French and the English, many Indians fought, after their own fashion, on one side or the other.

With each war between France and England, the contest for supremacy in America grew more intense. To the English colonies it was not a matter of European politics, but of the safety of their homes. The danger from Indian attack was greater when the savages were led and encouraged by French soldiers. The French, with their military organization, had a great advantage over the English in any campaign. They were soldiers, bred to fighting. The English, for the most part, were farmers, who fought only when the war was brought close to them, and then with little military organization or discipline.

67. King William's War and Queen Anne's War. There had been scattered fighting since 1689, when the Iroquois fell upon La Chine and committed the most terrible massacre that Canada had ever known. The French and Illinois Indians retaliated by destroying Schenectady the next year. A party

1 So little did the garrison fear an attack that they posted two snow images for sentinels.

of French and Indians also attacked Deerfield in Massachusetts. After killing many men, women, and children, and burning the village, they carried the remaining inhab

1704.

itants into captivity. The two periods of fighting were called after the sovereigns of England then reigningKing William's War and Queen Anne's War.

68. King George's War. — But in 1744 a series of conflicts began which lasted with intervals for nearly twenty years, until the great question whether the French or the English were to be masters of the continent was settled. The first important movement resulted in the capture of Louisburg, on 1745. Cape Breton Island. The French had made this strongly fortified place a means of controlling the fishing ground in the neighborhood; and as it was captured by a New England expedition, aided by British ships, the achievement was received with enthusiasm by the colonies and with astonishment in Europe.

The war of which this action was a part is known as King George's War, and came to an end in 1748. In the treaty of peace, Louisburg was restored to the French, to the bitter disappointment of New England. The colonies seemed to have gained nothing by the victory except a heavy debt, which, however, was soon reimbursed by Parliament, the remembrance of glory, and an increased confidence in their soldiers. The peace was of short duration. It was rather an armistice, during which both parties were making ready for a final contest. Acadia. - The English sent out a large colony to Acadia, and founded the town of Halifax. The French strengthened their settlements in the same country. The English power lay in its occupation of the land by people rather than by forts. While the French were thinking to fence off the western country by a line of forts, the English were slowly moving their frontier line by an irregular march of settlers. They were organizing emigration companies also.

69. The Ohio Company was formed in 1748 by gentlemen in Virginia and Maryland. They obtained from the king a grant

LAKE ERIE

PRESQUE
ISLE

FORT

FT.LE BOEUF

P

E

NEW

YORK

of five hundred thousand acres, chiefly on the south side of the Ohio River, between the Monongahela and Kanawha. It was their intention to connect this country by roads with the two colonies. In the years immediately following they made. surveys and established a few settlements. One of the surveyors was a Virginian, named George Washington.' Washington's Journey. When rumors came that the French were encroaching on this territory with their forts, Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia sent Washington to look into the matter. He brought back such a report of the activity of the French that the Virginia Assembly at once took measures to build a fort at the junction of the Monongahela and Allegheny. Suddenly the 1754. French appeared upon the scene, drove away the English, and finished for themselves the fort, which they named Fort Du Quesne.

Ohio

N

FT.VENANGO +

S

Alleghany R

Kittanning
lage)

(Indian

FT.DUQUESNE
OR FT.PITT

Braddock's
Field

FT.BIRD

Bushy Run

Redstone

FT.

NECESSITY

VIRGIN

Braddock's Route.

they met also representatives from the Indians of the Six Nations. William Johnson, an Englishman of great influence

1 Thackeray's The Virginians introduces Washington as a young man.

among the Indians, urged these Indians to join them against their old enemy the French.

The English government sent out troops and vessels to America, and appointed a commander-in-chief, General Edward Braddock. Braddock set out from Fort Cumberland, in Maryland. He had with him English regulars, some colonial troops, and a few friendly Indians. Washington was on his staff. Braddock marched slowly, stopping to make better roads and erect earthworks. He followed the methods of marching and fighting to which he was used, and paid no attention to the advice of Washington and others who knew the ways of the country. The French, with their Indian allies, kept themselves informed of every movement that Braddock made.

Braddock's Defeat. The English general was cautiously moving along and preparing to lay siege to the fort, according to the regular rules, when suddenly, soon after crossing a ford, his army was surprised by Indians, and by French who fought in the manner of Indians. The English were utterly defeated. Braddock was mortally wounded. He transferred his command to Washington, and died overwhelmed with remorse. Washington led back the broken army; and the French and Indians followed up their victory by laying waste the back country of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

1755.

The disaster to Braddock's army was terrible, but it had an important influence for good. It taught the colonies to rely on their own soldiers rather than on British regulars. They began at once to organize a militia, which was under training upon the battle field during the remainder of the war. war is known in America as the French and Indian War.1

This

71. The Expulsion of the Acadians. - While Braddock was marching against Fort Du Quesne, another force was engaged in reducing the French forts in Acadia. That name was then

1 Parkman's narration of Braddock's defeat is contained in No. 7 of Historical Classic Readings. Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans has its scenes laid in the French and Indian War.

applied to what is now Nova Scotia and a large part of New Brunswick. The forts guarded the neck of land which connects the two portions. The English held Nova Scotia, but they also claimed part of the rest of Acadia. The peninsula was occupied partly by French and partly by English farmers, but the French were more numerous. There were prosperous French settlements about the Bay of Minas, under English

law, but not far from the French forts. Most of the French Acadians were simple-minded, peaceable people, who desired only to live undisturbed upon their farms. But among them were some who were bitterly hostile to the English, and took every opportunity to favor the French and menace the English settlement at Halifax.

When the war broke out, the danger from these increased. At last the English authorities determined to solve the difficulty by removing all the French families out of the country.