ATTACK UPON QUEBEC.

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CHAPTER LXXII.

Campaign of 1759.-Quebec captured.-Death of Wolfe

and Montcalm.

1. THE campaign of 1759 was opened with an invasion of Canada.

2. Another division of the army went against Niagara. Here was some irregular fighting, during which a serious accident occurred. General Prideaux, the English commander, was killed by the bursting of a gun. He was succeeded in the command by General Johnson, who in a few days gained possession of the post.

3. It now became the great object of the English and American forces to take Quebec. It was quite an ancient place-as old, within one year, as Jamestown, and was strongly fortified. It was considered almost as difficult to be captured as Louisburg or Gibraltar.

4. Quebec is on the north-west side of the St. Lawrence, and is divided into the upper and lower town. The upper town is built on high limestone rock, two hundred feet higher than the river; but the lower town is on a plain, almost level with the water. Where the upper town joins the river, is an abrupt precipice, the summit of which is

CHAP. LXXII-1. What took place in 1759? What of General Amherst? 2. What was done by another division of the army? What of General Prideaux? 8. What of Quebec? 4. Describe it.

called the Heights of Abraham; around it, or near it, is the plain of Abraham.

5. General Wolfe, a brave and experienced British officer, sailed from Louisburg, with eight thousand men, in the month of June, to meet General Amherst there, and attack Quebec. He landed on the island of Orleans, a little below the city. After many unsuccessful attempts to approach the city, which took up the time till September, he conceived the bold plan of ascending the Heights of Abraham.

6. After waiting as long for General Amherst as the season would admit, he resolved to proceed alone. Leaving the island of Orleans, he first went up the river nine miles. The French, observing this, immediately detached a part of their forces at Quebec to oppose his landing in that direction.

7. But he did not intend to land there; he had another object in view. He was about to attempt what no one before him had ever attempted, and what the French did not suspect. During the night of September 12, the troops, in flat-bottomed boats, with some difficulty, succeeded in landing at the foot of the heights, and an hour or two before daylight had begun to climb the precipice.

8. It was no light matter for eight thousand men to climb an almost perpendicular precipice of two hundred feet, and draw up after them all their artillery, baggage, etc. But they persevered, General Wolfe himself leading the way. At daybreak, the whole army had fairly scaled the heights, and were on the plains of Abraham.

9. Though surprised at their appearance, General Montcalm rallied the French troops, and made the best possible preparation for a stout defence. About the middle of the forenoon the two armies met. A hard-fought battle followed, often contested at the point of the bayonet, but the English were at last victorious.

10. The battle was not only severe, but exceedingly bloody. The English lost six hundred in killed and wounded, and the French many more-beside a thousand prisoners. But the loss was most striking in valuable officers. The commanders of both armies were killed, as well as the second in command. Two other principal generals of the French army were also wounded.

11. General Wolfe, who had placed himself in the front of his army to encourage the troops, received a wound in his wrist, early in the action, but he wrapped his handkerchief around it, and continued at his post. Soon after, a ball pierced his groin, but he concealed the

5. What of General Wolfe? 6. What did he first attempt? 7. What end had he ir view? What was done on the night of September 12? 8. Describe the ascent. 9. What of General Montcalm? Describe the battle. Who were victorious? 10. What was the loss on both sides? 11. What wounds did Wolfe receive?

CAPTURE OF QUEBEC.

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anguish, and fought on. At length, a shot pierced his breast, and he fell.

12. He did not expire, however, immediately, but lived long enough to know the issue of the battle. "They fly! they fly!" said the men, at a little distance, as he leaned, in the agonies of death, on the shoulder of one of his lieutenants. "Who fly?" said he, raising for an instant his drooping head. Being told it was the French, "Then," said he, "I die happy."

13. The death of Montcalm, the French commander, who was wounded in the battle, was not less striking. When told that his wound would be fatal in a short time, he replied, “Then I shall not live to see Quebec surrendered." He spent his last moments in writing a letter to the English commander, recommending the French prisoners to his care and attention.

14. The death of these generals has been the theme of frequent eulogy; both possessed in a high degree the soldierly merit of courage and devotion to their cause. Wolfe was a young man-scarcely thirtythree years of age, and much beloved. Montcalm was something over forty-five. They were not merely men of genius, and skilled in their profession; they possessed the nobler qualities of truth, honor, and humanity.

CHAPTER LXXIII.

The French and Indian War concluded.-The St. Francis Indians chastised.-The Cherokees defeated.-Sur render of the French North American Colonies to the British.-Peace of 1763.

1. IMPORTANT to the colonies as were the events described in the last chapter, they did not end the struggle. The French were still in possession of a powerful army and many strongly fortified posts. Indeed they were not yet reconciled to the loss of Quebec.

