We now come to sure ground when we follow La Salle's later explorations, on which his fame entirely rests. Frontenac entered heartily into his plans of following the Mississippi to its mouth, and setting at rest the doubts that existed as to its course. He received from the King a grant of Fort Frontenac and its surrounding lands as a seigniory. This fort had been built by the governor in 1673 at Cataraqui, now Kingston, as an advanced trading and defensive post on Lake Ontario. La Salle considered it a most advantageous position for carrying on his ambitious projects of exploration. He visited France in 1677 and received from the King letters-patent {186} authorising him to build forts south and west in that region "through which it would seem a passage to Mexico can be discovered." On his return to Canada he was accompanied by a Recollet friar, Father Louis Hennepin, and by Henry de Tonty, the son of an Italian resident of Paris, both of whom have associated their names with western exploration. Of all his friends and followers, Tonty, who had a copper hand in the place of the one blown off in an Italian war, was the most faithful and honest, through the varying fortunes of the explorer's career from this time forward. To Father Hennepin I refer in another place.

Both Hennepin and Tonty accompanied La Salle on his expedition of 1678 to the Niagara district, where, above the great falls, near the mouth of Cayuga Creek, he built the first vessel that ever ventured on the lakes, and which he named the "Griffin" in honour of Frontenac, whose coat-of-arms bore such a heraldic device. The loss of this vessel, while returning with a cargo of furs from Green Bay to Niagara, was a great blow to La Salle, who, from this time until his death, suffered many misfortunes which might well have discouraged one of less indomitable will and fixity of purpose. On the banks of the Illinois River, a little below the present city of Peoria, he built Fort Crevecoeur, probably as a memorial of a famous fort in the Netherlands, not long before captured by the French. While on a visit to Canada, this post was destroyed by some of his own men in the absence of Tonty, who had been left in charge. These men were subsequently captured not far from Cataraqui, and severely punished.

{187}

In the meantime, three Frenchmen, Father Hennepin, Michel Accaut, and one Du Gay, in obedience to La Salle's orders, had ventured to the upper waters of the Mississippi, and were made prisoners by a wandering tribe of Sioux. Not far from the falls of St. Anthony Father Hennepin met with the famous forest ranger, Duluth, who was better acquainted with the Sioux country than any other living Frenchman, and was forming ambitious designs to explore the whole western region beyond Lake Superior. Father Hennepin, who had been adopted by an aged Sioux chief, was free to follow Duluth back to the French post at the Straits of Mackinac. This adventure of Father Hennepin is famous in history, not on account of any discoveries he actually made, but on account of the claim he attempted to establish some years after his journey, of having followed the Mississippi to the Gulf. In the first edition of his book, printed in 1683—Description de la Louisiane—no such claim was ever suggested, and it was only in 1697 that the same work appeared in an enlarged form,—La Nouvelle Decouverte—crediting Hennepin with having descended the great river to its outlet. It is not necessary here to puncture a falsehood which was long ago exposed by historical writers. His history of having reached the Gulf of Mexico is as visionary as the traveller's tales of Norumbega. Indeed, he could not even claim a gift of fertile invention in this case, as the very account of his alleged discovery was obviously plagiarised from Father Membre's narrative of La Salle's voyage of 1682, which appears in Le Clercq's Premier Etablissement de la Foy.

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When La Salle was again able to venture into the west he found the villages of the Illinois only blackened heaps of ruins—sure evidence of the Iroquois having been on the warpath. During the winter of 1681 he remained at a post he had built on the banks of the St. Joseph in the Miami country, and heard no news of his faithful Tonty. It was not until the spring, whilst on his way to Canada for men and supplies, that he discovered his friend at Mackinac, after having passed through some critical experiences among the Iroquois, who, in conjunction with the Miamis, had destroyed the villages of the Illinois, and killed a number of those Indians with their customary ferocity. Tonty had finally found rest and security in a village of the Pottawattomies at the head of Green Bay.

On the 6th of February, 1682, La Salle passed down the swift current of the Mississippi on that memorable voyage which led him to the Gulf of Mexico. He was accompanied by Tonty, and Father Membre, one of the Recollet order, whom he always preferred to the Jesuits. The Indians of the expedition were Abenakis and Mohegans, who had left the far-off Atlantic coast and Acadian rivers, and wandered into the great west after the unsuccessful war in New England, which was waged by the Sachem Metacomet, better known as King Philip, and only ended with his death in 1676, and the destruction of many settlements in the colony of Plymouth.

They met with a kindly reception from the Indians encamped by the side of the river, and, for the first time, saw the villages of the Taensas and {189} Natchez, who were worshippers of the sun. At last on the 6th of April, La Salle, Tonty, and Dautray, went separately in canoes through the three channels of the Mississippi, and emerged on the bosom of the great Gulf. Not far from the mouth of the river where the ground was relatively high and dry, a column was raised with the inscription:

"Louis le Grand, roy de France et de Navarre, regne; le neuviesme Avril, 1682."

And La Salle took possession of the country with just such ceremonies as had distinguished a similar proceeding at Sault Ste. Marie eleven years before. It can be said that Frenchmen had at least fairly laid a basis for future empire from the Lakes to the Gulf. It was for France to show her appreciation of the enterprise of her sons and make good her claim to such a vast imperial domain. The future was to show that she was unequal to the task.

The few remaining years of La Salle's life were crowded with misfortunes. Duchesneau, the intendant, who had succeeded Talon, was an enemy of both Frontenac and the explorer. The distinguished governor was recalled by his royal master, who was tired of the constant complaints of his enemies against him, and misled by their accusations. La Barre, the incompetent governor who followed Frontenac, took possession of Fort St. Louis, which La Salle had succeeded, after his return from the Gulf of Mexico, in erecting at Starved Rock on the banks of the Illinois not far from the present city of Ottawa, where a large number of Indians had {190} returned to their favourite home. In France, however, the importance of his discovery was fully recognised, and when he visited his native country in 1683-4 he met with a very cordial reception from the King, and Seignelay, who had succeeded his father, Colbert, when he resigned. The King ordered that La Salle's forts be restored to him, and gave him a commission to found colonies in Louisiana, as the new country through which the Mississippi flowed had been called since 1682. By a strange irony of Fate, the expedition of 1684 passed the mouth of the Mississippi, and La Salle made the first French settlement on the Gulf somewhere in the vicinity of Matagorda Bay, in the present State of Texas. Misery was the lot of the little colony from the very first moment it landed on that lonely shore. When his misfortunes were most grievous, La Salle decided to make an effort to reach the Illinois country, but he was assassinated by two of his own men—-Duhaut and Liotot—near a branch of the Trinity River. His nephew Moranget, Nika, a faithful Shawnee who had been by his side for years, and Sayet, his own servant, suffered the same fate. The leader of the murderers was killed soon afterwards by one of his accomplices, and the others found a refuge among the Indians; but of their subsequent fate we know nothing positively, except that they were never brought to justice, if any one of them returned to Canada or France. The few Frenchmen remaining in Texas were either killed or captured by unfriendly Indians, before the Spaniards could reach the place to expel these intruders on their domain. La Salle {191} himself never found a burial place, for his body was left to wolves and birds of prey. His name has not been perpetuated in Louisiana, though it has been given to a county of Texas as well as to a city and county of Illinois, which was originally included in French Louisiana. The most noteworthy tribute to his memory has been paid by the historian Parkman, who has elevated him almost to the dignity of a hero. La Salle's indomitable energy, his remarkable courage in the face of disaster, his inflexibility of purpose under the most adverse circumstances, must be always fully recognised, but at the same time one may think that more tact and skill in managing men, more readiness to bend and conciliate, might have spared him much bitterness and trouble, and even saved his life at the end. That he did good service for France all will admit, though his achievement in reaching the Mississippi was rendered relatively easy after the preliminary expedition of Jolliet and Marquette.



[1] Mr. W. Wilfrid Campbell, F.R.S.C., a well-known English-Canadian poet, has translated for "The Story of Canada" these verses of his French contemporary Frechette.



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XIV.

CANADA AND ACADIA: FROM FRONTENAC TO THE TREATY OF UTRECHT.

(1672-1713.)

In the previous chapter I have shown the important part that the Count de Frontenac took in stimulating the enterprise of La Salle and other explorers, and it now remains for me to review those other features of the administration of that great governor, which more or less influenced the fortunes of the province committed to his charge.



A brave and bold soldier, a man of infinite resources in times of difficulty, as bold to conceive as he was quick to carry out a design, dignified and fascinating in his manner when it pleased him, arrogant and obstinate when others thwarted him, having a keen appreciation of the Indian character, selfish where his personal gain was concerned, and yet never losing sight of the substantial interests of France in America, the Count de Frontenac was able, for nineteen years, to administer the affairs of New France with remarkable ability, despite his {194} personal weaknesses, to stimulate and concentrate her energies and resources, and to make her when he died a power in America far beyond what her population or actual strength seemed to justify. The Iroquois learned at last to tremble at his name, and the Indian allies of Canada, from the Abenakis of Acadia to the Illinois of the West, could trust in his desire and ability to assist them against their ferocious enemy. As is the case with all great men, his faults and virtues have been equally exaggerated. The Recollets, whom he always favoured, could never speak too well of him, whilst the Jesuits, whom he distrusted, did all they could to tarnish his reputation.

