In those vessells they carry the Soldiers, Artillery, Ammunition and Provision to the Forts, and transport to & fro the goods they sell to & buy from the Indians It is through this Lake they pass from Canada By means only of their Mastery on that Lake to Messasippi, & from thence back again to Canada it is that, they have acquired, and still hold their power over all the Indian Nations, from Canada to :

:

Messasippi, except only the Indians who are next adjoining to our Provinces, and have all along been

dependent on them, (of which the Five Nations or Cantons are the most considerable) and in all those they have of late gotten too great an influence, especially among the five Nations whose youth

being of a martial spirit, they intice (contrary to the Public Engagements of those Nations) to join

them in their Expeditions against the Indian Nations, subject to His Majesty, and depending on the Governments of Virginia, the two Carolina's & Georgia, who have it in their power (by their situation, if their strength were equal, as it would

be, were they united and resolved) to interrupt the march of the French from Niagra to Messasippi this the French know full well, and fearing that they may sometime or other confederate against them for that purpose, they seldom fail once a year, :

to attack one of those Nations while they are disjoined, thereby to exterpate, or bring

their Interest, and they have gone but too great a length towards