Canada

The Treaty of Ryswick, which was ratified in 1697, lasted for only five years. Then broke out the great conflict known in Europe as the War of the Spanish Succession. The reckless ambition of Louis XIV., then in the plenitude of his power, had coveted the throne of Spain for his own family, and brought him into conflict with England when he recognised the Pretender as the rightful heir to the English Crown. Queen Anne, the daughter of James II. and sister of Mary, queen of William III., had succeeded to the throne, and the war which was declared on the 15th May, 1702, was thereafter known in America by her name. The Abenakis, who had promised peace, broke their pledges, and joined the French Canadian bands in attacking Wells, Saco, and Haverhill, and the annals of New England tell many a sad story of burning homes, of murdered men and women. The people of New England retaliated on Acadia, and several ineffective attempts were made to take Port Royal by Colonels Church and Wainwright, who proved their incapacity. A movement was then made for the conquest of Canada by the English colonists, but it failed in consequence of an European emergency having diverted the British squadron intended for America to the shores of Portugal. An expedition was next organised in 1710, under the command of Colonel Nicholson, a man of much sagacity and audacity, though of little or no military experience, for the capture of Port Royal, which was surrendered by the governor, Subercase, and from that day this historic place has been known as Annapolis Royal, in honour of the reigning sovereign. It was not until the following year that the British Government yielded to the urgent representations of the colonies, and sent to America a powerful armament to attempt the conquest of Canada. The fleet was under the orders of Sir Hovenden Walker, whose incapacity was only equalled by that of the commander of the troops, Colonel Hill. After the loss of eight transports and nearly nine hundred men in a storm near the Isle aux Oeufs, at the entrance of the St. Lawrence, the incapable admiral decided to give up the project of besieging Quebec, and without even venturing to attack the little French post of Plaisance, he returned to England, where he was received with marks of disfavour on all sides, and forced soon afterwards to retire to South Carolina. While New England was sadly disappointed by this second failure to take Quebec, the French of Canada considered it a providential interposition in their behalf, and the church, which had been first named after the defeat of Phipps, was now dedicated to Notre Dame des Victoires.

All this while the French dominion was slowly and surely extending into the great valleys of the West and South. A fort had been built opposite to the Jesuit mission of St. Ignace, on the other side of the Strait of Michillimackinac, and it was now also proposed to make the French headquarters at Detroit, which had been founded by Antoine de la Mothe-Cadillac, despite the opposition of the Jesuits, who wished to have the mission field of the West in their own hands, and resented the intention to establish Recollets and other priests at the new post. As soon as the French established themselves permanently at this key to the Lakes and West, the English practically gave up for fifty years the hope of acquiring the Northwest, and controlling the Indian trade. French pioneers were pushing their way into the valleys of the Illinois and the Wabash. Perrot and Le Sueur had taken possession of the region watered by the upper Mississippi and its affluents. Iberville and Bienville had made small settlements at Biloxi, Mobile, and on the banks of the Mississippi, and with them was associated one of the most admirable figures of Canadian history, Henry de Tonty, who had left his fort on the Illinois. In 1711 Louisiana was made a separate government, with Mobile as the capital, and included the whole region from the Lakes to the Gulf, and from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains. By the time of the Treaty of Utrecht the Indian tribes of the West were, for the most part, in the interest of the French, with the exception of the Sioux, Sauks, and Foxes, whose hostility was for a long time an impediment to their progress on the upper reaches of the Mississippi.

XV.

ACADIA AND ÎLE ROYALE, FROM THE TREATY OF
UTRECHT TO THE TREATY OF
AIX-LA-CHAPELLE.

(1713-1748.)