It is not profitable or necessary in this story of Canada to dwell on the details of Frontenac's administration of public affairs during the first years of his regime (1672-1682), which were chiefly noted for the display of his faults of character—especially his obstinacy and impatience of all opposition. He was constantly at conflict with the bishop, who was always asserting the supremacy of his Church, with the intendant Duchesneau, who was simply a spy on his actions, with the Jesuits, whom he disliked and accused of even being interested in the sale of brandy, and with traders like Governor Perrot of Montreal who eventually found himself in the Bastile for a few days for having defied the edict of the King against the coureurs de bois who were under his influence and helped him in the fur trade.

The complaints against Frontenac from influential people in Canada at last became so numerous that {195} he was recalled to France in 1682. His successor, La Barre, proved himself thoroughly incapable. The interests of the province were seriously threatened at that time by the intention of the Iroquois to destroy the Illinois and divert the western traffic to the Dutch and English, whose carriers they wished to become. La Barre was well aware how much depended on the protection of the Illinois and the fidelity of the Indians on the lakes. La Hontan, a talkative but not always veracious writer, who was in Canada at this time, gives us an insight into the weakness of the governor, whose efforts to awe the Iroquois ended in an abortive expedition which was attacked by disease and did not get beyond La Famine, now Salmon River, in the Iroquois country. The famous "La Grande Gueule," or Big Mouth,—so called on account of his eloquence,—made a mockery of the French efforts to deceive him by a pretence of strength, and openly declared the intention of the Iroquois to destroy the Illinois, while La Barre dared not utter a defiant word in behalf of his allies. This incapable governor was soon recalled and the Marquis de Denonville, an officer of dragoons, sent in his place. One of the most notable incidents of the new administration was the capture of the fortified trading-posts belonging to the English Company of Hudson's Bay, by the Chevalier de Troyes and a number of Canadians from Montreal, among whom were the three famous sons of Charles Le Moyne, Iberville, Sainte-Helene, and Maricourt, the former of whom became ere long the most distinguished French Canadian of his time. The next {196} event of importance was the invasion of the country of the Senecas, and the destruction of their villages and stores of provisions. This was a most doubtful triumph, since it left the Senecas themselves unhurt. How ineffectual it was even to awe the Iroquois, was evident from the massacre of La Chine, near Montreal, in the August of 1689, when a large band fell upon the village during a stormy night, burned the houses, butchered two hundred men, women and children, and probably carried off at least one hundred and twenty prisoners before they left the island of Montreal, where the authorities and people seemed paralysed for the moment. The whole history of Canada has no more mournful story to tell than this massacre of this unhappy settlement by the side of the beautiful lake of St. Louis. The Iroquois had never forgiven the treachery of the governor during the winter of 1687, at Fort Frontenac, where he had seized a large number of friendly Indians of the Five Nations who had settled in the neutral villages of Kente (now Quinte) and Ganneious (now Gananoque), not many miles from the fort. Some of the men were distributed among the missions of Quebec, and others actually sent to labour in the royal galleys of France, where they remained until the survivors were brought back by Frontenac, when he and other Frenchmen recognised the enormity of the crime that had been committed by Denonville, who is immediately responsible for the massacre of La Chine. The Iroquois never forgot or forgave.

The French authorities soon recognised the fact {197} that Denonville was entirely unequal to the critical condition of things in Canada, and decided in 1689 to send Frontenac back. During his second term, which lasted for nearly ten years, there was now and then some friction between himself and the intendant, on matters of internal government, and between himself and the bishop and the Jesuits with respect to amusements which the clergy always discountenanced; but he displayed on the whole more tact and judgment in his administration of public affairs. Undoubtedly the responsibilities now resting upon him tasked the energies of a man of seventy-two years of age to the utmost. In Acadia, whose interests were now immediately connected with those of Canada, he had to guard against the aggressive movements of New England. The English of New York and the adjacent colonies were intriguing with the Iroquois and the Foxes, always jealous of French encroachments in the northwest, and encouraging them to harass the French settlers. The efforts of the English to establish themselves in Hudson's Bay and Newfoundland, had to be met by vigorous action on the part of Canadians. In fact, we see on all sides the increasing difficulties of France in America, on account of the rapid growth of the English colonies.

When Frontenac arrived in Canada, war had been, declared between France and England. James II. had been deposed and William of Orange was on the English throne. Before the governor left France a plan had been devised at the suggestion of Callieres, the governor of Montreal, for the conquest {198} of New York. An expedition of regular troops and Canadian volunteers were to descend from Canada and assault New York by land, simultaneously with an attack by a French squadron from the sea. Unforeseen delays prevented the enterprise from being carried out, when success was possible. Had New York and Albany been captured, Callieres was to have been the new governor. Catholics alone would be allowed to remain in the province, and all the other inhabitants would be exiled—an atrocious design which was to be successfully executed sixty years later, by the English authorities, in the Acadian settlements of Nova Scotia.

Count de Frontenac organised three expeditions in 1690 against the English colonies, with the view of raising the depressed spirits of the Canadians and showing their Indian allies how far Onontio's arm would reach. The first party, led by Mantet and Sainte-Helene, and comprising among the volunteers Iberville, marched in the depth of winter on Corlaer (Schenectady), surprised the sleeping and negligent inhabitants, killed a considerable number, took many prisoners, and then burned nearly all the houses. The second party, under the command of Francois Hertel, destroyed the small settlement of Salmon Falls on the Piscataqua, and later formed a junction with the third party, led by Portneuf of Quebec, and with a number of Abenakis under Baron de Saint-Castin. The settlement at Casco Bay, defended by Fort Loyal (Portland) surrendered after a short struggle to these combined forces, and the garrison was treated with great inhumanity. The {199} cruelties practised by the Indian allies invested these raids with additional terrors.

While Frontenac was congratulating himself on the success of this ruthless border warfare, and on the arrival at Montreal of a richly laden fleet of canoes from the west, the English colonies concerted measures of retaliation in a congress held at New York. The blow first fell on Acadia, which had been in the possession of France since the treaty of Breda. Port Royal was taken without difficulty in 1690 by Sir William Phipps, and the shore settlements at La Heve and Cape Sable ravaged by his orders.

Another expedition organised in New York and Connecticut to attack Montreal, was a failure, although a raid was made by Captain John Schuyler into the country, south of Montreal, and a number of persons killed at La Prairie. A more important expedition was now given to the command of Phipps, a sturdy figure in colonial annals, who had sprung from humble parentage in Maine, and won both money and distinction by the recovery of the riches of a Spanish galleon which had been wrecked on the Spanish Main half a century before. His fleet, consisting of thirty-two vessels—including several men-of-war, and carrying 2300 troops, exclusively provincials, fishermen, farmers, and sailors—appeared in the middle of October, 1690, off Quebec, whose defences had been strengthened by Frontenac, and where a large force had assembled from the French towns and settlements. As soon as the fleet came to an anchorage, just below the town, Phipps {200} sent a messenger to present a letter to Frontenac, asking him to surrender the fort. This envoy was led blindfolded up the heights and brought into the presence of the governor, who was awaiting him in the fort, surrounded by a number of officers dressed in the brilliant uniform of the French army. As soon as he had recovered from the surprise which for the moment he felt, when the bandage was taken off his eyes, and he saw so brilliant an array of soldierly men, he read the letter, which, "by the orders of the King and Queen of England and of the government of the colony of New England," demanded "the surrender of the forts and castles undemolished, and of all munitions untouched, as also an immediate surrender of your persons and property at my discretion." The envoy, when the whole letter was read, took out his watch, and remarking that it was ten o'clock, asked that he be sent back by eleven. Count de Frontenac's answer was defiant. He refused to recognise William of Orange as the lawful sovereign of England, and declared him an "usurper." The haughty governor continued in the same strain for a few moments longer, and when he had closed, Phipps's messenger asked that the answer be given in writing. "No," he replied, "I have none to give but by the mouth of my cannon; and let your general learn that this is no way to send a summons to a man like me. Let him do the best on his side, as I am resolved to do on mine."

Phipps and his officers determined to attack Quebec in the rear by the way of Beauport, {201} simultaneously with a fierce cannonading by the fleet. A considerable force, under the command of Major Walley, landed, and after some days of unhappy experiences, during which Phipps showed his incapacity to manage the siege, the former was obliged to find refuge in the ships, without having succeeded in crossing the St. Charles. By this time Frontenac had at least three thousand men, many of them veterans, in Quebec, and Phipps considered it his only prudent course to return to Boston, where he arrived with the loss of many vessels and men, chiefly from disasters at sea. The French had lost very few men by the cannonading and in the skirmishing on the St. Charles—probably not more than sixty killed and wounded—and celebrated their victory with great enthusiasm. Religious processions marched through the streets to the cathedral and churches, Te Deums were chanted, the colonial admiral's flag, which had been cut down by a lucky shot from the fort, was borne aloft in triumph, a new church was consecrated to Notre Dame de la Victoire, and a medal was struck in Paris in commemoration of the event. In Boston, the people received with dismay the news of the failure of an expedition which had ended so ignobly and involved them so heavily in debt.

