l, or Annapolis, had been repeatedly taken by the English; and, by
the treaty of Utrecht, the whole province, by the name of Nova Scotia,
or Acadie, according to its ancient limits had been ceded to them.

But the boundaries of Nova Scotia, or Acadie, had never been
ascertained. Though the treaty of Utrecht had provided that
commissioners should be appointed by the two crowns, to adjust the
limits of their respective colonies, the adjustment had never been
made. France claimed to the Kennebec; and insisted "that only the
peninsula which is formed by the bay of Fundy, the Atlantic ocean, and
the gulf of St. Lawrence," was included in the cession of "Nova
Scotia, or Acadie, according to its ancient limits." England, on the
other hand, claimed all the country on the main land south of the
river St. Lawrence. Under the treaty of Aix la Chapelle, commissioners
were again appointed to settle these differences, who maintained the
rights of their respective sovereigns with great ability, and
laborious research; but their zeal produced a degree of asperity
unfavourable to accommodation.

While this contest for the cold and uninviting country of Nova Scotia
was carried on with equal acrimony and talents, a controversy arose
for richer and more extensive regions in the south and west.

[Sidenote: Discovery of the Mississippi.]

So early as the year 1660, information was received, in Canada, from
the Indians, that, west of that colony, was a great river, flowing
neither to the north, nor to the east. The government, conjecturing
that it must empty itself either into the gulf of Mexico or the south
sea, committed the care of ascertaining the fact to Joliet, an
inhabitant of Quebec, and to the Jesuit Marquette. These men proceeded
from lake Michigan up the river of the Foxes, almost to its source,
whence they travelled westward to the Ouisconsing, which they pursued
to its confluence with the Mississippi. They sailed down this river to
the 33d degree of north latitude, and returned by land, through the
country of the Illinois, to Canada.

The mouth of the Mississippi was afterwards discovered by la Salle, an
enterprising Norman, who, immediately after his return to Quebec,
embarked for France, in the hope of inducing the cabinet of Versailles
to patronise a scheme for proceeding by sea to the mouth of that river
and settling a colony on its banks.

Having succeeded in this application, he sailed for the gulf of
Mexico, with a