2. In April of the ensuing spring, the French approached Quebec with a view to retake it, when General Murray, who had been left in command of the garrison during the winter, marched out to meet them. A bloody battle was fought, about three miles from the city, in which the colonists were defeated with the loss of a thousand men.

12. Describe Wolfe's death. 13. Describe the death of Montcalm. 14. What of the death of the two generals? What were the ages of these two great commanders? Their char. acters ?

CHAP. LXXIII.-1. What of the French? 2. What of General Murray? To what city did the French lay siege ?

3. Though the loss of the French in this battle was twice as great as that of the English, yet, with their superior numbers, they were still able to invest the city. Soon after the siege was begun, an English squadron arrived in the river, which attacked and destroyed a French fleet of six frigates, and compelled the invading army to raise the siege.

4. The English and colonists now united all their strength to take Montreal. They had assembled at its gates a force of more than ten thousand men, and new troops were daily arriving, when the commander, believing resistance would be useless, surrendered the city. De-troit' and Michilimackinac [mish-il-e-mak'-in-aw], now called Mackinac or Mackinaw, and all the fortified posts of Canada, surrendered a few days afterward.

5. During the campaign of 1759, Major Rogers, with two hundred men, was sent against the St. Francis Indians. Their principal town was St. Francis, situated near the river St. Lawrence, about half way between Montreal and Quebec. Major Rogers succeeded in burning their town, killing two hundred of their people, and taking twenty women and children, most of whom he afterward set free.

6. These St. Francis Indians had been the most barbarous enemies with which New England had been obliged to contend. They had, in six years, killed and taken four hundred of the colonists, and hundreds of scalps were found hanging over the doors of their wigwams when Major Rogers entered the village.

7. But the victory over them, though complete, was dearly bought. "We marched nine days," says Major Rogers, "through wet, sunker ground, the water, for most of the way, being nearly a foot deep." In going and returning, and in the battle, he lost about a quarter of his men.

8. In 1760, there was much trouble with the Cherokee Indians at the south. A quarrel between them and the Virginians had long existed, but the French traders, it was supposed, inflamed the minds of the Indians anew. A detachment of twelve hundred men was sent out against them, but nothing effectual was accomplished.

9. In 1761, a body of twenty-six hundred men, under Colonel Grant, met them in a great battle, in their own country, in which the Cherokees were completely defeated. Their houses, magazines, and cornfields were burned, and they were driven to the mountains. A few days afterward the chiefs came in, however, and signed a treaty of peace.

3. What was done by the English squadron? 4. Why did the commander surrender Montreal? What places afterward surrendered? 5. What did Major Rogers do? 6 What of the St. Francis Indians? 7. What does Major Rogers say of the march? 8. ppened in 1760? 9. In 1761?

10. Although Canada was conquered, and the war ended in that quarter, peace was not fully concluded between Great Britain and France till the year 1763. In the year 1762, Great Britain and Spain were at war, and a force being about to be sent against Mar-tin-ique' in the West Indies, eleven battalions, consisting of four thousand men, under the command of General Monckton, were ordered for New York. 11. The French struggled hard, this year, to retake Newfoundland, but without success. This was their last effort. Peace was made between the contending nations in 1763, by which all the possessions of the French to the northward of the United British Colonies were ceded to Great Britain, to which country they still belong. Louisiana was also ceded by the French to Spain about the same time.

12. Thus ended the long and bloody conflict, called the French and Indian War. Except the Revolutionary war, of which we shall soon give an account, it was by far the most important conflict in which the American colonists were ever engaged. It resulted in removing the French from this continent, and in transferring to the British a territory equal in extent to the half of Europe.

CHAPTER LXXIV.

Review of the preceding History.-The Thirteen Colonies. -The approaching Conflict of the Colonies with the Mother Country.—The preceding portion of this History, Colonial; the succeeding portion, National.

1. We have now traced the history of the English colonies in North America from the first settlement in 1607 to the year 1763. At this latter date these colonies were thirteen in number, and contained about two millions and a half of inhabitants. Such had been the progress of these settlements in a hundred and fifty-six years.

2. In the Southern Division of the country, there were the colonies of VIRGINIA, settled in 1607; NORTH CAROLINA, settled about 1660; SOUTH CAROLINA, settled in 1670; and GEORGIA, settled in 1733.

3. In the Middle Division there were NEW YORK, settled in 1613; NEW JERSEY, settled in 1624; PENNSYLVANIA, settled in 1681; DelaWARE, settled in 1638; and MARYLAND, settled in 1634.

10. When was peace concluded between France and England? What of the year 1762? 11. What of the French? What was the consequence of the peace of 1763 ? What f Louisiana? 12 What was the result of the French and Indian war?

CHAP. LXXIV.-1. For what length of time have we now traced the history of the English colonies? Population of the colonies in 1763? How many colonies were there? 2-4. Name the thirteen colonies and the date of settlement of each.