No better Method occurs to me to prevent the French from interfering with our Trade, or our own Traders from carrying their Furs and Skins down the Mississippi, than to forbid all kinds of Merchandize going up the Ohio or Ilinois Rivers, and all Ships from going down those Rivers ; and unless Posts are erected on convenient spots near the Junction of those two Rivers with the Mississippi, with orders to the above Purpose, the Ilinois w^ill be of little use. At present you can only say that there is a Fort, which may give us some superiority with respect to the Savages; at an enormous Expence ; but little or no service as to the Trade. The French would then have no way left to come into our Country, but by the Wisconsin River high up the Mississippi which a Post on the River Renard a little beyond the Bays might also prevent. To erect as many Posts as the Trade would demand, I fear would be very difficult as Lake Superior alone would require three or four. Whether the Indians are spirited up by the Traders; or it is their natural attachment to old Customs, and the ease they found in getting their necessarys at home, without going so farr for them, I can't say ; but they seem every where averse to the Regulations of trading at the Posts only ; especialy those

SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON. 841

who are at a Distance from the Posts, and desire Traders to be sent to them.