The attention of Louis XIV. and his ministers was now naturally directed to Cape Breton, which, like the greater island of Newfoundland, guards the eastern approaches to the valley of the St. Lawrence. Cape Breton had been neglected since the days of Denys, though its harbours had been for over two centuries frequented by sailors of all nationalities. Plaisance, the Placentia of the Portuguese, had been for years the headquarters of the French fisheries in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but when Newfoundland was ceded to the English, all the French officials and fishermen removed to English Harbour, on the eastern coast of Cape Breton, ever since known as Louisbourg. The island itself was called Île Royale, and its first governor was M. de Costabelle, who had held a similar position at Plaisance. It was not, however, until 1720, that France commenced the construction of the fortifications of Louisbourg, which eventually cost her over ten million dollars of modern money, and even then, they were never completed in accordance with the original design, on account of the enormous expense which far exceeded the original estimates. The fortifications were built on an oblong neck of land on the southern shore of the port, which lies only two leagues from that famous cape from which the island takes its name. The fortress occupied an area of over one hundred acres, and was planned on the best system of Vauban and other great masters of engineering skill, who intended it should be, as indeed it was, despite some faulty details of construction, the most complete example of a strongly fortified city in America. The harbour was also defended by batteries on an island at the entrance, and at other important points, while there were fortified works and small garrisons at Port Toulouse (St. Peter's) and Port Dauphin (St. Anne's). The government of the island was modelled on that of Canada, to which it was subordinate, and the governor was generally a military man. During the years the fortress was in possession of the French, there were probably, on an average, nearly two thousand people living in the town and vicinity, but this number was increased in the time of war by the inhabitants of the adjacent ports and bays.

During the thirty years that elapsed between the Treaty of Utrecht and the breaking out of war between France and Great Britain, the people of New England found that the merely nominal possession of Acadia by the English was of little security to them, while the French still held the island of Cape Breton and had the fealty of the Indians and Acadians, who were looking forward to the restoration of the country to its former owners. England systematically neglected Nova Scotia, where, until the foundation of Halifax, her only sign of sovereignty was the dilapidated fort at Annapolis, with an insignificant garrison, utterly unable to awe the Acadian French, and bring them completely under the authority of the British Crown. French emissaries, chiefly priests,—notably the treacherous Le Loutre—were constantly at work among the Acadians, Micmacs, and Abenakis, telling them that France would soon regain her dominion in Acadia. For years the Abenakis tomahawked the helpless English colonists that had made their homes in the present State of Maine, in the vicinity of the Kennebec and the Penobscot. The insidious policy of Vaudreuil and other governors of Canada, acting under instructions from France, was to keep alive the hostility of the Abenakis so as to prevent the settlement of that region known as Northern New England, one of whose rivers, the Kennebec, gave easy access to the St. Lawrence near Quebec. From Annapolis to Canseau the Micmacs destroyed life and property, and kept the English posts in constant fear.

New England took a signal revenge at last on the cruel and treacherous Abenakis, and inflicted on them a blow from which they never recovered. At Norridgewock perished the famous missionary, Sebastian Rale, beneath whose black robe beat the heart of a dauntless soldier, whose highest aspirations were to establish his creed and promote the ambitious designs of France in Acadia. A peace was made in 1726 between the colonists and the Abenakis, but New England felt she had no efficient security for its continuance while Acadian and Indian could see in the great fortress of Cape Breton powerful evidence that France was not yet willing to give up the contest for dominion in Acadia. Northern New England became now of relatively little importance in view of the obvious designs of France to regain Nova Scotia.

We have now come to an important period in the history of America as well as of Europe. In 1739 Walpole was forced to go to war with Spain, at the dictation of the commercial classes, who wished to obtain control of the Spanish Main. Then followed the War of the Austrian Succession, in which France broke her solemn pledge to Charles VI., Emperor of Germany, that she would support his daughter, Maria Theresa, in her rights to reign over his hereditary dominions. But when the Emperor was dead, France and other Powers proceeded to promote their own ambitious and selfish designs. France wished to possess the rich Netherlands, and Spain, Milan; Frederick of Prussia had no higher desire than to seize Silesia, and to drive Austria from Germany. Bavaria claimed the Austrian duchy of Bohemia. Maria Theresa was to have only Hungary and the duchy of Austria. The King of England was jealous of Prussia, and thought more of his Hanoverian throne than of his English crown. It became the interest of England to assist Austria and prevent the success of France, now the ally of Spain; forced to defend her colonial possessions in America. The complications in Europe at last compelled France and England to fight at Dettingen in 1743, and George II. won a doubtful victory, but war was not actually declared between these two nations until some months later. England had no reason to congratulate herself on the results, either in Europe or America. Her fleet met only with disaster, and her commerce was destroyed on the Spanish Main. Four years later she won a victory over the Spanish fleet in the Mediterranean, but hardly had her people ceased celebrating the event, than they heard that the combined forces of Hanover, Holland, and England, under the Duke of Cumberland, had been badly beaten by Marshal Saxe at Fontenoy.