The Iroquois, in league with the English of New York, where the able governor Dongan and his successor Andros, carefully watched over the interests of their colony, continued to be a constant menace to the French on the St. Lawrence, and to their allies in the West. In order to strengthen {202} themselves with the Five Nations, the New York authorities sent Major Peter Schuyler, with a force of Mohawks, Dutch, and English, to harass the settlements near Montreal. An obstinate fight occurred at La Prairie between him and a considerable force of troops, Canadians, Hurons, and Iroquois of the Canadian mission under Varennes, an able officer, but Schuyler succeeded in breaking through the ranks of his enemies and reaching the Richelieu, whence he returned to Albany without further losses. In Acadia, however, the French gained an advantage by the recovery of Port Royal by Villebon.

At this time occurred an interesting episode. A young girl of only fourteen years, Magdeleine, daughter of the seigneur of Vercheres, on the south side of the St. Lawrence, ten miles from Montreal successfully held her father's fort and block-house against a band of Iroquois, with the aid of only six persons, two of whom were boys, and one an old man. Day and night, for a week, she was on the watch against surprise by the Indians, who were entirely deceived by her actions, and supposed the fort was held by a garrison. At last a reinforcement came to the succour of the brave girl, and the Indians retreated. The courage displayed by this Canadian heroine is an evidence of the courage shown by the people of Canada generally, under the trying circumstances that so constantly surrounded them throughout the whole of the French regime.

In 1693 the Mohawks were punished by an expedition composed of regulars, militia, and bush-rangers, with a large Indian contingent, chiefly {203} drawn from the Iroquois mission near Montreal, the modern settlement of Caughnawaga. This force was led by Mantet, Courtemanche, and La Noue, who succeeded in destroying the Mohawk villages after a fierce fight, in killing a large number, and in capturing several hundreds. The English, who had early information of the invasion, sent Major Peter Schuyler to pursue the retreating force, but it was too late. The immediate result of this success was a revival of trade. A large fleet of canoes came down from the upper lakes with a rich store of furs, that had been accumulating at Mackinac and other posts for nearly three years, on account of the Iroquois. Frontenac's triumph was complete, and he was called far and wide "the father of the people, the preserver of the country."

Returning for the moment to the Atlantic shores of Acadia, we find that the French arms triumphed in 1696 at Pemaquid, always an important point in those days of border warfare.

The fort, which was of some pretensions, was captured by the French under Iberville and the Abenakis under Saint-Castin, and after its destruction Iberville went on to Newfoundland, where the French ruined the English settlements at St. John and other places. Then the fleet proceeded to Hudson's Bay, where the French recaptured the trading posts which had been retaken a short time previously by the English.

In the meantime Frontenac had decided on an expedition against the Onondagas. Early in July, 1696, despite his age, he led the expedition to Fort {204} Frontenac, which he had restored, and after a delay of a few days he went on to the Onondaga town, which he destroyed with all its stores of provisions, and its standing fields of maize. The Oneida village was also destroyed, and a number of men taken prisoners as hostages for their good behaviour. The Onondagas had fled, and the only one captured was an aged chief, who was wantonly tortured to death. It was now clear to the Iroquois that the English of New York could not defend them from the constant raids of the French, and they now made offers of peace, provided it did not include the western allies of France. Frontenac, however, was resolved to make no peace, except on terms which would ensure the security of the French for many years. He died in the November of 1698 amid the regrets of the people of all classes who admired his great qualities as a leader of men.

Callieres, of Montreal, an able and brave soldier, who succeeded him, soon brought the Iroquois difficulty to an issue. The calumet was smoked and peace duly signed, in a great council held in the August of 1701, at Montreal, where assembled representatives of the Indian nations of the West, of the Abenakis, and of the Iroquois. From that time forward, Canada had no reason to fear the Iroquois, who saw that the French were their masters. The trade with the West was now free from the interruptions which had so long crippled it.



The Treaty of Ryswick, which was ratified in 1697, lasted for only five years. Then broke out the great conflict known in Europe as the War of {206} the Spanish Succession. The reckless ambition of Louis XIV., then in the plenitude of his power, had coveted the throne of Spain for his own family, and brought him into conflict with England when he recognised the Pretender as the rightful heir to the English Crown. Queen Anne, the daughter of James II. and sister of Mary, queen of William III., had succeeded to the throne, and the war which was declared on the 15th May, 1702, was thereafter known in America by her name. The Abenakis, who had promised peace, broke their pledges, and joined the French Canadian bands in attacking Wells, Saco, and Haverhill, and the annals of New England tell many a sad story of burning homes, of murdered men and women. The people of New England retaliated on Acadia, and several ineffective attempts were made to take Port Royal by Colonels Church and Wainwright, who proved their incapacity. A movement was then made for the conquest of Canada by the English colonists, but it failed in consequence of an European emergency having diverted the British squadron intended for America to the shores of Portugal. An expedition was next organised in 1710, under the command of Colonel Nicholson, a man of much sagacity and audacity, though of little or no military experience, for the capture of Port Royal, which was surrendered by the governor, Subercase, and from that day this historic place has been known as Annapolis Royal, in honour of the reigning sovereign. It was not until the following year that the British Government yielded to the urgent representations of the colonies, {207} and sent to America a powerful armament to attempt the conquest of Canada. The fleet was under the orders of Sir Hovenden Walker, whose incapacity was only equalled by that of the commander of the troops, Colonel Hill. After the loss of eight transports and nearly nine hundred men in a storm near the Isle aux Oeufs, at the entrance of the St. Lawrence, the incapable admiral decided to give up the project of besieging Quebec, and without even venturing to attack the little French post of Plaisance, he returned to England, where he was received with marks of disfavour on all sides, and forced soon afterwards to retire to South Carolina. While New England was sadly disappointed by this second failure to take Quebec, the French of Canada considered it a providential interposition in their behalf, and the church, which had been first named after the defeat of Phipps, was now dedicated to Notre Dame des Victoires.

All this while the French dominion was slowly and surely extending into the great valleys of the West and South. A fort had been built opposite to the Jesuit mission of St. Ignace, on the other side of the Strait of Michillimackinac, and it was now also proposed to make the French headquarters at Detroit, which had been founded by Antoine de la Mothe-Cadillac, despite the opposition of the Jesuits, who wished to have the mission field of the West in their own hands, and resented the intention to establish Recollets and other priests at the new post. As soon as the French established themselves permanently at this key to the Lakes and West, the {208} English practically gave up for fifty years the hope of acquiring the Northwest, and controlling the Indian trade. French pioneers were pushing their way into the valleys of the Illinois and the Wabash. Perrot and Le Sueur had taken possession of the region watered by the upper Mississippi and its affluents. Iberville and Bienville had made small settlements at Biloxi, Mobile, and on the banks of the Mississippi, and with them was associated one of the most admirable figures of Canadian history, Henry de Tonty, who had left his fort on the Illinois. In 1711 Louisiana was made a separate government, with Mobile as the capital, and included the whole region from the Lakes to the Gulf, and from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains. By the time of the Treaty of Utrecht the Indian tribes of the West were, for the most part, in the interest of the French, with the exception of the Sioux, Sauks, and Foxes, whose hostility was for a long time an impediment to their progress on the upper reaches of the Mississippi.



Louis XIV. was humbled by Marlborough on the battlefields of Blenheim, Ramillies, and Oudenarde, and obliged to agree to the Treaty of Utrecht, which was a triumph for England, since it gave her possession of Acadia, Hudson's Bay, Newfoundland (subject to the rights of France in the fisheries), and made the important concession that France should never molest the Five Nations under the dominion of Great Britain. Such questions as the limits of Acadia, and the bounds of the territory of the Iroquois, were to be among the subjects of fruitful controversy for half a century.



{210}

XV.

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

(1713-1748.)

The attention of Louis XIV. and his ministers was now naturally directed to Cape Breton, which, like the greater island of Newfoundland, guards the eastern approaches to the valley of the St. Lawrence. Cape Breton had been neglected since the days of Denys, though its harbours had been for over two centuries frequented by sailors of all nationalities. Plaisance, the Placentia of the Portuguese, had been for years the headquarters of the French fisheries in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but when Newfoundland was ceded to the English, all the French officials and fishermen removed to English Harbour, on the eastern coast of Cape Breton, ever since known as Louisbourg. The island itself was called Ile Royale, and its first governor was M. de Costabelle, who had held a similar position at Plaisance. It was not, however, until 1720, that France commenced the {211} construction of the fortifications of Louisbourg, which eventually cost her over ten million dollars of modern money, and even then, they were never completed in accordance with the original design, on account of the enormous expense which far exceeded the original estimates. The fortifications were built on an oblong neck of land on the southern shore of the port, which lies only two leagues from that famous cape from which the island takes its name. The fortress occupied an area of over one hundred acres, and was planned on the best system of Vauban and other great masters of engineering skill, who intended it should be, as indeed it was, despite some faulty details of construction, the most complete example of a strongly fortified city in America. The harbour was also defended by batteries on an island at the entrance, and at other important points, while there were fortified works and small garrisons at Port Toulouse (St. Peter's) and Port Dauphin (St. Anne's). The government of the island was modelled on that of Canada, to which it was subordinate, and the governor was generally a military man. During the years the fortress was in possession of the French, there were probably, on an average, nearly two thousand people living in the town and vicinity, but this number was increased in the time of war by the inhabitants of the adjacent ports and bays.



