King Edward's realm: Story of the making of the Empire

1. We are now on the threshold of one of the most important parts of our story. In the eighteenth century was fought out the question: Should the British or the French be the ruling race of North America? In answering that question, the British navy had much to say, although the battles which decided the contest were fought mostly on land; for it was owing to Britain's command of the seas, that we were able to send our soldiers in safety across the ocean, and to supply them with all things necessary for a fighting force, whilst depriving the enemy of all succour from their friends at home.

2. The commanding position which the British navy had reached at that time is undisputed. "Before the war of the Spanish Succession," says a distinguished naval officer of the United States, "England was one of the sea powers; after it, she was the sea power, without any second. This power also she held alone, unshared by friend, unchecked by foe."

3. The Englishman who first enters Canada by way of Quebec is surprised to find himself among a people speaking French, whilst Quebec itself looks to him like a quaint old Norman town. The fact is, the majority of the inhabitants are of French descent, although at the present day as loyal to the British flag as any could desire. The explanation of this French air about the place is, of course, the fact that Canada was at first a French colony.

4. The French began to plant a colony in Canada about the same time as did the English in Virginia, but for the first fifty years it dragged out a miserable existence. A new day dawned upon Canada, when Louis XIV. took the colony in hand (1665), with the resolution that a new France should be added to the old. Soldiers, settlers, horses, sheep, cattle, were all sent out in abundance, and the well-being of the colony became the object of the king's fatherly care. Before winter set in, about two thousand persons had landed at Quebec at Louis's expense. "Thus a sunbeam from the court of France fell for a moment on the rock of Quebec." Indeed the light of the king's favour continued to fall on the colony for some years, but it failed to insure prosperity.

5. The way in which Louis treated the French colonists in Canada is a striking illustration of the difference between the French and English methods of dealing with colonies; it is the difference between liberty and restraint, between leaving the colonists to manage their own affairs under friendly help and guidance, and hampering them by foolish meddling. The French colonists were treated as children and kept in leading-strings. The king acting for some time the part of a fond father, and coddling them most unwisely. Not only were their actual wants relieved by his bounty, but every branch of trade and industry received liberal grants. They were thus trained to dependence on their rulers to whom they were expected to pay unquestioning obedience.

6. "It is God's will," wrote Louis, "that whoever is born a subject should not reason but obey." Every one of his officials seemed to be of the same opinion. "It is of very great consequence," wrote one of them, "that the people should not be left at liberty to speak their own minds." They were not free so much as to go home to France when they pleased; leave had first to be obtained. They were even told at what age to marry, and fines were imposed unless they conformed. The colonists, in fact, were in the position of a papoose, or Indian baby, bound up tight from head to foot and carried on its mother's shoulders like a pack. What was the consequence?

7. All the most active and vigorous spirits in the colony took to the woods and escaped the control of the king's officials. We hear sometimes of farms abandoned, wives and children deserted, and the greater part of the young men of a district turned into bushrangers and forest outlaws. They joined the Indians, trapped the beaver, trafficked with the natives for beaver-skins, and lived the wild life of semi-savages. This was the natural result of their not enjoying reasonable liberty in their own homes.

8. Such slow progress did New France make, notwithstanding King Louis's tender care, that on his death, in 1715, the whole colony was in the depths of poverty and numbered only 25,000 souls, whereas the English colonists in America were at that date ten times as numerous, and lived in the midst of plenty. The former depended on Government aid, the latter on themselves.

1. The treaty of Utrecht (1713) left Britain at the commencement of a long period of peace and prosperity. During that quiet period we have little that is interesting to tell. Britain was quietly growing in wealth and power, and her colonies in population and importance. By the census of 1754 it appeared that the British colonists, occupying a strip of territory about 200 miles in width along the Atlantic coasts, numbered upwards of a million souls; whereas at that date, the whole white population under the French flag in North America did not exceed 80,000.

2. Though the French settlers were so few, France laid claim to all America from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson Bay. They claimed it by right of discovery and partial occupation. It was her explorers who first made their way down the Mississippi, her missionaries who first visited the Indian tribes of the interior, her traders who first opened a market with the natives. But the French had hardly occupied any part of that vast region south of the Great Lakes. It is true they had founded Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi and partly colonized Louisiana; but between the delta of that river and the St. Lawrence there was still a vast wilderness, the home of the bison and beaver, where the Indian trapped and hunted, with here and there a French trading post or mission station.

3. "French America," says the historian of Canada, "had two heads,—one among the snows of Canada, and one among the cane-breaks of Louisiana; one communicating with the world through the gulf of St. Lawrence, and the other through the Gulf of Mexico. These vital points were feebly connected by a chain of military posts, circling through the wilderness nearly three thousand miles. Midway between Canada and Louisiana lay the valley of the Ohio. If the English should seize it, they would sever the chain of posts and cut French America asunder." And this they seemed now (1754) on the point of doing.

4. The Governor of Canada at that time was a man of bold spirit and clear insight. He saw that the British traders were crossing the Alleghanies into the valley of the Ohio, poaching on the domains which the French claimed as their own, ruining the French fur trade, and making friends of the natives by underselling the French traders. He felt that, cost what it might, France must link Canada to Louisiana by a chain of forts strong enough to keep back the British colonists and coop them up in their old domains. The king's ministers in France were of the same mind, and ordered the governor to "send force enough to drive off the English from the Ohio, and cure them of all wish to return." The governor accordingly set to work to build forts at commanding points along the Ohio. The most important was Fort Duquesne at the forks of the Ohio, where now stands Pittsburg, with its clanging forges and flaming furnaces.

5. A young officer, who later in life became famous, George Washington, was sent with a small colonial force to expel the French, if possible, from this fort before they had time to gain a firm footing. He found however, his small force unequal to the task. Washington's failure had the effect of throwing the Indians of the Ohio into the arms of the French, for of course their one desire was to be on the winning side. And when, next year, the smouldering war burst into flame, nearly all the western tribes drew their scalping-knives for France.

6. It must be remembered that in all the fighting in America between the British and the French, the native Indians took an active share. Armed with their favourite weapon, the tomahawk, they were at close quarters dangerous foes. Their fierce aspect in full war-paint—for the warriors daubed their naked bodies with glaring colours—and their wild war-whoops were well calculated to inspire soldiers straight from England or France with considerable dread. From first to last the various tribes were always ready to join one side or the other, taking a fiendish delight in shedding blood and in crowing over their fallen foes. And both English and French were equally ready to bid for their support, and to fight side by side with them, whilst abhorring their barbarities. Some tribes were always ready to throw in their lot with the side that seemed the stronger, whilst others were permanently attached either to the English or the French.

7. The English were fortunate in having secured from the first the loyal support of the Iroquois Indians, known as the "Five Nations," the most formidable savages on the continent. But they were sorely tempted to join the French whenever they felt aggrieved at the way they were treated by the English colonists. They evidently found it difficult, at times, to choose between the two peoples. "We don't know what you Christians, English and French intend," said one of their orators, "We are so hemmed in by you both that we have hardly a hunting-place left. In a little while, if we find a bear in a tree, there will immediately appear an owner of the land to claim the property. We are so perplexed between the two that we hardly know what to think or say."

