With the advent of peace, settlement of Ohio and the Northwest proceeded rapidly. Virginians swarmed into the Military Tract reserved by her deed of cession for bounty lands. Manchester, on the Ohio River, was settled in 1791 by Colonel (later General) Nathaniel Massie, who also settled Chillicothe in 1796. Chillicothe was to become later the first territorial capital, then the first capital of Ohio. When Connecticut ceded her claims to the Northwest Territory lands to the United States, reservation had been made in the northeast corner of the present state of Ohio—known as the “Western Reserve.” A half million acres of this area were set off for the benefit of Connecticut citizens who had suffered loss by fire at the hands of the British in the Revolutionary War. These still bear the name of “Firelands.” In 1795 Connecticut sold the portion of her reserved lands east of the Cuyahoga River to a land company, and here in 1796 Moses Cleaveland established the present city which bears his name. In the central part of the state Franklinton, present Columbus, was laid out in August, 1797. By 1800 the towns of Marietta, Cincinnati, North Bend, Gallipolis, Manchester, Hamilton, Dayton, Franklin, Chillicothe, Cleveland, Franklinton, Steubenville, Williamsburg and Zanesville and many smaller settlements were in existence. In the territory to the west settlers were now finding new homes. Settlements around the old French trading posts and forts had grown materially and new centers were springing up in an ever westward march. The Northwest as an integral and thriving part of the United States was definitely established. While it would be interesting herein to follow through the developing communities of those states later to be formed from the territory, the purpose of this book apparently requires confinement of details to the formative period of the territory, and, except in unusual cases, towns and cities settled after 1800 will be left to state histories, which are commonly available. [Illustration: FORT HARRISON ON THE WABASH _Drawn by Helen Jean Marshall, Grand Ledge, Michigan_] The region now known as Indiana was traversed by La Salle, possibly along the Ohio in 1670, along the St. Joseph and the Kankakee in 1679. French traders were at the present site of Fort Wayne early in the eighteenth century, and Fort Ouiatenon (southwest of Lafayette) was built by 1722. Vincennes was established and a fort built there by 1732. This entire region remained under French control until after the French and Indian War, when it was surrendered to the English. Following victories at Kaskaskia and Cahokia in the Illinois country, Americans under George Rogers Clark captured Vincennes in 1779. While his expedition was authorized by Governor Patrick Henry of Virginia as a state venture, the final effect was to establish the claim of the United States to the Northwest Territory sufficiently to secure cession by England in the Treaty of Paris.