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3. A large fleet,
under Admiral Boscawen, conveying a powerful army, under General
Amherst,1 appeared before Louisburg2
early in June. After a vigorous resistance, this fortress and the
whole island of Cape Breton were surrendered, July 27, together
with nearly six thousand prisoners, and large munitions of war. At
the same time the English became masters of the Island of St.
John,3 and of the coast from the St. Lawrence to Nova
Scotia.
4. The expedition against
Ticonderoga was unsuccessful. It was conducted by the
inefficient General Abercrombie, now commander-in-chief, Lord
Loudoun having been recalled.
While the siege of Louisburg was going
on, Abercrombie, having embarked at Fort William Henry with an
army of fifteen thousand men, passed down Lake George, and landing
near its outlet, marched against Ticonderoga, which was defended
by a strong garrison, commanded by the brave and vigilant
Montcalm. Abercrombie, without waiting for his artillery, rashly
ordered an assault. After a bloody struggle, in which he lost, in
killed and wounded, two thousand men, he made a precipitate
retreat.
5. The disgrace of this repulse was in
some degree retrieved by Colonel Bradstreet, who, with three
thousand men from Abercrombie's command, mostly provincials,
sailed down Lake Ontario and captured Fort Frontenac,
together with several armed vessels on the lake.
6. The movement to dispossess the French
of Fort Duquesne was successfully accomplished by General
Forbes.
The army of seven thousand men advanced
with difficulty, and when within fifty miles of the fort, it was
decided by a council of war to abandon the enterprise. Just at
this time prisoners were brought in, who revealed the weak state
of the garrison. It was therefore determined to push forward the
troops. Washington, with his Virginians, led the advance. As they
approached the fort, the garrison deserted it; and late in
November the English flag was planted over Fort Duquesne, which
was then named Fort Pitt, in honor of the illustrious
British minister. Pittsburg still commemorates the name. Peace
with the western Indians was one of the fruits of this
victory, and this contributed to the fortunate issues of the next
year.
1 James Wolfe was second in command. Richard Montgomery was also a commissioned officer at this siege. Wolfe (see p. 94. note 1) and Montgomery (see p. 117, ¶ 14) both fell afterwards at Quebec -- the former fighting for his king, the latter for colonial independence.
2 See Map, p. 86. 3. Now Prince Edward Island.
QUESTIONS. -- 3. Give an account of the capture of Louisburg. What, with Louisburg, fell into the hands of the English? 4. What is said of the expedition against Ticonderoga? -- Describe this expedition more particularly. 5. How was the disgrace of Abercrombie's repulse in some degree retrieved? 6. What is said of the expedition against Fort Duquesne? -- Give a particular account of this expedition and its result.
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7. Events of 1759. --
The campaign of 1759 had for its object the conquest of Canada. To
this end
it was determined that General Amherst should lead one army
against Ticonderoga and Crown Point, General Prideaux another
against Niagara, and General Wolfe a third against Quebec.
8. In July, on the approach of Amherst,
Ticonderoga and Crown Point were evacuated.
Niagara, after a siege of about three weeks, also fell into
the hands of the English.1
9. Meanwhile, General Wolfe was
prosecuting the most important enterprise of the campaign, the
reduction of Quebec.
Embarking
at Louisburg with eight thousand men, and escorted by a powerful
fleet, he landed with his troops, in June, on the Island of
Orleans, below Quebec. The able General Montcalm commanded in the
city, and he had fortified it, as he supposed, against every
approach. But along the St. Lawrence, above the city, precipitous
cliffs rise from the waters edge to a great height, terminating in
a broad plateau, known as the Plains of Abraham. Montcalm had not
made this line secure, deeming it impossible for the English to
scale the cliffs. After several fruitless efforts to reduce the
city, Wolfe resolved upon the bold expedient of attempting this
seeming impossibility. Accordingly his troops were transported
several miles up the river, and, after midnight, dropping silently
down the current, they landed about a mile above the city, and
began to ascend the precipice.
