In 1742 the Spaniards retaliated, appearing in strong force before Frederica (fred-e-re'ka-see Map, p. 102). They would no doubt have taken it, but for a ruse of Oglethorpe. By means of a letter written to a deserter in their camp as if he had been a spy, he led the enemy to believe that a British fleet was near at hand, and thus frightened them into a retreat after an unsuccessful attempt to reach the town.

Peace returned to the colony in time, but without bringing, for several years, the expected measure of prosperity. Some of the settlers were not the right stuff for pioneers; nor were the regulations laid down by the trustees, though well-intended, always the wisest. Indigo and silk were produced in the Moravian settlements, but elsewhere agriculture languished. Slavery, at first prohibited as opposed to the interests of poor white laborers, was finally allowed in compliance with the wishes of the people. From that time planting was carried on more largely and profitably. In 1752 the charter was surrendered to the king, and as a royal province Georgia grew steadily in population and wealth.

French Settlements in the Southwest.-Following up La Salle's explorations (p. 82), the French, just as the seventeenth century was closing, attempted to colonize Louisiana. They founded Biloxi (be-lok'se), on the Gulf of Mexico, in 1699, and seventeen later Fort Rosa

years
lie (ro-za-le'), on the

1711]

SETTLEMENTS IN LOUISIANA.

105

Mississippi, where the city of Natchez now stands-the first settlements in the present state of Mississippi. Several posts were also planted within the limits of what is now Alabama. Mobile, which dates from 1711, was the early capital of the French province.

New Orleans, the first permanent settlement in our present Louisiana, was laid out by colonists sent over in 1718, and was called after the Duke of Orleans, then regent of France. Its beginnings were humble, the occupants of the few huts first thrown up among the canes and trees apparently "waiting for houses." Its advantages for commerce, however, were so evident that in 1723 it superseded Mobile as the capital.

The Mississippi Scheme.-From 1717 to 1732, Louisiana was under the control of a company which had obtained from the French government grants of its colonial possessions, as well as a monopoly of the foreign trade, and on these as a basis of credit made an enormous issue of papermoney. "The Mississippi Scheme," as it was called, managed by an unscrupulous gambler named Law, infatuated the whole French people. Inexhaustible mines were to be opened in Louisiana and to enrich everybody connected with the company. Nobles, priests, ladies, all classes, contended for the stock, and the shares soon rose to sixty times their original price. But the frenzy was as short-lived as violent. One day in May, 1720, the bubble burst; and the next, a man might have had millions of Law's paper-money in his pocket and yet starved. "Mississippi" and "Louisiana " were for a time names of evil omen among the French people, and immigration came to a stand-still.

Louisiana at this time contained several thousand inhabitants. Agriculture was carried on chiefly by slave-labor. Rice was the principal crop; tobacco and indigo were also raised. Grain for the support of the settlers came down the Mississippi from the growing Illinois settlements, in increas

ing quantities. The French at Fort Rosalie, attempting to wrest from the Natchez Indians their ancient capital, were massacred by the latter (1729); and a few months afterward the Natchez were in turn destroyed as a nation by a force from New Orleans. Two attempts were made by the French to punish the Chickasaws, who were suspected of having instigated the attack on Fort Rosalie, but neither succeeded. There is nothing further to note in the history of Louisiana till 1762, when it was ceded to Spain.

REVIEW-THE THIRTEEN COLONIES.

We have now traced the events connected with the birth of the Thirteen Colonies, extending from 1607, the date of the founding of Virginia, to 1733, when the first settlement was planted in Georgia. period, England had the following sovereigns:—

During this

JAMES I.,

1603-1625

WILLIAM III.,

1689-1702

OLIVER CROMWELL, 1653-1658
RICHARD CROMWELL, 1658-1659

Review.-Let one scholar write on the blackboard in a column the names of the Thirteen Colonies, in the order of their settlement. Let another, in a second column, write opposite to each what nation planted the first settlement. Let a third supply the dates; a fourth write the name of the first settlement, or where it was made. Other members of the class may be called on to tell who was sovereign of England when each first settlement was made (see Table above)-What person was most prominent in the founding of each colony, and facts connected with his history-Any interesting circumstances connected with the founding-What colonies, once distinct, do not appear among the Thirteen, having been absorbed in some other-Which of the colonies were royal provinces.

What was the political condition of Maine? In which of the colonies did slavery exist? At the beginning of the eighteenth century, what mountains virtually bounded the English colonies on the west? How far did they claim to extend? What powers besides England had settlements in North America? Where were the French settlements? Where the Spanish?

1745]

CONQUEST OF CAPE BRETON.

107

CHAPTER XIV.

KING GEORGE'S WAR.—WASHINGTON'S MISSION.

King George's War.-Queen Anne's War (p. 101) was followed by peace with France till 1744. In this year, Virginia and Maryland sought to strengthen their title to the lands in the basin of the Ohio, by purchasing the right and interest of the Iroquois therein. This of course increased the suspicion of the French, and when France and England arrayed themselves against each other in the Old World, in the War of the Austrian Succession, their American colonies at once followed the example. The struggle was here known as "King George's War."

The Capture of Louisburg, a fortress of immense strength on the eastern coast of Cape Breton Island (kape brit't'n— see Map, p. 56), was the great event that signalized this war. It was taken from the French by some four thousand New Englanders - fishermen, lumberers, mechanics, and farmers-commanded by Gen. Pep'perell, a native of Maine, and aided by a British fleet.

Merrily rang the bells of Boston, when it was announced that after six weeks' siege "the Gibraltar of America," with its walls 40 feet thick and 25 feet high, defended by a hundred cannon, had surrendered to the colonial army (June 17, 1745). Equally great were the rejoicings when, in the two following years, two powerful expeditions sent by the French for the recovery of Cape Breton utterly failed. And equally great was the mortification when, by the treaty which closed the war in 1748, the men of New England saw the fruits of their prowess wrested from them and Louisburg restored to France, while the boundaries were still left in dispute. But, if attended with no other advantage, King George's War had taught the colonies their own strength.

French and English Claims. —The peace that followed was necessarily of short continuance. How could it be otherwise, when the English were gradually working their way west under royal grants and Indian deeds, while the French based their claims on discovery and actual occupancy, and had, to support them, a cordon of forts from New Orleans to Detroit? A grant made by the English crown in 1749, of 500,000 acres on the Ohio, for the purpose of planting settlers beyond the Alleghanies and trading with the western tribes, brought matters to a crisis.

The Ohio Company soon had surveyors at work on their lands; but not before the French, pushing down from their strong post of Presque Isle (press keel') on Lake Erie, had established forts at Le Boeuf (leh buff') and Venango in the north-west of Pennsylvania. The next movement on the part of the French was to break up an English post in what is now western Ohio, and to carry off its occupants as captives. The governor of Virginia saw the storm coming, and the necessity of preparing for it. But first by

a trusty messenger he would send a remonstrance to the French commander, and demand his withdrawal from the Ohio Valley. For this delicate, mission GEORGE WASHINGTON, the future saviour of his country, was selected.

Youth of Washington, Washington was born on the Potomac, in Westmoreland County, Virginia, February 22, 1732. His father, one of the high-toned planters of Virginia, left him an orphan at the age of eleven; and on his mother, whose virtues he reverenced and whose early precepts he ever remembered, devolved the duty of moulding his character. His youth was full of promise. An accomplished horseman, proficient in all manly exercises, he was no less amiable in disposition, modest, and truthful. His mother summed it all up years afterward, when he had become the nation's idol; "I am not surprised at his success," she said, "for George always was a good boy."