with General James Wolfe at the head of the military forces. He was only thirty-two years of age — a quiet, modest gentleman, with charming manners and keen intellect, mingled with rare courage and enterprise. A FRENCH The English fleet carried less than All summer long Wolfe tried to A FRENCH he might win if he could meet the French in an open battle before the walls of their great fort. But they bravely resisted his assaults. Finally, he discovered a narrow path up the steep hillside, made by goats; one September morning, before daylight, he and about four thousand of his best men secretly climbed up this path to the Plains of Abraham, a plateau just outside the walls.1 In the terrible battle that followed, the English were victorious.2 The French garrison ran up the white flag, and 1 While the attacking party sat in rowboats under the deep shadow of the cliff, waiting for the signal to land, Wolfe recited these prophetic lines from Gray's Elegy written in a Country Churchyard, saying, “I would rather have written those lines than take Quebec." "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 66 And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, The paths of glory lead but to the grave." 2 In this battle both Wolfe and Montcalm were killed. While Wolfe was being carried to the rear, shouts of victory were heard on the field. One of his officers exclaimed, "See them run!""Who run?" eagerly whispered the General. On being told that the French were retreating, he cried, "Now God be praised, I die happy!" and fell dead in the arms of his companion. About the same time, Montcalm also died from a severe wound. the troops of England triumphantly marched into the for tress. 139. The end of New France. Montreal was easily captured by the English, the next year, and soon after that the remaining French forts in the interior of the continent were also handed over to the victors. The banner of England now floated from practically every flagpole east of the Mississippi River.1 The treaty of peace, which was not signed until February, 1763, in Paris, left to France the country west of the Mississippi; but later it became known that, three months before this, she had secretly given that enormous tract, all of which was then called Louisiana, to her ally, Spain. Thus the old-time claim of the English colonists that their territory reached to the Pacific was no longer in force. Most of the French in Canada remained in their old homes and became English citizens. ENGLISH SOLDIERS 140. Effect of the war. This long and terrible contest between the English and the French was of great importance in American history. Unlike the English colonists, the people of New France had no trial by jury, no town meetings, no representative assembly; all their affairs were under the control of the despotic King of France, and many of the officials whom he sent to govern Canada were harsh and dishonest. The population of New France was small, and a third of her people were engaged in the fur trade, which caused them 1 France kept New Orleans; also two small islands, St. Pierre and Miquelon, south of Newfoundland, on which her fishermen might live. Another important result of the war was Spain's cession of Florida to England. The latter had captured Havana not long before, and in exchange for this Spain reluctantly yielded up Florida, which guarded the Gulf of Mexico on the north. to wander far from home. The arts of farm-making, townbuilding, mining, forestry, manufacturing, and the like, which Englishmen practice with such energy NORTH AMERICA AFTER THE PEACE OF 1763 as soon to make even the wilderness of a new country a hive of industry, were almost unknown in Canada, during its French ownership. Had the French been allowed to control our continent as they wished, the English colonists would have been able to dwell only upon the Atlantic coast; in that narrow space they could never have built up a great nation. The fighting with the French united the English colonies, and prepared them for ultimate union in defense of their liberties. But quite as important was the fact that now the English race, with its ideas of liberal government, was to be allowed opportunity to expand far westward into the interior of the North American continent; and to establish here a home for such of those people from other lands as wished to live under these laws, carry out these ideas, and help make our country a still greater and better nation. 141. Pontiac's War. The Indians 1 had become very fond of the French, who were content to allow the forests to remain as the home of fur-bearing animals. They foresaw in the coming of the English, however, the opening of farms and the building of towns, which would drive away the game and crowd out the natives. Pontiac, the principal chief of the Ottawa, therefore organized among the red men of the West a great conspiracy to drive out these new masters. But although the Indians captured from the English 1 Except, of course, the Iroquois. many forts and massacred their garrisons, and for two years (1763–65) carried on a terrible war against the backwoodsmen, they were at last defeated, and remained quiet until near the opening of the Revolutionary War. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. On a map of the United States indicate (a) the territory explored by the English; (b) by the French; (c) by the Spanish. What evidences of their occupations of those regions exist to-day? 2. Discuss the question, "Were the English or the French more entitled to the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys?" 3. State the advantages of the English at the beginning of the French and Indian War; of the French. 4. In what way was the Appalachian range of mountains a barrier to the western extension of English settlements? In what way, if any, was it fortunate that these mountains existed? Why are these mountains no longer a barrier? 5. Why had the French entered the country so far to the north? 6. Why were the Indians generally warm friends of the French and enemies of the English? 7. Draw a line on a map of North America connecting the French forts from Louisburg to New Orleans and indicate their location. 8. Justify, if you can, the removal of the Acadians. Choose from Longfellow's Evangeline some lines that bring out pleasing features of the country and of the home life. Find some lines that show the cruelty of the separation. Mark these passages and read them in the class. 9. Show why the capture of Quebec was one of the decisive battles of the world. 10. Name two important acquisitions of territory by the English as a result of the French and Indian War. 11. Name ten towns of French origin, to be found in the United States. 12. Read portions, at least, of Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe. 13. Important dates: 1759 Capture of Quebec by the English. 1763 Treaty of Peace. COMPOSITION SUBJECTS 1. Write two letters from the commandant at Louisburg to the King of France. Let the first boast of the impregnability of his fortress, and the second tell of its capture by New England militiamen. 2. Imagine that you are an Indian in Illinois in the eighteenth century. Tell a white captive whether you like the French or the English better, and why. 3. One of Washington's men argues with one of Braddock's men about the advisability of seeking cover when fighting the red men. Dramatize the scene. 4. A little maid from Grand Pré tells a Quaker woman, who has befriended her, of her expulsion from her old home. CHAPTER OUTLINE 1. English and French claim the same territory. 2. English attempt to gain control of the Upper Ohio Valley. 3. The Albany plan of union. 4. Events of 1755. 5. George Washington, commander of the Western frontier. 6. Capture of important forts by the English. 7. Fall of Quebec. 8. End of the War and treaty of peace. 9. Results of the War. REVIEW OF THE PERIOD OF COLONIZATION WHEN this period begins, men had found out that the two Americas were not India, but a great continent barring the way to the East, and they had searched in vain for a waterway through the barrier. On the north, France entrenched herself on the St. Lawrence and soon began to grasp the Great Lakes and rivers to the south and west. On the south, Spain held Mexico and Peru with outposts in New Mexico, Florida, and the West Indies. Raleigh's colonizing schemes had failed, and the great Englishspeaking race, that later was to make North America its own, had not a single foothold upon it. From Canada to Florida was unbroken wilderness, inhabited only by roving red men. Soon after the beginning of the seventeenth century two wedges of English settlement had begun to enter the wilderness one in Virginia in 1607, another in Massachusetts in 1620. By the close of the century, all the English colonies except Georgia had been founded. The only important settlement not English was the Dutch province in eastern New York, and of this England took forcible possession in 1664. Many of these colonies, especially those of New England, and Pennsylvania and Maryland, were founded by men seeking religious liberty; other settlers were "gentlemen adventurers" who came to advance their fortunes; and still another class was composed of the poor, the debtors, and the petty criminals whose labor was sold for a term of years. In the South, with its warm climate and fertile soil, where agri |