8. Being on the eve of war with the French, the colonial governors called a meeting of the chiefs of the Five Nations, at the frontier town of Albany, to try to conciliate them. At that conference one of the chiefs thus concluded his speech: "You have neglected us for these three years past." Here he took a stick and threw it behind him. "You have thus thrown us behind your back; whereas the French are always caressing us, and doing their utmost to win us over to them. You desire us to speak from the bottom of our hearts, and we shall do it. Look about your country and see; you have no fortifications, no, not even in this city. It is but a step from Canada here and the French may come and turn you out of doors. Look at the French; they are men; they are fortifying everywhere. But you are all like women, bare and open, without fortifications."

9. They were however, induced to renew the covenant with our people. A large "chain-belt" of white shells, called wampum, was provided, on which the King of England was represented, holding in his embrace the colonies and the Five Nations with their allied tribes. The chief, on accepting the belt, said in reply: "We do now solemnly renew and brighten the covenant chain. We shall take the chain-belt to Onondaga, where our council-fire always burns, and keep it so safe that neither thunder nor lightning shall break it."

10. Hearing of Washington's failure to capture Fort Duquesne, the Home Government sent out General Braddock with two regiments to take it and any other fort that prevented our colonists from spreading westwards. But both general and soldiers were ignorant of "bush-fighting," and knew little of the Indians and their mode of warfare. The French at Fort Duquesne had armed their Indian allies with firearms, and waited in ambuscade for the approach of the British who were advancing through the adjoining forest. The advanced guard had crossed a little gully and the flat beyond it, and was just crossing a second gully, when a force of about a thousand French and Indians suddenly appeared in front and flank; shots were scarcely exchanged when every enemy disappeared from view; but from behind trees on all sides, and from the two gullies, just deep enough to serve as rifle-pits, a continuous fire poured in upon the crowded British. After three hours' fighting with an invisible foe, the general, wounded and in despair, ordered a retreat.

11. News of this defeat fired the minds of all Englishmen, and all felt that nothing remained but "a fight to a finish" between the two nations for settling their respective claims in America. The "Seven Years' War," which began in 1756, was destined to decide once for all the great questions in dispute between the two rivals in that quarter of the globe. Few wars have had greater results in the history of the world, and none has brought greater triumphs to Britain, but at its opening the fortune of war, as usual, went wofully against us.

1. At the outset of the Seven Years' War the French scored a great success by the capture of Port Mahon, which was conceded to Britain by the Peace of Utrecht. It was a fortified town of Minorca, with an excellent harbour, and was of great value to our navy, as it enabled our ships to winter and refit in the Mediterranean, instead of having to come to England for that purpose.

2. Admiral Byng had been sent with a fleet to prevent its capture, but judging that the French fleet was superior to his own, both in the number of men and guns, he did not drive home the attack, but thought more of saving his ships than of saving the port. He was summoned home, tried by court-martial, and found guilty of not doing his utmost to defeat the French fleet and relieve the garrison. The unfortunate admiral was, accordingly, shot on board a man-of-war while sitting, blindfolded, in a chair on deck. The nation, by its approval, taught the lesson that an English admiral is expected to think more of destroying the enemy's fleet than of saving his own.

3. In America, also, nothing at first seemed to prosper. The men in command were old or incapable, and every attack made on the French forts failed. Thus the first year of the war ended in gloom; but with the appointment of William Pitt, as War Minister (1757), the fortunes of Britain began to brighten and went on increasing in splendour. "The Great Commoner," as Pitt was called, seemed to inspire the whole country with his own lofty spirit. "No man," said a soldier of the day, "ever entered Mr. Pitt's closet who did not feel himself braver when he came out than when he went in."

4. Pitt's greatest triumphs were gained in America. He had, of course, nothing to do with the actual fighting. It was for him to plan the campaigns, to appoint the men for carrying out his designs, and to provide them with the means of doing so successfully. His first aim was to take Louisbourg, a strong fortress of Cape Breton, which stood sentinel for the French at the entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In a safe harbour, under the guns of its fortress, the French ships could bide their time, ready to strike when the right moment had come. This place, therefore, had to be captured before it would have been safe to sail up the St. Lawrence and lay siege to Quebec.

5. An army of twelve thousand men, placed under the command of General Amherst, was sent out to wrest Louisbourg, if possible, out of the hands of the French. Louisbourg, at that time, was the strongest fortress in either English or French America. At the entrance of the harbour was a rocky islet well fortified. In the harbour itself were twelve French warships with 3000 men on board. The forts of the harbour were garrisoned by 3000 troops, whilst upwards of 200 cannon were mounted on the walls. The best defence of Louisbourg was its craggy shore, with only a break here and there, commanded by the guns of one or other of the forts.

6. On examining the shores for a landing-place for his troops, the general feared that the task before him was hopeless. At length a cove was selected for the attempt and Brigadier Wolfe—who afterwards became famous—was honoured with the command of the attacking party. The place selected was more strongly defended than it seemed to be. About a thousand Frenchmen lay behind entrenchments covered in front by fir trees, felled and laid on the ground. Eight cannon were planted to sweep every part of the beach, and these pieces were masked by young evergreens stuck in the ground before them.

7. The British were allowed to come within close range unmolested. Then the batteries opened, and a deadly storm of grape and musket-shot was poured upon the boats. It was clear in an instant that to advance further would be destruction; and Wolfe gave the signal to sheer off. But three boats on the right, little exposed to the fire, made straight for the shore before them. There the men landed on a strand strewn with rocks and lashed with breakers, but sheltered from the cannon by a projecting point. Wolfe hastened to support them. Many of the boats were stove among the rocks, and others were overset, but most of the men tumbled through the surf and climbed the crags. Forming his men in compact order, Wolfe attacked and carried with the bayonet the first French battery. Thus the first footing was gained, the first move of the great game was played and won.

8. The great guns were now landed and the siege commenced. The British lines grew closer and closer, and their fire more and more destructive. On the thirteenth day of the siege the guns of the Island Battery that guarded the entrance were dismounted and silenced. The French commander, Ducour, then sank four of his large ships to block the mouth of the harbour and prevent any English ships from entering. This did not, however, prevent six hundred English sailors from rowing into the harbour on a dark night and setting fire to the remaining ships.

9. It is pleasing to find that during the siege various courtesies were exchanged between the two commanders. Ducour, hoisting a flag of truce, sent a letter to Amherst offering the services of a skilful surgeon in case any English officers required them. Amherst, on his part, sent letters and messages from wounded Frenchmen in his hands to Ducour, and begged his wife to accept a gift of pine-apples. She returned his courtesy by sending him a present of wine. After an exchange of courtesies like this the cannon spoke again. The lady herself was seen on the ramparts every morning encouraging the French soldiers by her presence, and even firing cannon with her own hand.

