B. V. Barbishire, Oxford, 1908 ] HISTORY OF CANADA, 1763-1812 CHAPTER I THE PROCLAMATION OF 1763, AND PONTIAC’S WAR [Sidenote: The Peace of Paris.] On the 10th of February, 1763, the Peace of Paris was signed between Great Britain, France, and Spain. Under its provisions all North America, east of the Mississippi, which had been owned or claimed by France, was, with the exception of the city of New Orleans, transferred to Great Britain, the navigation of the Mississippi being thrown open to the subjects of both Powers. The English also received Florida from Spain, in return for Havana given back to its old owners. Under a treaty secretly concluded in November, 1762, when the preliminaries of the general treaty were signed, Spain took over from France New Orleans and Louisiana west of the Mississippi, the actual transfer being completed in 1769. Thus France lost all hold on the North American continent, while retaining various West Indian islands, and fishing rights on part of the Newfoundland coast, which were supplemented by possession of the two adjacent islets of St. Pierre and Miquelon. [Sidenote: The Proclamation of 1763.] In the autumn of the year 1763, on the 7th of October, King George III issued a proclamation constituting ‘within the countries and islands, ceded and confirmed to us by the said treaty, four distinct and separate governments, styled and called by the names of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Grenada’. Of these four governments, the first alone requires special notice. The government of Grenada was in the West Indies, and the governments of East and West Florida, excluding a debatable strip of territory which was annexed to the State of Georgia, were co-extensive with the new province which had been acquired from Spain. [Sidenote: Boundaries of the government of Quebec.]