Before the Navigation Acts (page 104), by which England sought to compel all her colonists to trade with her alone, the Dutch were good customers for Barbados sugar; after that, English merchants having a monopoly of the traffic, the planters had much reason to complain. Nevertheless, the majority were stanch Tories, and remained so throughout the Revolutionary war. Many Barbadians settled from time to time upon the mainland, particularly in the Carolinas. We have seen that Sir John Yeamans, a Barbados planter, led several hundred of his fellow-islanders thither (1664), and founded a town on Cape Fear river (page 89).
St. Vincent, a hundred miles west of Barbados, although discovered by Columbus in 1498 was unclaimed until 1627, when it was granted to the Earl of Carlisle by Charles I., along with others of the Windward group. In 1722, the Duke of Montagu came into possession of it; and then immigrants were introduced, who exported sugar, rum, molasses, and arrowroot.
St. Lucia was settled by the English in 1639; its ownership was long passed back and forth by France and England, but in 1794 the latter secured permanent possession. The English flag was raised over Tobago in 1580, but the island was alternately held by English and Dutch until 1814, since which date the proprietorship of the former has been undisputed. Grenada and the Grenadines, colonized by the French, first came into English possession under the treaty of 1763. Trinidad, the southernmost of the chain of islands and one of the most valuable, was occupied by the Spanish until 1797, when it was yielded up to Great Britain, under show of force; to-day it is one of the most progressive of the smaller English dependencies.
Upon the Leeward, or northern, islands of the Caribbean group are the colonies of Antigua, Montserrat, St. Christopher (St. Kitts), Nevis, Dominica, and the Virgin Islands. Antigua, the seat of the present colonial government, is the most important. English families settled there in 1632, and again in 1663. Ravaged by France three years later (1666), it was soon after restored to the English under the treaty of Breda. Montserrat, the healthiest |Changes in ownership.| island in the West Indies, was also colonized by the English in 1632, and remained in their possession except for two brief terms (1664-1668 and 1782-1784), when the French were in control. St. Christopher and Nevis form a united English colony which traces its history back to 1628. Dutch buccaneers intrenched themselves on the rocky islets of the Virgin group as early as 1648, but were driven out by English pirates in 1666, since which date the archipelago has been the property of Great Britain; a better class of settlers came in with the eighteenth century. Dominica, the largest of the Leeward Isles, was included in Carlisle's patent (1627); but the French were already in possession, living on friendly terms with the native Caribs, just as their compatriots in New France were with the more warlike Algonkins. Ceded by France to England in 1763, Dominica was several times recaptured, and not finally relinquished to the latter until 1814.
101. Bermudas (1609-1750) and Bahamas (1522-1783).
The fertile Bermudas, or Somers's Islands,—"still vex'd Bermoothes" of Shakespeare,—lie about six hundred miles east of South Carolina. They bear the names of two navigators who were cast away upon them,—Juan Bermudez, a Spaniard (1522), and an Englishman, Sir George Somers (1609); the latter being on his way to Virginia to administer the affairs of that colony. Somers founded the first settlement.
Under the third patent to the Virginia Company in 1612 (page 72), the Bermudas and all islands within three hundred leagues of the Virginia shore were ceded to that corporation. Except Nova Scotia, therefore, the Bermudas are the only present English colony which ever formed an integral part of any of the present States or Territories of the United States. The Virginia Company afterwards (1616) parted with its right to the Bermuda Company, which carried thither a considerable company of Virginians. During the Commonwealth, the Bermudas, like Barbados, were a refuge for royalists from England. Representative government, similar to that of the mainland colonies, was established in 1620, and has been ever since maintained. Tobacco was the staple of the colony until about 1707, when a salt-making industry sprang up and soon became the chief interest.
The Bermudas were from the earliest times recognized as an important marine station. During the Revolutionary war Washington wrote: "Let us annex the Bermudas, and thus possess a nest of hornets to annoy the British trade." But the place was undisturbed, and remained loyal to the king.
