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BOOK III.

CHAPTER I.

Four Great Inter-colonial Wars occur between the English Revolution of 1688 and the Peace of 1763-Cause of the military Character of the People-Extent of the French Territory-Their Claims to extend their Boundaries-Form of Government in Canada-They fraternize with the Indians-Count Frontenac's three Predatory Parties-Treaty of Ryswick-End of first Intercolonial War-Chief Events of the other three Wars-Canada ceded to Great Britain by Treaty of 1763.

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THE period that elapsed between the English revolution of 1688, and the peace of 1763, is memorable for four great inter-colonial wars. A narrative of the various campaigns is better suited to a general history of America, than a political sketch like the present. I do not propose, therefore, to enter into any detailed account of them. The story has often been told, and whatever interest it may once have possessed, the gigantic struggles in which Great Britain, France, and America have been subsequently engaged, have contributed to render it of still less comparative importance. I would gladly pass it over altogether, but some reference is necessary, in order to show the military character of the inhabitants, the resources of the colonies, and the manner in which the people were trained to the use of arms, inured to danger and hardship, and accustomed to that warfare so peculiar to a country but partially cleared of the forest. It was this long continued series of contests with the savage tribes of the northern continent, and the disciplined troops of France, that furnished the revolted provinces with able and experienced officers, converted every husbandman into a soldier, and enabled them subsequently to undertake the bold and difficult task of defending themselves against the armies and fleets of England. The remaining colonies have now nearly the same population as those that revolted; but the people have not had the training of their forefathers; and, bevond all doubt,

neither they, nor the present race of Americans, would be able, however much their passions might be enlisted, to exhibit any such progress, to sustain, with similar steadiness, the shock of regular troops, or effect the same extraordinary results. It was in these campaigns that Washington, and the majority of his efficient. officers, took their first lessons in the art of war. To their honor too it must be admitted, that most of the creditable achievements were effected by the provincials alone, or when only slightly assisted by the king's troops, and that success receded from the English armies, in proportion as they assumed the conduct of affairs, or attempted enterprises unaided by colonial forces.

The first inter-colonial war commenced on this continent by an attack, made by a combined force of Indians and French, on the defenseless frontiers in 1690, and continued until the tenth day of December, 1697, when the peace of Ryswick was proclaimed at Boston.* The territory claimed by the French on this continent confined the English plantations to a strip of land of unequal width on the sea-coast. Asserting the Kennebec to be the boundary between them and Massachusetts, they held the whole eastern coast, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, St. John (now Prince Edward's Island), Newfoundland, Labrador, and Hudson's Bay, while, on the other hand, they maintained that they were entitled to a moiety of Vermont, to more than half of the province of New York, to the whole valley of the Mississippi, and to Texas, as far as the Rio Bravo del Norte. Knowing their own weakness, they proposed, at the commencement of hostilities, to prolong the peace then subsisting in America; an offer which William promptly rejected. But nothing seemed to be severer in the fortune of the British colonies, than that after they had purchased or conquered their territory, unaided by foreign interference, their peace, which was the natural effect of their exertions, should be subject to be disturbed by the broils of the parent countries; and that after the bravery of their people had relieved them from the natural strength of the Aboriginals, they should be destined to be attacked again by their old enemies, inspired and aided by auxiliary forces of Europeans.

The total population of the English colonies, at the commencement of hostilities, might have amounted to two hundred thousand; but half at least of it south of the Delaware, and far re* The treaty was signed on the 1st of September.

moved from the scene of action, took no part in the struggle, beyond voting some small sums for the aid of New York. At a first view of the relative strength of these rival countries, it would appear that the provincials were an overmatch for their Gallic neighbors; but the military enterprise, and ardor of the latter, were aided by a decision natural to the character of the nation, and resulting from the despotism of their monarchy. Their religion, or rather their priests, subserved the cause of their government with all the arts and influence of a system too long devoted more to human than spiritual purposes.* The rulers of the mother country, and all the colonists, had but one object. No encroachments upon charter privileges, no resistance to the exercise of disputed prerogative, and no division of the Estab lished Church, relaxed the common ardor for the glory of the monarchy. However despotic the government of France might have been in Canada, it was paternal, alike calculated to secure the interests, and win the affections of the people. The administration of its affairs was intrusted to a Governor, an Intendant, and a Royal Council. The former was invested with a great deal of power, which, however, on the side of the crown, was checked by the Intendant, who had the care of the king's rights, and whatever related to the revenue; and on the side of the people, it was restrained by the Royal Council, whose office it was to see that the people were not oppressed by the one, nor defrauded by the other; and they were all checked by the constant and jealous eye, which the government at home kept over The officers at all the ports of France were charged,† under the severest penalties, to interrogate all captains of ships, coming from the colonies, conceruing the reception they met at the ports they were bound to; how justice was administered, and what charges were imposed on them. The passengers, and even the sailors, were examined upon these heads; and a verbal process of the whole was formed, and transmitted with all speed to the Admiralty. Complaints were encouraged, but a difference was made between hearing an accusation, and condemning upon it. Unlike the practice in the British provinces at that time, the salaries of all the officers were defrayed from the treasury of France. The local authorities derived great strength, in addition to a complete control of the people, from the affections of the

them.