During the thirty years that elapsed between the Treaty of Utrecht and the breaking out of war between France and Great Britain, the people of New England found that the merely nominal possession of Acadia by the English was of little security to {212} them, while the French still held the island of Cape Breton and had the fealty of the Indians and Acadians, who were looking forward to the restoration of the country to its former owners. England systematically neglected Nova Scotia, where, until the foundation of Halifax, her only sign of sovereignty was the dilapidated fort at Annapolis, with an insignificant garrison, utterly unable to awe the Acadian French, and bring them completely under the authority of the British Crown. French emissaries, chiefly priests,—notably the treacherous Le Loutre—were constantly at work among the Acadians, Micmacs, and Abenakis, telling them that France would soon regain her dominion in Acadia. For years the Abenakis tomahawked the helpless English colonists that had made their homes in the present State of Maine, in the vicinity of the Kennebec and the Penobscot. The insidious policy of Vaudreuil and other governors of Canada, acting under instructions from France, was to keep alive the hostility of the Abenakis so as to prevent the settlement of that region known as Northern New England, one of whose rivers, the Kennebec, gave easy access to the St. Lawrence near Quebec. From Annapolis to Canseau the Micmacs destroyed life and property, and kept the English posts in constant fear.

New England took a signal revenge at last on the cruel and treacherous Abenakis, and inflicted on them a blow from which they never recovered. At Norridgewock perished the famous missionary, Sebastian Rale, beneath whose black robe beat the heart of a dauntless soldier, whose highest {213} aspirations were to establish his creed and promote the ambitious designs of France in Acadia. A peace was made in 1726 between the colonists and the Abenakis, but New England felt she had no efficient security for its continuance while Acadian and Indian could see in the great fortress of Cape Breton powerful evidence that France was not yet willing to give up the contest for dominion in Acadia. Northern New England became now of relatively little importance in view of the obvious designs of France to regain Nova Scotia.

We have now come to an important period in the history of America as well as of Europe. In 1739 Walpole was forced to go to war with Spain, at the dictation of the commercial classes, who wished to obtain control of the Spanish Main. Then followed the War of the Austrian Succession, in which France broke her solemn pledge to Charles VI., Emperor of Germany, that she would support his daughter, Maria Theresa, in her rights to reign over his hereditary dominions. But when the Emperor was dead, France and other Powers proceeded to promote their own ambitious and selfish designs. France wished to possess the rich Netherlands, and Spain, Milan; Frederick of Prussia had no higher desire than to seize Silesia, and to drive Austria from Germany. Bavaria claimed the Austrian duchy of Bohemia. Maria Theresa was to have only Hungary and the duchy of Austria. The King of England was jealous of Prussia, and thought more of his Hanoverian throne than of his English crown. It became the interest of England to assist Austria and {214} prevent the success of France, now the ally of Spain; forced to defend her colonial possessions in America. The complications in Europe at last compelled France and England to fight at Dettingen in 1743, and George II. won a doubtful victory, but war was not actually declared between these two nations until some months later. England had no reason to congratulate herself on the results, either in Europe or America. Her fleet met only with disaster, and her commerce was destroyed on the Spanish Main. Four years later she won a victory over the Spanish fleet in the Mediterranean, but hardly had her people ceased celebrating the event, than they heard that the combined forces of Hanover, Holland, and England, under the Duke of Cumberland, had been badly beaten by Marshal Saxe at Fontenoy.

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

A combination of events had aided the success of the brave enterprise. The news of the declaration of war reached Louisbourg at least two months before it was known in Boston, and the French Governor, M. Duquesnel, immediately sent out expeditions to capture the English posts in Nova Scotia. Canseau, at the entrance of the strait of that name, was easily taken, and the garrison carried to Louisbourg, but Annapolis Royal was successfully defended by Colonel Mascarene, then governor of {215} Nova Scotia. All these events had their direct influence on the expedition which New England sent in the spring of 1745 against Louisbourg. The prisoners who had been captured at Canseau had remained until the autumn in Louisbourg, and the accounts they brought back of its condition gave Shirley and others reason to believe that if an expedition was, without loss of time, sent against it, there would be a fair chance of success. Not only did they learn that the garrison was small, but that it was discontented, and a mutiny had actually broken out on account of the soldiers not having received the usual additions to their regular pay for work on the fortifications. The ramparts were stated to be defective in more than one place, while gales and other causes had delayed the arrival of the ships which arrived every year with provisions and reinforcements. These facts gave additional confidence to Governor Shirley of Massachusetts, William Vaughan of New Hampshire, and many influential men who had already conceived the idea of striking a blow at the French which would give the English control of the whole coast from Cape Sable to the entrance of the St. Lawrence.

The expedition against Louisbourg consisted of over four thousand men, of whom Massachusetts, which then included the present State of Maine, contributed nearly one-third. Colonel Pepperrell of Kittery on the Piscataqua, who had command, with the title of lieutenant-general, was a man of wealth and influence, though without any military experience. His excellent judgment and undaunted {216} courage, however, contributed largely to the success of this bold venture. Captain Edward Tyng, a capable colonial sailor, was the commodore of the little fleet of thirteen vessels, carrying in all about two hundred guns. The Puritan spirit of New England had much influence in organising an expedition, and whose flag had a motto suggested by the Methodist revivalist, Whitfield: "Nil desperandum Christo duce." The story of the success of the New England troops, in conjunction with the small English fleet, under the command of Commodore Warren, has been often told, and we need not dwell on its details. M. Duchambon was at the time governor of Louisbourg, and maintained the defence for nearly forty days. The capitulation of the fortress was hastened by the fact that the English fleet captured the French frigate Vigilante, on whose arrival the garrison had been depending for weeks. On the afternoon of June 17th, General Pepperrell marched at the head of his army through the West or Dauphin gate into the town, and received the keys from the commandant, who, with his garrison drawn up in line, received him in the King's bastion. One hundred and fifty years later a granite column was raised on the same historic ground in honour of this famous victory, which caused such rejoicings throughout England and America.

By the articles of capitulation, the garrison and residents of Louisbourg, probably two thousand persons in all, were transported to France. The settlement of Port Toulouse and Port Dauphin had been captured, the first before, and the other during {217} the siege. The leader of the New England expedition was rewarded with a baronetcy, the first distinction of the kind ever given to a colonist, while Warren was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral of the blue.

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

France had heard with dismay of the loss of Cape Breton, which she recognised as a key to the St. Lawrence, and made two efforts to recover it before the war closed in 1748. One of the noblest fleets that ever sailed from the shores of France left {218} Rochelle in 1746 for Cape Breton, under the command of M. de la Rochefoucauld, the Duke d'Anville, an able, sensitive man, who, however, had had no naval experience. Storm and pestilence attacked the fleet, which found a refuge in the harbour of Chebouctou, afterwards Halifax, where the unfortunate Admiral died from an apoplectic seizure. His successor, M. d'Estournelle, committed suicide in a fit of despondency caused by the responsibility thrown upon him, when men were dying by hundreds every day on those lonely Acadian shores. The French lost between two and three thousand men by disease or casualties, and the remnant of the great fleet, which was to have restored the fortunes of France in America, returned home under the command of M. de la Jonquiere without having even attempted to capture the half-ruined fort at Annapolis. Another fleet in 1747, under M. de St. George and the Marquis de la Jonquiere, the latter of whom became subsequently Governor of Canada, never reached its destination, but was defeated off Cape Finisterre by a more powerful fleet under Admirals Anson and Warren.

The Canadian Government, of which the Marquis de Beauharnois was then the head, had confidently expected to regain Acadia, when they heard of the arrival of the Duke d'Anville's fleet, and immediately sent M. de Ramesay to excite the Acadians, now very numerous—probably ten thousand altogether—to rise in arms against the few Englishmen at Port Royal. He had with him a considerable force of Indians and Canadians, among the latter {219} such distinguished men as Beaujeu, Saint-Ours, Boishebert, Lanaudiere, but the news of the disasters that had crippled the fleet, forced him to give up his plan of attacking Annapolis, and to withdraw to the isthmus of Chignecto, where he built a small fort at Baie Verte. In the following year, 1747, he succeeded in surprising and capturing Colonel Arthur Noble and a considerable force of New England troops who had taken possession of the houses of the Acadian French at Grand Pre, one of the most fertile and beautiful districts of the province, afterwards still more famous in poetry and history. This exploit, however, did not materially change the aspect of things in Acadia, where the French Acadians had entirely disappointed the hopes of Ramesay and his government. Had they been as active or enterprising as their compatriots on the banks of the St. Lawrence, they might easily, at that time, have won back Acadia for France. As it was, however, Ramesay was not able to gain a firm foothold beyond the isthmus. Even the success he won was neutralised by the activity of Governor Shirley, who was ever alive to the importance of Nova Scotia, and immediately sent another force to occupy the meadows of Grand Pre.