The first American soil trod by Columbus was an island in the fruitful Bahama group. "This country," he wrote, "excels all others as far as the day surpasses the night in splendor." The natives were numerous; "their conversation is the sweetest imaginable; their faces always smiling; and so gentle and so affectionate are they that I swear to your highness there is not a better people in the world." Yet (commencing in 1509) the Spaniards almost depopulated the islands; forty thousand of these innocent aborigines were carried away to a wretched death in the mines of Cuba.
In 1629, an English colony was planted on New Providence, in the then deserted archipelago. But the French and Spanish persisted in harrying the settlement, which was frequently the scene of stormy conflicts. At last, in 1718, the English government drove out the pirates who had come to resort there in great numbers, resettled the islands, and an era of progress opened.
During the Revolutionary war many wealthy Tories went from the continental colonies to the Bahamas and opened up large plantations, with slave labor. The colony was captured by the Americans (1776),—the only conquest of British territory during the Revolution, except the Canadian campaign of 1775 and the occupation of the Northwest by Virginia troops in 1778. The Spanish took it in 1782, but it was soon retaken by the English (1783). Three quarters of a century later the islands became famous as the point of departure for blockade-runners bound into Confederate ports.
102. Jamaica (1655-1750).
Jamaica was under Spanish control until 1655, when an English fleet under Admirals Penn and Venables—the former, father of the founder of Pennsylvania—compelled the surrender of the island to the Commonwealth. The opposition of the Spanish planters and their negro slaves—the latter were called Maroons—long made English government difficult; the Spaniards were finally driven off, but the Maroons, fleeing to the mountains, were troublesome until the close of the eighteenth century. Much annoyance was also suffered in the seventeenth century from the buccaneers, who infested the Jamaica coast and preyed indiscriminately on all West Indian commerce; they were suppressed with great difficulty. In 1728, English laws and statutes became applicable to the island.
Like other islands in the West Indies, Jamaica was resorted to by many Tory planters from the continental colonies, and apparently had no sympathy with the struggle of the latter for independence. It was a colony having a large slave population, and after the separation of the continental colonies became, to some degree, a competitor with them. The abolition of slavery in the island (1830-1837) had a great influence on the slavery conflict in the United States.
103. British Honduras (1600-1798).
Belize, or British Honduras, on the eastern shore of the Yucatan peninsula, was not occupied by Englishmen until after the suppression of freebooting in the Spanish main,—about the opening of the eighteenth century. At that time parties of English dyewood and mahogany cutters, many of whom had been pirates, established themselves at Belize. Their holdings were frequently beset by rival Spanish logging companies, but in 1798 the latter were expelled.
Since that day Belize has existed as a prosperous Crown colony, although England's legal right to the country is still questioned by some authorities, and in 1846 this fact gave rise to serious diplomatic difficulties with the United States.
104. Newfoundland (1497-1783).
Newfoundland is the oldest of the colonial possessions of Great Britain. We have seen (page 25) that John Cabot discovered it in 1497, that Cortereal was there for the Portuguese in 1500, and that by 1504 fishermen from Normandy, Brittany, and the Basque provinces were regularly engaged on its shores. It was the nucleus for both French and English occupation of the mainland, and from the first an important fishery station.
Not until 1583 did the English take formal possession, and it was much later before any of their numerous colonizing schemes attained any great measure of success.
By the treaty of Utrecht (1713) Newfoundland was acknowledged as English territory, but the French were given fishing privileges on the western and northern coasts. This led to diplomatic contentions, |Growth of the colony.| not yet ended; nevertheless settlement at once increased, and a satisfactory growth has since been maintained. In 1728, a form of civil government was for the first time established.
During the American Revolution Newfoundland had sufficient inducement to remain loyal; since French and American competitors in the fisheries were kept out by British fleets, her merchants had a monopoly of the European markets, and were enabled to maintain high prices.
