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possessed, and bounded by New Mexico and by those of the English in Carolina, all the establishments, ports, harbors, rivers, and especially the port and harbor of Dauphin Island, formerly called Massacre Island, the river St. Louis, formerly called the Mississippi, from the seashore to the Illinois, together with the river St. Philip, formerly called the Missouries River, and the St. Jerome, formerly called the Wabash (the Ohio), with all the countries, territories, lakes in the land, and the rivers emptying directly or indirectly into that part of the river St. Louis. All the said territories, countries, rivers, streams, and islands we will to be and remain comprised under the name of the government of Louisiana, which shall be dependent on the General Government of New France and remain subordinate to it, and we will, moreover, that all the territories which we possess on this side of the Illinois be united, as far as need be, to the General Government of New France and form a part thereof, reserving to ourself, nevertheless, to increase, if we judge proper, the extent of the government of the said country of Louisiana.

From this it appears that Louisiana was regarded by France as comprising the drainage basin of the Mississippi at least as far north as the mouth of the Illinois, with those of all its branches which enter it below this point, including the Missouri, but excluding that portion in the southwest claimed by Spain. It is, moreover, certain that the area now comprised in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho was not included.

Crozat surrendered this grant in 1717.

On November 3, 1762, France ceded this region to Spain, defining it only as the province of Louisiana. A few months later, on February 10, 1763, by the treaty of peace between Great Britain, France, and Spain, the western boundary of the former's possessions in the New World was placed in the center of the Mississippi River, thus reducing the area of Louisiana by the portion east of the Mississippi River. Thus by these two treaties France disposed of her possessions in North America, dividing them between Great Britain and Spain. The limit set between their possessions was given as the Mississippi, the river Iberville, and lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain.

Great Britain then proceeded to subdivide her share of this territory. The area south of a meridian through the mouth of Yazoo River and west of Apalachicola River she called West Florida; the region east thereof and south of the present north boundary of Florida received the name of East Florida. For the following twenty years, i. e., up to 1783, these boundaries and names remained undisturbed. In the latter year, by the treaty of peace with the United States at the close of the Revolution, Great Britain reduced the area of West Florida by the cession of that portion north of the thirty-first parallel to the United States. In the same year she gave East Florida and what remained of West Florida to Spain, and in Spain's possession they remained until ceded to the United States in 1819.

Meantime, in 1800, by the secret treaty of San Ildefonso, Spain promised to return Louisiana to France. In the language of the treaty, she pledged herself to return to France the "Province of Louisiana, with the same extent it now has in the hands of Spain, and

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