Coasts along the Bay of Mexico and Gulph of Florida. … In it yo'r Lord'ps w'll see the many Navigable Rivers that branch out from the Mississippi towards the English Plantations, and the Situation of the several Indian Nations w'th whom both we and the French Trade. Yo'r Lord'ps w'll thereby observe that most of those Nations are more contiguous to the French Settlements than the English, and have been hitherto kept in our Interest by being more plentifully supplyed with Goods from the English than the French could afford them. I am also here to observe that the French have of late begun a traffique with the Coosta Indians, living upon a River of that name not far from the Cherokees, and it is to be feared they will soon gett footing too among the latter, the people of So. Carolina having already abandoned y't Trade …
The Official Letters of Alexander Spotswood (Virginia Historical Society, Collections, New Series, II, Richmond, 1882), II, 295-331 passim.
111. The French and the Fur Trade (1724)
Golden was surveyor-general of New York, becoming later lieutenant-governor. He is author of a valuable book on the Five Nations of Indians. In his later years he was bitterly hated by provincials on account of his enforcement of English measures.— Bibliography: Tyler, American Literature, II, 213-215; Smith, History of New York, Appendix, ch. iii; Channing and Hart, Guide, §§ 105, 133.
IT has of late been generally believed, that the Inhabitants of the Province of New- York are so advantageously situated, with respect to the Indian Trade, and enjoy so many Advantages as to Trade in general, that it is in their Power not only to rival the French of Canada, who have almost entirely engrossed the Furr-Trade of America, but that it is impossible for the French to carry on that Trade in Competition with the People of this Province. The enquiring into the Truth of this Proposition, may not only be of some Consequence, as to the Riches and Honour of the British Nation, (for it is well known how valuable the Furr-Trade of America is) but likewise as to the Safety of all the British Colonies in North-America. New-France (as the French now claim) extends from the Mouth of the River Misissippi, to the Mouth of the River St. Lawrence, by which the French plainly show their Intention of enclosing the British Settlements, and cutting us off from