105. Nova Scotia, Acadia (1497-1755).
First visited by the Cabots in 1497, it was not until 1604 that European colonization was attempted in Nova Scotia, under the Frenchman De Monts (page 35). In 1613, the Virginia privateer, Argall, basing his excuse on Cabot's previous discovery, swooped down on the French settlements, demolished the cabins, and expelled the inhabitants. A grant of the peninsula—called Acadia by the French, but in this document styled Nova Scotia by the king—was made by James I. to Sir William Alexander; the latter was, however, prevented by the French (1623) from carrying out his colonizing scheme. Nevertheless, several Englishmen and Scotchmen came into the country and mingled with the French, who were slowly re-populating it.
Recaptured by an English force in 1654, Nova Scotia was, thirteen years later (1667), ceded to France. But the ease of communication by water made the colony an uncomfortably close neighbor for the English colonies farther south. In 1710 the Massachusetts men captured Port Royal; and in 1713 France relinquished possession to England by the treaty of Utrecht. Again in 1745, Massachusetts volunteers captured Louisbourg on Cape Breton (§§ 111, 112).
England paid little attention to Nova Scotia until 1749, when four thousand emigrants were sent over to found Halifax. The French settlers, known as Acadians, had meanwhile become numerous, and greatly abused their privileges as neutrals by fostering and joining Indian war-parties against the New England settlers. In 1755, the Acadians were easily reduced by General Monkton, and seven thousand transported to the British provinces southward, many of them finally drifting to the French settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi.
A colonial constitution of the regulation English pattern was granted to Nova Scotia in 1758, and France formally released her claim by the treaty of 1763. At the same time Cape Breton, which had been a second time captured (1758), was added. The Englishmen in Nova Scotia were largely of the official and trading class, having little in common with their neighbors of the more southern colonies. In the Revolution several thousand loyalist refugees found an asylum in the peninsula.
For the remaining French colony, Canada, special treatment will be necessary.
106. Hudson's Bay Company.
The Hudson's Bay Company, from the time it was chartered by Charles II. (1670) until its lands were sold to the British Government (1869), was a joint-stock association, with exclusive commercial and political privileges, very similar to the Company of Massachusetts Bay. To-day it trades as a private corporation; its former territory—the lands draining into Hudson's Bay—is now open to all on equal terms.
Fur-trade factories, protected by strong forts, were early planted by the company at the mouths of several sub-arctic rivers, such as the Rupert, Moore, Albany, Nelson, and Churchill, the only inhabitants being the small garrisons and the company's trading servants. Several expeditions were successively made to Hudson's Bay by French war vessels; much devastation was wrought and blood spilled, until in 1697 the treaty of Ryswick put an end to the trouble, and left the company in undisputed possession. It had lost more than £200,000 in this predatory warfare, but soon regained its position, through the profits of the fur-trade.
After the fall of New France (1763), the Hudson's Bay Company met formidable rivals in the enterprising Northwest and American organizations; the story of the fierce competition which ensued, with its effect on American settlement and international boundaries, belongs to the period covered by other volumes of this series.
From the foregoing sketch it will be seen that for all the American colonies to the south of Georgia the English were obliged to fight a changeful battle with the Spaniards and the French. It was not till after the Revolutionary war that the permanent ownership of the islands was assured to Great Britain. A similar struggle, though briefer and sooner concluded, went on for the possession of the colonies north of Maine. But twelve years before the Revolution the last of them had been yielded to the British. In Nova Scotia, and later in Canada, English residents were not numerous till the beginning of the nineteenth century. In Newfoundland and Hudson's Bay, in colonial times, the settlers were English, but in numbers they were few.
CHAPTER XII.
THE COLONIZATION OF NEW FRANCE (1608-1750).
107. References.
Bibliographies.—Thwaites, Jesuit Relations, LXXI. 219-365, and France in America, ch. xix.; H. Biggar, Early Trading Companies, 171-296; Larned, Literature of American History, 395-421; Avery, II. 403-408, III. 436, 437; P. Gagnon, Essai de bibliographie canadienne; H. Harrisse, Notes pour servir à l'histoire du Canada. Consult also Wrong and Langton, Review of Historical Publications relating to Canada (published annually).
