72 THE FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND INDIANS. [1687-1750. 



the Iroquois, they attempted to open a traffic with 

 the Algonquin tribes of the great lakes ; and in 

 the year 1687, Major McGregory ascended with a 

 boat load of goods to Lake Huron, where his 

 appearance excited great commotion, and where 

 he was seized and imprisoned by the French.^ 

 From this time forward, the English fur-trade lan- 

 guished, until the year 1725, when Governor 

 Burnet, of New York, established a post on Lake 

 Ontario, at the mouth of the river Oswego ; 

 whither, lured by the cheapness and excellence 

 of the English goods, crowds of savages soon con- 

 gregated from every side, to the unspeakable 

 annoyance of the French.^ Meanwhile, a consid- 

 erable commerce was springing up with the Cher- 

 okees and other tribes of the south ; and during 

 the first half of the century, the people of Penn- 

 sylvania began to cross the Alleghanies, and carry 

 on a lucrative traffic with the tribes of the Ohio. 

 In 1749, La Jonquiere, the Governor of Canada, 

 learned, to his great indignation, that several 

 English traders had reached Sandusky, and were 

 exerting a bad influence upon the Indians of that 

 quarter ; ^ and two years later, he caused four of 

 the intruders to be seized near the Ohio, and sent 

 prisoners to Canada.^ 



These early efforts of the English, considerable 

 as they were, can ill bear comparison with the 

 vast extent of the French interior commerce. In 



1 La Hontan, Voyages, I. 74. Golden, Memorial on the Fur-Trade. 



2 Doc. Hist. N. Y. 1. 444. 



8 Smith, Hist. Canada, I. 214. 

 * Pr€cis des Faits, 89. 



