Chapter 15

The map that is placed at the beginning of this chapter outlines the ambitious designs conceived by French statesmen soon after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. We see the names of many posts and forts intended to keep up communications between Canada and Louisiana, and overawe the English colonies then confined to a relatively narrow strip of territory on the Atlantic coast. Conscious of the mistake that they had made in giving up Acadia, the French now claimed that its "ancient limits" did not extend beyond the isthmus of Chignecto--in other words, included only Nova Scotia. Accordingly they proceeded to construct the forts of Gaspereau and Beauséjour on that neck of land, and also one on the St. John River, so that they might control the land and sea approaches to Cape Breton from the St. Lawrence where Quebec, enthroned on her picturesque heights, and Montreal at the {222} confluence of the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, held the keys to Canada. The approaches by the way of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu were defended by the fort of St. John near the northern extremity of the lake, and by the more formidable works known as Fort Frederick or Crown Point--to give the better known English name--on a peninsula at the narrows towards the south. The latter was the most advanced post of the French until they built Fort Ticonderoga or Carillon on a high, rocky promontory at the head of Lake Sacrement, afterwards called Lake George by General Johnson--a sheet of water always famed for its picturesque charms. At the foot of this lake, associated with so many memorable episodes in American history, General Johnson, a clever, ambitious Irishman, a nephew of Sir Peter Warren, in 1755, erected Fort William Henry, about fourteen miles from Fort Edward or Lyman, at the great carrying place on the upper waters of the Hudson. Returning to the St. Lawrence and the lakes, we find Fort Frontenac or Cataraqui at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, where the old city of Kingston now stands. Within the limits of the present city of Toronto, La Galissonnière built Fort Rouillé as an attempt to control the trade of the Indians of the North, who were finding their way to the English fort at Choueguen (Oswego), which had been commenced with the consent of the Iroquois by Governor Burnet of New York and was now a menace to the French dominion of Lake Ontario. At the other extremity of this lake was Fort Niagara, the key to the West.

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At Detroit, Mackinac, and Sault Ste. Marie the French continued to hold possession of the Great Lakes and the country to the west and south. Their communications, then, between the West and Quebec were established, but between the great valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, over which they claimed exclusive rights, there was another valley which became of importance in the execution of their scheme of continental dominion. In the years succeeding the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle the English colonists awakened to the importance of the valley of the Ohio, and adventurous frontiersmen of Virginia and Pennsylvania were already forcing their way into its wilderness, when France's ambition barred the way to their further progress. That astute Canadian, Governor La Galissonnière, in 1749, recognised the importance of the Ohio in relation to the Illinois and Mississippi, and sent Céloron, a captain in the French service, to claim possession of the valley of the former river and its tributaries. This officer made a long and enterprising journey, in the course of which he affixed at different points the arms of France to trees, and buried leaden plates bearing the inscription, that they were memorials of the "renewal of the possession of the Ohio and all its affluents" originally established by arms and treaties, particularly those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle. Under the instructions of Governor Duquesne, who possessed all the sagacity of La Galissonnière, forts were established at Presqu'ile (Erie) and on French Creek, a tributary of the Alleghany. Virginians saw with dismay the entrance {224} of the French into a region on which they were now casting a longing eye. Their government had secured from the Iroquois a doubtful deed which gave them, as they urged, a title to the Great West, and a company was even formed to occupy the Ohio. In 1754 the English commenced the construction of a fort at the forks of the Ohio, but it was easily captured by Contrecoeur, who completed and renamed it in honour of the Governor of Canada, Duquesne. Washington, who now first appears in American history, was defeated by Chevalier de Villiers at Fort Necessity, a mere intrenchment at Great Meadows, and the French held entire possession of the Ohio valley, where no English trader or pioneer dared show himself. By 1755 the French dominion was complete from the Ohio to the Illinois, and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, so far as a slender line of communication by means of widely separated posts and settlements could make it so. On the St. Joseph, the Maumee, the Wabash, and the Illinois, there were small forts. Fort Chartres in the Illinois country was the only post of any thorough construction. At Cahokia, opposite the modern city of St. Louis, and at Kaskaskia, at the junction of the river of that name with the Mississippi, there were small and relatively prosperous French villages. In Louisiana the French had the towns of Mobile, Biloxi, New Orleans, and a few other settlements, where the African blacks far outnumbered the whites. That colony had had many difficulties to surmount before it could be considered established. Wars with the Natchez and Chickasaws {225} had been constant. Crozat's experiment had been followed by the establishment of the Mississippi or Western Company, which was to develop gold mines, that never existed except in the imaginations of its reckless promoter, John Law, a Scotchman. When the Mississippi bubble burst, and so many thousands were ruined in France, Louisiana still continued under the control of the company, which was eventually obliged to give up its charter after heavy expenditures which had produced very small results, and the colony became a royal province. With its chequered future must be always associated the name of the Canadian Bienville, who was for some years its governor and justly earned the title of "Father of Louisiana." Insignificant as was its progress, France prized its possession, and had she been alive to her opportunities she might have colonised it with Huguenots and made it a power in the conflict between herself and England in America.