It was at this time, when the prospects of England were so gloomy on the continent of Europe, that Englishmen heard, with surprise and gratification, that the strong fortress of Louisbourg in French America had surrendered to the audacious attack of four thousand colonists of New England.

A combination of events had aided the success of the brave enterprise. The news of the declaration of war reached Louisbourg at least two months before it was known in Boston, and the French Governor, M. Duquesnel, immediately sent out expeditions to capture the English posts in Nova Scotia. Canseau, at the entrance of the strait of that name, was easily taken, and the garrison carried to Louisbourg, but Annapolis Royal was successfully defended by Colonel Mascarene, then governor of Nova Scotia. All these events had their direct influence on the expedition which New England sent in the spring of 1745 against Louisbourg. The prisoners who had been captured at Canseau had remained until the autumn in Louisbourg, and the accounts they brought back of its condition gave Shirley and others reason to believe that if an expedition was, without loss of time, sent against it, there would be a fair chance of success. Not only did they learn that the garrison was small, but that it was discontented, and a mutiny had actually broken out on account of the soldiers not having received the usual additions to their regular pay for work on the fortifications. The ramparts were stated to be defective in more than one place, while gales and other causes had delayed the arrival of the ships which arrived every year with provisions and reinforcements. These facts gave additional confidence to Governor Shirley of Massachusetts, William Vaughan of New Hampshire, and many influential men who had already conceived the idea of striking a blow at the French which would give the English control of the whole coast from Cape Sable to the entrance of the St. Lawrence.

The expedition against Louisbourg consisted of over four thousand men, of whom Massachusetts, which then included the present State of Maine, contributed nearly one-third. Colonel Pepperrell of Kittery on the Piscataqua, who had command, with the title of lieutenant-general, was a man of wealth and influence, though without any military experience. His excellent judgment and undaunted courage, however, contributed largely to the success of this bold venture. Captain Edward Tyng, a capable colonial sailor, was the commodore of the little fleet of thirteen vessels, carrying in all about two hundred guns. The Puritan spirit of New England had much influence in organising an expedition, and whose flag had a motto suggested by the Methodist revivalist, Whitfield: "Nil desperandum Christo duce." The story of the success of the New England troops, in conjunction with the small English fleet, under the command of Commodore Warren, has been often told, and we need not dwell on its details. M. Duchambon was at the time governor of Louisbourg, and maintained the defence for nearly forty days. The capitulation of the fortress was hastened by the fact that the English fleet captured the French frigate Vigilante, on whose arrival the garrison had been depending for weeks. On the afternoon of June 17th, General Pepperrell marched at the head of his army through the West or Dauphin gate into the town, and received the keys from the commandant, who, with his garrison drawn up in line, received him in the King's bastion. One hundred and fifty years later a granite column was raised on the same historic ground in honour of this famous victory, which caused such rejoicings throughout England and America.

By the articles of capitulation, the garrison and residents of Louisbourg, probably two thousand persons in all, were transported to France. The settlement of Port Toulouse and Port Dauphin had been captured, the first before, and the other during the siege. The leader of the New England expedition was rewarded with a baronetcy, the first distinction of the kind ever given to a colonist, while Warren was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral of the blue.

If the English Government had fully understood the necessities of their American colonies, they would have immediately followed the advice of Governor Shirley, who was a man of statesmanlike views and bold conception, though he possessed no capacity as a leader of military operations, as his later career in America proved. He suggested that an expedition should attack Montreal by the usual route of Lake Champlain, while an English fleet ascended the St. Lawrence and besieged Quebec. All the colonies set to work with considerable energy to carry out this scheme, but it came to nought, in consequence of the failure of the Duke of Newcastle, the most incapable statesman ever at the head of imperial affairs, to redeem his promise. It was then proposed to attack Fort Frederick at Crown Point, on the western side of Lake Champlain, where it contracts to a narrow river, but its progress was arrested by the startling news that the French were sending out a fleet to take Cape Breton and Acadia, and attack Boston and other places on the Atlantic sea-board.

