20G TiiK tui:aty of Washington. 



tliat of tlic United State?^. It was tlic 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 

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

 river to the Lakes, had then descended by the iSIissis- 

 sipi>i to the site of the future New Orleans, and had 

 tluis laid the foundation of a title not only to the ex- 

 plored territories watered by the St. Lawrence or in 

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

 cause unknuv.n, regions beyond the jNIississippi, 



• Hence arose tlie first great questions of boundary 

 in North America, tliose between England, France, 

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

 France retained possession of the territories on the 

 St. Lawrence and the ^lississippi; wdiilst England 

 retained her country of Iludson^s J5ay and her Prov- 

 inces on the Atlantic coast, and acquired Nova Scotia 

 and Newfoundland. [Treaty of Utrecht, March 31- 

 Aprilll,iri.'l] 



. Subsequently, the fortunes of war made England 

 mistress of tlie Canadian and coast establishments of 

 France, leaving to tlio latter only the territory beyond 

 the ^lisslssippi. [Treaty of Fontainebleau, Nov. 3, 

 1702, and Treaty of Paris, Feb. 10, 17G3.] 



^leanwhile, Spain continued, willi but brief inter- 

 ru])tion, in undisputed sovereignty of the two Floridas, 

 and of the vast provinces of New Spain, of undefined 

 extension west and noi-th toward the Pacific. 