In 1748 English diplomacy, careless of colonial interests, restored the island of Cape Breton to France by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in return for the commercial post of Madras, which had been taken by the French in the East Indies where England and France were now rivals for the supremacy. It was the persistency of the French to regain {220} possession of so valuable a bulwark to their great dominion of Canada, that forced the English cabinet to restore it at a time when the nation was threatened by a Catholic pretender, and disheartened at the results of the war on the continent. Weary of the struggle and anxious for a breathing space, England deserted Maria Theresa and made peace with France.



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XVI.

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

(1748-1756.)



The map that is placed at the beginning of this chapter outlines the ambitious designs conceived by French statesmen soon after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. We see the names of many posts and forts intended to keep up communications between Canada and Louisiana, and overawe the English colonies then confined to a relatively narrow strip of territory on the Atlantic coast. Conscious of the mistake that they had made in giving up Acadia, the French now claimed that its "ancient limits" did not extend beyond the isthmus of Chignecto—in other words, included only Nova Scotia. Accordingly they proceeded to construct the forts of Gaspereau and Beausejour on that neck of land, and also one on the St. John River, so that they might control the land and sea approaches to Cape Breton from the St. Lawrence where Quebec, enthroned on her picturesque heights, and Montreal at the {222} confluence of the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, held the keys to Canada. The approaches by the way of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu were defended by the fort of St. John near the northern extremity of the lake, and by the more formidable works known as Fort Frederick or Crown Point—to give the better known English name—on a peninsula at the narrows towards the south. The latter was the most advanced post of the French until they built Fort Ticonderoga or Carillon on a high, rocky promontory at the head of Lake Sacrement, afterwards called Lake George by General Johnson—a sheet of water always famed for its picturesque charms. At the foot of this lake, associated with so many memorable episodes in American history, General Johnson, a clever, ambitious Irishman, a nephew of Sir Peter Warren, in 1755, erected Fort William Henry, about fourteen miles from Fort Edward or Lyman, at the great carrying place on the upper waters of the Hudson. Returning to the St. Lawrence and the lakes, we find Fort Frontenac or Cataraqui at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, where the old city of Kingston now stands. Within the limits of the present city of Toronto, La Galissonniere built Fort Rouille as an attempt to control the trade of the Indians of the North, who were finding their way to the English fort at Choueguen (Oswego), which had been commenced with the consent of the Iroquois by Governor Burnet of New York and was now a menace to the French dominion of Lake Ontario. At the other extremity of this lake was Fort Niagara, the key to the West.

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At Detroit, Mackinac, and Sault Ste. Marie the French continued to hold possession of the Great Lakes and the country to the west and south. Their communications, then, between the West and Quebec were established, but between the great valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, over which they claimed exclusive rights, there was another valley which became of importance in the execution of their scheme of continental dominion. In the years succeeding the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle the English colonists awakened to the importance of the valley of the Ohio, and adventurous frontiersmen of Virginia and Pennsylvania were already forcing their way into its wilderness, when France's ambition barred the way to their further progress. That astute Canadian, Governor La Galissonniere, in 1749, recognised the importance of the Ohio in relation to the Illinois and Mississippi, and sent Celoron, a captain in the French service, to claim possession of the valley of the former river and its tributaries. This officer made a long and enterprising journey, in the course of which he affixed at different points the arms of France to trees, and buried leaden plates bearing the inscription, that they were memorials of the "renewal of the possession of the Ohio and all its affluents" originally established by arms and treaties, particularly those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle. Under the instructions of Governor Duquesne, who possessed all the sagacity of La Galissonniere, forts were established at Presqu'ile (Erie) and on French Creek, a tributary of the Alleghany. Virginians saw with dismay the entrance {224} of the French into a region on which they were now casting a longing eye. Their government had secured from the Iroquois a doubtful deed which gave them, as they urged, a title to the Great West, and a company was even formed to occupy the Ohio. In 1754 the English commenced the construction of a fort at the forks of the Ohio, but it was easily captured by Contrecoeur, who completed and renamed it in honour of the Governor of Canada, Duquesne. Washington, who now first appears in American history, was defeated by Chevalier de Villiers at Fort Necessity, a mere intrenchment at Great Meadows, and the French held entire possession of the Ohio valley, where no English trader or pioneer dared show himself. By 1755 the French dominion was complete from the Ohio to the Illinois, and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, so far as a slender line of communication by means of widely separated posts and settlements could make it so. On the St. Joseph, the Maumee, the Wabash, and the Illinois, there were small forts. Fort Chartres in the Illinois country was the only post of any thorough construction. At Cahokia, opposite the modern city of St. Louis, and at Kaskaskia, at the junction of the river of that name with the Mississippi, there were small and relatively prosperous French villages. In Louisiana the French had the towns of Mobile, Biloxi, New Orleans, and a few other settlements, where the African blacks far outnumbered the whites. That colony had had many difficulties to surmount before it could be considered established. Wars with the Natchez and Chickasaws {225} had been constant. Crozat's experiment had been followed by the establishment of the Mississippi or Western Company, which was to develop gold mines, that never existed except in the imaginations of its reckless promoter, John Law, a Scotchman. When the Mississippi bubble burst, and so many thousands were ruined in France, Louisiana still continued under the control of the company, which was eventually obliged to give up its charter after heavy expenditures which had produced very small results, and the colony became a royal province. With its chequered future must be always associated the name of the Canadian Bienville, who was for some years its governor and justly earned the title of "Father of Louisiana." Insignificant as was its progress, France prized its possession, and had she been alive to her opportunities she might have colonised it with Huguenots and made it a power in the conflict between herself and England in America.

France, busy with her ambitious designs in Europe, gave but a meagre and too often half-hearted support to the men who had dreams of founding a mighty empire in America. When France and England met for the great struggle on that continent, the thirteen colonies had reached a population of nearly a million and a quarter of souls, exclusive of the negroes in the South, while the total number of the people in Canada and Louisiana did not exceed eighty thousand. In wealth and comfort there was the same disproportion between the French and English colonies. In fact at the time of the last {226} war, Canadian commerce was entirely paralysed, farms neglected, and the towns barely able to live. In 1757 food was so scarce in Quebec and Montreal that the soldiers and people had to use horse flesh. The combined forces of Canadian militia and regular troops were always much inferior in number to the British and colonial armies when united for the invasion of Canada, with the support of a powerful fleet; but the great strength of the French colony lay in the natural barriers between the English colonies and the keys to New France, Quebec, and Montreal, and in the skill with which the approaches by way of Lake Champlain had been defended by forts at every important point. If the French force was insignificant in number, it was, as a rule, skilfully managed, and in the early part of the struggle the English had no commander to compare with Montcalm for military genius. In some respects the French Canadians were more manageable in war than the English colonists. No legislative bodies existed in Canada to interfere with and thwart the plans and orders of military commanders, but the whole Canadian people acted as a unit to be moved and directed at the will of the King's officers. The Indian tribes from Acadia to the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Illinois, were, with the exception of the Five Nations, always friendly to the French since the days of Champlain—the warm allies of a people who fraternised naturally with them; and it would have been an unhappy day for the English colonists had eighty or a hundred thousand Canadians been able to arm and, under the skilful {227} generalship of Montcalm, swoop down with their savage allies on the English colonial settlements. But the French of Canada were never able, as a rule, to do more than harass by sudden raids and skirmishes—by a system of petite guerre, or petty warfare—the English of America, and at no time in colonial history was the capture of Boston or of New York actually attempted by a land force from Canada, though it was suggested more than once. At the outbreak of the war the Mohawks were the only Indian tribe on whom the English could place much dependence, and that was largely owing to the energy and discretion of Sir William Johnson, who had long lived in their country and gained not only their confidence but even their affection. The tribes in the Ohio valley had been won by the success of the French in driving out the Virginians, while in the further west the Foxes and other communities who had been unfriendly to the French had been beaten into submission—the Foxes in fact almost destroyed—by the raids of the French and their Indian allies. The great current of active thought and enterprise which develops a nation was always with the English colonies, and though large schemes of ambition stimulated the energies of the bold and adventurous men to whom the destinies of France were entrusted from the days of La Salle to those of Montcalm, their ability to found a new empire in America under the lilies of France was ever hindered by the slow development of the French settlements, by the incapacity of the King and his ministers in France to grasp the importance of the situation on this {228} continent, and by their refusal to carry out the projects of men like La Galissonniere, who at once recognised the consequences of such neglect and indifference, but found no one ready to favour his scheme of establishing large settlements of French peasantry in Canada and Louisiana. France, we see now, had her great opportunity in America, and lost it forever at Quebec in 1759.

