Lawrence
system, the other flowing out of the western plains from its
source in the Rocky Mountains. The old mystery, however,
remained, for the Mississippi flowed into the Gulf of Mexico,
into Atlantic waters already well known. The route to the Western
Sea was still to be found.
It was easy enough for France to record a sweeping claim to the
West, but to make good this claim she needed a chain of posts,
which should also be forts, linking the Mississippi with the St.
Lawrence and strong enough to impress the Indians whose country
she had invaded. At first she had reached the interior by way of
the Ottawa River and Lake Huron, and in that northern country her
position was secure enough through her posts on the upper lakes.
The route farther south by Lake Ontario and Lake Erie was more
difficult. The Iroquois menaced Niagara and long refused to let
France have a footing there to protect her pathway to Lake Erie
and the Ohio Valley. It was not until 1720, a period
comparatively late, that the French managed to have a fort at the
mouth of the Niagara.
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