10. Early in the morning
of September 13, Wolfe had drawn up his army on the Plains of
Abraham,
which commanded the city. Before noon he gained a victory which
decided the fate of France in America. Five days after the battle
Quebec capitulated.2
No sooner was the astonished Montcalm
informed of the position of the English army, than he advanced to
meet his foe. The opposing forces
1 A few days before the surrender, the able and distinguished General Prideaux was killed by the bursting of a mortar. The command devolved on Sir William Johnson, who successfully put in execution the plans of his lamented predecessor.
2 The next spring the French made an ineffectual attempt to recover Quebec.
QUESTIONS. -- 7. What was the object of the campaign of 1759? What expeditions were determined on? 8. What is said of the expedition against Ticonderoga and Crown Point? Against Niagara? 9. What was the most important enterprise of the campaign? -- Who commanded in Quebec? Describe Wolfe's method of attack. 10. When and where was the decisive battle fought? Result of the victory? When did Quebec capitulate? -- Give a more particular account of the battle.
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were nearly equal in numbers, each having about five thousand
men; but the French were far inferior in discipline. The English
reserved their fire until their assailants were within forty
yards, and then opened upon them with deadly effect. The French
fought bravely; but their ranks became disordered, and,
notwithstanding the repeated efforts of their officers to form
them, and to renew the attack, they were so successfully pushed by
the British bayonet, and hewn down by the Highland broadsword,
that their discomfiture was complete. Both commanders fell
mortally wounded.1
11. Early in September, 1760,
General Amherst collected before Montreal eighteen thousand
men, for the 
purpose
of reducing this last stronghold of the French in Canada, when the
governor, perceiving that no effectual resistance could be made,
surrendered. With Montreal all Canada fell into the power
of the English.
12. Spain in 1761 began hostilities
against England, and became the ally of France, when conquest had
left to France but little to protect in the new world. Spain
gained nothing by this war. 
British
cruisers cut off her colonial commerce, and a British armament, to
which New England and New York contributed, captured
Havana.2
13. Peace of Paris. -- In 1763 a
treaty was ratified at Paris, that put an end to the American
intercolonial
wars. By this treaty, Spain ceded to England
Florida3 in exchange for Havana. France
relinquished all her claims and possessions in North America,
except two small islands;4 to England she gave up all
east of the Mississippi, except the island5 and city of
New Orleans; and to Spain, in grateful recompense for the losses
which that nation had suffered during the war, this island and
city, and all west of the Mississippi.
1 Wolfe was twice wounded early In the battle, but continued to encourage his men. At the moment of victory a third bullet pierced his breast. He was now obliged to be carried to the rear of the line. He died in the field, before the battle was ended, but lived long enough to know that the victory was his. While leaning on the shoulder of a lieutenant, he was seized with the agonies of death: at this moment was heard the shout, "They run! -- they run!" The hero raised his drooping head, and eagerly asked, "Who run?" Being told that it was the French, he replied, "Then I die happy." and expired. Montcalm, fighting in front of his battalion, received a mortal wound about the same time. When carried to the city, the surgeon informed him he could survive but a few hours. "So much the better," he replied; "I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." He died the next morning
2 The capital of Cuba. 3 See p. 147, ¶ 38, and note 1.
4 France retained a share in the North American fisheries, and the Islands (St. Pierre and Miquelon) as a shelter for her fishermen.
This island is the territory bounded by the Mississippi on the west and South, and on the east and north by Lakes Borgne, Pontchartrain. and Maurepas, and by the River Iberville, which, at fall flood, takes water from the Mississippi a few miles below Baton Rouge, and carries it through these lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.
QUESTIONS. -- 11. Give an account of the fall of Montreal. 12. What nation became the ally of France, and when? How did Spain suffer in this war? 13. When and where was the treaty ratified that ended the war? By this treaty what exchange was made by England and Spain? What did France relinquish? What to England? What to Spain?
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14. The Cherokee
War. -- During the war with the French and Indians in
the north, the Cherokees1 were firm friends of the
English, and defended the frontiers south of the Potomac. In
return they were treated with the basest ingratitude, and the
Carolinas were made to feel, by a desolating invasion, the just
indignation of the Indians. In 1761, after two years of strife,
Colonel Grant marched into their country, defeated them, laid
waste their villages, and compelled them to sue for peace.
15. Pontiac's War. --
After the capture of Montreal, the English proceeded to
take possession of the French posts in Canada and the west. The
natives, friendly to the French and hostile to the English, saw
their own doom in the stream of immigration that soon began to
pour over the mountains. One bold spirit determined to make a
stand against this unwelcome occupation of their soil, and
succeeded in uniting many of the western tribes to drive out the
English from beyond the Alleghanies. This was Pontiac, a
chief of the Ottawas. He was so far successful, that in the summer
of 1763, when he was ready for
action, within the space of two weeks most of the English posts
west of Niagara fell into the hands of the savages. The garrisons
were nearly all slain. English traders were murdered and scalped,
and the whole western frontier was laid waste. A thousand families
were driven from their homes.
Fort Pitt was saved by the timely arrival of
assistance. Detroit escaped capture, having withstood for several
months a siege conducted by Pontiac in person. The next year the
Indians were intimidated by the active preparations made to subdue
them, and the tribes began to fall away from the conspiracy, and
make peace with the English. A few years afterwards, Pontiac was
assassinated by an Indian.
CHAPTER VII.
CONDITION, AT THE CLOSE OF THIS PERIOD, OF
WHAT
IS NOW THE UNITED STATES.
1. France now had
disappeared from the number of European claimants to the
territory2 of the United States. Spain had succeeded to
the French claim west of the Mississippi, while east of that river
all but the island and city of New Orleans had come under the
power of England.3
2. Great Britain now possessed
thirteen colonies settled along the Atlantic coast, soon to
appear as a new nation. In
1 See p. 23, note (V.). 2 See p. 68, ¶¶ 1-2. 3 See p. 94, ¶ 13.
QUESTIONS. -- 14. Give an account of the Cherokee war. 15. What induced Pontiac to make war on the English? For what purpose did he unite many western tribes? How far was Pontiac successful? -- What is said of Fort Pitt? Of Detroit? Of the Indians the next year? Fate of Pontiac? 1. What is said of France at the close of this Period? Of Spain? Of England? 2 What is said of the colonies of Great Britain?
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these colonies there prevailed three forms of
government charter, proprietary, and royal. Under all these forms
the people had participated in legislation, and become accustomed
to share in the administration of affairs.
The charter governments were those
of Massachusetts (until 1692), Rhode Island, and Connecticut. In
these colonies, under their charters, the government was committed
to the freemen. The proprietary governments were those of
Maryland, Pennsylvania (with Delaware), and at first New York, New
Jersey, and the Carolinas. Here the proprietors were authorized,
under certain restrictions, to establish governments. The royal
governments were those of New Hampshire, Virginia, Georgia,
and afterwards Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and the
Carolinas. In these the appointment of the principal officers
belonged to the crown.
3. The population of what is now
the United States, east of the Mississippi, at the close of this
Period, was not far from two millions. Twelve years later, at the
breaking out of the Revolutionary War,1 it is estimated
to have been something less than three millions.
4. We observe, during this Period,
a gradual assimilation of manners and character among the
colonies. Although the first settlers were collected from various
countries of Europe, and emigration from different nations still
continued to pour in, yet the greater part of the people were now
Americans by birth and education. The increase of wealth and
intercourse with Europe had begun to introduce the tastes,
fashions, and luxuries of the Old World.
5. Religion. -- Religious intolerance had
now greatly abated, persecution had ceased, and the rights of
conscience were generally recognized.
During this Period America was the field
of the labors of the eminent divines John Wesley, for some
time missionary to the colonists and Indians of Georgia,
afterwards the founder of the sect called Methodists, and
George Whitefield, who travelled extensively in England and
America as an evangelist. It was chiefly under Whitefield's labors
that the remarkable religious excitement, known as the Great
Revival, occurred in America, about the time of the beginning of
the Spanish war.2 Whitefield was buried in Newburyport,
Massachusetts.
1 See p 111. 2 See p. 85, Chap. IV.
QUESTIONS. -- What forms of government prevailed in these colonies? In what had the people participated, and to what had they become accustomed? -- Name the charter governments. What of the government in these colonies? Name the proprietary governments. By whom were governments established in these colonies? Name the royal governments. What of the appointment of officers in these colonies? 3. What was the population in the present United States, east of the Mississippi, at the close of this Period? Twelve years later? 4. What can you tell of the manners of the colonists? 5. What is said of religious intolerance, persecution, and the rights of conscience? -- What of Wesley and Whitefield? Of the Great Revival?
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6.
Notwithstanding the desolating wars, the interests of
education advanced. Five colleges were established.1 As
yet, sermons constituted the principal literature of the colonies.
The first newspaper printed in America was the Boston News
Letter, issued in 1704. During this period flourished two men
whose researches made them known and honored by the learned
throughout the world -- Jonathan Edwards,2 an
eminent metaphysician and divine, and Benjamin
Franklin.3 whose labors as a philosopher and a
statesman continued through the next Period.
7. The trade of the colonies felt
the restrictions imposed by the mother country. From the very,
beginning, laws were enacted by England, from time to time,
designed to make the colonies depend on her for manufactured
articles, to limit their trade, and check their spirit of
enterprise.4 But, in spite of these restrictions,
trade and commerce steadily increased.
8. Notwithstanding the obstacles
interposed by Great Britain to the progress of arts and
manufactures in the colonies, the coarser kinds of cutlery,
some coarse cloths (both linen and woollen), hats, paper, shoes,
household furniture, farming utensils, were manufactured to a
considerable extent; not enough, however, to supply the
inhabitants. Agriculture was greatly improved and extended.
Immense tracts of forests were cleared, and better modes of
husbandry introduced. The colonies now raised a large surplus of
food for export.
1 In Virginia, William and Mary College, in 1692; in Connecticut, Yale College, in 1700? (inkspot); in New Jersey, the College of New Jersey in 1746; in Pennsylvania, the University of Pennsylvania, in 1749; and in New York, Columbia College, in 1754.
2 Born in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1703, died 1758.
3 Born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1706, died 1790. About the same time that Edwards gave to the public his best known work, the Freedom of the Will (1754), appeared, in London, Franklin's Letters on Electricity (1751-54), which challenged the admiration of the world.
4 To carry out the Navigation Acts (see p. 34, ¶ 4) and bring the trade of the colonists under stricter control, the English government established, in 1696, The Board of Trade and Plantations, consisting of a president and seven members, known as Lords of Trade. Down to the period of the American Revolutions this board exercised a general oversight of the colonies. New and more stringent provisions were added to the Acts of Trade, and Courts of Admiralty were established throughout the colonies (1697), with power to try revenue cases without a jury. To illustrate the selfish commercial policy of England, we may notice several laws of Parliament. In 1732 an act was passed prohibiting "the exportation of hats out of the plantations of America, and to restrain the number of apprentices taken by hat-makers." In 1733 Parliament passed what was called the "Molasses Act," laying duties on molasses, sugar, and rum imported from any but the British West India Islands. An act of 1750 prohibited "the erection of any mill for slitting or rolling of iron, or any plating forge to work with a tilt-hammer, or any furnace for making steel, in any of the colonies." In like manner was prohibited the exportation from one province to another of all wools and woollen goods. The colonies were also obliged, by the Acts of Trade (see p. 34, 14), to procure from England many articles which they could have purchased cheaper in other markets.
QUESTIONS -- 6 What is said of education? Of literature? Of the first newspaper? Of Edwards and Franklin? 7. What can you tell of the trade and commerce of the colonies? 8. Of arts and manufactures? Of agriculture?
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CHRONOLOGICAL REVIEW.
[The figures at the end of the paragraphs in the Chronological Review refer to the pages upon which the events are mentioned.]
1689. King William's War began, 82.
1692. Massachusetts received a new charter,
extending her territory, but abridging her privileges, 76.
The delusion known
as the Salem Witchcraft prevailed in Massachusetts, 76.
1697. The treaty of Ryswick closed King
William's War, 83.
1699. Biloxi was settled -- the first permanent
French settlement on the Gulf of Mexico, 80.
1702. Delaware obtained a separate legislative
assembly, 78.
Queen Anne's War
began, 83.
1710. Port Royal was taken from the French, and
named Annapolis, 84.
1713. The treaty of Utrecht closed Queen Anne's
War, 85.
1718. New Orleans was founded by the French,
80.
1729. Carolina was divided into two distinct
royal provinces -- North Carolina and South Carolina, 78.
1733. The colonization of Georgia was begun at
Savannah, by the English under Oglethorpe, 79.
1738. New Jersey became a distinct royal
province, 77.
1739. The Spanish intercolonial war began,
85.
1741. New Hampshire was finally separated from
Massachusetts, 76.
1744. King George's War began, 86.
1745. Louisburg was taken by the English,
86.
1748. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle closed King
George's War, 87.
1752. Georgia became a royal province, 80.
1755. The whole country east of the Penobscot
fell under British authority, 89.
Defeat and death
of Braddock, 89.
1756. The French and Indian War, which had been
raging two years, was formally proclaimed, 90.
1757. Fort William Henry was captured by
Montcalm, 91.
1759. Quebec, and the next year Montreal and all
Canada, fell into the power of the English, 93, 94.
1763. The treaty of Paris put an end to the
French and Indian War, 94.
Pontiac's War
broke out, 95.
1689. Peter the Great
became sole Czar of Russia at the age of seventeen, Died in
1725
William and Mary
ascended the throne of England. William died in 1702.
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1697. Charles XII,
became King of Sweden at the age of fifteen. Killed in 1718, at
the siege of Frederickshald.
1699. Peace of Charlowitz. From this dates the
decline of the Ottoman Power.
1700. Death of Charles II. of Spain.
1701. Prussia erected into a kingdom.
1704. Gibraltar taken into a kingdom.
Marlborough won
the decisive victory of Blenheim.
1707. Legislative union of England and
Scotland.
1709. Battle of Pultowa. Here Peter the Great
arrested Charles XII. in a career of victory that had begun to
alarm all Europe.
1720. The South Sea Bubble burst.
1739. Nadir Shah (Kouli Kan) invaded India, and
broke the power of the Great Mongul.
1740. Frederic II., the Great, became King of
Prussia. Died in 1786. Maria Theresa succeeded to the hereditary
states of her father, Charles VI. Five years after she was seated
on the imperial throne, her husband, Francis of Lorraine, having
been elected emperor. Maria died in 1780.
1745. Battle of Fontenoy, and defeat of the
Anglo-Dutch army by Marshal Saxe.
1746. The cause of the Young Pretender ruined at
Culloden.
1752. The New Style adopted in the British
dominions, September 3 being called September 14. The Civil Year,
which had previously begun March 25, was made to begin January 1,
corresponding with the Historical Year.
1755. Great earthquake in Lisbon.
1757. The beginning of the British Empire in
India. Clive defeated Surajah Dowlah, infamous for having confined
prisoners in the Black Hole of Calcutta, and for other
cruelties.
Battle of Prague.
Frederic II., the Great, won a brilliant but dearly-bought
victory.
1760. George III. became king of England. Died
in 1820.
1763. The Peace of Hubertsberg, with the Peace
of Paris, closed the seven years' war in Europe.
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