THE PROCLAMATION LINE.--The proclamation which created the province of Quebec also drew a line "beyond the sources of the rivers which flow into the Atlantic from the west and northwest": beyond this line no governor of any of the colonies was to grant land. This meant that the king cut off the claims to western lands set forth in the charters of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, Carolina, and Georgia. The territory so cut off was for the present to be reserved for the Indians. THE PROVINCES OF EAST AND WEST FLORIDA.--The proclamation of 1763 also created two other provinces. One called East Florida was so much of the present state of Florida as lies east of the Apalachicola River. West Florida was all the territory received from Spain west of the Apalachicola. [12] To Georgia was annexed the territory between the St. Marys River, the proclamation line, and the Altamaha. THE FRONTIER.--British settlements did not yet reach the Allegheny Mountains. In New York they extended a short distance up the Mohawk River. In Pennsylvania the little town of Bedford, in Maryland Fort Cumberland, and in Virginia the Allegheny Mountains marked the frontier (p. 144). THE WILDERNESS ROUTES AND FORTS.--Through the wilderness lying beyond the frontier ran several lines of forts intended to protect routes of communication. Thus in New York the route up the Mohawk to Oneida Lake and down Oswego River to Lake Ontario was protected by Forts Stanwix, Brewerton, and Oswego. From Fort Oswego the route continued by water to Fort Niagara at the mouth of the river of that name, then along the Niagara River and by Lake Erie to Presque Isle, then by land to Fort Le Boeuf, then by river to Fort Pitt. [Illustration: WILDERNESS ROUTES AND FORTS.] From Fort Pitt two roads led back to the frontier. One leading to the Potomac valley was that cut from Fort Cumberland by Braddock (in 1755) and known as Braddock's Road. The other to Bedford on the Pennsylvania frontier was cut by General Forbes (in 1758). Along the shores of the Great Lakes were a few forts built by the French and now held by the British. These were Sandusky, Detroit, Mackinaw, and St. Joseph. [Illustration: OLD FORT NIAGARA.] PONTIAC'S WAR.--Between this chain of forts and the Mississippi River, in the region given up by France, lived many tribes of Indians, old friends of the French and bitter enemies of the British. The old enmity was kept aflame by the French Canadians, who still carried on the fur trade with the Indians. [13]