Benjamin Franklin [1756 
small fort might be erected and for some time main- 
tained at Buffalo Creek on the Ohio, above the set- 
tlement; and another at the mouth of the Tioga, on 
the south side of Lake Erie, where a port should be 
formed and a town erected for the trade of the 
Lakes. The colonists for this settlement might march 
by land through Pennsylvania. 
The river Scioto, which runs into the Ohio about 
two hundred miles below Logstown, is supposed the 
fittest seat for the other colony; there being for forty 
miles on each side of it, and quite up to its heads, a 
body of all rich land; the finest spot of its bigness in 
all North America, and has the particular advantage 
of sea-coal in plenty (even above ground in two 
places) for fuel, when the woods shall be destroyed. 
This colony would have the trade of the Miamis or 
Twigtwees; and should, at first, have a small fort 
near Hochockin, at the head of the river, and an- 
other near the mouth of Wabash. Sandusky, a 
French fort near the Lake Erie, should also be taken; 
and all the little French forts south and west of the 
Lakes, quite to the Mississippi, be removed, or taken 
and garrisoned by the English. The colonists for 
this settlement might assemble near the heads of the 
rivers in Virginia, and march over land to the naviga- 
ble branches of the Kenhawa, where they might em- 
bark with all their baggage and provisions, and fall 
into the Ohio, not far above the mouth of the Scioto. 
Or they might rendezvous at Will's Creek, and go 
down the Monongahela to the Ohio. 
The fort and armed vessels at the strait of Niag- 
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