11. Land Claimsghany Mountains, the Mississippi River, and the great lakes was claimed by more than one of the colonies, and they continued their claim after they became States.

The land enclosed by the Alle

12. Massachusetts claimed the land west of New York as far as the Mississippi, between her northern and southern boundary lines, as laid down in her charter 42° 2' and about 43° 43′ 12′′ north latitude. This strip was not far from a hundred miles wide, and extended through the southern part of the present States of Michigan and Wisconsin and the northern part of Illinois. It included all of Illinois that lies north of the parallel 42° 2' north latitude.

13. Connecticut claimed the land west of New York and Pennsylvania as far as the Mississippi, between her northern and southern boundary lines, as laid down in her charter-42° 2′ and 41° north latitude. The strip was about sixty-two miles wide, and extended through the northern parts of the present States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and the southern part of Michigan.

14. Virginia claimed the land west to the Mississippi River, between the northern and southern parallels of latitude laid down in her charter from the southern boundary of the present State of Virginia carried west as far as the Mississippi, to the parallel of 41° north latitude, and included between the Mississippi on the west and the present States of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania on the east. This covered all the State of Illinois south of the parallel of 41°.

By another explanation of the Virginia charter (of 1609), the northern boundary of her possessions was not a parallel of latitude, but a line beginning at a

point on the Atlantic coast two hundred miles north of Old Point Comfort and running northwest. This would have included the whole of Illinois within the Virginia claim.

Virginia had another claim which covered Illinois. When the Revolutionary War broke out, the few scattered settlements north of the Ohio River were held by British garrisons, and were made the startingpoints of Indian raids against the American border settlements. In order to break up these raids, Virginia, in 1778, sent a small army of State troops under Gen. George Rogers Clarke to attack the British garrisons. The expedition was successful. Clarke captured the posts of Kaskaskia and Cahokia (in Illinois) and Vincennes (in Indiana), and thus when the war came to an end in 1783 a great part of the land beyond the Ohio was in the actual possession of Virginia. By reason of this conquest Virginia claimed title to all the territory from the Ohio to the great lakes. This claim also included all of Illinois.

15. The State of New York also claimed the territory west of the Alleghany Mountains, but on quite a different ground-treaties between New York and the Indian "Six Nations. These were a confederacy of tribes living within the limits of the present State of New York. They were fierce and warlike savages, and before the American War of Independence had succeeded in overcoming their Indian neighbors on all sides. Their war parties roamed as far west as the Mississippi, and compelled the conquered tribes to admit some sort of supremacy of the victors. Then the authorities of New York made several treaties with the Indian confederacy, by which in turn that colony

acquired a supremacy over the Six Nations and their land. Accordingly New York claimed all the land which the confederacy had conquered, which meant about all the space enclosed by the Alleghanies, the great lakes, and the Mississippi. It will be seen that this, too, included all of Illinois.

16. Western Land Ceded to the United StatesThese conflicting claims to the same land on the part of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Virginia led to many disputes and much trouble. Indeed there were other claims than those which have been detailed, which were settled only with great difficulty. But it was clear that the rivalry for the vast domain beyond the Ohio would strain the republic seriously. In fact, the State of Maryland, which made no claim to western land, would not consent to the Articles of Confederation until it was settled that the claimant States would cede their western territory to the Union. New York led the way in 1780, and the other States followed not long after. The Virginia cession was made in 1784, and comprised all the land northwest of the Ohio River. The cession of Massachusetts was made in 1784, and that of Connecticut in 1786. Thus the land included within the present State of Illinois came to be owned by the United States.

The cessions by the States, with some few exceptions, gave to the Union both the ownership of the soil and governmental jurisdiction over it. One of the exceptions was the stipulation that the white settlers (mostly French) already living in the ceded territory should continue to own the farms and homes. which they already occupied.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE CEDED TERRITORY

17. French Settlers-The first white settlers within the limits of Illinois were French. The main French settlements in North America, it will be remembered, were at Quebec and Montreal, on the St. Lawrence, and at New Orleans, near the mouth of the Mississippi. Communication between these remote points was effected by means of boats, which were paddled up the great lakes and up some stream which flowed into the lakes, were then carried overland and launched again in a stream whose waters flowed toward the Mississippi, and thus in time floated down the great river to New Orleans.

There were several of these routes between the lakes and the Mississippi, each with its "portage," as the path was called over which the boats were carried from stream to stream. One was up Green Bay and Fox River, and then down the Wisconsin River to the Mississippi; another was up the Chicago River, and down the Desplaines and the Illinois; another was up the St. Joseph's River, and down the Kankakee and the Illinois. There were also several ways of reaching the Ohio River from the lakes, one being by way of the Wabash River. The route by the Illinois River was a favorite one, as the streams traversed have a comparatively sluggish current, and their headwaters are so interlaced that the portages are not very long or difficult.

For the protection of these routes, as well as for the prosecution of the fur trade with the Indians, small settlements were established at various points. Among

them were Kaskaskia, on the river of that name near its junction with the Mississippi; Cahokia, on the Mississippi nearly opposite the present city of St. Louis; and Vincennes, on the Indiana side of the Wabash River. At each of these places was a fort with a garrison of French soldiers. The most elaborate French fort, however, was Fort Chartres, on the Mississippi between Cahokia and the mouth of the Kaskaskia. During the period of French control, the Northwest was sometimes a part of Louisiana, and so subject to the government at New Orleans; at other times a part of Canada, and so subject to the government at Quebec.

18. English Government-After the transfer of the territory to England in 1763, English garrisons replaced those of France (1765), and the government was in the hands of the military officers at the various posts. In 1774, however, an act of the British Parliament, the "Quebec Act," extended the limits of Canada to the Ohio and the Mississippi. This made the Illinois country subject to the British military government at Quebec. However, the same act of Parliament extended over all the province the old French law, to which the people were accustomed.

19. A County of Virginia-In 1778 the Illinois country was occupied by Virginia troops, and the legislature of that State passed an act providing for a regular civil government. All the land north of the Ohio which Virginia claimed was formed into a county which was named "Illinois.” A military officer was appointed to take charge of the civil government, with the title of "lieutenant-commandant." He organized courts of law, and acted as a sort of deputy governor, under the governor of Virginia. This arrangement