Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 2).djvu/103

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CHAPTER IV

INDIAN THOROUGHFARES OF THE CENTRAL WEST

HISTORY tells of two Ohios—the old and the new. The old Ohio was all the territory of the Central West drained by the Ohio and Allegheny, which, together, formed the La Belle Rivière of New France. It included the territory between the Alleghanies, the Blue Ridge, the Mississippi, and the Great Lakes, unless we except the "Illinois" country which, early in history, became a territory distinct by itself, as the meadow lands of Ken-ta-kee became distinct later. As late, however, as the Revolutionary War a standard English map printed "Ohio" south, as well as north, of the Ohio river.[1]

Of this Central West—the old Ohio—only that part which lay north of the Ohio

  1. Map with Pownall's Middle British Colonies in North America, 1776.