Floyd Davidson wrote:
Okay. Except of course that has nothing to do with the
statement quoted above.

It does if you can parse relatively simple sentences in English.

... He did *not* claim that anyone made
land claims based on occupancy, he just state that ".... When
the english and dutch sought to colonize this country there were
many unclaimed lands."

Along with a few other statements which added up to what I said: that
Jeff thinks many white settlers grabbed land that was totally empty
(possibly true but rare enough that it's hard to find references to it)
and legally justified their ownership based on lack of previous
inhabitants (false as far as I've been able to determine, and you
certainly haven't gotten far with this one either).

... Which is true to the extent that the
previous claimants were either all killed by disease, or
weakened to the point were forcible removal was easy.


In a few cases, sure. In many other cases the Indians were numerous and
strong enough to push white settlers out of their tribal lands, and even
held off outright military invasion for a while at least.


DSK