* Minot.

↑ British Settlements in America.

savages, whose character they understood, and whose regard they knew how to win, better than the English. They were fraternized by an assimilation of manners, of families, and of worship. When the French planted a military post, it was not merely by a garrison, but they naturalized the place by a domestic neighborhood, and a numerous population. This mixture with the natives gave them an ascendency in their councils and enterprises. When they levied war, they drew down the savage tribe upon the frontier of the enemy; and after exercising their usual barbarities, commonly retreated too soon for successful pursuit.

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The English Provincials were soon made sensible of the evils resulting from the unwise rejection of neutrality by the king. Count Frontenac, who had recently returned from France, with reinforcements, dispatched three marauding parties to fall upon the defenseless frontiers, and their unsuspecting inhabitants. it is not my intention to enter into any details of these wars, I shall here describe the havoc committed by their detachments, in order to convey to the reader some idea of the barbarous and horrible warfare carried on by the colonies of the two most enlightened nations in the world.

The first party consisted of one hundred and fifty savages and traders, guided, says Hildreth, by the water-courses, whose frozen surface furnished them a path. They traversed a wooded wilderness covered with deep snows. Pressing stealthily forward, in a single file, the foremost wore snow shoes, and so beat a track for the rest. At night the snow was thrown up toward the side, whence the wind came; and in the hollow trees scooped out, they slept on branches of pine, with a fire in the midst. A little parched corn served them for provisions, eked out by such game ́as they killed. `After a twenty-two days' march, intent on their bloody purpose, they approached Schenectady, the object of their toil. This was a Dutch village on the Mohawk, then the outpost of the settlements about Albany. A cluster of some forty houses was protected by a palisade, but the gates were open and unguarded, and, at midnight, the inhabitants slept profoundly. The assailants entered in silence, divided themselves into several parties, and giving the signal by the terrible war-whoop, commenced the attack. Sixty were slain on the spot, twenty-seven were taken prisoners, and the rest fled, half naked, along the road to Albany, through a driving storm of sleet and deep snow, and cold

30 bitter that many lost their limbs by frost. The assailants set off for Canada with their prisoners and their plunder, and effected their escape, though not without severe loss, inflicted by some Mohawk warriors, who hastened to pursue them.

Another party, consisting of fifty-two persons, of whom twentyfive were Indians, departing from Three Rivers, a village, halfway from Montreal to Quebec, ascended the St. Francis, entered the valley of the Upper Connecticut, and thence made their way across the mountains and forests of New Hampshire. Presently they descended on Salmon Falls, a frontier village, on the chief branch of the Piscataqua, and killed about thirty of the bravest of the inhabitants. The rest, to the number of fifty-four, principally women and children, surrendered at discretion.

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The Sieur Hertel, who commanded this expedition, met, on

way homeward, a third party, which had marched from Quebec, and, joining his company to it, he attacked and destroyed the fort of Casco. This latter place was so situated as to be overlooked from a rock, that was near it, from which the Indians galled the garrison to such a degree, that the next day it capitulated on terms which were kept with Indian faith, some of the men being butchered, and the others carried away captive. The people of New England, to rid themselves of such troublesome neighbors, conceived the bold idea of taking Quebec, and accordingly a considerable fleet and armament was sent up the St. Lawrence, for this purpose; but it was an ill-concerted plan, intrusted to incompetent persons, and unhappily failed.

The loss of the fort of Pimaquid, and the capture of Port Royal (now Annapolis) in Nova Scotia, with numerous petty, but murderous inroads, in which liberal use of fire and sword was made by both parties, occupied the attention of the combatants during the remainder of the war; both the English and French Provincials being left to their own resources in consequence of the great struggle that was going on in Europe. The most remarkable of these incursions was one made by Frontenac from Canada, in order to chastise the savages dwelling in the rear of New York, who were in the interest of the English, and served as a shield to protect them from the French. After indescribable labor and fatigue, they surmounted all the difficulties presented by an interminable forest, deep snow, and severe cold, and surprised the Mohawk villages near Albany, and carried off in chains three

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