10. On the twenty-sixth day the last of the enemy's guns was silenced, and all was ready for the assault. Finding it impossible to hold out any longer, Ducour surrendered. It was stipulated that the garrison should be sent to England as prisoners of war, and that all artillery and arms should be given up intact.

11. Amherst proceeded to complete his task by making himself master of the adjacent possessions of France, including Cape Breton and what are now called Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. Meanwhile another British force was successful in capturing Fort Duquesne, the key of the Great West. The town which rose around this fort was called Pittsburg, in honour of the minister who had planned its capture. This success opened the country west of the Alleghanies to the pushing British colonists, and deprived France of one-half of her savage allies in that region.

12. Thus ended the campaign of 1758. The Canadian winter imposed a truce on the combatants. Wolfe returned to England and, though only thirty-two years of age, was raised by Pitt, the great war minister, to the rank of general. When some one remarked to His Majesty, George II., that Pitt's new general was mad, "Mad is he?" returned the king; "then I hope he will bite some other of my generals."

1. The conquest of Canada hinged on the capture of Quebec the "Gibraltar of America." This task was assigned to General Wolfe—a bold, impetuous, and intrepid warrior, who had already won the admiration of the soldiers at the siege of Louisbourg, and was about to win undying fame at Quebec. No one had less the likeness of a hero. It is worth while to picture out the man as he looked, at the time of his appointment, that we may learn to distrust a hasty judgment formed from mere outside appearance.

2. The forehead and chin receded, the nose was slightly upturned, the mouth expressed no resolution, and nothing but the clear, bright, and piercing eye bespoke the spirit within. He wore a black three-cornered hat, his red hair was tied in a tail behind; his narrow shoulders, slender body, and long, thin limbs were cased in a scarlet coat, with broad cuffs and ample skirts that reached the knee; while on his left arm he wore a band of crape in mourning for his father. Wolfe's life was a constant battling with ill-health. He seems always to have been at his best in the thick of battle; most complete in his mastery over himself and others at a perilous crisis.

3. The fleet, with nine thousand troops on board, sailed out of the harbour of Louisbourg in June, 1759, the officers drinking to the toast, "British colours on every French fort, port, and garrison in America," Fifteen months later this wild wish was realised, except at New Orleans, at the mouth of the Mississippi.

4. While the British fleet is making its way up the St. Lawrence, the French under their brave, able and humane general, Montcalm, take up a strong position east of Quebec, between two rivers, and behind earthworks which lined the shore. The British army landed on the Isle of Orleans three or four miles below Quebec. Wolfe soon saw that the task before him was a desperate one. Before him frowned the rock of Quebec, rising vertically more than 300 feet; and crowning the rock was a citadel girdled with batteries.

5. Our troops had hardly taken up their quarters, after landing, than the enemy in the hope of cutting off their retreat attempted to destroy our fleet by means of fire-ships, filled with pitch, tar, and other combustibles, mixed with bombs, grenades, and old cannon and muskets loaded to the mouth. On they came with the tide, flaming and exploding, yet doing no harm except to a few French sailors who were steering them. Some of them ran ashore before reaching the fleet; the others were caught with grappling irons by the British tars, and towed safely out of harm's way. A second attempt, later on, to burn the English fleet by means of a fire-raft met with no better success. It consisted of seventy rafts, boats, and schooners chained together. Nothing saved the fleet but the undaunted courage of the British sailors, who towed the fire-raft safe to shore, and left it at anchor, whilst sounding the well-known refrain, All's well.

6. Wolfe, meanwhile, had laid Quebec in ruins, but no injury he could do could draw "the wary old fox" from his cover. The question was less how to fight the enemy than how to get at him. Montcalm persisted in doing nothing that his antagonist wished him to do. "I can't get at him," wrote Wolfe, "without spilling a torrent of blood, and that perhaps to little purpose." At last the attempt was made, and many lives were lost in vain. The troops, however, so loved and trusted their general that they were ready to do his bidding with alacrity when he resolved on a still more daring venture.

7. The time was fast approaching when the English fleet would have to leave the St. Lawrence to escape imprisonment in the ice. As a forlorn hope, it occurred to Wolfe that an attempt might be made to scale the heights under cover of night. About a mile above Quebec was a tiny bay, now called Wolfe's Cove, from which a narrow path passed up the face of the woody precipice, known as the Heights of Abraham. Close upon the brow of the hill was the post of a French captain with 150 men.

8. Whilst the main fleet made a feigned attack below Quebec, Wolfe was quietly preparing for his venture ten miles further up the river. There a squadron of ships, with 3600 troops on board, lay tranquil at anchor. Around it was collected a number of boats sufficient to take half the troops. At one o'clock two lanterns were raised to the maintop of the leading ship as a signal for the soldiers to enter the boats; and an hour later, when the tide began to ebb, the order was given to cast off and glide down with the current. The vessels, with the rest of the troops, were to follow a little later.

9. For full two hours the procession of boats floated silently down the St. Lawrence. The stars were visible but the night was moonless and sufficiently dark. The general, who was in one of the foremost boats, repeated, in a low voice to the officers sitting round, Gray's Elegy in a Country Churchyard. "Gentlemen," he said, as he finished his recital, "I would rather have written those lines than take Quebec."

10. The leading company disembarked on a narrow strand at the foot of the heights to be climbed, and began the ascent, each man pulling himself up by bushes, stumps of trees, and jutting rocks. On reaching the top they saw in the dim light a cluster of tents and made a dart at them. The French, taken by surprise, fled. The main body of British troops waited in their boats, near the beach, all intently listening. Soon from the top came a sound of musket shots, followed by loud hurrahs from British throats, and Wolfe knew that the position was gained. The word was given; the troops leaped from the boats and climbed the heights, clutching at trees and bushes, giving and taking hands, their muskets slung at their backs. As fast as the boats were emptied they hastened to the ships to be refilled.

11. When the day broke Wolfe's battalions were drawn up in battle array on the Plains of Abraham just behind Quebec, and there they waited for the attack, Montcalm hurried to the spot, and full in sight before him stretched the lines of Wolfe: the close ranks of the English infantry, a silent wall of red, and the wild array of the Highlanders with their bagpipes screaming defiance. The British waited until the French were within forty yards and then rang out the command, and a crash of musketry answered. Another volley quickly followed, and then came the order to charge with the bayonet. As Wolfe led on his grenadiers a shot shattered his wrist. He wrapped his handkerchief about it and kept on. Another shot struck him, but he still advanced, when a third lodged in his breast and brought him to the ground. He was carried to the rear, and there lay dying, when all at once an officer cried cut: "They run; see how they run!" "Who run?" asked the dying hero. "The enemy, sir, they give way in all directions." "Then God be praised; I shall die in peace!"

12. The brave Montcalm met with a similar fate. As, borne with the tide of fugitives, he approached the town, a shot passed through his body. He lingered until the next day, and soon afterwards Quebec opened its gates to the conquerors. In the public gardens of Quebec, there now stands an obelisk, bearing on one of its faces the word Montcalm and on the opposite face the name Wolfe; two brave men equal in honour, in devotion to duty, in patriotism.