Before we proceed to the record of the events which led to the conquest of Canada, it is necessary that we should briefly review the history of the period which elapsed between the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and the commencement of the Seven Years' War. When English statesmen were informed of the mistake they had made in restoring Cape Breton to France with such reckless haste, they began to reflect on the best means of retrieving it as far as possible; and at the suggestion of Shirley and other colonists they set to work to bring an English population into Nova Scotia, and to make it a source of strength instead of weakness to the New England communities. In 1749, the year of the formal surrender of Louisbourg, the city of Halifax was founded on the west side of the admirable harbour, long known in Acadian history as Chebouctou. Here, under the direction of Governor Cornwallis, a man of great ability, a town slowly grew up at the foot and on the slopes of the hill which was in later times crowned by a noble citadel, above which has always floated the flag of Great Britain. Then followed the erection of a fort at Chignecto, known as Fort Lawrence in honour of the English officer who {229} built it—afterwards governor of Nova Scotia—and intended to be a protection to the province, constantly threatened by the French and Indians, who were always numerous at the French posts and settlements on the isthmus. The French constructed on the northern bank of the Missiquash a fort of five bastions known as Beausejour, and a smaller one at Bay Verte, with the object, as previously stated, of keeping up communication with Louisbourg, which they were strengthening in some measure. At Fort Beausejour the treacherous priest Le Loutre continued to pursue his insidious designs of creating dissatisfaction among the French Acadians and pressing on them the necessity of driving the English from the former possessions of France.

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

In Acadia, in the valley of the Ohio, and at Lake George, the opposing forces of England and France also met in conflict. In the spring an English force of regular and colonial troops, chiefly the latter, {230} under the command of Colonel Monckton, who has given his name to a prosperous city on the isthmus of Chignecto, and of Colonels Winslow and Scott, captured the two French forts and took a good many prisoners, among whom were a considerable number of French Acadians, forced by the French to assist in the defence of Beausejour. Le Loutre succeeded during the confusion on the surrender of the fort, in evading capture, but only to find himself eventually taken prisoner by an English ship while on his way to France, and sent to the island of Jersey, where he was kept in confinement until the end of the war, and from that time disappears from American history.

In the same year General Braddock, an arrogant though experienced soldier, was sent in command of a large force of regular and colonial troops into the valley of the Ohio to attack Fort Duquesne and drive the French from that region, but chiefly through his want of caution and his ignorance of Indian methods of warfare in the American wilderness, he was surprised on the Monongahela by a small force of Indians and French under the Canadian Beaujeu, who were concealed in ravines, from which they were able in perfect security to prevent the advance of the English, and literally riddle them with bullets until they fled in dismay and confusion, leaving behind them a great store of munitions and provisions besides a large sum of money in specie. Braddock died from the wounds he received, and the remnant of his beaten regiments retired precipitately beyond the Alleghanies. This unhappy {231} disaster was followed by a succession of Indian raids along hundreds of miles of frontier, and the petite guerre of the Abenakis and French in Acadia and New England, with all its horrors, was repeated by the Indians of the West. The southern colonies were paralysed for the moment, and the authorities of Pennsylvania gave evidences of indifference, if not of cowardice, that are discreditable features of its early history.

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

The most memorable event of this time, which has been the subject of warm controversy between French and English historians and the theme of a most affecting poem, was the expulsion of the Acadian French from Nova Scotia. When Halifax was founded it was decided, as a matter of necessity, to bring the Acadians more entirely under the control of the English authorities. They had probably increased since the Treaty of Utrecht to at least twelve thousand souls, living for the most part in the Annapolis valley, by the Gaspereaux and Avon rivers, {232} at Grand Pre, at Mines, and at Chignecto. When they were asked to take the oath of allegiance by Governor Lawrence, they refused to do so unless it was qualified by the condition that they should not be obliged at any time to take up arms. Many years before a considerable number, if not the majority, of the same people had taken this qualified oath, although it is also claimed that no one had legal authority to make such a condition with them. Under the treaty of 1713 the Acadian French had a year to choose between leaving the country or giving their submission to the British Government and becoming its subjects. It was natural that they should have hesitated to leave the humble though comfortable homes which their own industry had made on the most fertile lands of Nova Scotia, but it is also quite certain that every obstacle was thrown in the way of their removal by the English governors. Had the British authorities adopted from the very commencement a firm and decided policy towards them, they might have given an unreserved allegiance to the British Crown and eventually become peaceable and contented inhabitants. As it was, the British Government systematically neglected the country, and left the little garrison at Annapolis for many years practically at the mercy of the Acadians, who could have often half starved them, and even captured the only English post of the least importance in the province, had they been led at any time by a man of courage and determination. It was only the watchfulness of the government of Massachusetts, who fully recognised the {233} importance of Nova Scotia in relation to New England, that retained the province in English hands during the time when English statesmen like Newcastle were even ignorant of the existence or situation of Annapolis. If French emissaries were often able to make these credulous and ignorant people believe that France would soon regain her dominion in Acadia, it was largely owing to the fact that the English showed such weakness in all their relations with the Acadians, and made no earnest or sustained effort to assert their sovereignty. At last when England decided to settle and strengthen Nova Scotia, a feeling of uneasiness was naturally created by the presence of a large and increasing population who were naturally in sympathy with the French, and had assumed an attitude quite irreconcilable with the security of English interests on the Atlantic coast of eastern America. It must be admitted that the position of the Acadians was one deserving of sympathy, tossed about as they were for many years between French and English. They were considered by the French of Canada and Cape Breton as mere tools to carry out the designs of French ambition. England, however, had at some time or other to assert her sovereignty in Nova Scotia, and to assure its security, seemingly threatened by the presence of people who would not formally declare themselves British subjects. The position of Nova Scotia between Cape Breton and Canada gave reason for constant alarm, and when Halifax was founded some decisive step was felt to be necessary by Cornwallis and his successors. {234} No doubt the feeling that had been created against the Acadians, by their refusal to take an unconditional oath of allegiance to Great Britain—the only oath that could be possibly offered to them by a self-respecting and strong government—was intensified by the notorious fact that a number of them had been actually captured at Fort Beausejour with arms in their hands, though in this case they appear to have been really the mere tools of Le Loutre and French emissaries who grossly misled them. The people of New England were much prejudiced against them and asserted that they could never enjoy any security while the Acadians continued to maintain their attitude of neutrality. They had always supplied Louisbourg with provisions and helped to build the French forts on the isthmus, and it was difficult for Lawrence and his officers to obtain any assistance from them in the same way. When the Indians harassed the English settlers in Nova Scotia, the government of that province recalled the raids of the Abenakis and French Canadians, and believed with some reason there was to be the same condition of things in the peninsula. The war between the French and English had never really ceased in America, and it was well known that the hollow truce in Europe would be broken at any moment; and in the presence of the great danger that threatened the English colonies, they had some ground for fearing the presence of a large body of people who claimed to be neutrals in a country which was England's by conquest and treaty, and where they could and did enjoy an {235} amount of political and religious liberty which no Protestant enjoyed in Catholic Europe. Then came the defeat of Braddock in the Ohio country, and the knowledge that France was preparing for a determined effort to strengthen and even increase her dominions in America.

It was under these circumstances that Governor Lawrence of Nova Scotia—a determined and harsh military man—no doubt at the instigation of Shirley and the authorities of New England, determined to secure the peace and safety of the province by the most cruel of all possible measures, the expulsion of the whole body of French Acadians. It must be admitted, however, that all the circumstances, when reviewed in these later times, do not seem sufficient to justify the stern action of the men who took the leading part in this sad tragedy. The responsibility must mainly rest on Governor Lawrence, and not on the imperial government, who never formally authorised the expatriation. Be that as it may, the Acadians were driven from their settlements, and the noble qualities of Lawrence, Monckton, and Winslow, who carried out the measures of expulsion, will be always obscured in the minds of that great majority of people who think only of the deed and its consequences, and are influenced by the dictates of the heart. It is a matter for deep regret that the men who represented England in those days had not run a risk on the side of humanity, rather than have driven thousands of men, women, and children from their pleasant homes by the sides of the beautiful bays and rivers {236} of Nova Scotia, and scattered them far and wide among the English colonies, where their treatment was rarely generous. Even those who reached Quebec were coldly received and were grudgingly supplied with miserable food. Poetry and sentiment have not exaggerated the sorrow and misery of these hapless exiles, so ill-fitted to go out into the bitter world of hardship and destitution.



{237}

XVII.

THE STRUGGLE FOR DOMINION IN THE GREAT VALLEYS OF NORTH AMERICA: ENGLISH REVERSES AND FRENCH VICTORIES—FALL OF LOUISBOURG AND FORT DUQUESNE.

(1756-1758.)