Historical Maps.—No. 4, this volume (Epoch Maps, No. 4); also maps in Parkman, Thwaites, Winsor, and MacCoun.
General Accounts.—Lucas, Historical Geography, V. The standard English history of Canada is by W. Kingsford. The principal French historians are M. Faillon, J. Ferland, F. Garnier (English translation by Bell), and B. Sulte. The prime authority for New France is Parkman's series (12 vols., condensed into one by P. Edgar, 1902), France and England in North America. Briefer and more recent treatment of New France will be found in Works by Bourinot, Douglas, Greswell, Laut, Roberts, Thwaites, and Tracy.
Special Histories.—Winsor, Cartier to Frontenac, and Mississippi Basin; Biggar, as above; Doughty and Dionne, Quebec under Two Flags; G. Parker, Old Quebec; Laut, Pathfinders of the West; F. Ogg, Opening of the Mississippi; C. Moore, Northwest under Two Flags; W. Munro, Seignorial System in Canada; Bourinot, Local Government in Canada.—French and Indian War: Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe; A. Bradley, Fight with France for North America; W. Wood, Fight for Canada; A. Doughty, Siege of Quebec.—French in Northwest: Hinsdale, Old Northwest, chs. iii.-v.; Thwaites, Wisconsin (Commonwealths).—Manners and customs: C. Colby, Canadian Types of the Old Regime (1608-1698); Dunn's Indiana (Commonwealths), chs. ii., iii. for the Northwest; M. Pepper, Maids and Matrons of New France; Machar and Marquis, Stories of New France. See also biographies of prominent men.
Contemporary Accounts.—For detailed list, consult Thwaites, France in America, 298-303. Numerous publications of Canadian and American historical and antiquarian societies (especially the Champlain Society) contain useful material. Relative to the Northwest, see Wisconsin Historical Collections, XVI-XVIII.
108. Settlement of Canada (1608-1629).
The story of early French efforts at colonization in North America, from Cartier's visit (1534) to Champlain's foundation of Quebec (1608), the first permanent French colony in Canada, has already been told (Chapter II.).
It was unfortunate for New France that Champlain incurred at the outset the hostility of the Iroquois (page 196); the French and the Algonquians with whom they maintained friendly relations were long after sorely afflicted by them. Had it not been for the Iroquois wall interposed between Champlain and the South, the French would doubtless have preceded the English upon the Atlantic plain. The presence of this opposition led the founder of New France, in his attempts to extend the sphere of French influence, to explore along the line of least resistance, to the north and west.
In 1611, Montreal was planted at the first rapids in the St. Lawrence, and near the mouths of the Ottawa and Richelieu. Four years later (1615), Champlain reached Lake Huron by the way of the Ottawa. There were easier highways to the Northwest, but the French were compelled for many years thereafter to take this path, because of its greater security from the all-devouring Iroquois.
To extend the sphere of French influence and the Catholic religion, as well as to induce the savages to patronize French commerce, were objects which inspired both lay and clerical followers of Champlain. Their |Explorers and coureurs de bois.| wonderful zeal illumined the history of New France with a poetic glamour such as is cast over no other part of America north of Mexico. Under Champlain's guidance and inspired by his example, traders and priests soon penetrated to the far west,—the former bent on trafficking for peltries, and the latter on saving souls. Another large class of rovers, styled coureurs de bois, or wood-rangers, wandered far and wide, visiting and fraternizing with remote tribes of Indians; they were attracted by the love of lawless adventure, and conducted an extensive but illicit fur-trade. Many of these explorers left no record of their journeys, hence it is now impossible to say who first made some of the most important geographical discoveries.
