great detriment of their English confederates. This story, so often repeated by historians, may fairly be doubted, both on grounds of moral probability and physical possibility; but it is certain that a fatal disease, carrying off many of the whites, appeared in the camp, and that this, with the want of cordial cooperation among their Indian auxiliaries, caused them to relinquish the enterprise and return to New York. A second expedition of a formidable nature, under General Nicholson, in 1710, was dispatched against Canada; but that commander, learning that a fleet destined to aid his operations and besiege Quebec, had been dispersed, with the loss of eight large vessels, was compelled to abandon the attempt and retrace his steps. The treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, restored peace to the contending nations, though only by the cession to the English of Acadia and Newfoundland. That the French, unassisted by the mother-country, should have been able to retain their possessions in Canada against the overwhelming forces of their allied enemies, is something wonderful; for there were at this time only four thousand five hundred men, between the ages of fourteen and sixty, capable of bearing arms, in the whole province; while the effective force of their rivals was about sixty thousand. This improbable result was due in part to the valour and genius of their officers, in part to the incapacity and sluggishness of the English commanders, and still more, no doubt, to the strength of their position and the inhospitable nature of the climate and the country. During the remainder of De Vaudreuil's administration, which lasted till his death in 1725, the colony enjoyed peace and prosperity, and cultivation and traffic were extended. For the twenty-one years in which he held office, he enjoyed the confidence of his government and the deserved attachment and esteem of the people committed to his charge. The Chevalier de Beauharnois, who succeeded him, also held the office of governor for twenty years—a period which, under his active attention to the interests of the province, was characterized by marked improvement and extension of colonization. From Quebec to Montreal the St. Lawrence was now fringed with cultivated farms. the important fortress of Crown Point, with others, was erected for the protection of the province, and the settlement at Detroit was raised intc some importance. The enmity in which the French had so long been involved with various powerful tribes of Indians, was now overcome; and the amiable and courteous manners of the former, and their fre quent intermarriages with the natives, had secured them the friendship and alliance even of the races whose enmity and whose league with the English, had so often threatened the destruction of the colony. During the contests with the latter, which distinguished much of the first part of the eighteenth century, Canada, for the most part, enjoyed the blessing of peace, the struggle being principally confined to Nova Scotia. (See Acadia.) CHAPTER VIII. THE ENCROACHMENTS OF THE FRENCH. FORT DU QUESNE. A RAPID succession of governors, after the death of Beauharnois, (1745,) held the province of Canada, the Marquis Du Quesne, the fourth of them, arriving in 1752. This able and ambitious officer of the crown pursued a steady system of encroachment on the English colonies, and even erected a fort, bearing his own name, within the confines of Virginia. General alarm was excited among the rival settlements. Canada, by this time, had greatly increased in population, the inhabitants, it was said, numbering ninety thousand. In 1555 the marquis was succeeded by De Vaudreuil Cavagnal, and the same year the last and most memorable of the French-American wars broke out. The unfortunate General Braddock, a man of great energy and bravery, but obstinate and wrong-headed, at the head of twenty-two hundred regular and provincial troops, set forth on an expedition against the French on the Ohio. The baggage and artillery being delayed by the roughness of the country, he pushed ahead with thirteen hundred picked men, despising the warnings of danger which he received from those better acquainted with the country and the system of warfare. He had approached within five miles of Fort Du Quesne, and was just crossing the Monongahela, when a deadly fire was opened on his ranks by a force of two hundred French and six hundred Indians, lurking in the covert of a wood. The main body hastened up, with the artillery, and Braddock used every exertion to inspirit his men. Five horses were shot under him, and he soon fell, with a mortal wound. Sixty of his officers were killed or disabled; and his troops, falling on all sides from the fire of their invisible opponents, were thrown into hopeless panic and confusion. The provincials, under Colonel Washington, a young officer who had accompanied Braddock as aid, alone made effectual resistance, and covered the retreat of the discomfited regulars. On this terrible occasion, the loss of the English in killed and wounded was seven hundred men, while that of the enemy was only about sixty. The expedition was entirely abandoned. In the same year an army of six thousand men, under General Johnson, was dispatched against the French fortress of Crown Point, on Lake Champlain. To oppose this force, Baron Dieskau, with two thousand men, was sent from Montreal, and after passing to the upper extremity of Lake Champlain, landed his troops, and marched toward the camp of the enemy. In a narrow defile he defeated a large force of English and Mohawk Indians, sent in advance to intercept him, and then proceeded to assault the English camp. It was, however, protected by a breastwork of fallen trees, and by an almost impenetrable swamp. The assailants were repulsed, with the loss of a thousand men, and the survivors retreated to Crown Point. Dieskau, mortally wounded, fell into the hands of the English. Nevertheless, the successful general did not proceed against Crown Point; and even suffered the French to fortify themselves at Ticonderoga. In the two succeeding years (1756, 1757) the gallant Marquis de Montcalm, placed at the head of military affairs in Canada, gained a series of brilliant successes, ending with the reduction of Forts Oswego and William Henry. The garrison of the latter, two thousand in number, after the surrender, were attacked by the Indians of Montcalm's army, and a number were killed; but the reports of the massacre appear to have been extraordinarily exaggerated. Most of the command found protection in the French camp, and the greater part of the remainder, who fled into the woods, reached Fort Edward in safety. At the close of this period, in spite of the exertions of the English, the French still held possession of nearly all the disputed territory, except Acadia; and a long chain of military |