THE WESTERN COUNTRY 259 



the south and east of the Ohio has been in part ceded 

 by them through treaty or sale, and in part has been 

 merely usurped by Europeans. At the beginning, in- 

 deed, the limits of the several colonies were marked 

 off by the mother country ; but with the growth of the 

 colonies the territory so fixed was to be conquered 

 from the Indians or bought of them from time to 

 time, they having never given up their rights and 

 claims to suzerainty. A part of the land assigned 

 by Penn's charter to the state of Pensylvania is in- 

 cluded in this Indian territory and is still in their 

 possession. The boundary of Philadelphia extends 

 60 miles west and north-west of Pittsburg, and 

 embraces therefore a considerable tract on the north 

 side of the Ohio and the Alleghany. On the part of 

 Pensylvania there is little disposition to purchase this 

 land by munificent gifts, and the Indians are as little 

 inclined to fling it away ; and thus it cannot be brought 

 into cultivation except through the shedding of blood 

 and the continual unrest of the settlers first established 

 there. And after a time this will be the case also with 

 the extensive country lying to the north and west of 

 the Ohio, given over to the United States by Great 

 Britain under the last treaty but without the privity 

 and consent of the Indian nations interested, who 

 therefore feel themselves in no way bound to regard 

 that treaty and withdraw from their forests and hunt- 

 ing grounds, unable or unwilling to comprehend how 

 any foreign power has the right to appropriate to 



there. These journeys are made in canoes or flats, and all 

 necessaries must be taken along, since there can be no de- 

 pendence on anything but what is found in the woods ; there- 

 fore a good hunter is an indispensable member of the party. 