France, busy with her ambitious designs in Europe, gave but a meagre and too often half-hearted support to the men who had dreams of founding a mighty empire in America. When France and England met for the great struggle on that continent, the thirteen colonies had reached a population of nearly a million and a quarter of souls, exclusive of the negroes in the South, while the total number of the people in Canada and Louisiana did not exceed eighty thousand. In wealth and comfort there was the same disproportion between the French and English colonies. In fact at the time of the last {226} war, Canadian commerce was entirely paralysed, farms neglected, and the towns barely able to live. In 1757 food was so scarce in Quebec and Montreal that the soldiers and people had to use horse flesh. The combined forces of Canadian militia and regular troops were always much inferior in number to the British and colonial armies when united for the invasion of Canada, with the support of a powerful fleet; but the great strength of the French colony lay in the natural barriers between the English colonies and the keys to New France, Quebec, and Montreal, and in the skill with which the approaches by way of Lake Champlain had been defended by forts at every important point. If the French force was insignificant in number, it was, as a rule, skilfully managed, and in the early part of the struggle the English had no commander to compare with Montcalm for military genius. In some respects the French Canadians were more manageable in war than the English colonists. No legislative bodies existed in Canada to interfere with and thwart the plans and orders of military commanders, but the whole Canadian people acted as a unit to be moved and directed at the will of the King's officers. The Indian tribes from Acadia to the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Illinois, were, with the exception of the Five Nations, always friendly to the French since the days of Champlain--the warm allies of a people who fraternised naturally with them; and it would have been an unhappy day for the English colonists had eighty or a hundred thousand Canadians been able to arm and, under the skilful {227} generalship of Montcalm, swoop down with their savage allies on the English colonial settlements. But the French of Canada were never able, as a rule, to do more than harass by sudden raids and skirmishes--by a system of _petite guerre_, or petty warfare--the English of America, and at no time in colonial history was the capture of Boston or of New York actually attempted by a land force from Canada, though it was suggested more than once. At the outbreak of the war the Mohawks were the only Indian tribe on whom the English could place much dependence, and that was largely owing to the energy and discretion of Sir William Johnson, who had long lived in their country and gained not only their confidence but even their affection. The tribes in the Ohio valley had been won by the success of the French in driving out the Virginians, while in the further west the Foxes and other communities who had been unfriendly to the French had been beaten into submission--the Foxes in fact almost destroyed--by the raids of the French and their Indian allies. The great current of active thought and enterprise which develops a nation was always with the English colonies, and though large schemes of ambition stimulated the energies of the bold and adventurous men to whom the destinies of France were entrusted from the days of La Salle to those of Montcalm, their ability to found a new empire in America under the lilies of France was ever hindered by the slow development of the French settlements, by the incapacity of the King and his ministers in France to grasp the importance of the situation on this {228} continent, and by their refusal to carry out the projects of men like La Galissonnière, who at once recognised the consequences of such neglect and indifference, but found no one ready to favour his scheme of establishing large settlements of French peasantry in Canada and Louisiana. France, we see now, had her great opportunity in America, and lost it forever at Quebec in 1759.

Before we proceed to the record of the events which led to the conquest of Canada, it is necessary that we should briefly review the history of the period which elapsed between the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and the commencement of the Seven Years' War. When English statesmen were informed of the mistake they had made in restoring Cape Breton to France with such reckless haste, they began to reflect on the best means of retrieving it as far as possible; and at the suggestion of Shirley and other colonists they set to work to bring an English population into Nova Scotia, and to make it a source of strength instead of weakness to the New England communities. In 1749, the year of the formal surrender of Louisbourg, the city of Halifax was founded on the west side of the admirable harbour, long known in Acadian history as Chebouctou. Here, under the direction of Governor Cornwallis, a man of great ability, a town slowly grew up at the foot and on the slopes of the hill which was in later times crowned by a noble citadel, above which has always floated the flag of Great Britain. Then followed the erection of a fort at Chignecto, known as Fort Lawrence in honour of the English officer who {229} built it--afterwards governor of Nova Scotia--and intended to be a protection to the province, constantly threatened by the French and Indians, who were always numerous at the French posts and settlements on the isthmus. The French constructed on the northern bank of the Missiquash a fort of five bastions known as Beauséjour, and a smaller one at Bay Verte, with the object, as previously stated, of keeping up communication with Louisbourg, which they were strengthening in some measure. At Fort Beauséjour the treacherous priest Le Loutre continued to pursue his insidious designs of creating dissatisfaction among the French Acadians and pressing on them the necessity of driving the English from the former possessions of France.