109. Exploration of the Northwest (1629-1699).
We know that by 1629, the year before the planting of the Massachusetts Bay colony, Champlain saw an ingot of copper obtained by barter with Indians from the shores of Lake Superior. In 1634, Jean Nicolet, another emissary from Champlain, penetrated to central Wisconsin, by way of the Fox River, and thence went overland to the Illinois country, making trading agreements with the savage tribes along his path. Seven years afterwards (1641), Jesuit priests said mass before two thousand naked savages at Sault Ste. Marie. In the winter of 1658-1659, two French fur-traders, Radisson and Grosseilliers, imbued with a desire "to travell and see countreys" and "to be knowne with the remotest people," visited Wisconsin, probably saw the Mississippi, and built a log fort on Chequamegon Bay of Lake Superior. During 1662 they discovered James's Bay to the far northeast, and became impressed with the fur-trading capabilities of the Hudson's Bay region. Not receiving French support in their enterprise, they sold their services to England. On the strength of their discoveries, the Hudson's Bay Company was organized (1670). Saint-Lusson took formal possession of the Northwest for the French king, at Sault Ste. Marie, in 1671. Two years later (1673), Joliet and Marquette made their now famous trip over the Fox-Wisconsin waterway and rediscovered the Mississippi.
Champlain died at Quebec in 1635, having extended the trade and domination of France westward to Wisconsin, by the Ottawa highway. It remained for the fur-trader, La Salle, one of the most brilliant of American explorers, to add the Mississippi valley to French territory (1679-1682), his route being up the Great Lakes and via the Chicago-Illinois portage. It was 1699 before a French settlement was planted in Louisiana (Old Biloxi), and 1718 before New Orleans was founded.
The central geographical fact to be remembered in connection with the history of New France is, that the St. Lawrence and the chain of Great Lakes which serve as its feeders furnish a natural highway to the heart of the continent (page 4).
It has been shown that the hostility of the Iroquois forced the French, in their earliest explorations westward, to take the northern, or indirect, route of the Ottawa River, and caused Huron to be the first great lake discovered; Ontario, Superior, and Michigan being next unveiled, in the order named. Erie, the last to be seen by whites, was known as early as 1640, but owing to Iroquois warriors blocking the way, was not navigated until 1669, except by coureurs de bois seeking the New York fur-markets. Thus Frenchmen were familiar with the sites of Sault Ste. Marie, Mackinaw, Ashland, Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, and Chicago before they had visited the site of Detroit (1669). But that place came to be recognized after its settlement (1701) as the most important strategic point in the western possessions of New France.
The difference between the character of the English and French colonies in North America was great. Englishmen were content to sow and reap in a plodding fashion, extending their territorial bounds no faster than their settlements needed room for growth. Their acquaintance with the Indians did not, with the exception of the New York and Southern fur-traders, extend beyond the tribes which touched their borders. They were possessed of remarkable vitality and a strong sense of political and commercial independence.
110. Social and Political Conditions.
The rigor of the Canadian winter, the shortness of the summer season, and persistent annoyance from the Iroquois, who at times had carried their warfare to the very walls of the settlements, combined to make the lot of the French farmer on the St. Lawrence far from prosperous. During many of its early years, New France largely depended for food upon supplies brought out from the mother-country. The fur-trader experienced but little more personal danger than the agriculturist who remained upon his narrow farmhold abutting on the St. Lawrence; while the fascination of the unbridled life of adventure led by the former, free from the restraints of church and society, was such as strongly appealed to young men of spirit. The trade of New France was farmed out to commercial companies and to favorites of the king and his autocratic colonial governors. Unlicensed traffic, such as was carried on by the coureurs de bois, was looked upon as akin to smuggling, and harsh laws were promulgated against it. Nevertheless the forests, far into the continental interior, were penetrated by gay adventurers conducting illicit barter with the red barbarians, while the agriculture of the colony languished. The river-systems of the English coast colonies did not easily conduct to the interior, but the far-reaching waterways of New France were a continual invitation.