France had heard with dismay of the loss of Cape Breton, which she recognised as a key to the St. Lawrence, and made two efforts to recover it before the war closed in 1748. One of the noblest fleets that ever sailed from the shores of France left Rochelle in 1746 for Cape Breton, under the command of M. de la Rochefoucauld, the Duke d'Anville, an able, sensitive man, who, however, had had no naval experience. Storm and pestilence attacked the fleet, which found a refuge in the harbour of Chebouctou, afterwards Halifax, where the unfortunate Admiral died from an apoplectic seizure. His successor, M. d'Estournelle, committed suicide in a fit of despondency caused by the responsibility thrown upon him, when men were dying by hundreds every day on those lonely Acadian shores. The French lost between two and three thousand men by disease or casualties, and the remnant of the great fleet, which was to have restored the fortunes of France in America, returned home under the command of M. de la Jonquière without having even attempted to capture the half-ruined fort at Annapolis. Another fleet in 1747, under M. de St. George and the Marquis de la Jonquière, the latter of whom became subsequently Governor of Canada, never reached its destination, but was defeated off Cape Finisterre by a more powerful fleet under Admirals Anson and Warren.

The Canadian Government, of which the Marquis de Beauharnois was then the head, had confidently expected to regain Acadia, when they heard of the arrival of the Duke d'Anville's fleet, and immediately sent M. de Ramesay to excite the Acadians, now very numerous—probably ten thousand altogether—to rise in arms against the few Englishmen at Port Royal. He had with him a considerable force of Indians and Canadians, among the latter such distinguished men as Beaujeu, Saint-Ours, Boishébert, Lanaudière, but the news of the disasters that had crippled the fleet, forced him to give up his plan of attacking Annapolis, and to withdraw to the isthmus of Chignecto, where he built a small fort at Baie Verte. In the following year, 1747, he succeeded in surprising and capturing Colonel Arthur Noble and a considerable force of New England troops who had taken possession of the houses of the Acadian French at Grand Pré, one of the most fertile and beautiful districts of the province, afterwards still more famous in poetry and history. This exploit, however, did not materially change the aspect of things in Acadia, where the French Acadians had entirely disappointed the hopes of Ramesay and his government. Had they been as active or enterprising as their compatriots on the banks of the St. Lawrence, they might easily, at that time, have won back Acadia for France. As it was, however, Ramesay was not able to gain a firm foothold beyond the isthmus. Even the success he won was neutralised by the activity of Governor Shirley, who was ever alive to the importance of Nova Scotia, and immediately sent another force to occupy the meadows of Grand Pré.

In 1748 English diplomacy, careless of colonial interests, restored the island of Cape Breton to France by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in return for the commercial post of Madras, which had been taken by the French in the East Indies where England and France were now rivals for the supremacy. It was the persistency of the French to regain possession of so valuable a bulwark to their great dominion of Canada, that forced the English cabinet to restore it at a time when the nation was threatened by a Catholic pretender, and disheartened at the results of the war on the continent. Weary of the struggle and anxious for a breathing space, England deserted Maria Theresa and made peace with France.

XVI.

THE STRUGGLE FOR DOMINION IN THE GREAT
VALLEYS OF NORTH AMERICA—PRELUDE.

(1748-1756.)

