of English troops, marched under General Braddock to defeat near Fort Du Quesne. Another, exclusively colonial, first under General Lyman, and then under Sir William Johnson, with Mohawks in the train, routed the French under Baron Dieskau at Lake George, and built Fort William Henry. But they made no attempt at the reduction of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, against which they had originally started on their march. Another colonial force under the English General Shirley, setting out to reduce Fort Niagara, ventured no farther than Oswego. The only expedition to succeed was one that even the victors might afterwards wish to have failed. Not content with forcing the French troops to evacuate their forts on the Isthmus of Nova Scotia, which was done by a force from Massachusetts, aided by a few hundred English soldiers, the conquerors decided to drive the entire population of the territory into exile. Seven thousand miserable creatures, separated from their families, and bereft of their possessions, were thrown upon the charity of the English colonies, where every association, religious and social, national and individual, was against them. Thus opened the war, (1755.) It was formally declared in the spring of the following year, (1756.)

Extent.

Like the last of the Spanish wars, which broke out in connection with this, the last French war sprang from American causes, at least to a great degree. Actual hostilities occurred in America near six years sooner than in Europe. But Europe did not sit looking across the seas. She armed herself for her Seven Years' War, as it was styled. Prussia was on the side of England, Austria on that of France. Russia and Sweden took part against Prussia, rather than for England. After Spain came in on the French side, Portugal declared in favor of the English. Germany was the chief scene of

action in Europe. Asia and Africa also furnished battle grounds.

Losses

American operations were for some time yet of the more adverse to the English than those already English. described. Niagara, Crown Point, and Du Quesne continued the objects of attack and of defence; but far from being able to take them, the English were unable to defend their own posts. The fort at Oswego yielded to the Marquis of Montcalm the same year that war was declared, (1756.) The next year, (1757,) Montcalm was the master of Fort William Henry. Thus, after four campaigns, (1754 -57,) the English were retiring before the French. Yet the resources of the English had been infinitely greater than those of their foes. Canada, which bore the brunt of war, did not contain more than twenty thousand effective troops; and even these were in danger of becoming ineffective by their isolation from the mother country, on which the French colonists were ever wont to rely.

Their subse

quent

victories.

It was not surprising, therefore, that the renewed exertions of England, and above all of her colonies, by which alone twenty thousand men were now raised, should repair the losses of the preceding years. Louisburg was the first prize, the whole Gulf of St. Lawrence being taken possession of immediately. Fort Frontenac, on the northern shore of Ontario, and Fort Du Quesne were found deserted. Amongst those who marched against the latter fortress, only to see it in ruins, was Washington, then at the head of the Virginian forces. There, where he had fought his first battles, where he had been twice obliged to retreat, once in command and once in Braddock's staff, he now made his last appearance in the war. His strength was reserved for a greater conflict. All these acquisitions of the English were made in one year, (1758.) The next brought the abandonment of

Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Niagara, and more momentous still, the surrender of Quebec, after the great Montcalm's defeat by the troops whom the greater Wolfe had led to amazing victory, (1759.) The two years,

together, decided the war.

Conclu

But it continued a year or two to come. An sion of attempt of the French to regain Quebec being the war. repulsed, Montreal soon after capitulated to the English, who were acknowledged conquerors of Canada, (1760.) All but a few posts in the farther west were surrendered to them within the following year, (1761.) Meanwhile operations, previously commenced, were renewed against the French West Indies by an armament composed in part of colonial troops; the islands of the Caribbean group being all captured, (1759-62.) There was no such thing as fighting against reverses like these. After twelve years of actual warfare, the French made peace; the treaty of Paris ceding to England all east of the Mississippi save three little islands, St. Pierre and the Miquelons, in the north, and New Orleans in the south; this last, with all west of the same river, being transferred to Spain, whose part in the war has been previously described, (1763.)

The

French retire.

The French colonists were loath to give up the territory which their mother country had surrendered. Such of the western posts as were not not already in possession of the English did not come under their new masters for a year or two, (1765.) Indeed, it was some months after the treaty that a French party under Pierre Laclede established a new settlement at St. Louis, in our Missouri, upon the lands ceded to Spain, (1764.) Several years more passed before the Spaniards. installed themselves in Western Louisiana, (1768.) But the French nation had played its part as a power on United

States territory. Not the less lasting, however, were the influences that had arisen from its possessions and its wars while they endured.

French

pared.

The issue of the French wars needs little comand Eng- ment after what has gone before. The English, in lish com- their compact colonies, resembled a man in full armor, in contending with whom, the French, scattered over their disjointed settlements, were like a knight protected by nothing but fragments of his coat of mail. The Englishman, moreover, stood strong in himself, strong in his colony even more than in his mother land; but the Frenchman leaned upon the distant France, with all his enterprise a dependent colonist, with all his gallantry a submissive subject. So much for the causes and contrasts that were at work in America. If we return to Europe, we shall find France too much engaged in ambition and in battle there to put forth her strength for the defence of colonies as languishing fact as they were magnificent in form.

Develop

CHAPTER VIII.

COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT.

THE English territory was immensely increased ment of by the successful wars that have been described. territory. Nor were its limits extended solely at the expense of neighboring domains. Within the boundaries already belonging to the colonies of England, there had been a large accession to the lands formerly occupied. New fields were brought into cultivation; new towns were formed; new means of communication were opened between the old habitations and the new.

Of occu

The development of territory arose chiefly from pation. the development of occupation. As the numbers and wants of the colonists multiplied with time, they found fresh ways of employing and of enriching themselves. The seaboard was lined with merchants and traders; the interior was filled with farmers and planters; while around them all were clustered the artisans and the laborers whose ser¬ vices were needed to complete the circle of toil. Few men, or even women, in the early period, were without some laborious pursuit; few, as wealth increased and individuals grew to be above the necessity of labor, laid aside industry altogether. In one light, the entire people is seen exerting itself to improve the soil, to build up the dwelling, to enlarge the limits of commerce, of trade, and of manufacture. How successful these exertions were, appears from the steady growth of the colonies in resources and in possessions.