was proclaimed king of all the region drained by the Ohio.

The arms of France stamped on a sheet of tin were nailed to a tree, at the foot of which a lead plate was buried in the ground.

On the plate was an inscription claiming the Ohio, and all the streams that run into it, in the name of the King of France.
[Illustration: [1]Half of one of the lead plates] [Footnote 1: Now owned by the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.] * * * * * TRANSLATION OF THE ENTIRE INSCRIPTION In the year 1749, during the reign of Louis XV., King of France, we, Celeron, commander of a detachment sent by the Marquis de la Gallissoniere, commander in chief of New France, to restore tranquillity in some savage villages of these districts, have buried this plate at the confluence of the Ohio and ...

this ...

near the river Ohio, alias Beautiful River, as a monument of our having retaken possession of the said river Ohio and of those that fall into the same, and of all the lands on both sides as far as the sources of the said rivers, as well as of those of which preceding kings have enjoyed possession, partly by the force of arms, partly by treaties, especially by those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle.
* * * * * A second plate was buried below the mouth of French Creek; a third near the mouth of Wheeling Creek; and a fourth at the mouth of the Muskingum, where half a century later it was found protruding from the river bank by a party of boys while bathing.