Though war was not formally proclaimed between France and England until many months later, the year 1755 was distinguished in America by conflicts between the English and French--a prelude to the great struggle that was only to end in the fall of New France. The French frigates _Alcide_ and _Lys_ were captured on the coast of Newfoundland by vessels of a fleet under Admiral Boscawen, who had been sent by the English Government to intercept a French fleet which had left France under Admiral de la Mothe, having on board troops under Baron Dieskau and the Marquis de Vaudreuil, the successor of Duquesne in the government of Canada.

In Acadia, in the valley of the Ohio, and at Lake George, the opposing forces of England and France also met in conflict. In the spring an English force of regular and colonial troops, chiefly the latter, {230} under the command of Colonel Monckton, who has given his name to a prosperous city on the isthmus of Chignecto, and of Colonels Winslow and Scott, captured the two French forts and took a good many prisoners, among whom were a considerable number of French Acadians, forced by the French to assist in the defence of Beauséjour. Le Loutre succeeded during the confusion on the surrender of the fort, in evading capture, but only to find himself eventually taken prisoner by an English ship while on his way to France, and sent to the island of Jersey, where he was kept in confinement until the end of the war, and from that time disappears from American history.

In the same year General Braddock, an arrogant though experienced soldier, was sent in command of a large force of regular and colonial troops into the valley of the Ohio to attack Fort Duquesne and drive the French from that region, but chiefly through his want of caution and his ignorance of Indian methods of warfare in the American wilderness, he was surprised on the Monongahela by a small force of Indians and French under the Canadian Beaujeu, who were concealed in ravines, from which they were able in perfect security to prevent the advance of the English, and literally riddle them with bullets until they fled in dismay and confusion, leaving behind them a great store of munitions and provisions besides a large sum of money in specie. Braddock died from the wounds he received, and the remnant of his beaten regiments retired precipitately beyond the Alleghanies. This unhappy {231} disaster was followed by a succession of Indian raids along hundreds of miles of frontier, and the _petite guerre_ of the Abenakis and French in Acadia and New England, with all its horrors, was repeated by the Indians of the West. The southern colonies were paralysed for the moment, and the authorities of Pennsylvania gave evidences of indifference, if not of cowardice, that are discreditable features of its early history.

General Johnson, of the Mohawk country, at the head of a large colonial force, defeated Baron Dieskau at the foot of Lake George, which then received its present name in honour of the King of England, and the French general himself was taken prisoner. It was for his services on this occasion that Johnson was made a baronet, though he had not succeeded in the original object of his expedition, the capture of Crown Point. General Shirley, however, was not so fortunate as Johnson, for he abandoned the project of attacking Fort Niagara when he heard that it had received reinforcements.