The map that is placed at the beginning of this chapter outlines the ambitious designs conceived by French statesmen soon after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. We see the names of many posts and forts intended to keep up communications between Canada and Louisiana, and overawe the English colonies then confined to a relatively narrow strip of territory on the Atlantic coast. Conscious of the mistake that they had made in giving up Acadia, the French now claimed that its "ancient limits" did not extend beyond the isthmus of Chignecto—in other words, included only Nova Scotia. Accordingly they proceeded to construct the forts of Gaspereau and Beauséjour on that neck of land, and also one on the St. John River, so that they might control the land and sea approaches to Cape Breton from the St. Lawrence where Quebec, enthroned on her picturesque heights, and Montreal at the confluence of the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, held the keys to Canada. The approaches by the way of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu were defended by the fort of St. John near the northern extremity of the lake, and by the more formidable works known as Fort Frederick or Crown Point—to give the better known English name—on a peninsula at the narrows towards the south. The latter was the most advanced post of the French until they built Fort Ticonderoga or Carillon on a high, rocky promontory at the head of Lake Sacrement, afterwards called Lake George by General Johnson—a sheet of water always famed for its picturesque charms. At the foot of this lake, associated with so many memorable episodes in American history, General Johnson, a clever, ambitious Irishman, a nephew of Sir Peter Warren, in 1755, erected Fort William Henry, about fourteen miles from Fort Edward or Lyman, at the great carrying place on the upper waters of the Hudson. Returning to the St. Lawrence and the lakes, we find Fort Frontenac or Cataraqui at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, where the old city of Kingston now stands. Within the limits of the present city of Toronto, La Galissonnière built Fort Rouillé as an attempt to control the trade of the Indians of the North, who were finding their way to the English fort at Choueguen (Oswego), which had been commenced with the consent of the Iroquois by Governor Burnet of New York and was now a menace to the French dominion of Lake Ontario. At the other extremity of this lake was Fort Niagara, the key to the West.

At Detroit, Mackinac, and Sault Ste. Marie the French continued to hold possession of the Great Lakes and the country to the west and south. Their communications, then, between the West and Quebec were established, but between the great valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, over which they claimed exclusive rights, there was another valley which became of importance in the execution of their scheme of continental dominion. In the years succeeding the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle the English colonists awakened to the importance of the valley of the Ohio, and adventurous frontiersmen of Virginia and Pennsylvania were already forcing their way into its wilderness, when France's ambition barred the way to their further progress. That astute Canadian, Governor La Galissonnière, in 1749, recognised the importance of the Ohio in relation to the Illinois and Mississippi, and sent Céloron, a captain in the French service, to claim possession of the valley of the former river and its tributaries. This officer made a long and enterprising journey, in the course of which he affixed at different points the arms of France to trees, and buried leaden plates bearing the inscription, that they were memorials of the "renewal of the possession of the Ohio and all its affluents" originally established by arms and treaties, particularly those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle. Under the instructions of Governor Duquesne, who possessed all the sagacity of La Galissonnière, forts were established at Presqu'ile (Erie) and on French Creek, a tributary of the Alleghany. Virginians saw with dismay the entrance of the French into a region on which they were now casting a longing eye. Their government had secured from the Iroquois a doubtful deed which gave them, as they urged, a title to the Great West, and a company was even formed to occupy the Ohio. In 1754 the English commenced the construction of a fort at the forks of the Ohio, but it was easily captured by Contrecoeur, who completed and renamed it in honour of the Governor of Canada, Duquesne. Washington, who now first appears in American history, was defeated by Chevalier de Villiers at Fort Necessity, a mere intrenchment at Great Meadows, and the French held entire possession of the Ohio valley, where no English trader or pioneer dared show himself. By 1755 the French dominion was complete from the Ohio to the Illinois, and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, so far as a slender line of communication by means of widely separated posts and settlements could make it so. On the St. Joseph, the Maumee, the Wabash, and the Illinois, there were small forts. Fort Chartres in the Illinois country was the only post of any thorough construction. At Cahokia, opposite the modern city of St. Louis, and at Kaskaskia, at the junction of the river of that name with the Mississippi, there were small and relatively prosperous French villages. In Louisiana the French had the towns of Mobile, Biloxi, New Orleans, and a few other settlements, where the African blacks far outnumbered the whites. That colony had had many difficulties to surmount before it could be considered established. Wars with the Natchez and Chickasaws had been constant. Crozat's experiment had been followed by the establishment of the Mississippi or Western Company, which was to develop gold mines, that never existed except in the imaginations of its reckless promoter, John Law, a Scotchman. When the Mississippi bubble burst, and so many thousands were ruined in France, Louisiana still continued under the control of the company, which was eventually obliged to give up its charter after heavy expenditures which had produced very small results, and the colony became a royal province. With its chequered future must be always associated the name of the Canadian Bienville, who was for some years its governor and justly earned the title of "Father of Louisiana." Insignificant as was its progress, France prized its possession, and had she been alive to her opportunities she might have colonised it with Huguenots and made it a power in the conflict between herself and England in America.

