on a larger scale than had ever before been tried.

About the middle of the last century some London merchants united with a number of Virginia planters to form the Ohio Company, which bought a large tract of land west of the Alleghany Mountains with a view to inducing settlers to move there.

As soon as this Company began operations by sending out surveyors and traders and by making roads for emigrants, the French colonists became alarmed, justly fearing if the English succeeded in

settling that region as extensively as they planned that the French would soon be obliged to entirely withdraw from the interior of the continent and to content themselves with their Canadian possessions. To prevent this and to secure for themselves the land desired by the Ohio Company, the French in 1753 put up a strong fort where the city of Erie now stands, and prepared to build other forts extending from that point to the Ohio River. Virginia claimed this land as part of her territory and the governor of the colony sent George Washington,

then only twenty-two years old, but who had already acquired distinction on the frontier as a surveyor, to protest against this action of the French. Though he was received with civility and courtesy, Washington did not succeed in his mission and had to return with the refusal of the French commander to either give up the fort or to leave the disputed territory.

During Washington's absence Virginia had raised a body of four hundred soldiers, and she promptly replied to this message by sending him back at the head of this force to protect a fort which the Ohio Company was building on the site of the city of Pittsburg. But the French were before him and had seized and strengthened the fort, which they then named Fort Du Quesne, before he could get there.

GENERAL MONTCALM.

commanders were sent to America, who, instead of frittering away their strength in a multitude of little and trifling engagements, attacked three points that were of real importance, and two of these they captured. These were Louisburg on Cape Breton Island and Fort Du Quesne, which was then renamed Fort Pitt in honor of the Prime Minister of Great Britain, William Pitt. Ticonderoga (in New York), the third point of attack, was defended by Montcalm in person, and here the English were less fortunate, for though they tried again and again, Montcalm each time drove them back, and at length they had to retire, leaving fifteen hundred of their men dead behind them. Though they did not take Ticonderoga, the English did capture Fort Frontenac (where the Canadian city of Kingston now stands) and drove the French out of northwestern New York.

From this time on the successes of the English were almost continuous, and the capture of Quebec in 1759 virtually ended the war, for after that the French forts surrendered as fast as the English appeared before them to demand it. Montcalm lost his life in battle on the Plains of Abraham before Quebec, as did also his English opponent, General Wolfe. The dying words of each showed the characters of the two men. When Montcalm was told

that he must die, he said: "So much the better; I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." Wolfe was mortally wounded when word was brought to him that the battle was won: "Then I die happy," he said.

By the close of 1760 Montreal and all the other American possessions of the French were in the hands of the English, and the French troops had returned to France. But though hostilities had ceased in this country, they did not end in Europe until 1763, when a treaty of peace was signed by the three countries (Spain had assisted France in Europe) by which France gave up to Great Britain all of her territory in America east of the Mississippi and to Spain what lay west of that river. From Spain England obtained Florida, in exchange for Havana. The district granted Spain extended from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains, and the name of Louisiana given it by the French was retained by Spain. France bought it back from Spain in 1800 and in 1803 sold it to the United States.

The French and Indian War did this great service for the colonists: it taught them to act together and in unison. It also gave them experience in warfare and in military matters. The colonial soldiers fighting by the side of British troops gained both knowledge and confidence in themselves, and they and their officers learnt many a valuable lesson which a dozen years later they put to good use in the Revolutionary War.