THE AMERICAN CONTINENT GAINED BY THE BRITISH.
The first English settlement which became permanent in Virginia was
founded in 1606. Seven years later--while the settlement was still
struggling for existence--the colonists began to form purposes of
aggression against their still feebler neighbours in the far north. It
was their custom to send annually to the great banks of Newfoundland
a fleet of fishing-boats under convoy of an armed ship. Once the
commander of this escort was a warlike person named Samuel Argall,
whose lofty aims could not be restricted to the narrow sphere which
had been assigned to him. While the boats which were his charge
industriously plied their calling, Argall turned his thoughts to the
larger pursuit of national aggrandizement. [Sidenote: 1613 A.D.] He
affirmed the right of England to all the lands in his neighbourhood.
The French had an armed vessel on the coast: Argall attacked and
captured her. The French had formed a very feeble settlement on
Penobscot Bay: Argall landed and laid in ruins the few buildings which
composed it. He crammed seventeen of his prisoners into an open boat
and turned them adrift at sea. The others were carried to Jamestown,
where they came near to being hanged as pirates.
Thus early and thus lawlessly opened the strife which was to close,
a century and a half later, with the victory of the English on the
Heights of Abraham and the expulsion of French rule from the American
continent. During the greater portion of that time England and France
were at war, and the infant settlements of Acadie and Canada formed
a natural prey to English adventurers. [Sidenote: 1628 A.D.] King
James bestowed Acadie upon a countryman whom he befriended, and this
new proprietor sent out a fleet to establish his claims. The lawless
commander of this expedition did not scruple, in a time of peace, to
possess himself of Quebec. Three times the English took Acadie: once
they held it jointly with France for eleven years; then they restored
it. [Sidenote: 1713 A.D.] Finally, it became theirs by the Treaty of
Utrecht, and was henceforth known as Nova Scotia. As the New England
colonies increased in strength they waged independent war with Canada.
[Sidenote: 1664 A.D.] A little farther on the English conquered New
York, and gradually extended their occupation northward to the Great
Lakes. The Frenchmen of the St. Lawrence were their natural enemies.
The English sought to possess themselves of the Canadian fur trade,
and to that end made alliance with the Iroquois Indians, who were then
a controlling power in the valley of the Hudson. There were perpetual
border wars--cruel and wasteful. Often the Englishmen of New York
attacked the Frenchmen of Canada; still more frequently they stimulated
the Indians to hostility. Always there was strife, which made the
colonies weak, and often threatened their extinction. It was not at
first that England cared to possess Canada; it was rather that she
could not witness the undisturbed possession by France of any territory
which France seemed to prize.
As years passed and the enormous value to European Powers of the
American continent was more fully discovered, the inevitable conflict
awakened fiercer passions and called forth more energetic effort. The
English were resolute to frequent the valley of the Ohio for trading
purposes; the French were resolute to prevent them. Governors of the
English colonies, scorning the authority of France, granted licences
to traders; when traders bearing such licences appeared on the banks
of the Ohio, they were arrested and their goods were confiscated. The
English highly resented these injuries. Attempts were made to reach
a pacific adjustment of disputes, and commissioners met for that
purpose. But the temper of both nations was adverse to negotiation; the
questions which divided them were too momentous. It was the destiny of
a continent which the rival powers now debated. Men have not even yet
found that the peaceable settlement of such questions is possible.
The English colonies had increased rapidly, and now contained a
population upwards of a million. From France there had been almost no
voluntary emigration, and the valley of the St. Lawrence was peopled
to the extent of only sixty-five thousand. The English were strong
enough to trample out their rivals. But they were scattered at vast
distances, and conflicting opinions hindered them from uniting their
strength. [Sidenote: 1754 A.D.] And France, at this time, began to send
out copious military stores and reinforcements, as if in preparation
for immediate aggression. The two countries were still at peace, but
the inevitable conflict was seen to be at hand. The English Governors
begged earnestly for the help of regular soldiers, in whose prowess
they had unbounded confidence. Two regiments were granted to their
prayers, and they themselves provided a strong body of bold but
imperfectly disciplined troops. They were too powerful to wait for the
coming of the enemy. A campaign was designed whose success would have
shaken the foundations of French authority on the continent. One army
under General Braddock was to cross the Alleghany Mountains and destroy
Fort du Quesne, the centre of French power on the Ohio. Two armies
would operate against the French forts on the Great Lakes; yet another
force moved against the French settlements in the Bay of Fundy. To
crown the whole, a British fleet cruised off the banks of Newfoundland
watching the proceedings of a rival force.