13. The capture of Quebec was soon followed by the conquest of all Canada. All the French troops in the colony were taken back to France. Protection to person and property, and the free exercise of their religion, were promised to all the colonists who were willing to remain in the country. They had hitherto been treated as children, unable to speak and act for themselves. All this was now changed. A new spirit of freedom animated the whole colony, infusing new life and vigour into all classes. This resulted in the increase of wealth and comfort, and in the growth of a genuine loyalty to the British Crown.

1. Whilst General Wolfe was fighting the French in Canada, Robert Clive was similarly engaged in India. Here, as in America, the British and French were rivals for power. Both nations had an East India Company, and until lately the two companies had confined themselves to their own proper business as merchants. The British had factories, or trading-stations, at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay; the French had their headquarters at Pondicherry. The appointment of Dupleix as governor at Pondicherry, in 1748, led to a change of policy. From that time the French began to bid for empire, and the British were not slow to follow their lead.

2. India at that time was nominally under the rule of an emperor, known as the "Great Mogul"; but the real power was in the hands of the princes who ruled, in his name, in the different provinces of the empire. Dupleix saw in this state of things a chance of making France the supreme power in India. Disputes were constantly arising between the native princes about the right of succession. Dupleix's plan was an immoral one; it was, in any dispute for a throne, to take the side of the prince who had the least right to it; for the one who gained the throne, by his help, without being entitled to it, would afterwards be only a mere puppet prince under his thumb.

3. Dupleix also perceived that the army of a native prince was merely an armed rabble, and that a small disciplined force would easily beat it, even if that force was composed of merely well-drilled natives under European officers. He perceived that the natives, though not wanting in personal courage, were as babes in the art of warfare. When, for instance, they engaged in battle, the officer in command mounted an elephant and became the standard of his army. All eyes were turned towards him; as long as he was visible the troops rallied round him; directly he fell or turned they dispersed, and the day was lost. It was thus possible for a well-directed shot to decide the fate of a battle.

4. The opportunity which Dupleix wanted was not long in presenting itself. A dispute arose between two princes for the right to rule the Carnatic, a province of Southern India. The claimant whom Dupleix favoured soon triumphed over his rival, but he was a mere tool in the hands of his French patron, who became the real ruler of the province. And to impress the natives with a sense of his greatness, he clad himself in costly native dresses, trimmed with jewels, and required his attendants to serve him on bended knee. But Dupleix was not long left in the quiet enjoyment of his honours.

5. There was a clerk in the employ of our East India Company whose adventurous spirit urged him to quit the desk and gird on the soldier's sword. That man was Robert Clive, who proved to be one of the master-makers of our empire, and the founder of British rule in India. Clive showed himself to be a born leader of men, with a genius for war, as brave as the bravest, with a presence of mind that never forsook him however great the danger. Clive proposed to make a sudden dash on Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, about a hundred miles inland from Madras. His offer was accepted, and he set out from Madras at the head of 200 English soldiers and 300 Sepoys—natives armed and drilled after the European fashion—with eight English officers.

6. Clive made the journey by forced marches through the thunder and lightning and rain of the wet season, and so astounded the garrison of Arcot that they ran without striking a blow. A force of 3000 men soon appeared to drive out the intruders. In the middle of the night on which they arrived, while all of them were fast asleep, Clive—without waiting to be besieged, as he should have done by all the rules of Indian warfare—made a sudden sally, drove them headlong from the place, and returned without losing a single man. Somewhat later a force of 8000 men encircled the city, and for fifty days the young captain foiled all their efforts to take it.

7. During this terrible time, officers and men—European and native alike—were all animated by the same undaunted spirit and by the same devotion to the young captain. When there was nothing left but rice to live and fight on, and very little of that, the Sepoys came to him of their own will to beg that the grain should be reserved for their European comrades and the water in which it was boiled for themselves.

8. At last, the enemy stormed the fort, driving before them elephants whose foreheads were armed with iron plates. It was expected that the gates would yield to the shock of these living battering-rams. But the balls from the fort sent the huge beasts flying in terror into the crowded ranks of their own masters. However, a breach had been made, and the attack went on. Clive had placed his best marksmen in front, and ordered those in the rear to load the muskets for them to fire. Three times the besiegers stormed the breach, and three times they quailed before the leaden-storm that beat upon them. During the night the enemy suddenly decamped, leaving guns and stores to the victors.

9. Clive's success at Arcot may be justly considered the first stone laid in the foundation of our Indian Empire. As the star of Clive rose so that of Dupleix sank. The prince that the latter had set up lost his throne, and Dupleix himself was recalled to France; for the French Government regarded his lofty aims and pretensions as no better than a wild dream. But the wild dream of Dupleix for France was fulfilled by Clive and his successors for Britain. To-day we see that dream realised, and an English King proclaimed Emperor of India.

10. To Clive belongs the honour of having been the first Englishman to impress the people of India with the fighting-powers of our race, the first to inspire them with the idea that Victory rode in a British war-chariot. Nothing is more essential to success in ruling the myriads of India than the conviction that our arms are sure to prevail. Fortunately, the British soldier, ever since the days of Robert Clive, has made his name famous in India; the credit he has gained for valour and victory materially aids him in battle to win the day. The name and renown gained by success and good fortune in the past is what is meant by prestige, and this heritage of ours is one of the secrets of the power that enables a few thousands of our race in India to rule its three hundred million souls.

1. Who has not heard of the "Black Hole of Calcutta" and of the miscreant Surajah Dowlah, the nawab, or native governor, of Bengal? This man hated the English, and he resolved to expel them from his province. Marching to Calcutta with a large force, he seized all our countrymen within his reach, and thrust them for the night into a small stifling room. When the door was thrown open in the morning, only 23 out of 146 staggered out alive. All the rest had fallen dead from the intense heat and suffocating air.

2. When the news reached Madras there went up a cry for vengeance, and all eyes turned to Clive as the avenger. A part of the famous 39th regiment, lately arrived from England, formed the backbone of Clive's force. Admiral Watson was also at hand with a small fleet, and sailed with the avenging army to the mouth of the Hooghly (Hugli).

3. On their arrival the work of retribution began. Calcutta soon fell into their hands. The nawab's capital, Moorshedabad, was the next object of attack, Clive boldly advancing against it with his small force of 3000 men. The nawab drew up his army of 50,000 men on the plains of Plassey, a few miles in front of his capital. Whilst Clive could only muster ten light field pieces, his enemy had fifty heavy guns at his command. But there was treachery in his ranks, for Clive had won over Meer Jaffier, the principal commander of his troops, and the nawab himself was hated by his own people.

4. Clive drew up his troops in front of a grove of mangoes, and near it was a hunting-lodge from the roof of which Clive watched the nawab's army take up its position. They came on with all the pomp and panoply of war—the infantry with their banners flying, the cavalry with their drawn swords flashing back the rays of the rising sun, the elephants with their scarlet trappings, and the heavy guns with their unwieldy platforms and struggling teams of white oxen. The battle that followed lasted till noon.