In 1756 England was fully engaged in that famous war with France which was to end in driving her hereditary rival from the eastern and western hemispheres, and in the establishment of the German Empire by the military genius of Frederick the Great. For a while, however, the conflict in America was chiefly remarkable for the incapacity of English commanders on land and sea. Earl Loudoun, the sluggish commander-in-chief, of whom it was said, "he is like St. George on the signs; always on horseback, but never rides on," arranged a campaign against the French on Lake Champlain and against Louisbourg which ended only in disaster and humiliation for England. The forts at Oswego, always regarded as a menace by the French who occupied {238} Fort Frontenac on the opposite side of Lake Ontario, were successfully attacked and destroyed by Montcalm,[1] who was sent to Canada in 1756 to make a supreme effort for France. The energetic French general then proceeded a year later to storm Fort William Henry, and largely owing to the incapacity or timidity of General Webb, who could have marched to the assistance of the besieged from Fort Edward, the brave Scotch officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Monro, then in command of this important defence of the northeastern frontier, was obliged to surrender. After the capitulation of this fort a large number of helpless men, women, and children were barbarously murdered by the body of Indians that accompanied the French—one of the saddest episodes in American history, which must always dim the lustre of Montcalm's victory, though it is now generally admitted that the French general himself was not responsible for the treachery of his Indian allies, but used his most earnest efforts—even at the risk of his own life—to save the English when the savages were mad with lust for the blood of their enemies.



At sea the results were equally discouraging for the English. Fifteen ships-of-the-line and three frigates, under the orders of Admiral Holbourne, and twelve thousand troops under the command of Earl Loudoun himself, assembled in the harbour of Halifax in the July of 1757; but, owing to the absence {240} of energy and celerity of movement from the very day the project was decided upon in England until after the arrival of the fleet in America, the French were able to get reinforcements of ships and men into Louisbourg, and the English admiral and general came to the resolve—so strange for Englishmen in time of war—to run no risk in attacking the fortress. Loudoun returned to New York, but too late to retrieve the injury he had done to the northern colonies by withdrawing so large a force from the frontier at a critical period, when Montcalm was marching on Fort William Henry with such unfortunate results for English interests. Holbourne sailed with his fleet for Louisbourg, and after a half-hearted attempt to draw the French fleet, then safely moored under the guns of the town, into an engagement, even the elements combined against him, and when he had lost a number of his vessels on the rocky Cape Breton coast, he returned to England to tell the story of his failure.

It was at this critical period, when England so sadly needed a bold and wise statesman at the head of her government in the place of weak and incompetent men like Newcastle, that the great Pitt, better known as Chatham at a later day, was called to office by the unanimous opinion of the English people outside, perhaps, of a small selfish clique of the aristocracy. It was his good fortune to be successful far beyond the hopes of the majority of statesmen suddenly called upon to retrieve national disaster. It was mainly through his inspiration—through the confidence with which he inspired all {241} those who served the country at this momentous epoch—that England became the centre of a vast colonial empire such as the world never saw, even in the days when Rome was mistress.

When Pitt was recalled to office in July, 1757, it was too late to prevent the humiliation of England through the incompetency of Holbourne, Loudoun, and Webb, and the year 1757 closed with Montcalm triumphant in America. But while France neglected to give adequate support to her brave sons in Canada, England rallied to the support of Pitt, and the whole nation felt a confidence in the future which it had never had during the administration of his predecessors. On the continent of Europe, Pitt contented himself with giving the largest possible subsidies of money to his great ally Frederick, and by entrusting the command of the English and Hanoverian forces to the best of his generals, Ferdinand, Prince of Brunswick, in place of the incompetent Duke of Cumberland. The victories of Rossbach, Leuthen, and Minden were the answers that Frederick gave to the English minister for the confidence he reposed in his ability to cope with the four great Powers then combined with Saxony to destroy Prussia and bring England to the feet of France, by invading her territory and marching into her very capital. Hanover was saved by the memorable victory on the Weser, and England was spared the humiliation and perils of an invasion by the destruction of a French fleet by Admiral Hawke in Quiberon Bay.

While the military genius of Frederick and the {242} inspiring statesmanship of Pitt were successfully thwarting the ambitious plans of France and her allies in Europe, the English minister had decided on a vigorous campaign in America. With that intuitive sagacity which he possessed above most men for recognising ability in others for the purpose in view, he chose General Amherst, Admiral Boscawen, and Brigadier-General Wolfe, not because of their aristocratic or political influence, but because of their military capacity, the want of which in Loudoun and Holbourne had brought disaster upon the English arms. Unhappily he was forced, for the time being, by strong influences around him to retain General Abercromby at the head of one of the expeditions in America, but he hoped that the co-operation of Lord Howe would keep up the courage of the army, and prevent any blunders on the part of the slow and obtuse soldier in command. The plan of the campaign which opened in 1758 was to send three expeditions simultaneously against the three all-important French positions held by the French in the Ohio valley, on Lake Champlain, and at the entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. General Forbes, a resolute Scotch veteran, was to march on Fort Duquesne, General Abercromby was to lay siege to Crown Point and Ticonderoga, and General Amherst, with Admiral Boscawen, was to attack the fortress of Louisbourg, which was acknowledged as the key of the St. Lawrence.

The English fleet anchored in Gabarus Bay, to the southward of Louisbourg, on the 2nd of June, 1758. It was composed of over fifty ships, {243} twenty-two of which were "liners," and carried eighteen hundred guns altogether. The army comprised between eleven and twelve thousand men, including a small force of provincial rangers. The fortress, which had been considerably strengthened since 1745, was defended by over three thousand regular troops, and a small number of Indians and inhabitants. A fleet of fourteen men-of-war, with a crew of nearly three thousand men, and five hundred and sixty-two guns, were in the harbour. Chevalier Drucour was governor of the island, and conducted the defences with skill and resolution, and had Admiral Desgouttes been as brave and capable as the former, Louisbourg would hardly have fallen so easily. On the morning of the 27th July, the English took possession of the West gate, and the cross of St. George was hoisted on the citadel of a fortress which was destined from that time to disappear from the pages of the world's history. In 1763 the fortress was levelled to the ground, and now a few mounds of turf alone represent the ambitions of France a century and a half ago. Nature has resumed dominion over the site of the once famous fortress, and the restless ocean, which stretches away beyond to the eastward without a break to Europe, brings no message of the fleets that came once, richly freighted, to this historic fort. Louisbourg is now only a place of memories—of associations which connect Cape Breton with most glorious episodes of England's history, with times when the genius of Pitt triumphed over France.

After the taking of Louisbourg, the English {244} occupied the island of St. John, now Prince Edward, where there were several prosperous settlements at Port La Joye (Charlottetown), St. Pierre, and other places on the bays of the low-lying coast. The population was composed chiefly of Acadians, who had commenced to cross from Nova Scotia after the Treaty of Utrecht, and probably numbered in 1758 four thousand souls, engaged in fishing and farming. These people were able to supply Louisbourg with provisions, as no agricultural operations of importance were carried on in Cape Breton.



Wolfe destroyed the French settlements around the bays of Gaspe, Miramichi, and Chaleurs, while Colonel Monckton performed the same painful duty in the valley of the St. John River. Acadia, according to its "ancient limits," was at last completely in the possession of England.

The news of the capture of Louisbourg was received in America and Europe with many rejoicings, and the eleven stands of colours won at this gateway of Canada were deposited in St. Paul's Cathedral {245} amid the roar of cannon. This victory came at an opportune moment, since Abercromby had suffered a humiliating repulse on the banks of Lake Champlain. With a splendid force of regular and provincial troops, from fourteen to fifteen thousand altogether, but entirely destitute of artillery,—an evidence of extraordinary incapacity, or of culpable negligence,—he had thrown himself upon most formidable entrenchments of fallen trees, with their sharp ends pointing outwards, that the French had ingeniously constructed in front of Carillon, which was still incomplete, and defended by less than three thousand men under Montcalm and Levis. The most unhappy incident of this disaster was the death of Lord Howe, described by Wolfe, who knew him well, "as the noblest Englishman that has appeared in my time, and the best soldier in the British army." Abercromby hurriedly retired to the head of Lake George, and was soon afterwards superseded by the cautious Amherst. Montcalm was greatly encouraged by the spirit of his soldiers throughout the attack, and erected a cross on the battle ground with the following inscriptions of his own—the latter his paraphrase of the first:

Quid dux? Quid miles? Quid strata ingentia ligna? En signum! en victor! Deus hic, Deus ipse triumphat.

"Chretien! ce ne fut point Montcalm et la prudence, Ces arbres renverses, ces heros, ces exploits, Qui des Anglais confus ont brise l'esperance, C'est le bras de ton Dieu, vainqueur sur cette croix." [2]

{246}

An important event of the year was the taking of Fort Frontenac by Colonel Bradstreet, who had assisted in the first siege of Louisbourg. The capture of this fort was regarded with every reason by the French as "of greater injury to the colony than the loss of a battle." Fort Duquesne, which was the key to the Ohio country, was abandoned by Ligneris on the approach of Brigadier Forbes, a very capable Scotch officer, but not until the French had beaten with considerable loss an advance of the main forces commanded by Major Grant. Ligneris withdrew his troops to Fort Machault (Venango), where he remained until the following year. Fort Duquesne was renamed in honour of Pitt, and a great manufacturing city has grown up on its site in the beautiful valley which, in 1758, passed away forever from the French who had only held possession of it for six short years.



