[41] _Journal sommaire du Voyage de Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, chargé de là Découverte de la Mer de l’Ouest_ (British Museum). [42] The above narrative rests mainly on contemporary documents, official in character, of which the originals are preserved in the archives of the French Government. These papers have recently been printed by M. Pierre Margry, late custodian of the Archives of the Marine and Colonies at Paris, in the sixth volume of his _Découvertes et Établissements des Français dans l’Amérique Septentrionale_,--a documentary collection of great value, published at the expense of the American Government. It was M. Margry who first drew attention to the achievements of the family of La Vérendrye, by an article in the _Moniteur_ in 1852. I owe to his kindness the opportunity of using the above-mentioned documents in advance of publication. I obtained copies from duplicate originals of some of the principal among them from the Dépôt des Cartes de la Marine, in 1872. These answer closely, with rare and trivial variations, to the same documents as printed from other sources by M. Margry. Some additional papers preserved in the Archives of the Marine and Colonies have also been used. My friends, Hon. William C. Endicott, then Secretary of War, and Captain John G. Bourke, Third Cavalry, U. S. A., kindly placed in my hands a valuable collection of Government maps and surveys of the country between the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains visited by the brothers La Vérendrye; and I have received from Captain Bourke, and also from Mr. E. A. Snow, formerly of the Third Cavalry, much information concerning the same region, repeatedly traversed by them in peace and war. 43 CHAPTER XVII. 44 1700-1750. THE CHAIN OF POSTS. OPPOSING CLAIMS.--ATTITUDE OF THE RIVAL NATIONS.--AMERICA A FRENCH CONTINENT.--ENGLAND A USURPER.--FRENCH DEMANDS.--MAGNANIMOUS PROPOSALS.--WARLIKE PREPARATION.--NIAGARA.--OSWEGO.--CROWN POINT.--THE PASSES OF THE WEST SECURED. We have seen that the contest between France and England in America divided itself, after the Peace of Utrecht, into three parts,--the Acadian contest; the contest for northern New England; and last, though greatest, the contest for the West. Nothing is more striking than the difference, or rather contrast, in the conduct and methods of the rival claimants to this wild but magnificent domain. Each was strong in its own qualities, and utterly wanting in the qualities that marked its opponent.