5. At the right moment, Clive ordered a general advance, and after a brief struggle, disorder and dismay having spread through the ranks of his army, Surajah gave the order to retreat. Clive immediately darted forward with all his men, while the hosts of the enemy fled panic-stricken before them. The nawab mounted a swift dromedary, and was the first to reach Moorshedabad, with a bodyguard of 2000 horsemen. Plassey was not a great battle, but it was fruitful in great results. It was fought on 23rd June, 1757, a date from which is reckoned the foundation of British rule in India.

6. As an immediate result of the battle Surajah Dowlah was deposed, and Meer Jaffier made nawab. Clive was taken by the new nawab into the royal treasury of Bengal, and there, walking between heaps of gold and silver and cases filled with jewels, he was invited to help himself. He accepted about two hundred thousand pounds, and became the real ruler of Bengal. Much had yet to be done to place the power of the British in Bengal on a firm footing, but that result was achieved before Clive sailed for England (1760).

7. Whilst Clive was securing Bengal, his friend, Colonel Eyre Coote, was doing much, in southern India, to raise the British and lower the French in the eyes of the native soldiers. A decisive engagement was fought between the troops of the two rivals at Wandewash, south of Madras, in 1760. This battle is unique in the warfare of India, being fought between Europeans only. The native soldiers, on both sides, deliberately held back to let the strangers have a fair fight. The French were routed, and their prestige soon faded from the native mind. Coote's sepoys, in congratulating their general on his victory, warmly thanked him for having shown them how a battle should be fought. By the end of another year Pondicherry was surrendered to Coote, and no spot of Indian soil remained under the French flag. It is true Pondicherry was restored to France at the conclusion of the Seven Years' War (1763), but only on condition that it should be held simply for purposes of trade. Britain, on the other hand, retained possession of Bengal and bade fair to become, ere long, the ruling power in India.

8. To help England to build her Indian empire on a sound basis, our hero returned to India (1765) as governor of Bengal, with the title of Lord Clive. He soon set himself the most difficult task of his life, and that was to put an end to the corrupt practices of the officials of the Company, who were growing rapidly rich by accepting bribes to act unjustly. The whole body of officials seemed to be set, as one man, against the reforms of the new governor, but his iron will was too strong for them all.

9. By his just and honest government Clive became the friend of the Hindoo, and at the same time the true friend of his own country; for if the first establishment of British rule in India was due to British valour, its continuance is due to British truthfulness, justice and fair-dealing. All that we could have gained by being as false and subtle as the Orientals themselves were wont to be, is as nothing compared with what we have gained by being the one power in India whose word could be trusted. It is a thing of which we may be justly proud, that no oath, however binding, no hostage, however precious, inspires one tithe of the confidence which is produced by the "yea, yea" and "nay, nay" of a British envoy.

CHAPTER IV.

Time of Trial and Triumph

(1763-1815).

1. The Seven Years' War, which came to a close in 1763, left Britain everywhere triumphant. But she was not left long to enjoy her triumph. Days of darkness came upon her, bringing defeat and disaster, and the loss of her principal colonies. Everywhere she had to fight to hold her own. And how well this was done for her in India by one of her ablest sons our story shall now tell.

2. If Clive was the founder of British rule in India, Warren Hastings was its preserver. Like Clive, he began his career as a clerk in the service of the East India Company. In the Bengal war he shouldered a musket and fought at Plassey; but Clive's quick eye soon perceived that there was more in his head than his arm, and he employed him as his agent at the court of the new nawab, Meer Jaffier. From this time Hastings steadily rose in the Company's service, until, in 1774, he was made Governor-General of India, the first to hold that office.

3. India at this time was a medley of nations under the nominal headship of the "Great Mogul"; but his power was very limited, and the princes who ruled in his name did much as they pleased. The most powerful of these native rulers were the Mahratta chiefs, and for many years it was a question whether the Mahrattas or the British should be the leading power in India.

4. The original seat of this fierce and cunning people was the wild range of hills that run along the western coast of India. When the Mogul empire fell to pieces, some time previously, the Mahratta chiefs made themselves masters of the central provinces, with Poona as their headquarters. They founded states which spread from sea to sea, and their sword was always at the service of the highest bidder. They were almost equally dreaded by friend and foe; the former were ruined by the heavy pay they extorted, and the latter had their country ravaged by fire and sword. Their cavalry moved in large bodies with marvellous speed, and wherever "their kettledrums were heard the peasant threw his bag of rice on his shoulder, hid his small savings in his girdle, and fled with his wife and children to the mountains or jungles, to the milder neighbourhood of the hyæna and the tiger."

5. Such were the people with whom Hastings had to contend for the safety of the British dominions in India. Hearing that France had sent an envoy to form an alliance with them, our governor-general determined to strike a decisive blow before a French force could arrive. The first general sent by Hastings bungled and failed. A new commander was appointed who spread the military renown of the British through regions where no European flag had ever been seen. Captain Popham, in particular, gained great applause by his capture of the great rock-fortress of Gwalior—a feat which all had thought impossible. At dead of night he led his forces, their feet wrapped in cotton, to the foot of the fortress. By means of ladders they silently scaled a smooth wall of rock, sixteen feet high. Above, a steep ascent of forty yards was climbed. A few of the sepoys were then drawn up a wall thirty feet high by ropes let down by some spies, and on being joined by their comrades, rushed forward and overpowered the sleeping garrison, thus gaining possession of the far-famed fortress.

6. Meanwhile our governor-general made all ready for the French. He knew that France had declared war (1778), and that a great French expedition was on the way. To Hastings' great delight there arrived from England, to take the chief command of the forces, Sir Eyre Coote, the hero of Wandewash, and the idol of the sepoys who had fought under him. An incident is mentioned by an English officer, half a century later, which shows the high honour in which Coote was held by the native soldiers. One of his veterans came to the officer who tells the story to present a memorial. Seeing a print of Coote hanging in the room, he at once recognised the face and figure which he had not seen for fifty years, and, forgetting his salute to the living, halted, drew himself up, lifted his hand, and made a solemn bow to the dead.

7. Coote's services were soon required after his arrival at Calcutta. A swift ship flying before the south-west monsoon brought the news that a great army of 90,000 men, under the direction of French officers, had poured down through the wild passes that led from the table-land of Mysore to the plains of the Carnatic. They had swept down under the command of Hyder Ali, a soldier of fortune, who had raised himself to the throne of Mysore, and who now sought, with the help of the French and the Mahrattas, to drive the British out of India. His squadrons had burst upon the Carnatic like a furious storm, spreading desolation and ruin far and wide, routing the small British force that stood in their way, and driving all before them up to the gates of Madras.

