206 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 



that of the United States. It was the assumption 

 that discovery by any European State, followed by 

 occupation on the sea-coast, carried the possessions 

 of such State indefinitely landward until they met 

 the possessions of some other European State. 



At the same time, France had entered into America 

 by the waters of the St. Lawrence, had ascended that 

 river to the Lakes, had then descended by the Missis 

 sippi to the site of the future New Orleans, and had 

 thus laid the foundation of a title not only to the ex 

 plored territories watered by the St. Lawrence or in 

 front of it on the sea-coast, but also to undefined, be 

 cause unknown, regions beyond the Mississippi. 



Hence arose the first great questions of boundary 

 in North America, those between England, France, 

 and Spain, which were settled by the Peace of Utrecht. 

 France retained possession of the territories on the 

 St. Lawrence and the Mississippi ; whilst England 

 retained her country of Hudson s Bay and her Prov 

 inces on the Atlantic coast, and acquired Nova Scotia 

 /and Newfoundland. [Treaty of Utrecht, March 31- 

 April 11, 1713.] 



Subsequently, the fortunes of war made England 

 mistress of the Canadian and coast establishments of 

 France, leaving to the latter only the territory beyond 

 the Mississippi. [Treaty of Fontainebleau, Nov. 3, / 

 1762, and Treaty of Paris, Feb. 10, 1763.] 



Meanwhile, Spain continued, with but brief inter 

 ruption, in undisputed sovereignty of the two Floridas, 

 and of the vast provinces of New Spain, of undefined 

 extension west and north toward the Pacific. 



