It appears by the most authentic evidence upon the Books of our office that Lake Champlain and the circumjacent Country were at all times claimed by the Five Nations of Indians as part of their Possessions and that by agreement with them the Land on both sides the Lake to a very great extent was granted by the Gov 8 of New York to British Subjects long before any possession appears to have been taken by the Crown of France which having by the express Stipulation of the fifteenth Article

;

FRENCH SEIGNIORIES ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN.

of the Treaty of Utrecht acknowledged the Sovereignty of the Crown of Great Britain over the Five Nations had upon every principle of Justice and Equity precluded itself from any claim to the possession of any part of their Territory.

Upon these Grounds it was that erecting a Fort at Crown Point in 1731 was then, and ever after complained of as an Incroachment on the British Territories and a Violation of Our Rights and so carefull were the Ministers of this Country to preserve those Rights that when in consequence of the

Treaty of Aix la Chapelle Commissaries were in the Year 1750 appointed to settle with Commissaries

on the part of France the limits of each others possessions in North America, they were instructed to insist that France had no right to any possession on the South side of the River St. Lawrence.

Under these circumstances therefore and for as much as we are clearly of opinion that the Stipulations of the Treaty of Paris, by which Canadian property spirit of them refer