8. Such was the state of things in Southern India when Sir Eyre Coote arrived from Calcutta with all the troops that the governor-general could collect. He happily reached Madras before the expected French fleet appeared in the Indian seas. Without an hour's delay Coote sought the enemy, and brought him to battle at Porto Novo, a haven some forty miles south of Pondicherry. Though he could only muster nine thousand men to oppose a force ten times as numerous, yet after six hours of conflict the enemy fled in dismay. Every town on the coast under French rule was seized at once, so that when the French fleet arrived it found no port where it could refit. Its nearest station was in the Mauritius, two thousand miles away.

9. Many forgotten battles, with varying fortune, were fought in the five years that followed this great victory; but by 1783 the war had burnt itself out, leaving the Carnatic a scene of desolation. In Bengal, however, our governor-general had been able to maintain peace and to insure to the natives the fruits of their labours. "Under the nawabs," says Macaulay, "the hurricane of Mahratta cavalry had passed annually over the rich plain of the Ganges. But even the Mahratta shrank from a conflict with the mighty children of the sea; and the rich harvests of the Lower Ganges were safely gathered in under the protection of the English sword." One homely instance may be given of the general security felt by the poor natives under British rule. "A good rain this for the bread," said one Indian peasant to another. "Yes," was the reply, "and a good government under which one may eat bread in safety."

10. In all his schemes for the success of his rule and the honour of his country, Hastings was constantly thwarted by a member of the Supreme Council, named Francis. The quarrel between them at last, according to the custom of those days, led to a duel. In this duel, we get a glimpse of the calm courage and high spirit of the man, who was as a pillar on which rested the whole fabric of our rule in India. The seconds in the duel had taken the precaution to bake the powder for their respective friends, nevertheless, Francis' pistol missed fire. Hastings obligingly waited until he had reprimed. This time the pistol went off, but the shot flew wide of the mark. Then Hastings coolly returned the shot, and the bullet entered the right side of his foe. As soon as he was well enough to travel Francis went home to England, and poisoned men's minds against him.

11. Hastings, indeed, had laid himself open to attack in his schemes for raising money to pay his troops. The means he adopted for this purpose has left a stain on his name, and an uncomfortable feeling upon the minds of his countrymen that our empire in India has not always been built on honourable lines. On Hastings' return to England he was brought to trial for the wrongs he had committed in the course of his government. The fact was clearly brought out at his trial that, whatever his measures for obtaining money, he had taken them with the object, not of enriching self, but of promoting the interests of his country. After the trial had drawn its weary length over a period of seven years, the accused was acquitted. The nation had by this time forgotten his faults and remembered only his great services, whereby he had preserved Britain from loss in the East whilst her fortunes underwent eclipse in the West.

1. The triumphs in the Seven Years' War had not been won without great cost. A long score had been run up by the nation, and to pay the interest on the National Debt heavy taxes had to be borne. If the money spent in the last war was not to be thrown away, it was necessary to spend still more in order to defend what British arms had won. The American colonies, also, were constantly exposed to Indian raids, and the savage use of the scalping-knife. It was, accordingly resolved by the British Government to keep a standing army in America of ten thousand men. And for the maintenance of such an army it was only just that the colonists should contribute.

2. A dispute now arose between the colonists and the Home Government, not about the amount which the former should pay, but upon the way in which the demand for payment was made. The British Parliament asserted its right to tax the colonists and insisted on levying a tax on tea. The colonists urged that they should be left free to tax themselves in their own colonial parliaments. "We will not allow," said they, "the British Parliament to thrust their hands into our pockets." The dispute ended in war. The thirteen American colonies banded together, and declared themselves free and independent states (1776).

3. In the war that followed the colonists gained the day. They owed their success, in no small measure, to George Washington, their Commander-in-chief. It was only as the weary fight went on that his countrymen learnt, little by little, the greatness of their leader—his silence under difficulties, his calmness in the hour of danger or defeat, the patience with which he waited for an opportunity, the quickness and vigour with which he struck home when it came.

4. But success was due still more to the help the colonists received from France and Spain. These two powers had been brought to their knees in the Seven Years' War, and now they resolved to take advantage of the family quarrel between Britain and her colonies to pay off old scores: "to avenge," as they said, "old injuries, and to put an end to that tyrannical empire which England has usurped, and claims to maintain, upon the ocean." The main object the French had in view was not, as we might suppose, the reconquest of Canada, but the transfer to herself of the British possessions in the West Indies. Spain's heart was set on the recovery of Gibraltar. Both nations made a solemn vow to grant neither peace nor truce until Gibraltar had fallen.

5. Spain set about the siege of Gibraltar the moment she had declared war (1779). The difficulty on our side was not to keep the enemy from landing, but to keep the garrison supplied with provisions and ammunition. Our fleets, however, proved equal to the task. They were led to victory by Admiral Rodney, one of the greatest of English seamen. He not only escorted his own provision ships into the harbour of Gibraltar, but on the way captured a Spanish squadron of seven ships-of-war and sixteen supply ships, which were added to his own for the victualling of Gibraltar. A week later, when off Cape St. Vincent, Rodney espied a Spanish fleet of eleven sail-of-the-line, gave chase, and cutting in between the enemy and his port, captured the Commander-in-chief, with six of his battle-ships, whilst a seventh was blown up.

6. The siege went on for three years. At last the allies, in September, 1782, resolved to bend all their energies to finish off the work. On the isthmus, joining the rock to the mainland, they planted 300 pieces of artillery, and in front of the rock ten floating batteries, which were supposed to be both shot and fire proof. War-ships, gun-boats, and bomb-vessels were to lend their aid. Thousands of French soldiers were brought to reinforce the Spaniards, all held in readiness for a grand assault as soon as the guns had made a breach large enough for troops to enter.

7. For four days the guns on the isthmus bombarded the fortress in vain. Then the floating-batteries were brought into action. A furious cannonade raged for hours between the batteries afloat and the batteries on the rock. General Eliott, who was in command of the fortress, served his guns with red-hot balls, and at last, in spite of the enemy's frantic efforts to extinguish the fire, one of the batteries was well ablaze, and soon the same fate overtook the others. In the end, nine of the ten blew up, and about two thousand poor fellows were blown into the sea. Our commander then showed that he was as humane as he was brave. The British guns ceased firing, and boats, rowed by willing British hands, rescued four hundred from death. Thus ended the last attempt to take Gibraltar by storm.

8. A few months before her triumph at Gibraltar, Britain won a signal victory over the French in the West Indies. A French fleet, under Admiral De Grasse, consisting of thirty-six war-ships, with five thousand troops on board, was ordered to join a Spanish fleet of fourteen men-of-war, carrying eight thousand troops, off Hayti, and then clear the British out of Jamaica and all their West India possessions. Had the junction taken place, the combined armada of fifty ships might have accomplished the task. But the scheme came to nought in consequence of a splendid victory over the French fleet by Admiral Rodney.

