appeared in the south at a later time. Peace being made between the French and the Five Nations, - who were really far more formidable enemies than the English, while the Abenakis of Maine still swept the frontiers of New England, a general invasion of the northern colonies was planned by the French, (1696-97.) But the apprehensions of the English were happily relieved by the treaty of Ryswick between the mother countries, (1697.) The war, though lasting eight years, had produced no sensible effect upon the relative strength of the parties engaged in it, nor had it decided any of the differences that had led to it, or that would lead to fresh strife in the future. Religious differ ences. One of these differences has not yet been brought out as it should be. Between the French and the English there existed the widest and the deepest gulf that ever opens between man and man or between nation and nation. It was the chasm between opposing creeds. Both professed to be Christians; but the French were Catholic, the English Protestant. To the former the latter were heretics, the rightful objects of human enmity as of divine. To the English Protestant, on the contrary, the French Catholic was the minister of a superstition and an oppression as hateful to God as to man. It may be conceived how much these feelings contributed to whet the swords and to blunt the sensibilities of the warriors on either side. Sad, indeed, is the grouping of the two nations upon the American page, staining it with the passions of the old world, the more hateful in the new, because allied with the savage and the heathen. No marvel, then, that warfare was soon renewed. Anne's Four years after the peace of Ryswick, Queen Anne's war began, on account, as has been related, of the designs of Louis XIV. upon the Spanish crown, Queen war. (1702.) In America, the same Indian alliances were formed, the same Indian hostilities were excited, as in the preceding contest, except that the Five Nations did not take up the hatchet against the French until the war was two thirds over, (1709.) There were also the same attacks upon the border settlements; Deerfield (1704) and Haverhill (1708) being both wasted by the French, while the French territory about the Penobscot was scoured by the English, (1704.) But the war, as a whole, was characterized by greater and more decisive operations. Two expeditions were directed from New England against Port Royal; the first laying waste the adjoining country, (1707,) the second capturing the town; the very name of which disappeared in that of Annapolis, (1710.) The first permanent settlement of the French, it was also the first permanent conquest from them by the English. Two expeditions, likewise, were planned by New England, New York, and New Jersey, against Canada; the first being merely planned, (1709,) and the second, though attempted, failing through the inefficiency of the admiral conducting the English force in aid of the enterprise, (1711.) As in the last war, so in this, the northern colonies of England were arrayed against France rather than her colonies. The English colonies of the centre were inactive; those of the south were occupied at this period, as must be remembered, with Spanish and Indian hostilities. Twelve years having passed in warfare, peace was made at Utrecht, and France surrendered Acadie to England, (1713.) The war was the first of the five between the two nations to make any change in their American possessions. New points of collision were appearing in the in the west. As early as the beginning of the last war, a treaty with members of the Five Nations was made the basis of an English claim to vast territories, Collision west. (1701.) To explain the claim on any principles is not very easy. It not only made out the Five Nations to be the masters of the west, far beyond their own borders, but also made out the English king to be the master of the Five Nations. A quarter of a century afterwards, a new treaty with the same tribes actually transferred to the English a portion of the country claimed by them, (1726.) Meanwhile the pretensions of the English to the entire interior, from the coast on which their colonies were planted to the Pacific, had never been abandoned. It was their right, they alleged, to possess the western, if they occupied the eastern shores. To aid the English advance towards the west, a trading post had been established at Oswego. It now became a fort, (1727.) But where it stood, and where its range, so to speak, was meant to extend, the French claimed the sovereignty. And in There were also difficulties, both old and new, the east. arising in the east. The war between the English and the Abenakis, in which French missions were assailed, and a French missionary was murdered, threatened fresh hostilities, (1724.) The French, on their side, exasperated, perhaps, by the loss of Acadie, were inclined to infringe upon English rights. Acadie, they argued, was only the peninsula, or what is now called Nova Scotia. But the English replied with reason, that it was not only the peninsula, but the adjoining mainland, and even the surrounding islands. Yet to these the French held fast, especially to Cape Breton, where stood their stronghold of Louisburg, by far more important in their eyes, and in those of their adversaries, than any of the inconsiderable posts upon the territory that had been surrendered. At length, after a third of a century of nominal George's peace, war was renewed, (1744.) It was called King George's by the English colonists, from George II. His interposition in favor of Austria and Sardinia, then combined against France and Spain with other powers, led to a French declaration of war; Spain, as may be recollected, being already at war with England. France was now under Louis XV. The French being at peace with the Five, now the Six Nations, and the Indians within the English limits being much diminished in numbers and in spirits, the European races fought their battles more by themselves. An expedition, proposed by Massachusetts, and supported by men from Connecticut, New Hampshire, and subsequently Rhode Island, as well as by supplies from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, all under the command of William Pepperell, of Maine, and all accompanied by a fleet from England, accomplished the reduction of Louisburg in less than two months, (1745.) A still more extensive campaign was projected for the following year, when New England, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, with a grant from Pennsylvania, and an armament from England, were to invade Canada; but the English force did not appear, and rumors of a French descent upon New England broke up the colonial ranks, (1746.) France did little of any kind. Her troops at Crown Point made some incursions into Massachusetts and New York, but the meditated invasion of New England was an utter failure. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle closed the war, four years after its outbreak, restoring Cape Breton and Louisburg to France, (1748.) King war. shed in Nova Scotia. Peace was soon broken. An attack upon the Blood French at Chignecto, on the Isthmus of Nova Scotia, caused the first blood to be shed, (1750.) Forts rising in various places betokened additional conflicts. It was evident that the troubles in the east were far from being allayed. Nor was the prospect calmer in the west. At the expi 7 The Ohio ration of the last war, a number of individuals, Company partly Englishmen and partly colonists, associated as the Ohio Company, obtained a grant of half a million of acres on the eastern bank of the Ohio River, (1749.) Virginia, whose governor was interested in the enterprise, took the lead in the treaties with the Indians and the negotiations with the French required by the plans of the company. But the French were not to be made friends of on that ground. They attacked an Indian settlement where some English traders had found refuge, and seized them as prisoners, (1752.) They then assailed the troops of the Ohio Company. A Virginia party, sent to construct a fort at the head of the Ohio, was driven back by a French force, who completed the fortification, and called it Fort Du Quesne, (1753-54.) Blood A larger band, already on the march from Virshed in ginia to the disputed territory, was soon engaged in Pennsyl- battle with the French upon Pennsylvanian soil. George The first encounter between detachments from both Washing- sides resulted in the defeat of the French; but vania. ton. the second, between the main bodies at the Great Meadows, ended in the retreat of the Virginians. They had been bravely led, their leader being George Washington. An envoy of peace to the French before he thus appeared as an officer in war, he was the same in character, if not in experience, that he showed himself to be in after years. He was now but twenty-two. The final It was the final struggle that had thus begun on struggle. the shores of Nova Scotia and in the forests of Pennsylvania. The mother countries came into collision in the following year, (1755.) Then the English fleet took some French transports off Newfoundland, and followed up the attack by scouring the seas. The land forces were equally active. One army, partly of colonial and partly |