Iroquois interests were bound up with the Dutch, and after them with the English. The better to improve their own position and to keep up prices, the Iroquois sought to prevent Algonquians of the upper lakes from trading with the Canadians. But French influence in the Northwest was nevertheless strong. Colonial officials cajoled the Indians and plied them with presents; while the wandering traders and their employees dwelt in comparative harmony with the red men, were adopted into many of the tribes, and married squaws, who reared in the forest villages an extensive half-breed progeny.
The disposition of the French Crown to interfere with the fur-trade and to repress all commercial initiative not emanating from privileged circles, was but an evidence of its general colonial policy. The colony on the St. Lawrence was made continually to feel the hand of the king. In contrast to the free town and county systems of the English, the people of New France had no voice in their government or in the appointment of their officials. Even in the most trivial affairs they looked to the Crown for action.
The country was governed much like a province in France. It was divided: (1) for judicial purposes, into districts, with a judge at the head of each, from whom there might be an appeal to the superior council. Within the districts were (2) seigniories, or great estates. The seignior held his land immediately from the king, and parcelled it out among his vassals, the habitants, or cultivators, who paid him a small rent, patronized his shops and mills, and owed him certain feudal obligations. Upon the estates were (3) parishes, in which the curé and the captain of militia were the chief personages. The only public duties exercised by the habitants were in connection with parish affairs, and then the initiative was taken at Quebec, where resided the central authority, vested in the governor, intendant, and council. In 1672, Frontenac attempted to set up in Canada an assembly of the three estates or orders; but Colbert, the king's prime minister, rebuked him, and gave directions for a gradual restriction of all privileges of representation. "It seems better that every one should speak for himself, and no one for all." The people were not permitted to think or act for themselves, and they did not covet the privilege. Without political training, they had no notion of what the English call political rights.
Had King Louis XIV. been a wise monarch, paternalism might not have been a disadvantage for a population of this sort. But the royal patronage of colonial enterprises was spasmodic, sometimes breaking out into extravagant aid, again remarkable for its penuriousness. There were several in the long roll of colonial governors who were men of commanding ability, and well fitted, under right conditions, to make of New France a success,—notably Champlain (1622-1635), Frontenac (1672-1682, and 1689-1698), and De Nonville (1685-1689). But the times and the material at hand were against them. Official corruption ran riot. From the monopolists, who were the present favorites of the king, down to the military commander of the most distant forest trading station, officials considered the public treasury and the resources of the colony as a source of individual profit. The priesthood held full sway; little was done without the sanction of the hierarchy. The missionaries of the faith won laurels for bravery, self-denial, and hardihood, under the most adverse circumstances. But the policy of the Church was too exclusive for the good of the colony. Huguenots, driven from France by persecution, were forbidden by the bishops to reside in Canada, and thus were compelled to contribute their brain and brawn to the upbuilding of the rival English settlements. Of all Frenchmen, these were the best adapted to the rearing of an industrial empire in the New World.
111. Intercolonial Wars (1628-1697).
In Champlain's time, while France was busy in crushing Protestant revolts at home, the settlements of Port Royal and Quebec, then wretched hamlets of a few dozen huts each, fell an easy prey to small English naval forces (1628-1629). For a few months France did not hold one foot of ground in North America. But as peace had been declared between France and England before this conquest, the former received back all its possessions, including Acadia (Nova Scotia) and the island of Cape Breton. The inevitable struggle for the mastery of the continent was postponed, and Frenchmen held Canada for four generations longer. By the close of the seventeenth century, men of New France were ranging at will over much of the country beyond the mountains, with visions of empire as extensive as the continent.
The French were not exploring and occupying the western country unwatched. English colonial statesmen understood from the first the import of the movement, and their alarm was frequently expressed in communications to the home government. While Charles II. was a pensioner of Louis XIV., the royal intendant in Canada expressed the situation clearly when he urged Louis (1666) to purchase New York, "whereby he would have two entrances to Canada, and by which he would give to the French all the peltries of the north, of which the English share the profit by the communication which they have with the Iroquois, by Manhattan and Orange." In 1687, Governor Dongan of New York warned the ministry at London: "If the French have all they pretend to have discovered in these parts, the king of England will not have a hundred miles from the sea anywhere."