9. The battle was fought in April, 1782, near a group of islets called the Saints, which gives its name to the battle. For four days the two fleets manoeuvred, circling round each other like two birds of prey on the wing, each admiral trying to place his antagonist at a disadvantage. At last Rodney's chance had come. The signal was given for attack. The British fleet glided on, each ship a cable's length, or about two hundred yards, from her neighbour; and so perfect was the line, we are told, "that a bucket dropped from the leading ship might have been picked up by almost any ship that followed." Rodney drew his ships within musket-shot of the enemy's, and then began a cannonade that soon wrapped the two lines in smoke and flame through their whole length. All the time the ships are in movement, the two lines sailing in opposite directions, and pouring in their shot as ship passes ship.

10. At length the crisis has come. One of the French ships is disabled and leaves a gap between itself and the next. Rodney immediately pushes his ship through the gap, thus breaking the French line. In breaking the line, says an eye-witness, "we passed so near the lame French ship that I could see the gunners throwing away their sponges and hand-spikes in order to save themselves by running below." The captains coming next to the admiral follow him through the fatal gap, thus crumpling up the French centre, and placing the French flag-ship and six others between two fires.

11. De Grasse fought his flag-ship like a gallant sailor. She was the finest ship afloat carrying 106 guns and a crew of 1300 men. In vain he signalled for help. The ships that had formed his van and his rear were flying in opposite directions. The British ships, one after another, drew round the doomed ship. When his cartridges were exhausted, De Grasse ordered powder barrels to be hoisted from the hold, and loose powder to be poured into the guns with a ladle. By sunset there were but three unwounded men on the upper deck. More slain or wounded men lay around her guns than in Rodney's whole fleet. At six o'clock, the unfortunate admiral, with his own hands, hauled down his flag.

12. Six ships fell to the British, but one caught fire and burned to the water's edge, while three were so mauled that they foundered before reaching port. The battle of Saints is famous for the skilful tactics of the victor and for the important results of the victory. Combined with the successful defence of Gibraltar, it induced the allies to bring the war to a close by the Treaty of Versailles (1783). By this treaty the independence of the United States was acknowledged. But beyond the loss of her American colonies, Britain had weathered the storm with little damage to herself.

13. The forcible separation, however, between the mother-country and her colonies bequeathed for many generations a feeling of bitterness between the two nations. But a better day has now dawned. A new bond of sympathy has arisen between them as two branches of the same Anglo-Saxon race. They are divided by a wide ocean, but at critical times it has been plainly proved that "blood is thicker than water." A voice has passed across the ocean from either side, and this is the message it tells:—

                                        "Kinsmen, hail!
    We severed have been too long:
Now let us have done with a worn-out tale,
    The tale of an ancient wrong,
And our friendship last long as Love doth last,
    And be stronger than death is strong."

1. Britain had now lost her chief colonies in the New World, but a newer world was waiting for her to occupy. This newer world was Australia, whose existence was not known until fifty years after Columbus made his famous discovery. The first to get a glimpse of Australia were the Dutch, who called it New Holland; but they only touched on its northern and western coasts, and knew nothing of the extent and character of the interior. To a Dutchman also, named Tasman, is due the honour of having first lighted on New Zealand and Tasmania, but he did little or nothing in exploring these lands and mapping out their coasts. It was reserved for an Englishman, the famous Captain Cook, to explore the coasts and definitely fix the situation of those southern lands that now form so important a part of King Edward's Realm.

2. This celebrated explorer was the son of a day-labourer in Yorkshire, and, when a boy of six or seven, was set to work at bird-scaring on a farm. The farmer's wife, taking an interest in the lad, taught him to read and write, which few poor boys in his days were able to do. A year or two later we find him ship-boy to a collier. Whilst serving as a sailor before the mast, James Cook did what was seldom done by men in his position, he went on with his learning, and mastered the rules of navigation and the mode of making charts. For thirteen years he went on learning his business as a mariner, and training himself to take things as they came and to look on hardships and coarse or scanty fare as matters of no account in a seaman's life.

3. On the outbreak of the Seven Years' War Cook's chance came to him. He entered the royal navy, and by his talents attracted the notice of his captain and was appointed "master" of the Mercury. Whilst holding this post he was sent to the St. Lawrence to prepare for Wolfe's expedition to Quebec, by taking soundings of the river and laying down a chart. So well was this work done that not only did the fleet reach Quebec without a mishap, but the work has needed but little re-doing from that day to this. This service to his country was not forgotten; and when it was resolved to send an exploring expedition to the Southern Ocean, James Cook was placed in command.

4. Between 1768 and 1779, Captain Cook made three voyages of discovery from end to end of the great Pacific Ocean, from the impassable barrier of ice in the south to that in the north. During that time he did more to fill up the blanks on the map of the world than any man before or since. In his first voyage Captain Cook set sail in the Endeavour—a mere collier of 370 tons, but stout and strong, built for safety rather than speed, and worked by a crew of eighty-five men. The explorer made direct for Tahiti, and after refitting his ship and refreshing his men at this earthly Paradise set sail for New Zealand.

5. Though discovered long ago by Tasman, no white man had yet set foot on it. During his three voyages Cook thoroughly explored and mapped out its coasts. He often landed and made the acquaintance of some of the chiefs. The natives, who called themselves Maoris, proved to be a warlike race of cannibals, who not only ate human flesh, but boasted of the practice. The natives derived much benefit from the visits of the explorer; for he introduced many useful animals and plants, including pigs, fowls, potatoes, and turnips.

6. The captain in his Journal tells us that the Maoris paid no attention to musketry fire unless actually struck, but "great guns they did, because they threw stones further than they could comprehend. After they found that our arms were so superior to theirs, and that we took no advantage of that superiority, and a little time was given them to reflect upon it, they ever after were our good friends." He also found in them a sense of honour which kept them true to any bargain or agreement they had made.

7. The great explorer next sailed for Australia, then almost an unknown land. Cook was the first to visit the East Coast, which he explored with great care. The first point of Australia seen by his look-out man was Cape Howe, in the south-east corner of the country. A few days later the Endeavour anchored in Botany Bay, which owes its name to the great variety of new plants seen there.

8. The English made there their first acquaintance with the natives, who on seeing the strange vessel near the shore did not seem to take the slightest notice; "they were," says Cook, "to all appearance wholly unconcerned about us, though we were within half-a-mile of them." And even when the sailors threw among them little presents of beads and pieces of cloth, they regarded such things with indifference. The only thing they cared to accept was food, and this, when given them, they greedily devoured. They were neither excited to wonder by the ship nor overawed by the sound of its guns. They were evidently savages of a low order, not intelligent enough to be curious. They stood sullenly aloof, and would enter into no relation with the stranger.

9. For the next three or four months the explorer proceeded northwards, making a careful survey of the coasts. At one time it seemed likely that the ship and its crew would perish. After sailing 1300 miles along the East Coast without meeting with any accident, the Endeavour suddenly struck on a part of the Barrier Reef, whose existence at that time was unknown. A great hole was knocked in the vessel. A sail, with a quantity of wool and oakum lightly stitched to it, was placed beneath the ship with ropes, and served in some measure to stop the leak. The ship was at length got off the rock, brought to land and beached for repairs, at a spot in Queensland where now stands Cooktown.