[Sidenote: 1755 A.D.] Ruin, speedy and complete, overwhelmed the
unwisely-guided armament which followed General Braddock through the
Virginian forests.[15] In the north there were fought desperate and
bloody battles. The English forced on board their ships three thousand
French peasants--peaceful inhabitants of Nova Scotia--and scattered
them among the southern colonies. The Indian allies of the French
surprised many lonely hamlets, slaughtered many women and children,
tortured to death many fighting-men. The English fleet captured two
French ships. But no decisive advantage was gained on either side.
The problem of American destiny was solving itself according to the
customary methods--by the desolation of the land, by the slaughter and
the anguish of its inhabitants; but the results of this bloody campaign
did not perceptibly hasten the solution after which men so painfully
groped.
During the next two years success was mainly with the French. The
English were without competent leadership. An experienced and skilled
officer--the Marquis de Montcalm--commanded the French, and gained
important advantage over his adversaries. He took Fort William Henry,
and his allies massacred the garrison. He took and destroyed two
English forts on Lake Ontario. He made for himself at Ticonderoga a
position which barred the English from access to the western lakes.
The war had lasted for nearly three years; and Canada not merely kept
her own, but, with greatly inferior resources, was able to hold her
powerful enemy on the defensive.
But now the impatient English shook off the imbecile Government under
which this shame had been incurred, and the strong hand of William
Pitt assumed direction of the war. [Sidenote: 1757 A.D.] When England
took up in earnest the work of conquest, France could offer but
feeble resistance. The Canadians were few in number, and weakened
by discontent and dissension. Their defensive power lay in a few
inconsiderable forts, a few thousand French soldiers, and five ships of
war. The insignificance of their resources had been concealed by the
skilful leadership of Montcalm.
Pitt proposed, as the work of the first campaign, to take
Louisburg--the only harbour which France possessed on the Atlantic; to
take Fort du Quesne, in the valley of the Ohio; and Ticonderoga, in
the north. He was able to accomplish more than he hoped. Louisburg was
taken; Cape Breton and the island of St. John became English ground.
Communication between France and her endangered colony was henceforth
impossible. The French ships were captured or destroyed, and the flag
of France disappeared from the Canadian coast. Fort du Quesne fell into
English hands, and assumed the English name of Pittsburg, under which
it has become famous as a centre of peaceful industry. France had no
longer a footing in the Mississippi valley. [Sidenote: 1758 A.D.] At
Ticonderoga, incapable generalship caused shameful miscarriage: the
English attack failed, and a lamentable slaughter was sustained. But
the progress which had been made afforded ground to expect that one
campaign more would terminate the dominion of France on the American
continent.
The spirit of the British nation rose with the return of that success
to which they had long been strangers. Pitt laid his plans with
the view of immediate conquest. Parliament expressed strongly its
approbation of his policy and his management, and voted liberal sums to
confirm the zeal of the colonists. The people gave enthusiastic support
to the war. Their supreme concern for the time was to humble France by
seizing all her American possessions. The men of New England and New
York lent their eager help to a cause which was peculiarly their own.
The internal condition of Canada prepared an easy way for a resolute
invader. The harvest had been scanty; no supply could now be hoped for
from abroad, for the English ships maintained strict blockade; food was
scarce; a corrupt and unpopular Government seized, under pretence of
public necessity, grain which was needed to keep in life the families
of the unhappy colonists. There were no more than fifteen thousand
men fit to bear arms in the colony, and these were for the most part
undisciplined and reluctant to fight. The Governor vainly endeavoured
to stimulate their valour by fiery proclamations. The gloom and apathy
of approaching overthrow already filled their hearts.
