The Length of Lake Ontario, which is Navigable, – – – 60
Up the River to the Falls of Niagara, where there is a necessity of Land Carriage, 3
From Niagara to the Lake Erie, – – – – – 100
Up the River Mic. which falls into Lake Erie, – – – 60
From the River Mic. to the River Occabacke, a Land Carriage of 3
Down the River Occaback till it falls into the River Mississippi, – – 200
Thence down Mississippi to Maville, 360
By this communication and the forts they have already built, the British plantations are in a manner surrounded by their commerce with the numerous nations of Indians seated on both sides of the Lakes. They may not only engross the whole skin trade but may, when they please, send out such bodies of Indians on the back of these plantations as may greatly distress his Majesty’s subjects here. And should they multiply their settlements along these Lakes so as to join their Dominions of Canada to their new Colony of Louisiana they might even possess themselves of any of these plantations they pleased. Nature, ’tis true, has formed a barrier for us by that long chain of mountains which run from the back of South Carolina as far as New York and which are only passable in some few places. But even that natural defense may prove rather destructive to us, if they are not possessed by us before they are known to them. To prevent the dangers which threaten his Majesty’s Dominions here from the growing power of these neighbors, nothing seems to me of more consequence than that now while the nations are at peace and while the French are yet incapable of possessing all that vast tract which lies on the back of these plantations, we should attempt to make some settlements on the Lakes and at the same time possess ourselves of those passes of the great mountains which are necessary to preserve a communication with such settlements.
As the Lake Erie lies almost in the center of the French communication and, as I observed before, not above 5 days march from the late discovered passage of our great mountains, that seems the most proper for forming a settlement on. By which we shall not only share with the French in the commerce and friendship of those Indians inhabiting the banks of the Lakes but may be able to cut off or disturb the communication between Canada and Louisiana if a war should happen to break out. If such a settlement were once made, I can’t see how the French could dispute our right of possession, the law of nations giving a title to the first occupant. And should they think fit to dispossess us by force, we are nearer to support than they to attack.
I shall only here apply myself to what I conceive more immediately necessary, which are that of the Mississippi Settlement and the importance of adding St. Augustine to the British acquisitions on this continent. As to the first, there can be no doubt but that the French settlement on Mississippi will (without timely precautions) greatly effect both the trade and safety of these, his Majesty’s plantations. Tobacco, rice, and other commodities with which the greatest part of Europe is now supplied from these plantations will no doubt be cultivated and produced in this new French settlement. And they will become our rivals in that trade in all foreign markets. By this means his Majesty’s subjects employed here in that manufacture will be discouraged. The British navigation must decrease in proportion as the French advance in that Trade and the revenue of the Crown, of course, very much diminished. The danger which threatens these, his Majesty’s plantations, from this new settlement is also very considerable. For by the communication which the French may maintain between Canada and Mississippi by the conveniency of the Lakes, they do in a manner surround all the British plantations. They have it in their power by these lakes and the many rivers running into them and into the Mississippi, to engross all the trade of the Indian nations which are now supplied from hence. They may, by possessing themselves of the passes of the great mountains which lie between us and the Lakes, either by themselves or their Indians fall upon and overrun which of these Provinces they think fit. And seeing by their late seizure of Pensacola from the Spaniards, their design seems to be to extend their dominions eastward from Mississippi towards South Carolina. It is certainly the British interest to put a stop to their advancing any further that way, which in my opinion will be best effected by possessing ourselves with some places on the coast of Florida and forming a settlement as near as can be to cramp theirs. Which leads me to consider the other part Your Lordships’ desire to be informed in, viz: the importance of taking St. Augustine from the Spaniards.
St. Augustine is a small fort on the northeast part of the coast of Florida with a village adjoining inhabited by about 2 or 300 Spaniards. This place may be of vast consequence to Britain whenever a war shall happen with either of these Crowns, it being impossible for their ships to pass through the Gulf without being discovered from either one side or the other. And therefore liable to become prize to any of our Men of War or Privateers that may be placed on that station. So that in case of a rupture with France, the whole trade of their Mississippi colony may by that means be destroyed. But I would also humbly propose that besides the taking of St. Augustine, the small Fort or rather Battery of St. Mark [the Castillo San Marcos] may be attempted. Besides these two settlements it may not be improbable but that a good harbor may be found among the islands at the Cape of Florida which might be a proper station for Men of War or Privateers to interrupt the Spanish or French trade from the Bay of Mexico, that Promontory lying almost in sight of the Havanna and no other way for their Ships to return to Europe but through that passage. This would also prove a security to our own trade from Jamaica which for want of places of retreat for Merchantmen and Cruising Ships on that Coast, are often exposed to the danger of Enemys’ Privateers as well as to storms which frequently happen there.
Many navigable rivers branch out from the Mississippi towards the English plantations and the several Indian nations with whom both we and the French trade. Your Lordships will observe that most of those nations are more contiguous to the French settlements than the English and have been hitherto kept in our interest by being more plentifully supplied with goods from the English than the French could afford them. I am also here to observe that the French have of late begun a traffic with the Coosta Indians, living upon a River of that name not far from the Cherokees. And it is to be feared they will soon get footing too among the latter, the people of South Carolina having already abandoned that trade.
Source: Official Letters of Alexander Spotswood in the Virginia Historical Society, Collections, II, 295-331. https://archive.org/details/toldcontemporari02hartrich/page/316/mode/2up