The most memorable event of this time, which has been the subject of warm controversy between French and English historians and the theme of a most affecting poem, was the expulsion of the Acadian French from Nova Scotia. When Halifax was founded it was decided, as a matter of necessity, to bring the Acadians more entirely under the control of the English authorities. They had probably increased since the Treaty of Utrecht to at least twelve thousand souls, living for the most part in the Annapolis valley, by the Gaspereaux and Avon rivers, {232} at Grand Pré, at Mines, and at Chignecto. When they were asked to take the oath of allegiance by Governor Lawrence, they refused to do so unless it was qualified by the condition that they should not be obliged at any time to take up arms. Many years before a considerable number, if not the majority, of the same people had taken this qualified oath, although it is also claimed that no one had legal authority to make such a condition with them. Under the treaty of 1713 the Acadian French had a year to choose between leaving the country or giving their submission to the British Government and becoming its subjects. It was natural that they should have hesitated to leave the humble though comfortable homes which their own industry had made on the most fertile lands of Nova Scotia, but it is also quite certain that every obstacle was thrown in the way of their removal by the English governors. Had the British authorities adopted from the very commencement a firm and decided policy towards them, they might have given an unreserved allegiance to the British Crown and eventually become peaceable and contented inhabitants. As it was, the British Government systematically neglected the country, and left the little garrison at Annapolis for many years practically at the mercy of the Acadians, who could have often half starved them, and even captured the only English post of the least importance in the province, had they been led at any time by a man of courage and determination. It was only the watchfulness of the government of Massachusetts, who fully recognised the {233} importance of Nova Scotia in relation to New England, that retained the province in English hands during the time when English statesmen like Newcastle were even ignorant of the existence or situation of Annapolis. If French emissaries were often able to make these credulous and ignorant people believe that France would soon regain her dominion in Acadia, it was largely owing to the fact that the English showed such weakness in all their relations with the Acadians, and made no earnest or sustained effort to assert their sovereignty. At last when England decided to settle and strengthen Nova Scotia, a feeling of uneasiness was naturally created by the presence of a large and increasing population who were naturally in sympathy with the French, and had assumed an attitude quite irreconcilable with the security of English interests on the Atlantic coast of eastern America. It must be admitted that the position of the Acadians was one deserving of sympathy, tossed about as they were for many years between French and English. They were considered by the French of Canada and Cape Breton as mere tools to carry out the designs of French ambition. England, however, had at some time or other to assert her sovereignty in Nova Scotia, and to assure its security, seemingly threatened by the presence of people who would not formally declare themselves British subjects. The position of Nova Scotia between Cape Breton and Canada gave reason for constant alarm, and when Halifax was founded some decisive step was felt to be necessary by Cornwallis and his successors. {234} No doubt the feeling that had been created against the Acadians, by their refusal to take an unconditional oath of allegiance to Great Britain--the only oath that could be possibly offered to them by a self-respecting and strong government--was intensified by the notorious fact that a number of them had been actually captured at Fort Beauséjour with arms in their hands, though in this case they appear to have been really the mere tools of Le Loutre and French emissaries who grossly misled them. The people of New England were much prejudiced against them and asserted that they could never enjoy any security while the Acadians continued to maintain their attitude of neutrality. They had always supplied Louisbourg with provisions and helped to build the French forts on the isthmus, and it was difficult for Lawrence and his officers to obtain any assistance from them in the same way. When the Indians harassed the English settlers in Nova Scotia, the government of that province recalled the raids of the Abenakis and French Canadians, and believed with some reason there was to be the same condition of things in the peninsula. The war between the French and English had never really ceased in America, and it was well known that the hollow truce in Europe would be broken at any moment; and in the presence of the great danger that threatened the English colonies, they had some ground for fearing the presence of a large body of people who claimed to be neutrals in a country which was England's by conquest and treaty, and where they could and did enjoy an {235} amount of political and religious liberty which no Protestant enjoyed in Catholic Europe. Then came the defeat of Braddock in the Ohio country, and the knowledge that France was preparing for a determined effort to strengthen and even increase her dominions in America.

It was under these circumstances that Governor Lawrence of Nova Scotia--a determined and harsh military man--no doubt at the instigation of Shirley and the authorities of New England, determined to secure the peace and safety of the province by the most cruel of all possible measures, the expulsion of the whole body of French Acadians. It must be admitted, however, that all the circumstances, when reviewed in these later times, do not seem sufficient to justify the stern action of the men who took the leading part in this sad tragedy. The responsibility must mainly rest on Governor Lawrence, and not on the imperial government, who never formally authorised the expatriation. Be that as it may, the Acadians were driven from their settlements, and the noble qualities of Lawrence, Monckton, and Winslow, who carried out the measures of expulsion, will be always obscured in the minds of that great majority of people who think only of the deed and its consequences, and are influenced by the dictates of the heart. It is a matter for deep regret that the men who represented England in those days had not run a risk on the side of humanity, rather than have driven thousands of men, women, and children from their pleasant homes by the sides of the beautiful bays and rivers {236} of Nova Scotia, and scattered them far and wide among the English colonies, where their treatment was rarely generous. Even those who reached Quebec were coldly received and were grudgingly supplied with miserable food. Poetry and sentiment have not exaggerated the sorrow and misery of these hapless exiles, so ill-fitted to go out into the bitter world of hardship and destitution.

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XVII.

THE STRUGGLE FOR DOMINION IN THE GREAT VALLEYS OF NORTH AMERICA: ENGLISH REVERSES AND FRENCH VICTORIES--FALL OF LOUISBOURG AND FORT DUQUESNE.

(1756-1758.)