10. Cook afterwards completed the survey of the East Coast and gave the name of New South Wales to the whole country, from Cape York to Cape Howe. Already at Botany Bay, and at other landing places, Cook had hoisted the British Flag, and now, before quitting Australia on his homeward way, he once more landed and took formal possession in the name of King George. Thus he added what turned out a whole continent to the British Empire, and that without sacrificing a single life in battle; and thus in great measure he made up for our loss in the New World by opening the door of a newer world which our people might enter and occupy.

1. In former times we used to get rid of our criminals by sending them across the seas to work, as forced labourers, on the farms of our colonists in America. But when the colonists rose in rebellion and fought for independence, they refused to take any longer our thieves and vagabonds. As the war went on our prisons became crowded with convicts, and by the time it came to an end (1783) every one saw that some other field for convict labour must be found.

2. An empty continent, whose whereabouts Captain Cook had made known, was waiting to receive any who came from our shores; but it was situated on the opposite side of the globe, twelve thousand miles away. At length, in spite of the distance, Australia was selected as a suitable place for our convicts. And in May, 1787, the first convoy set sail. It carried nearly 800 convicts, with a guard of 200 marines, and was placed under the command of Captain Phillip, who had been appointed governor of the new settlement.

3. The voyage lasted eight months, and in January, 1788, the fleet arrived at Port Jackson, which struck the new-comers as "the finest harbour in the world." All being landed, governor Phillip gathered his subjects around him and made them a little speech, in which he tried to inspire the convicts with new hope, and to make them feel that their future fortune was in their own keeping. He also reminded the marines that after three years' service, they would be at liberty to settle there as colonists with free gifts of land for cultivation. The ships fired three salutes, and the rest of the day was spent as a holiday.

4. This was the last cheery time for many years to come in the lives of the settlers. Hard times lay before them. The first settlement was made on the site of Sydney. The task which lay before the governor was a gigantic one; roads to make, trees to fell, houses to build, crops to plant; and the men and women to help him in the work, for the most part idle and dishonest. Indeed, many of them, as the governor said, "dread punishment less than they fear labour." To add to his troubles, for the first two years a great drought, aided by a fiery sun, baked the soil till it became hard and sterile. The settlers had brought with them seeds and cattle as well as stores of provisions; but the seeds failed to grow, and the cattle broke loose and were lost in the "bush."

5. Within a few months the danger of starvation came so near that the whole colony was put on short rations. To the credit of the governor, in this time of distress, he threw his own private stock into the common store, and shared alike with the rest. To lessen the chance of starving, the governor sent a large party by sea to Norfolk Island, where the soil was less sterile, and more food could be obtained by fishing and fowling. There also it became necessary to collect all private stores of food, and to throw them into one common stock, and deal out a certain quantity daily to each person.

6. Happily the firm government and wise measures adopted in each settlement kept the wolf from the door until fresh supplies came from England. Governor Phillip having shared the privations of his men, and borne the heavy strain of his responsible post for nearly five years, returned home in December, 1792. Few men have been placed in a more difficult position for such a length of time, and none have brought to the fulfilment of such a thankless task as his more courage, devotion, and humanity. "The consideration alone," he says, "of doing a good work for my country could make amends for being surrounded by the most infamous of mankind." The name of Arthur Phillip deserves an honoured place on the roll of the founders of the British Empire.

7. Another convict settlement was soon afterwards made in Tasmania, or Van Diemen's Land, as it was then called. And here the worst characters were sent. As early as 1804 a batch of criminals was sent there from England, and a settlement made where Hobart now stands. Through mismanagement the young colony was brought to the verge of starvation. Luckily there were large herds of kangaroo in the island. The governor, being unable to feed his prisoners, permitted them to hunt the kangaroo for their food. In fact, at one time, there was little to eat but kangaroo flesh, and little to wear but kangaroo skins. Many of the convicts became fond of this hunter's life, and preferred the wild freedom of the "bush" to the restraints of convict life under the eye of the governor.

8. Fortunately, before many years had passed, free emigrants came "to try their luck," some to Australia, others to Tasmania, being tempted by the offer of free gifts of land, and the services of well-behaved convicts to help in farm-labour. The free colonists of Tasmania soon found themselves in evil plight. Many of the convicts assigned to them fled into the "bush," where they lived in gangs, as "bushrangers," on violence and robbery. The evil grew to such an extent that, at last, every homestead became the scene of terror and dismay. Nor was "bushranging" the only evil from which Tasmania's early colonists suffered. The native blacks were naturally cruel and crafty, and they had been goaded on to take revenge on the white strangers by the barbarous way in which they had been treated by the runaway convicts.

9. From this desperate state the colony was delivered by Colonel Arthur on his appointment as governor. To him Tasmania owes the foundation of its prosperity. He spared no pains to ascertain his duty and was as rigid as rock in doing it. Under his leadership the settlers banded together against the bushrangers, and defended their homesteads as soldiers in regular warfare. They loopholed their buildings, posted men as sentinels, and held themselves in readiness to fight, both by day and night. The governor rewarded the capture of any bushranger with a grant of land, and before the end of two years the whole gang was taken and executed.

10. Arthur's next care was to relieve the colony of the blacks, between whom and the whites a deadly feud existed. His desire was to collect all the natives and confine them to one district. He assembled all the settlers to aid his troops in driving the poor savages out of their haunts. He placed his men at intervals, so as to form a line stretching across the island, with orders to advance and either catch the blacks or coop them up in a corner of the island. After two months of marching, at an expense of £30,000, the whole operation resulted in the capture of a man and a boy. But kindness succeeded where force failed. They were persuaded by George Robinson, who had proved himself their friend, to withdraw to Flinders Island in Bass Strait. There, to his grief, they rapidly dwindled, and in the course of a few years became extinct.

11. Both natives and convicts have long disappeared from Tasmania, and the colonist can now live there in peace and quietness, in a land of natural beauty with an agreeable climate. It is not a country where a fortune can be rapidly made, but where food is plentiful and labour well paid.

1. The chief source of wealth in Australia is, and always has been, its excellent wool. The founder of the wool industry was Captain McArthur, whose quick eye saw from the first that the country was best adapted to sheep-farming. He also saw that the value of sheep in this far-away country, with its scanty population, would depend upon their wool rather than their flesh. He accordingly introduced some Spanish merino sheep, and succeeded in producing a breed of animals that thrived well on the grasses of the country and grew wool of the finest quality. MacArthur, therefore, is entitled to the credit of having laid the foundation of Australian prosperity. With the same stroke of business, he did a great service to the mother-country. The war then raging with France and Spain—just before their defeat at Trafalgar—had cut off from English looms the supplies of Spanish wool on which they had hitherto relied. Thus the colony that had been chiefly valued by the Home Government as a dumping-ground for criminals, rose high in their estimation as a country to which our woollen manufacturers would be able to turn for their much-needed wool.