speedy occupation and settlement of the country between the great lakes and the Mississippi, but for a series of years, extending to a period later than the termination of the Revolutionary war, but little account of such improvements is to be found.

When Capt. CARVER visited Green Bay in 1766, there had been at that place no garrison since the fort was abandoned by Lieut. GORRELL, three years before. A few families. lived in the fort and opposite to it on the east side of Fox river. There were a few French settlers who cultivated the land and appeared to live comfortably.

At the time Capt. STIRLING, coming by the way of the Ohio, established his headquarters at Fort Chartres, as previously stated, in October, 1765, as commandant of the Illinois country under the orders of Gen. GAGE, commanderin-chief of his Majesty's forces in America, the French population of the whole country, from the Mississippi eastward to the Wabash, was probably not less than five thousand persons, including about five hundred negro slaves. Fort Chartres, subsequently called "Fort Gage," was on the east bank of the Kaskaskia River, opposite the town of Kaskaskia.

The relations between the French settlers in the Illinois country and the neighboring Indian tribes were of the most friendly character. Not so the relations between the Indians and the Americans. At the commencement of the war of the Revolution, and during its continuance, the savages of the Northwest had been associated as allies of Great Britain, and employed by the British commanders to lay waste the whole frontier country.

Virginia claimed that the Illinois country, and of course all the posts within it, including Detroit, were embraced by her three royal charters. PATRICK HENRY was governor of Virginia, and a secret expedition was set on foot for the reduction of these posts under the authority of the governor and executive council, which was prompted and guided by the genius and enterprise of Col. GEORGE ROGERS CLARK.

Col. CLARK assembled his force, consisting of six incomplete companies of fifty men each, at the Falls of the Ohio, about the middle of June, 1778. On the 24th they descended the river in keel-boats as far as Fort Massac. From Fort Massac they crossed the country by land, and on the 4th of July reached a point within two miles of Kaskaskia. In

the dead of night, two divisions crossed the river, and were instantly in possession of the town, while Col. CLARK with the remainder of his force with equal success captured the fort, which was unconditionally surrendered to ROCHEB

LAVE.

The French inhabitants declared for the American cause, and the Kaskaskians assisted in securing the submission of their neigbors at Kahokia, which was successfully obtained on the 6th of July.

With the exception of Detroit, the post at Vincennes was the most important. M. GIBAULT, the priest of Kaskaskia, with the ready sanction of Col. CLARK, attempted by persuasion alone to induce the inhabitants to throw off their forced connection with England. On the 1st of August he returned with the intelligence that they had taken the oath of allegiance to Virginia. Col. CLARK established courts and placed garrisons at Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes. Treaties of amity were also entered into by Col. CLARK in the vicinity of all the Northwestern British posts.

In December, 1778, the British commander of Detroit, Lieut.-Gov. HENRY HAMILTON, having collected all the force in his power, arrived at Vincennes, and summoned the garrison to surrender. The only occupants of the fort were Capt. HELM, one private and three citizens. Capt. HELM, making a show of resistance, was offered all the usual honors of war. Gov. HAMILTON took up his winter quarters in the town and fort, with seventy-nine men.

In February, 1779, Col. CLARK, with one hundred and thirty men and forty pack-horseman, marched to Vincennes, where he arrived on the 21st, and immediately invested the fort and demanded its surrender. After a siege of three days, in which only one American was wounded, and seven British soldiers were severely wounded, if not killed, on the 24th of February, Col. HAMILTON capitulated and surrendered the garrison as prisoners of war. He and seven other prisoners were sent to Virginia.

A few days after, Capt. HELM, by order of Col. CLARK, at the head of sixty men, captured a convoy of merchandise and army supplies, amounting to ten thousand pounds in value, which was advancing by way of the Wabash from Detroit, under an escort of forty men.

In the result of the enterprise and success of Col. CLARK, Virginia obtained possession of the territory claimed by her

-the great Northwest at this day, comprising the states. of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and a large part of Minnesota. Henceforth the Northwest remained in a comparative degree of quiet during the progress of the Revolutionary war, except the predatory excursions of the Indians from this region, on the frontiers of the old states. It exhibits few events worthy of attention, in regard to organized government, production or commerce, and a total barrenness, in relation to settlement and growth of population.

CHAPTER VI.

UNDER AMERICAN JURISDICTION.

The "Ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States, northwest of the river Ohio," adopted by the Continental Congress, July 13, 1787, may be regarded as the fundamental law which led the way to the wonderful growth and prosperity of the states since formed from the "Northwest Territory."

