fixed. You may smile, and recollect the sale of the bearskin in the fable, but at the same time you must be sensible that your wants are real, and if others can be induced to relieve them, it is indifferent to you whether they have a consideration in hand or in prospect. I trace the river Ohio from its junction to its head, thence north to Lake Erie on the south and west of that lake to Fort Detroit, which is in the latitude of Boston, thence a west course to the Mississippi, and return to the place of my departure. These three lines of near one thousand miles each, include an immense territory in a fine climate, well watered, and by accounts exceedingly fertile; it is not inhabited by any Europeans of consequence, and the tribes of Indians are inconsiderable, and will decrease faster than the lands can possibly be demanded for cultivation. To this I ask your attention as a resource amply adequate, under proper regulations, for defraying the whole expense of the war, and the sums necessary to be given the Indians in purchase of the native right. But to give this land value, inhabitants are necessary. I therefore propose, in the first place, that a grant be made of a tract of land at the mouth of the Ohio, between that and the Mississippi, equal to two hundred miles square, to a company formed indiscriminately of Europeans and Americans, which company should form a distinct state, confederated with and under the general regulations of the United States General of America. That the Congress of the United States shall, out of such grant, reserve the defraying or discharging of the public debts or expenses; one fifth part of all the lands, mines, &c. within said tract, to be disposed of by the Congress, in such manner as good policy and the public exigencies may dictate, the said one fifth to be sequestered out of every grant or settlement made by the company, of equal goodness with the rest of such grant or settlement. The company on their part shall engage to have, in seven years after the passing such grant ---- thousand families settled on said grant, and civil government regulated and supported on free and liberal principles, taking therein the advice of the honorable Congress of the United States. They shall, also, from and after their having one thousand families as abovementioned, contribute their proportion of the public expenses of the Continent, or United States, according to the number of their inhabitants, and shall be entitled to a voice in Congress, as soon as they are called on thus to contribute. The company shall at all times have the preference of purchasing the Continental or common interest thus reserved, when it shall be offered for sale. The company shall consist, on giving the patent or grant, of at least one hundred persons.