France, busy with her ambitious designs in Europe, gave but a meagre and too often half-hearted support to the men who had dreams of founding a mighty empire in America. When France and England met for the great struggle on that continent, the thirteen colonies had reached a population of nearly a million and a quarter of souls, exclusive of the negroes in the South, while the total number of the people in Canada and Louisiana did not exceed eighty thousand. In wealth and comfort there was the same disproportion between the French and English colonies. In fact at the time of the last war, Canadian commerce was entirely paralysed, farms neglected, and the towns barely able to live. In 1757 food was so scarce in Quebec and Montreal that the soldiers and people had to use horse flesh. The combined forces of Canadian militia and regular troops were always much inferior in number to the British and colonial armies when united for the invasion of Canada, with the support of a powerful fleet; but the great strength of the French colony lay in the natural barriers between the English colonies and the keys to New France, Quebec, and Montreal, and in the skill with which the approaches by way of Lake Champlain had been defended by forts at every important point. If the French force was insignificant in number, it was, as a rule, skilfully managed, and in the early part of the struggle the English had no commander to compare with Montcalm for military genius. In some respects the French Canadians were more manageable in war than the English colonists. No legislative bodies existed in Canada to interfere with and thwart the plans and orders of military commanders, but the whole Canadian people acted as a unit to be moved and directed at the will of the King's officers. The Indian tribes from Acadia to the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Illinois, were, with the exception of the Five Nations, always friendly to the French since the days of Champlain—the warm allies of a people who fraternised naturally with them; and it would have been an unhappy day for the English colonists had eighty or a hundred thousand Canadians been able to arm and, under the skilful generalship of Montcalm, swoop down with their savage allies on the English colonial settlements. But the French of Canada were never able, as a rule, to do more than harass by sudden raids and skirmishes—by a system of petite guerre, or petty warfare—the English of America, and at no time in colonial history was the capture of Boston or of New York actually attempted by a land force from Canada, though it was suggested more than once. At the outbreak of the war the Mohawks were the only Indian tribe on whom the English could place much dependence, and that was largely owing to the energy and discretion of Sir William Johnson, who had long lived in their country and gained not only their confidence but even their affection. The tribes in the Ohio valley had been won by the success of the French in driving out the Virginians, while in the further west the Foxes and other communities who had been unfriendly to the French had been beaten into submission—the Foxes in fact almost destroyed—by the raids of the French and their Indian allies. The great current of active thought and enterprise which develops a nation was always with the English colonies, and though large schemes of ambition stimulated the energies of the bold and adventurous men to whom the destinies of France were entrusted from the days of La Salle to those of Montcalm, their ability to found a new empire in America under the lilies of France was ever hindered by the slow development of the French settlements, by the incapacity of the King and his ministers in France to grasp the importance of the situation on this continent, and by their refusal to carry out the projects of men like La Galissonnière, who at once recognised the consequences of such neglect and indifference, but found no one ready to favour his scheme of establishing large settlements of French peasantry in Canada and Louisiana. France, we see now, had her great opportunity in America, and lost it forever at Quebec in 1759.

Before we proceed to the record of the events which led to the conquest of Canada, it is necessary that we should briefly review the history of the period which elapsed between the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and the commencement of the Seven Years' War. When English statesmen were informed of the mistake they had made in restoring Cape Breton to France with such reckless haste, they began to reflect on the best means of retrieving it as far as possible; and at the suggestion of Shirley and other colonists they set to work to bring an English population into Nova Scotia, and to make it a source of strength instead of weakness to the New England communities. In 1749, the year of the formal surrender of Louisbourg, the city of Halifax was founded on the west side of the admirable harbour, long known in Acadian history as Chebouctou. Here, under the direction of Governor Cornwallis, a man of great ability, a town slowly grew up at the foot and on the slopes of the hill which was in later times crowned by a noble citadel, above which has always floated the flag of Great Britain. Then followed the erection of a fort at Chignecto, known as Fort Lawrence in honour of the English officer who built it—afterwards governor of Nova Scotia—and intended to be a protection to the province, constantly threatened by the French and Indians, who were always numerous at the French posts and settlements on the isthmus. The French constructed on the northern bank of the Missiquash a fort of five bastions known as Beauséjour, and a smaller one at Bay Verte, with the object, as previously stated, of keeping up communication with Louisbourg, which they were strengthening in some measure. At Fort Beauséjour the treacherous priest Le Loutre continued to pursue his insidious designs of creating dissatisfaction among the French Acadians and pressing on them the necessity of driving the English from the former possessions of France.

Though war was not formally proclaimed between France and England until many months later, the year 1755 was distinguished in America by conflicts between the English and French—a prelude to the great struggle that was only to end in the fall of New France. The French frigates Alcide and Lys were captured on the coast of Newfoundland by vessels of a fleet under Admiral Boscawen, who had been sent by the English Government to intercept a French fleet which had left France under Admiral de la Mothe, having on board troops under Baron Dieskau and the Marquis de Vaudreuil, the successor of Duquesne in the government of Canada.

In Acadia, in the valley of the Ohio, and at Lake George, the opposing forces of England and France also met in conflict. In the spring an English force of regular and colonial troops, chiefly the latter, under the command of Colonel Monckton, who has given his name to a prosperous city on the isthmus of Chignecto, and of Colonels Winslow and Scott, captured the two French forts and took a good many prisoners, among whom were a considerable number of French Acadians, forced by the French to assist in the defence of Beauséjour. Le Loutre succeeded during the confusion on the surrender of the fort, in evading capture, but only to find himself eventually taken prisoner by an English ship while on his way to France, and sent to the island of Jersey, where he was kept in confinement until the end of the war, and from that time disappears from American history.

In the same year General Braddock, an arrogant though experienced soldier, was sent in command of a large force of regular and colonial troops into the valley of the Ohio to attack Fort Duquesne and drive the French from that region, but chiefly through his want of caution and his ignorance of Indian methods of warfare in the American wilderness, he was surprised on the Monongahela by a small force of Indians and French under the Canadian Beaujeu, who were concealed in ravines, from which they were able in perfect security to prevent the advance of the English, and literally riddle them with bullets until they fled in dismay and confusion, leaving behind them a great store of munitions and provisions besides a large sum of money in specie. Braddock died from the wounds he received, and the remnant of his beaten regiments retired precipitately beyond the Alleghanies. This unhappy disaster was followed by a succession of Indian raids along hundreds of miles of frontier, and the petite guerre of the Abenakis and French in Acadia and New England, with all its horrors, was repeated by the Indians of the West. The southern colonies were paralysed for the moment, and the authorities of Pennsylvania gave evidences of indifference, if not of cowardice, that are discreditable features of its early history.

General Johnson, of the Mohawk country, at the head of a large colonial force, defeated Baron Dieskau at the foot of Lake George, which then received its present name in honour of the King of England, and the French general himself was taken prisoner. It was for his services on this occasion that Johnson was made a baronet, though he had not succeeded in the original object of his expedition, the capture of Crown Point. General Shirley, however, was not so fortunate as Johnson, for he abandoned the project of attacking Fort Niagara when he heard that it had received reinforcements.