"Slavery or involuntary servitude," notwithstanding the 6th article of this ordinance, continued to exist at Green Bay. During the constant wars of the Indians, the Wisconsin tribes made captives of the Pawnees and other distant tribes who were consigned to servitude. AUGUSTIN GRIGNON Says in his "Recollections," that he personally knew fourteen of these slaves, and that his grandfather, CHARLES DE LANGLADE, had two Indian slaves. It also appears

quite certain that negroes were held as slaves at Green Bay, one of whom, Mr. GRIGNON says, was a boy, purchased by BAPTIST BRUNETT from a St. Louis Indian trader, and that the negro boy was taken away from BRUNETT as late as 1807, by Mr. CAMPBELL, the Indian agent at Prairie du Chien, in consequence of the cruel treatment inflicted upon him.

The treaty of peace of 1783, was not accompanied by the immediate surrender of the British posts to the American authorities. More than ten years of diplomatic controversy intervened before a great part of the disputes were in a measure settled by JAY's treaty of 1794, and it was not until

two years later, that the posts in the Northwest were evacuated by the British and delivered up to the Americans under the stipulations of that treaty. Some of the most cruel and bloody wars with the Indians, which have ever been known in the annals of American history, occurred during the five years immediately preceding the treaty of GREENVILLE, of 1795. In many of these wars, the American forces were signally unsuccessful. They were, however, mostly in that part of the Northwestern Territory, which was so distant from the limits of the present state of Wisconsin, that they are no farther connected with its history, than that history is connected with whatever relates to the Northwestern Territory.

The most signal of these reverses, was the defeat of Gen. HARMAR on the Maumee, in October, 1790, and the route of Gen. ST. CLAIR, on the head-waters of the Wabash, in November, 1791. In these and other engagements, the Indians were undoubtedly aided and abetted by the British. The subsequent campaigns were entrusted to Major-Gen. ANTHONY WAYNE, and were attended with signal success. In August, 1794, on the Maumee, above Fort Defiance, was fought one of the most successful and decisive battles ever fought with western Indians, and tended more than any other to humble the power and spirit of the hostile tribes. The name of Gen. WAYNE alone was a greater terror to them than any army, for they looked upon him as a chief who never slept and whom no art could surprise. The campaign of 1794 put a close to Indian hostilities in the Northwest, and the tribes soon began to evince a disposition to enter into a permanent treaty of peace and friendship, notwithstanding the opposition urged by the British agents. Preliminary articles were signed at Fort Wayne, January 24th, 1795, by which it was agreed that a definitive treaty should be made the next summer at Greenville. Accordingly there had assembled at the latter place, eleven hundred and thirty chiefs and warriors of the several nations and tribes of the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanese, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatamies, Miamis, Weas, Eel Rivers, Kickapoos, Piankeshaws and Kaskaskias. The "great and abiding peace document" was finally agreed upon and signed on the 3d of August, 1795, by eighty-four chiefs, representing these nations and tribes, and by Gen. ANTHONY WAYNE, sole commissioner on the part of the United States.

By the treaty of 1783, Great Britain relinquished to the United States all the territory on the east side of the Mississippi, from its sources to the 31st parallel of north latitude, which was the boundary of Florida on the north. The United States claimed the free navigation of the river to its mouth, by virtue of the treaty, as well as by a natural right independent of treaty, to follow the current of their rivers to the sea, as established by the laws of nations.

Great Britain had ceded to Spain all the Floridas, and possessing all the territory on the west side of the river and Florida on the east, the river for the last three hundred miles flowed wholly within the dominions of Spain. His Catholic Majesty therefore denied the right of the United States to the free navigation of the river, and claimed for Spain the exclusive right to the use of the river below the southern limit of the United States. In the exercise of the rights claimed by Spain, heavy duties were exacted of every boat descending the river, which were as arbitrary as they were unjust.

By the treaty of Madrid, which was signed October 20, 1795, boundaries were defined between the territories of the United States and Spain. The treaty provided that the middle of the Mississippi should be the western boundary of the United States, from its source to the intersection of the 31st parallel of north latitude, and that the whole width of said river from its source to the sea should be free to the people of the United States.

By treaty signed at Madrid, March 21, 1801, Spain granted Louisiana to France.

In January, 1803, ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON and JAMES MONROE were appointed ministers to the court of France, and by the last of April in that year concluded a treaty, which was ratified in the following October, which resulted in the purchase, for sixty million francs, in six per cent. bonds, of the whole of the province of Louisiana. Thus the United States became possessed of the whole of the great valley of the Mississippi, while Spain retained Mexico on the west and southwest, and the Floridas on the southeast. The Indian title to the lands in this vast region alone remained to be extinguished.

On the 7th of May, 1800, the Northwest Territory was divided and the new territory of Indiana established, embracing the present states of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan,