zation of our colonial history is the natural consequence of the progress of events.

The claim of France to the river St. Lawrence and the adjoining country, was founded on the early visits of Cartier. Settlement was first attempted by De la Roche, a Briton, who obtained from Henry IV. a patent of similarly extensive powers to those granted in England to Gilbert and Raleigh. "New France" was found to open into regions of vast extent; and though not of so luxurious an aspect as Virginia, yet affording great advantages to an enterprising nation, both by a lucrative fur trade, and valuable coast fisheries. Roche's experiment proved, however, a failure; and De Monts, who made a similar one, was equally unsuccessful.

The career of enterprise was next undertaken by Samuel Champlain, who became the father of New France, or Canada. After exploring the country, he built and fortified Quebec, allying himself with two powerful Indian tribes, the Hurons and Algonquins. This, however, involved him in war with the Iroquois, who were friendly to the English; and thus, at the outset, the new colony became involved in cruel and unsatisfactory wars. Champlain's charter was soon after abrogated, and another substituted, whose object was to convert New France into a colony of the first magnitude. This excited the jealousy of the English, who drove their rivals out of Acadia, and captured Quebec; but in 1632 both were restored to France by conventional agreement. Thirty years of prosperity succeeded, during which the settlers obtained from the Indians rumours of a mighty river to the west, larger than the St. Lawrence, and emptying into some unknown ocean. Supposing this to be the long-sought stream opening the way to the golden regions of China and India, Talon, the governor at that time, used every exertion to discover it. Two of the colonists, Joliet and Marquette, sailed in two little Indian barks, holding each three men, to explore the mysterious regions. Sailing onward, they ascertained that the river emptied into the Gulf of Mexico, when, fearful of falling into Spanish hands, they returned. In 1699, D'Iberville founded Louisiana. New Orleans was settled in 1717; and, in 1730, assumed so promising an aspect, that other settlements were extended up the Mississippi. Then it was that having control of the northern lakes, and the mouth of the Mississippi in the south, with considerable military strength in Quebec, Montreal, and other settlements, the French first conceived the grand scheme of extending a line of military posts along the Ohio and Mississippi,

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from Canada to Louisiana, thus restricting the English colonies to the territory east of the Alleghanies. As a commencement, they built Fort Duquesne, (named after the governor of Canada,) at the confluence of the Monongahela and Alleghany rivers, and commanding the communication from Montreal to New Orleans.

It will be remembered that the English king's charter had granted the land extending to the Pacific. The French settlements were, therefore, considered as encroachments, which the Atlantic colonists determined to resist. The territory around Fort Duquesne was claimed by a British society called the London Company, three of whose servants were taken by the French, and sent to a second fort on Presque Isle. Soon after the French built two other forts, thus completing the contemplated chain of fortresses.

HESE proceedings were considered by Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, as so many acts of aggression. Accordingly, with the approbation of the Assembly, he despatched Major George Washington with a letter to the commandant of Fort Duquesne, ordering him to evacuate. In this expedition Washington suffered many hardships, and on one or two occasions came very near losing his life. Dinwiddie's request was refused.

Resolving to expel the aggressors by force, the Assembly raised a regiment, and placed it under the command of Washington. After defeating a body of the Indians at the Great Meadows, he encountered a strong force under De Villiers. Hastily retreating, he threw up Fort Necessity, at the Meadows, where he was attacked, July 4th, 1754. After fighting all day against five times his numbers, he capitulated on honourable terms, and was allowed to return to Virginia. On the same day, a convention of delegates at Albany, after having effected a treaty with the Five Nations, reported a plan of colonial union, to be governed by a general assembly of delegates, with a governor appointed by the crown. It was disapproved, however, by England and Massachusetts, and did not go into effect. A

plan was finally adopted to carry on the war by British troops, aided by such soldiers as the colonists could raise.

Early in 1755, General Braddock arrived in Virginia with two regiments, designed as an expedition against Fort Duquesne. At his request a convention of the colonial governors assembled in Virginia, and resolved on three expeditions-one against Fort Duquesne; the second, under Governor Shirley, against Niagara; and the third against Crown Point. While this session was being held, three thousand militia of Massachusetts invaded Nova Scotia, captured the military posts, and drove off the inhabitants.

Late in June, General Braddock, with twelve hundred picked troops, and ten pieces of artillery, marched for the Alleghany. With the most culpable pride, he rejected the representations of Washington and other provincial officers to scour the woods in advance; and thus, while marching in the European fashion, he permitted himself to be drawn into a narrow defile on the Monongahela, seven miles from the fort. Here, on the 8th of July, he was attacked by an unseen enemy securely posted amid the deep forests on each side. His men fought with stern, but useless bravery. Whole platoons sunk before the Indian rifle, while not a foe was in view; Braddock

was mortally wounded; every officer, except Washington, carried from the field; and rout, despair, and uproar, took the place of discipline. The provincials under Washington alone remained firm; and to their praiseworthy efforts while covering the retreat and beating back the shouting foe, was owing the salvation of that wretched remnant. Seven hundred British, besides provincials, were killed and wounded-and sixty-four out of eighty-five officers. The whole army, including a reserve of eight hundred under General Dunbar, fled in disgraceful hurry to Philadelphia, leaving the frontier exposed to the incursions of the vindictive foe. The victors in this battle are supposed to have numbered nine hundred. Shirley's expedition against Niagara was also a complete failure.

At Crown Point a large party of General Johnson's troops was totally defeated by the Baron Dieskau, who subsequently made an attack upon the English camp. In this he was mortally wounded and captured, one thousand of his men killed or wounded, and his army driven away. After this success Johnson might have advanced with flattering prospects of success against Ticonderoga; but he spent the remainder of the campaign in idleness.

In the following spring, war was declared between France and England. The plan for this year's campaign was similar to that of 1755. Crown Point was to be attacked by ten thousand men, Niagara by six thousand, Duquesne by three thousand. While deliberations were going on as to which should be attacked first, Montcalm, successor to Dieskau, invested Oswego, stormed and took the works, made the whole garrison prisoners, and razed the fortifications to the ground. At this daring exploit the British were confounded, their grand schemes broken up, and the whole fall and summer spent in doing nothing.

At the close of the year a strong reinforcement of British troops arrived under Lord Loudoun ; and the campaign of 1757 opened with high hopes of success. Loudoun's design was to improve on the errors of his predecessors, and make but one grand attack, of which Louisburg was the object. He sailed there with a great army, and finding the works stronger than had been expected, returned to New York. About the same time Montcalm descended from Canada to the works on Lake George, and captured Fort William Henry, one of the main dependencies of the English. While the garrison was marching out, a furious attack was made upon them by the hostile Indians, and no less than fifteen hundred men, women, and children,

massacred. Whether Montcalm could have prevented this butchery or not, is unknown; but it has left an indelible stain upon his memory. This event dissipated the shadowy achievements which were to have been accomplished that year, and left the French complete. masters of all the territory claimed by them at the beginning of the war.

This course of folly and imbecility was about drawing to a close. The king, compelled by popular indignation, appointed a new ministry, of whom the master spirit was William Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham. He was probably the greatest war minister ever England produced. He was so popular in America, that in answer to a requisition for troops, three colonies raised in a little while fifteen thousand troops. At the opening of the campaign of 1758, General Abercrombie, successor to Loudoun, found himself at the head of fifty thousand men. Part was to reduce Louisbourg; part, Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and the remainder Fort Duquesne.

The first expedition numbered fourteen thousand men under General Amherst, and reached Louisbourg, June 2. The French garrison numbered three thousand men, under the Chevalier Drucourt. The siege was prosecuted with vigour for three weeks, when the town surrendered.

Abercrombie mustered his forces at Albany, and embarked on Lake George with fifteen thousand men and a formidable train of