With the accession of Protestant William and Mary (1689), the Palatinate war broke out between England and France, and at once spread to America, where it was styled King William's War. The French had at that time colonies in the undefined region of Acadia, on Cape Breton, and along the north bank of the St. Lawrence as far up as Montreal. There were a few small stockades scattered at long intervals through the Illinois country, upon the banks of the upper Mississippi, at Chequamegon Bay of Lake Superior, at Sault Ste. Marie, on the St. Joseph's River, and elsewhere; with here and there a lonely Jesuit mission, and the movable camps of coureurs de bois. Elsewhere, north and west of the Atlantic plain, the grim solitude was broken only by bands of red savages, who roved to and fro through the dark woodlands, intent on war or the chase.
The population of New France, in this wide region, was not, in 1690, more than twelve thousand, against one hundred thousand in New England and New York. Had it not been for the help of her Indian allies, the military strength of many of her more important stations, and the fighting qualities of her commanders, aided by division in the councils of the English colonists, New France would from the first have made a feeble defence against the overpowering resources of her southern neighbors.
King William's (or Frontenac's) War was costly to the colonists, and resulted in no material advantage to either side. The French, under Governor Frontenac, conducted their operations with vigor. Three winter expeditions, composed almost entirely of Indians, were sent out (1690) against the English frontier line, furiously attacking it at widely separated points,—New York, New Hampshire, and Maine. In consequence of the alarm created by these raids, the first colonial congress was held at New York (1690). A fleet commanded by Sir William Phipps (page 177), with eighteen hundred New England militiamen on board, captured Acadia and Port Royal that summer, but Acadia was retaken by the French the following season. During the five ensuing years fighting was confined to bushranging along the New York and New England border. The struggle was without further incident until Newfoundland yielded to the French (1696), and a party of French and Indians sacked the little village of Andover, Mass. (1697), but twenty-five miles out of Boston. Later in the year came the treaty of Ryswick, under which each belligerent recovered what he possessed at the outset of the war.
112. Frontier Wars (1702-1748).
After the treaty of Ryswick (1697) there was peace between England and France for five years. Then broke out what is known in America as Queen Anne's War (1702-1713), and in Europe as the War of the Spanish Succession. The war originated in Europe; but one of England's objects in the struggle was to prevent the French from obtaining too firm a foothold in America. Much the same military operations as in King William's War were undertaken by both of the American opponents.
Three attempts were made by New England troops to recapture Acadia (1704, 1707, and 1710), the last being successful. The peace of Utrecht (1713) recognized England's right to Acadia, "with its ancient boundaries," but it brought only nominal peace to the New York and New England colonists. Unfortunately the northern and western boundaries of Acadia were not therein fixed, and the country between the Kennebec and the St. Lawrence was in as much dispute as ever. Border settlers all along the line from the Hudson to the Kennebec were in hourly peril of their lives from Indian scalping-parties. There was abundant proof that the authorities of New France, instructed by the government at Paris, were actively inciting the red savages to forays for scalps and plunder. This fact tended greatly to embitter the relations between the rival white races, and led to measures of reprisal.
The irregular War of the Austrian Succession when it extended to America was known as King George's War (1744-1748). The principal event was the capture (1744) by New England troops of the strong fortress of Louisbourg, on the island of Cape Breton. Having achieved so heroic a victory almost single-handed, New Englanders considered themselves slighted by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), by which Louisbourg was surrendered to France, and in other respects the unfortunate state of affairs existing before the war was restored. Disappointment was openly expressed, and tended still further to strain the relations between the colonies and the mother-land.