[Sidenote: 1759 A.D.] It was the design of Pitt to attack
simultaneously all the remaining strongholds of France. An army of
eleven thousand men, moving northward from New York by the valley of
the Hudson, took with ease the forts of Ticonderoga and Crown Point;
and the fair region which lies around Lake Champlain and Lake George
passed for ever away from the dominion of France. A smaller force
attacked Fort Niagara, the sole representative now of French authority
on Lake Ontario. This stronghold fell, and France had no longer a
footing on the shores of the Great Lakes.
In the east the progress of the British arms was less rapid. Montcalm
held Quebec, strongly fortified, but insufficiently provided with food.
He had a force of twelve thousand men under his command--heartless and
ill-armed, and swarms of allied Indians lurked in the woods, waiting
their opportunity. Before Quebec there lay a powerful British fleet,
and a British army of eight thousand men. Pitt knew that here lay the
chief difficulty of the campaign; that here its crowning success must
be gained. He found among his older officers no man to whom he could
intrust the momentous task. Casting aside the routine which has brought
ruin upon so many fair enterprises, he promoted to the chief command a
young soldier of feeble health, gentle, sensitive, modest, in whom his
unerring perception discovered the qualities he required. That young
soldier was James Wolfe, who had already in subordinate command evinced
courage and high military genius. To him Pitt intrusted the forces
whose arms were now to fix the destiny of a continent.
The long winter of Lower Canada delayed the opening of the campaign,
and June had nearly closed before the British ships dropped their
anchors off the Isle of Orleans, and Wolfe was able to look at the
fortress which he had come to subdue. His survey was not encouraging.
The French flag waved defiantly over tremendous and inaccessible
heights, crowned with formidable works, which stretched far into the
woods and barred every way of approach. Wolfe forced a landing, and
established batteries within reach of the city. For some weeks he
bombarded both the upper and the lower town, and laid both in ruins.
But the defensive power of Quebec was unimpaired. The misery of the
inhabitants was extreme. “We are without hope and without food,” wrote
one: “God has forsaken us.” Regardless of their sufferings, the French
general maintained his resolute defence.
The brief summer was passing, and Wolfe perceived that no real progress
had been made. He knew the hopes which his countrymen entertained;
and he felt deeply that the exceptional confidence which had been
reposed in him called for a return of exceptional service. [Sidenote:
July 31, 1759 A.D.] He resolved to carry his men across the river and
force the French intrenchments. But disaster fell, at every point, on
the too hazardous attempt. His transports grounded; the French shot
pierced and sunk some of his boats; a heavy rain-storm damped the
ammunition of the troops; some of his best regiments, fired by the wild
enthusiasm of battle, dashed themselves against impregnable defences
and were destroyed. The assault was a complete failure, and the baffled
assailants withdrew, weakened by heavy loss.
The agony of mind which resulted from this disaster bore with crushing
weight upon Wolfe’s enfeebled frame, and for weeks he lay fevered and
helpless. During his convalescence he invited his officers to meet for
consultation in regard to the most hopeful method of attack. One of
the officers suggested, and the others recommended, a scheme full of
danger, but with possibilities of decisive success. It was proposed
that the army should be placed upon the high ground to the westward
of the upper town and receive there the battle which the French would
be forced to offer. The assailants were largely outnumbered by the
garrison; escape was impossible, and defeat involved ruin. But Wolfe
did not fear that the French could inflict defeat on the army which he
led. The enterprise had an irresistible attraction to his daring mind.
He trusted his soldiers, and he determined to stake the fortune of
the campaign upon their power to hold the position to which he would
conduct them.
The Heights of Abraham stretch westward for three miles from the
defences of the upper town, and form a portion of a lofty table-land
which extends to a distance from the city of nine miles. They are
from two to three hundred feet above the level of the river. Their
river-side is well-nigh perpendicular and wholly inaccessible, save
where a narrow footpath leads to the summit. It was by this path--on
which two men could not walk abreast--that Wolfe intended to approach
the enemy. The French had a few men guarding the upper end of the path;
but the guard was a weak one, for they apprehended no attack here.