The most memorable event of this time, which has been the subject of warm controversy between French and English historians and the theme of a most affecting poem, was the expulsion of the Acadian French from Nova Scotia. When Halifax was founded it was decided, as a matter of necessity, to bring the Acadians more entirely under the control of the English authorities. They had probably increased since the Treaty of Utrecht to at least twelve thousand souls, living for the most part in the Annapolis valley, by the Gaspereaux and Avon rivers, at Grand Pré, at Mines, and at Chignecto. When they were asked to take the oath of allegiance by Governor Lawrence, they refused to do so unless it was qualified by the condition that they should not be obliged at any time to take up arms. Many years before a considerable number, if not the majority, of the same people had taken this qualified oath, although it is also claimed that no one had legal authority to make such a condition with them. Under the treaty of 1713 the Acadian French had a year to choose between leaving the country or giving their submission to the British Government and becoming its subjects. It was natural that they should have hesitated to leave the humble though comfortable homes which their own industry had made on the most fertile lands of Nova Scotia, but it is also quite certain that every obstacle was thrown in the way of their removal by the English governors. Had the British authorities adopted from the very commencement a firm and decided policy towards them, they might have given an unreserved allegiance to the British Crown and eventually become peaceable and contented inhabitants. As it was, the British Government systematically neglected the country, and left the little garrison at Annapolis for many years practically at the mercy of the Acadians, who could have often half starved them, and even captured the only English post of the least importance in the province, had they been led at any time by a man of courage and determination. It was only the watchfulness of the government of Massachusetts, who fully recognised the importance of Nova Scotia in relation to New England, that retained the province in English hands during the time when English statesmen like Newcastle were even ignorant of the existence or situation of Annapolis. If French emissaries were often able to make these credulous and ignorant people believe that France would soon regain her dominion in Acadia, it was largely owing to the fact that the English showed such weakness in all their relations with the Acadians, and made no earnest or sustained effort to assert their sovereignty. At last when England decided to settle and strengthen Nova Scotia, a feeling of uneasiness was naturally created by the presence of a large and increasing population who were naturally in sympathy with the French, and had assumed an attitude quite irreconcilable with the security of English interests on the Atlantic coast of eastern America. It must be admitted that the position of the Acadians was one deserving of sympathy, tossed about as they were for many years between French and English. They were considered by the French of Canada and Cape Breton as mere tools to carry out the designs of French ambition. England, however, had at some time or other to assert her sovereignty in Nova Scotia, and to assure its security, seemingly threatened by the presence of people who would not formally declare themselves British subjects. The position of Nova Scotia between Cape Breton and Canada gave reason for constant alarm, and when Halifax was founded some decisive step was felt to be necessary by Cornwallis and his successors. No doubt the feeling that had been created against the Acadians, by their refusal to take an unconditional oath of allegiance to Great Britain—the only oath that could be possibly offered to them by a self-respecting and strong government—was intensified by the notorious fact that a number of them had been actually captured at Fort Beauséjour with arms in their hands, though in this case they appear to have been really the mere tools of Le Loutre and French emissaries who grossly misled them. The people of New England were much prejudiced against them and asserted that they could never enjoy any security while the Acadians continued to maintain their attitude of neutrality. They had always supplied Louisbourg with provisions and helped to build the French forts on the isthmus, and it was difficult for Lawrence and his officers to obtain any assistance from them in the same way. When the Indians harassed the English settlers in Nova Scotia, the government of that province recalled the raids of the Abenakis and French Canadians, and believed with some reason there was to be the same condition of things in the peninsula. The war between the French and English had never really ceased in America, and it was well known that the hollow truce in Europe would be broken at any moment; and in the presence of the great danger that threatened the English colonies, they had some ground for fearing the presence of a large body of people who claimed to be neutrals in a country which was England's by conquest and treaty, and where they could and did enjoy an amount of political and religious liberty which no Protestant enjoyed in Catholic Europe. Then came the defeat of Braddock in the Ohio country, and the knowledge that France was preparing for a determined effort to strengthen and even increase her dominions in America.

It was under these circumstances that Governor Lawrence of Nova Scotia—a determined and harsh military man—no doubt at the instigation of Shirley and the authorities of New England, determined to secure the peace and safety of the province by the most cruel of all possible measures, the expulsion of the whole body of French Acadians. It must be admitted, however, that all the circumstances, when reviewed in these later times, do not seem sufficient to justify the stern action of the men who took the leading part in this sad tragedy. The responsibility must mainly rest on Governor Lawrence, and not on the imperial government, who never formally authorised the expatriation. Be that as it may, the Acadians were driven from their settlements, and the noble qualities of Lawrence, Monckton, and Winslow, who carried out the measures of expulsion, will be always obscured in the minds of that great majority of people who think only of the deed and its consequences, and are influenced by the dictates of the heart. It is a matter for deep regret that the men who represented England in those days had not run a risk on the side of humanity, rather than have driven thousands of men, women, and children from their pleasant homes by the sides of the beautiful bays and rivers of Nova Scotia, and scattered them far and wide among the English colonies, where their treatment was rarely generous. Even those who reached Quebec were coldly received and were grudgingly supplied with miserable food. Poetry and sentiment have not exaggerated the sorrow and misery of these hapless exiles, so ill-fitted to go out into the bitter world of hardship and destitution.