_McMaster_, 82-86.] [Sidenote: The English Ohio Company, 1750.] 96.

Struggle for the Ohio Valley .-- At the close of King George's War the French set to work to connect the settlements in Louisiana with those on the St.Lawrence.In 1749 French explorers gained the Alleghany River from Lake Erie and went down the Ohio as far as the Miami.

The next year (1750) King George gave a great tract of land on the Ohio River to an association of Virginians, who formed the Ohio Company.

The struggle for the Ohio Valley had fairly begun.

Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia learned that the French were building forts on the Ohio, and sent them a letter protesting against their so doing.