[1] His full name was Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm-Gozon de Saint-Veran, whose family seat was Candiac, near Nismes, in the south of France.

[2] Parkman gives the following paraphrase of the Latin inscription;

"Soldier and chief and ramparts' strength are nought; Behold the conquering cross! 'T is God the triumph wrought."



{247}

XVIII.

THE STRUGGLE FOR DOMINION IN THE VALLEY OF THE ST. LAWRENCE—CANADA IS WON BY WOLFE ON THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM.

(1759-1763.)

When the campaign opened in 1759 the French had probably under arms in Canada not far from twenty thousand men, regulars, militia, and Indians—one-fifth only being French regiments. At Detroit there was a very insignificant garrison, as it was of minor importance compared with Niagara, which was the key to the Lakes and West. Here Pouchot, an able officer, who has given us an interesting memoir of the war, was stationed, with authority to call to his assistance the French forces at Presqu'ile, Le Boeuf, and Venango—some three thousand men altogether, made up mostly of colonial forces and Indian auxiliaries. At Fort Rouille (Toronto) there was no force worth mentioning, as it was a mere dependency of Niagara. Fort Frontenac had been destroyed by the English, and the French had no posts from that point as far as Montreal except at {248} Point-au-Baril (near Ogdensburgh), and Ile Galops, by the side of the well-known rapids of that name. The security of Montreal depended mainly on the French continuing to hold control of Lake Champlain, and Ile-aux-Noix which they now set to work to fortify. Bourlamaque, an able officer, was in command at the French forts of the lake with a force of over two thousand men, of whom one-half were Canadian, and had orders to abandon Carillon and Crown Point, if necessary, and advance to Ile-aux-Noix. At Quebec, probably fourteen thousand men, of whom four thousand were the pick of the French regiments in Canada, were under command of Montcalm, Levis, and Vaudreuil, and were entrenched on a height of land stretching for nearly six miles from the St. Charles River, to the southeast of the fortress, as far as Montmorency River, where its current rushes wildly forward for its tremendous leap of over two hundred and fifty feet into a deep and rocky abyss, and forms that glistening sheet of billowy foam which, seen from a distance, resembles a snowdrift suspended in air. The fortifications of Quebec had been strengthened for some years back, and its defences were entrusted to Ramesay, who had led a force to Nova Scotia in the year of the Duke d'Anville's disastrous expedition. The city was ill-provided with provisions for any sustained siege, despite the opportune arrival of some relief from France in the spring. The whole country had been impoverished by the continuous drain on the agricultural and labouring population during the war, and the Canadians themselves began {249} to lose courage, and assembled at the call of the authorities with less spirit than they had hitherto shown. Canada was literally on the brink of ruin, after so many years of war and privation. Corruption had eaten into the very body of Canadian life and government. The Intendant Bigot had been for years amassing riches at the expense of the country, and had, in imitation of his lord and master at Versailles, his fair Canadian Pompadour to bedeck with jewels and favours from the proceeds {250} of his ill-gotten gains. The names of Pean, Varin, Cadet, Estebe, and Clavery are the most conspicuous amongst those officials who became rich on Canadian misery and misfortune, and are dishonourably associated with the darkest hours of Canadian history. "What a country," said Montcalm, "where all the knaves grow rich, and honest men are ruined." Not the least discouraging feature of matters in Canada at this critical time, when unity and harmony were so necessary, was the jealousy that Governor de Vaudreuil, a weak, vain man, but honest and attached to his native province, entertained of Montcalm, who was himself imbued by the loftiest spirit that could animate a brave soldier and loyal Frenchman.



It was decided that the army under General Wolfe, less than nine thousand men, and the fleet under Admiral Saunders, should attack Quebec; that the Commander-in-Chief, Amherst, should advance against Montreal by way of Lake Champlain, and that Brigadier Prideaux and Sir William Johnson should lead a considerable force against Niagara. The English fleet arrived before Quebec on the 20th June, and no time was lost in commencing operations against the fortress. Wolfe was well supported by such able soldiers as Monckton, Murray, and Carleton, the latter of whom became famous in later Canadian history as Lord Dorchester. Brigadier Townsend, however capable, was irritable and egotistic. The soldiers admired Wolfe for his soldierly qualities, and loved him for his thoughtfulness for everyone above or below him. Admiral Saunders {252} was well aided by Holmes and Durell, and gave a loyal and ready response to the plans of Wolfe. The regiments had seen service at Louisbourg, and were fully animated by the courage and spirit of their general. The siege lasted for eleven weeks, and was then only ended by an act of boldness on the part of Wolfe, which took the French entirely by surprise.



The principal events between the 26th June and the 12th September, when the last act in this great international drama was played, can be described in a few pages. One of the most important incidents was the occupation by the English of the heights of Levis, whence the fortress was bombarded with an effectiveness that surprised the French, who, under the advice of Vaudreuil, and in opposition to that of Montcalm, had not taken adequate measures for the protection of so valuable a position. So destructive was the bombardment that, when the English took possession of Quebec, they found all the churches and buildings of importance in ruins, and the Ursuline Convent alone was saved from complete destruction.

The English sustained a severe repulse near the Montmorency end of the French lines. They had made an attack on an outwork at that point, and the grenadiers had been carried away by excitement and dashed up the slope of the heights, where from twelve to fourteen thousand French soldiers were strongly intrenched. A furious storm of bullets assailed the reckless and brave grenadiers, who could not even gain a firm footing on the slippery slope, {253} while the rain came down in torrents, and their blood reddened the rivulets of water. This was, however, the only serious disaster that the English suffered throughout the siege. The fire ships of the French had been ill-managed, and failed to do any damage as they were sent down against the fleet. Montcalm, sure of his impregnable position, refused to be drawn from his intrenchments and to offer battle to Wolfe. He knew that delay was everything to him, for the autumn was drawing near. In a few weeks storm and frost would drive the Englishmen from the river. Wherever Montcalm looked, his position seemed unassailable. The high cliffs that stretched for miles above Quebec offered a guaranty of security in that direction, and to prevent any doubt, Bougainville, a capable officer—in later years famous as a navigator—was on the alert with a force of upwards of two thousand soldiers. He had double work to do, to guard these apparently impregnable cliffs, and to assure the arrival of provisions from the country by river and land. It was the expected arrival of a convoy of provisions that proved an important factor in the successful accomplishment of a plan that Wolfe had devised for the capture of the city.

While the siege was in progress, the news from the west and from Lake Champlain was discouraging for the French. Niagara had been surrendered by Pouchot to Sir William Johnson, who had taken command on the death of Prideaux—killed at the beginning of operations—and a large force that was brought up by Ligneris from the Ohio valley to {254} succour the post had been severely defeated. Crown Point and Ticonderoga had been abandoned by Bourlamaque, and there was for a time some expectation of the advance of Amherst to the St. Lawrence; Montcalm was obliged to weaken his army by sending his ablest general, Levis, with a force of fifteen hundred men, to look after the defences of Montreal, but the sluggish English general wasted his time on the banks of Lake Champlain.

It was quite clear to Wolfe and Saunders that Amherst was not to give them any assistance in the difficult work before them. It was on the night of the 12th of September that Wolfe carried out the project which had been for some time forming in his mind. He had managed to concentrate a force of four thousand men above the fortress without awakening the suspicions of the French, who were confident that Bougainville was fully able to prevent any force from attempting so impossible and foolhardy an exploit as the ascent of the high cliffs. The visitor to the historic places around Quebec will be deeply interested in a cove, just above Sillery, now known as Wolfe's Cove, but in old times as the Anse-au-Foulon. A zig-zag and difficult path led from this cove to the top of the height, and Wolfe conceived the hope that it was possible to gain access in this way to the table-land where he could best give battle to Montcalm. He saw that the cliff at this point was defended by only a small guard, under the command, as it afterwards appeared, of Vergor, who had been tried and acquitted for his questionable surrender of Beausejour. When the {255} English boats dropped down the river with the tide at midnight, on the 12th of September, there was no moon, and the stars alone gave a faint light. Montcalm had no conception of the importance of the movement of troops which, it had been reported to him, was going on for some days above Quebec, and his attention was diverted by the constant bombardment on the town from Levis, and a fierce cannonading that was kept up against Beauport by Saunders. Wolfe's thoughts on that memorable night as his boat passed under the shadow of the dark cliff, we can imagine from an incident that is related by one who was present. Hardly a dip of an oar was heard from the flotilla as it was borne down the river, but from Beauport and Levis came the constant roar of cannon. Every moment was carrying him to fame and death, and perhaps it was some foreboding of his fate that led him to repeat the words of Gray's Elegy, which from that hour has become more famous in English literature: