CHAPTER X.

General Affairs of the Colonies to the Peace in 1763.

The Colonies originally unconnected-Only united against France-Collisions in Canada and Nova Scotia-French Settlements in the Western Territory-Washington's Mission thither-He proceeds with a Military Force-Events of the Campaign-Plans for an Union of the Colonies-Braddock's Expedition and Defeat-Sir William Johnson's ExploitsSuccess of the French under Montcalm-Vigorous Measures of Pitt-Reduction of Louisbourg and Quebec-French evacuate the Western Territory-Are obliged to cede Canada -Progress of the Colonies in Population-In CommerceTables.

THE colonies, of which we have thus delineated the origin and progress, down to the close of the war in 1763 were altogether unconnected. Each had been founded on a separate basis, by distinct and even hostile classes. Between neighbouring communities, where no sentiment of unity reigns, jealousies almost inevitably arise; and these were aggravated by boundary disputes and other contending claims. Some governors, particularly Nicholson, recommended the union of several of them under one head; but these were men of arbitrary temper, who urged this measure on the home administration as a mode of extending the power of the crown, and keeping down the increasing spirit of independence. Such communications, when they transpired, heightened not a little the antipathy already felt to the proposed measure.

There was, however, one object by which all the colonies were roused to a most zealous co-operation. It might have seemed a hardship that the successive wars

between Britain and France should be transferred to their rising settlements beyond the Atlantic; but the inhabitants by no means felt it as such, and required only permission, in order to rush with fury against each other. The old national antipathy was remarkably strong in this ruder society; the difference of creed made the contests be viewed somewhat as religious wars; and the contrast between an absolute and a free government appeared peculiarly striking on the English side, where maxims almost republican prevailed. At first the colonies followed in the footsteps of the mother-country; but as their magnitude and importance increased, the flame arose among themselves, and was thence communicated to Europe.

Even so early as 1629, Sir David Kirk, having equipped a fleet, surprised and took Quebec; but that infant settlement, to which little value was then attached, was restored at the peace in 1632.* A severe collision, however, arose in consequence of the support afforded by the English from New York to the Five Nations, in the long and terrible war waged by them against the French in Canada. It was mostly carried on by skirmishes, in a covert manner, and without regular sanction from either power. But after the Revolution of 1688, open hostilities ensued between the two nations, and Britain again determined to strike a blow against the enemy's power beyond the Atlantic. Acadia was subdued with little resistance, and Sir William Phipps, with thirty-four vessels and a large body of troops, reached Quebec. He did not, however, display the requisite promptitude; and through the able defence made by Count Frontenac, was obliged to reimbark without effecting his object. An attempt against Montreal was also defeated by the ability of Des Callières. The contest was suspended by the peace of 1697, when, to the great discontent of the inhabitants, Acadia was restored to France. During the war of the Spanish succession, two expeditions, the one in 1704, and the other in

*See fuller particulars in British America (Edinburgh Cabinet Library, Nos. xxv. xxvi. xxvii.), vol. i. p. 129.

1707, failed in achieving the conquest of that province; but General Nicholson, in September 1710, finally annexed it, under the title of Nova Scotia, to the British crown. He proceeded afterwards to make a grand effort against the Canadian capital, which was frustrated by the shipwreck of his squadron near the Seven Islands. Still the force of England was considered so superior, that she must ultimately have triumphed, had not the contest been terminated in 1713 by the peace of Utrecht. France retained Canada, but was obliged to cede Acadia and Newfoundland; also to make over to Britain her claims to the sovereignty of the Five Nations.*

A long peace now followed, and though jealousies continued, no open hostilities ensued till 1744, when the war, which Britain had for several years waged with Spain, was extended to France. The latter power, though deprived of Nova Scotia by the treaty of Utrecht, had retained Cape Breton, and erected upon it Louisburg, which, by an expenditure of £1,200,000, was supposed to have been rendered one of the strongest of modern fortresses. The New England colonies, however, having, with characteristic ardour, determined to attack it, raised 4000 men, and placed them under the command of Colonel Pepperel, who, on the 30th April 1745, took the enemy somewhat by surprise. Being seconded by the fleet under Admiral Warren, he in seven weeks reduced this grand bulwark of their power in America ; and though they made several vigorous efforts, they did not succeed in retrieving this disaster. Nevertheless, at the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, the colonists had the mortification to see the fruits of their valour snatched from them, Cape Breton being restored in exchange for some continental advantages, which were more highly prized by the British king and ministry. They expressed the deepest discontent, and hesitated not even to charge the government at home with

* British America (Edinburgh Cabinet Library), vol. i. pp. 152-154, 166, 167; vol. ii. p. 129-131.

a desire to maintain the power of Louis, in order to check the spirit of internal independence.*

The French, meantime, had become inspired with an eager desire to extend their North American possessions. Having at various points been brought into contact with the back settlements of their rival, they had been generally successful in gaining the alliance of the Indians, from whose warlike character important aid was expected. They made the most active movements in New Brunswick, hoping thence to penetrate into Nova Scotia, where they would find a population originally French, and still strongly attached to the country of their fathers. But the enterprises which caused the greatest inquietude took place along the Ohio and the Mississippi. The colonists had already, at different points, penetrated the barrier of the Alleghany, and begun to discover the value of the country extending to those mighty streams. The enemy, on the other hand, in virtue of certain voyages made in the preceding century by Marquette and La Salle, claimed the whole range of the Mississippi, by attaining which, their settlements in Canada and New Orleans would be formed into one continuous territory. This pretension, if referred to that peculiar law according to which Europeans have divided America among themselves, seems not wholly unfounded. They had added, however, a more exorbitant claim of all the streams falling into the great river, which would have carried them to the very summit of the Alleghany, and have hemmed in the British colonists in a manner to which they were by no means disposed to submit. The banks of the Ohio became the debateable ground on which this collision mainly took place.

The British were so confident in their right, that in 1749, an association was formed of merchants in London, combined with Virginian planters, called the Ohio Company, who received from the crown a grant of 600,000 acres on that river. Similar donations were made to

*British America (Edinburgh Cabinet Library), vol. ii. p 133-136.

other parties, who could not with any degree of safety turn them to account, in the face of such pretensions as the French advanced and showed a determination to support. These assumed so menacing a character,* that Mr Dinwiddie, governor of Virginia, under instructions from home, judged it necessary to send a commissioner to examine the state of affairs on that frontier, to confer with the French commander, and urge him to desist from farther encroachment. This little expedition is memorable from the command being intrusted to Major George Washington, a youth of twenty-one, whose steady and intelligent character already pointed him out for this delicate employment. He departed on the 31st October 1753, and after many difficulties in travelling 560 miles across a rugged part of the Alleghany, arrived at the station of M. de St Pierre. He was received with all the national courtesy and urbanity; but after two days an answer was returned, couched in respectful yet determined language. The commandant described himself as only a military man, who could decide nothing on such an application, which ought to be addressed to the Marquis Duquesne, governor of Canada, under whom he acted, and whose orders he was bound to obey. Moreover, the inferior officers at a frontier post, after an evening entertainment given to the major, becoming heated with wine, announced, even with an oath, their absolute intention to take possession of the Ohio. Washington had observed on his way the position at the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela, termed the two Forks of that river, and strongly recommended that it should be fortified. He held communication with a number of Indians, who expressed a friendly disposition to his countrymen, and a jealousy of the manner in which they saw the French occupying their country. But others had been

* Mr Grahame (vol. iii. p. 361) asserts, that in 1753 they seized a number of English traders on the Ohio, and carried them prisoners to Presque Isle, on Lake Erie. None of the American authorities allude to such an event, which would have amounted to an open levying of war.