Louisburg taken

New Englanders landed. The cannon must be dragged two miles. The men were up to their knees in mud, and the cannon sank out of sight. There were few tents, and not enough blankets to go around. Shoes gave out, clothes were in tatters, the scaling ladders were too short, two thousand men were sick; and before the troops were the stone walls of the fortress, thirty feet high. Louisburg was captured, but even the colonists themselves who afterwards went within the walls wondered how the deed had been done. It was partly because the French commander was not as bold or as wise as he should have been, and did not make the proper preparations; and partly because, while the besiegers knew nothing of the usual way of attacking a fort, they had had a hard training in finding out how to do things for themselves, and they made their assaults in original fashions that were a continual surprise to the French. Panic seized upon us," wrote a Frenchman who was at Louisburg; and he added mournfully, "These New Englanders are a singular people." All the fighting on land was done by the colonists without other aid than the instructions of three or four gunners whom they borrowed from the fleet to show these daring soldiers how to use the cannon; yet, if the English ships had not kept the harbor clear of vessels coming to help the French, and if they had not captured one with a supply of powder just as that of the besiegers was failing, Louisburg could not have been taken.

LOUISBURG

CROSS

66

(Captured at Louis-
burg and now in
the Harvard Li-
brary)

When the terms of peace were arranged, England gave up Louisburg Louisburg to France. This was done that England might gain some land in Hindustan, but the New Englanders were indignant, for they felt as if their great victory had gone for nothing.

returned to France

The question, "Who shall rule in America?" was not yet settled, however. Before this, France and England had quarreled about matters in Europe, but trouble now arose about matters

claim the

land

In America. France claimed the land drained by all the rivers The French that she explored. "The French king might as well claim all the lands that drink French brandy," declared an Englishman; but France went on building forts and claiming land. The English were not especially interested in the Mississippi, but when the French claimed the Ohio, they were aroused. Some Virginians and Londoners formed the Ohio Company and planned to make settlements on the river. The French began at once to build forts down the Alleghany.

At length Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia decided to send a letter to warn them that they were trespassing. A young man of A youthful messenger twenty-one years was asked to carry the letter, and he set off on a dangerous journey of nearly one thousand miles. It was winter, and the path was hidden by the deep snow. The young envoy would not wait for his party, but with one companion he went straight through the woods, finding his way by the compass. They crossed the creeks by felling trees for bridges. The Alleghany was full of floating ice, and they made a raft. In the middle of the stream the messenger was jerked into the water. He was fired at by an Indian not fifteen paces away, but at last he delivered his letter and came safely home again. His friends were very proud of him, and they would have been still more proud if they had known what he would do for his country a few years later, for the young man's name was George Washington.

French

The only answer the French made was that the letter should be forwarded to Marquis Duquesne, the governor of Canada. Then The answer from the Governor Dinwiddie sent Washington to build a fort where Pittsburg now stands. It was hardly begun when the French fell upon the party, completed the fort themselves, and named it Fort Duquesne. Washington built a small fort farther south, but when the French came upon him, he had to surrender and march back to Virginia.

General
Braddock

takes com-
mand

The next year the English sent over General Braddock to take command. "I shall capture Fort Duquesne in three or four days,

and then march on to Niagara,"

66

said he. "The Indians are skillful in laying snares," modestly suggested a wise colonist of whom we shall hear more, for his name was Benjamin Franklin. "Very likely they are troublesome to your untrained soldiers," said Braddock a little haughtily, “but the king's Regulars will have no difficulty." Washington tried to make him see that it would not do to draw up his men in lines in plain sight when fighting with Indians, but Braddock accepted no advice, and wrote home that the American troops were COWardly.

Not far from Fort Duquesne there was a sudden attack. BradHis defeat at dock was, bravery itself, and the English soldiers would have Fort Du

quesne

stood like a wall against an enemy whom they could see, but hardly a foe was in sight. The deadly shots came from behind trees and rocks, and the soldiers had no idea where to fire. They were panic-stricken, and ran "like sheep pursued by dogs," Washington wrote home to his mother. He added, “I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me." Then he signed himself in the formal fashion of those days, "I am, honored Madam, your most dutiful son, George Washington.”