Scarcely ever before had an army advanced to battle by a track so
difficult.
[Sidenote: Sept. 12, 1759 A.D.] The troops were all received on board
the ships, which sailed for a few miles up stream. During the night
the men re-embarked in a flotilla of boats and dropped down with the
receding tide. They were instructed to be silent. No sound of oar
was heard, or of voice, excepting that of Wolfe, who in a low tone
repeated to his officers the touching, and in his own case prophetic,
verses of Gray’s “Elegy in a Country Churchyard.” Quickly the
landing-place was reached, and the men stepped silently on shore. One
by one they climbed the narrow woodland path. As they neared the summit
the guard, in panic, fired their muskets down the cliff and fled. The
ships had now dropped down the river, and the boats plied incessantly
between them and the landing-place. All night long the landing
proceeded. The first rays of the morning sun shone upon an army of
nearly five thousand veteran British soldiers solidly arrayed upon the
Heights of Abraham, eager for battle and confident of victory. Wolfe
marched them forward till his front was within a mile of the city, and
there he waited the attack of the French.
Montcalm had been wholly deceived as to the purposes of the British,
and was unprepared for their unwelcome appearance on the Heights. He
had always shunned battle; for the larger portion of his troops were
Canadian militia, on whom little reliance could be placed. He held them
therefore within his intrenchments, and trusted that the approaching
winter would drive away the assailants and save Canada. Even now he
might have sheltered himself behind his defences, and delayed the
impending catastrophe. But his store of provisions and of ammunition
approached exhaustion; and as the English ships rode unopposed in the
river, he had no ray of hope from without. Montcalm elected that the
great controversy should be decided by battle and at once.
He marched out to the attack with seven thousand five hundred men,
of whom less than one-half were regular soldiers, besides a swarm
of Indians, almost worthless for fighting such as this. The French
advanced firing, and inflicted considerable loss upon their enemy. The
British stood immovable, unless when they silently closed the ghastly
openings which the bullets of the French created. At length the hostile
lines fronted each other at a distance of forty yards, and Wolfe gave
the command to fire. From the levelled muskets of the British lines
there burst a well-aimed and deadly volley. That fatal discharge gained
the battle, gained the city of Quebec--gained dominion of a continent.
The Canadian militia broke and fled. Montcalm’s heroic presence held
for a moment the soldiers to their duty; but the British, flushed with
victory, swept forward on the broken and fainting enemy: Montcalm fell
pierced by a mortal wound; the French army in hopeless rout sought
shelter within the ramparts of Quebec.
Both generals fell. Wolfe was thrice struck by bullets, and died upon
the field, with his latest breath giving God thanks for this crowning
success. Montcalm died on the following day, pleased that his eyes were
not to witness the surrender of Quebec. The battle lasted only for a
few minutes; and having in view the vast issues which depended on it,
the loss was inconsiderable. Only fifty-five British were killed and
six hundred wounded; the loss of the French was twofold that of their
enemies.
A few days after the battle, Quebec was surrendered into the hands
of the conquerors. But the French did not at once recognize absolute
defeat. [Sidenote: 1760 A.D.] In the spring of the following year a
French army of ten thousand men gained a victory over the British
garrison of Quebec on the Heights of Abraham, and laid siege to the
city. But this appearance of reviving vigour was delusive. The speedy
approach of a few British ships broke up the siege and compelled a
hasty retreat. Before the season closed, a British army, which the
French had no power to resist, arrived before Montreal and received the
immediate surrender of the defenceless city. Great Britain received,
besides this, the surrender of all the possessions of France in Canada
from the St. Lawrence to the unknown regions of the north and the west.
The militia and the Indians were allowed to return unmolested to their
homes. The soldiers were carried back to France in British ships.
All civil officers were invited to gather up their papers and other
paraphernalia of government and take shipping homewards. For French
rule in Canada had ceased, and the Anglo-Saxon reigned supreme from
Florida to the utmost northern limit of the continent.