But there had always been enterprising individuals among them desirous of seeking a more fertile soil in the far west or south, and even before the Revolution some of these men ventured to Louisiana itself, to pick out a good country in which to form a colony.

After the close of the war the fame of the lands along the Ohio was spread abroad; and the men who wished to form companies for the purposes of adventurous settlement began to turn their eyes thither.
Land Claims of the States.
The first question to decide was the ownership of the wished-for country.

This decision had to be made in Congress by agreement among the representatives of the different States.

Seven States--Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, Georgia, and both Carolinas--claimed portions of the western lands.

New York's claim was based with entire solemnity on the ground that she was the heir of the Iroquois tribes, and therefore inherited all the wide regions overrun by their terrible war-bands.