2.5 | British and French Interactions with Native Americans

“Your petitioners beg leave humbly to inform your Majesty, that the lands, to the west of the [Appalachian] mountains, are extremely fertile, the climate very fine and healthy, and the waters of the Mississippi [River], and those of the Potomack [River in Virginia], are only separated by one small ridge of mountains. . . ; British goods may be carried at little expense, and afforded reasonably to the Indians in those parts, [if] the lands to the west of the said mountains were settled, and a fort erected in some proper place there. . . ; if your petitioners meet with that success they have the greatest reason to expect, it will . . . extend your Majesty’s empire in America; . . . and, in a short space of time very considerably increase your Majesty’s revenue. . . .” 

“Your petitioners, for these great and national ends and purposes . . . have entered into partnership, by the name of the Ohio company, to settle these [lands] to the west of the said mountains. . . . Your petitioners . . . most humbly pray that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to encourage this their said undertaking, by giving instructions to your governor of Virginia to grant to your petitioners a tract . . . of 500,000 acres of land.”