113. Territorial Claims.
An attempt had been made at the convention at Aix-la-Chapelle to settle the boundary disputes in America by referring the matter to a commission. France now asserted her right to all countries drained by streams emptying into the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi. This allowed, the narrow strip of the Atlantic coast would alone have been left to English domination. It was asserted on behalf of Great Britain that the charters of her coast colonies carried their western bounds to the Pacific; further, that as by the treaty of Utrecht France had acknowledged the suzerainty of the British king over the Iroquois confederacy, the English were entitled to all lands "conquered" by those Indians, whose war-paths had extended from the Ottawa River on the north to the Carolinas on the south, and whose forays reached alike to the Mississippi and to New England. For three years the commissioners quarrelled at Paris over these conflicting claims; but the dispute was irreconcilable; the only arbitrament possible was by the sword.
Meanwhile both sides were preparing to occupy and hold the contested fields. New France already had a weak chain of water-side forts and commercial stations, the rendezvous of priests, fur-traders, travellers, and friendly Indians, extending, with long intervening stretches of savage-haunted wilderness, through the heart of the continent,—chiefly on the shores of the Great Lakes, and the banks of the principal river highways,—from Lower Canada to her outlying post of New Orleans. Around each of these frontier forts was a scattered farming community, the holdings being narrow fields reaching far back into the country from the water-front, with the neat log-cabins of the habitants nestled in close neighborhood upon the banks. In the summer the men, aided by their large families, tilled the ribbon-like patches in a desultory fashion, and in the winter assisted the fur-traders as oarsmen and pack-carriers. Many were married to squaws, and the younger portion of the population was to a large extent half-breed. They were a happy, contented people, without ambition beyond the day's enjoyment, combining with the light-heartedness of the French the improvidence of the savage.
From 1700 on, the conflict seemed inevitable. The French realized that they could not keep up connection between New Orleans and their settlements on the St. Lawrence if not permitted to hold the valley of the Ohio. Governor La Jonquière (1749-1752) understood the situation, and pleaded for the shipment of ten thousand French peasants to settle the region; but the government at Paris was just then as indifferent to New France as was King George to his colonies, and the settlers were not sent.
114. Effect of French Colonization.
Of the region in which were scattered the permanent French settlements, the southern shore of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi valley eventually became a part of the United States; although these settlements were few and small, the influence of French operations in the West, on the development of the English colonies, was far reaching. New France will always be renowned for the immense area held by a small European population. She was from the first hampered by serious drawbacks,—centralization, paternalism, official corruption, instability of system, religious exclusiveness, the fascination of the fur-trade, a deadly Indian foe, and an inhospitable climate,—the sum of which was in the end to destroy her (page 49). She expanded with mushroom growth, but was predestined to collapse. Yet more than any other part of North America, the French colonies in what is now Canada preserve the language and the customs of the time of their settlement.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE COLONIZATION OF GEORGIA (1732-1755).
115. References.
Bibliographies.—Avery, III. 438-440; Winsor, V. 392-406; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 103.
Historical Maps.—No. 4, this volume (Epoch Maps, No. 4), MacCoun, and school histories already cited.
General Accounts.—Avery, III. ch. xxiv.; Doyle, Colonies, V. ch. viii.; G. Bancroft, II. 268-291; Greene, Provincial America, ch. xv.; Hildreth, II. 362-377; Lodge, Colonies, ch. ix.; Winsor, V. ch. vi.; McCrady, South Carolina under Royal Government, chs. xi., xii.; W. Wilson, American People, II. 62-68; histories of Georgia by Jones, McCall, and Stevens.
Special Histories.—C. Jones, Dead Towns of Georgia; P. A. Strobel, Salzburgers; J. MacLean, Scotch Highlanders in America, ch. vi.; G. White, Historical Collections of Georgia; lives of Oglethorpe by Bruce, Cooper, Harris, and Wright.
Contemporary Accounts.—Oglethorpe, Account (1732); Martyn, Reasons for Establishing Georgia (1733); Account Showing Progress of Georgia (1741); Impartial Enquiry into State and Utility of Province of Georgia (1741); Cadogan, Impartial Account of Expedition against St. Augustine (1743); Moore, Voyage to Georgia (1744); Egmont, Journal of Trustees for Establishing Colony of Georgia; Candler, Colonial Records.
116. Settlement of Georgia (1732-1735).