out the idea of defence. During the first years of the colony prosperity seemed assured, but owing to adverse circumstances its subsequent history was one of much discord and trouble.

124. Spaniards and Indians.-Hardly had the colony been well started, before war was declared between England and Spain, giving Governor Oglethorpe an opportunity to test some of his military ideas. He took the initiative and besieged the Spaniards at St. Augustine, but was compelled to retire before anything was accomplished. The Spaniards in their turn attacked the exposed outposts of the English, but were repulsed. This ended the Spaniard's dream of dominion on the coast of North America. But for years

the Spaniards were a source of great annoyance to the Georgians by reason of their constant stirring up of the Indians along the border. Not until the Indian had felt the iron hand of General Andrew Jackson, and Florida had become a part of the United States, did Georgia cease to be troubled from these sources.

125. The Wesleys.-The founders of Methodism, John and Charles Wesley, became interested in the Georgian colony very early in its history. Both came to the colony in 1735, Charles returning, after a year's service as private secretary to the governor. John Wesley remained for three years and laid the foundation of Methodism in the New World.

126. The Colony a Disappointment.-After twenty years of earnest effort to serve humanity, James Oglethorpe returned his charter to the king. The class of people whose condition he had sought to ameliorate was far from suitable material out of which to build a state. Many refused his philanthropy outright, and a large part of those who did come were so shiftless that they were a constant burden on the colony. it not been for the sturdy German Lutherans and Scotch Highlanders, and a few Huguenots from France and South Carolina, this attempt at colonization would have proved an utter failure.

Had

CHAPTER V

THE BATTLE FOR SUPREMACY

THE FOUR INTERCOLONIAL WARS

KING WILLIAM'S, 1689-1697.

QUEEN ANNE'S, 1702-1713.

KING GEORGE'S, 1744-1748.

FRENCH AND INDIAN, 1754-1763.

127. The French and English in America.-The colonial

BEGINNING OF THE BATTLE FOR SUPREMACY

the missionary. The Englishman, on the other hand, was a home builder. He subdued the wilderness with the ax and torch and wrung from it the wherewithal to satisfy his needs. The French trapper followed his quarry deeper and deeper into the forest; the missionary wandered from

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tribe to tribe, farther and farther away from civilization. The Englishman clung to the seaboard, and for over a century the rich soil of the Atlantic coast plain sufficed for his agricultural tastes. The Frenchman, entering the continent through the ice-floes of the north, had pushed his way west to the sunny climes of the south. The very year that William Penn crossed the ocean to begin his "holy experiment," the incomparable La Salle unfurled the lilies of France at the mouth of the Mississippi and completed the crescent that bound the English to the coast. But as the years passed, the Anglo-Saxon, lured by the richer agricultural regions of the west, broke over nature's mountain barrier and pushed the contest into the territory claimed by the Latin. forth war was inevitable.

Thence

128. Indian Policies Contrasted.-The French had won the friendship of the Indian to a greater extent than had the English. Not that the Frenchman was kindlier by nature than the Briton; he was not. But the latter came to the New World to build a home. In the building he destroyed the Indian's hunting ground, and thus left him impoverished. On the other hand, the Frenchman left the Indian unmolested. Commercially, it was to the Frenchman's interest to leave the forest and stream as he found them, asking but a spot upon which to build his cabin. Again, the Englishman bought his land of the Indian in immense tracts by treaty, or in small farms, by direct purchase. It meant in either case the absolute transfer of the land, together with all rights and privileges. This the Indian mind could not fathom. He could understand the granting of hunting privileges for certain "moons," but it ended there. He never contemplated the absolute transfer of the land itself, but a simple sharing, or giving up for a season of the hunting or planting privileges. This view not interfering with the French commercial idea, or rather there being no reason for a purchase of the land, the Latin was comparatively free from the strife to which the Anglo-Saxon fell heir in such abundance.

KING WILLIAM'S WAR

129. Cause-Parties Engaged.-At the close of the seventeenth century a spirited contest was in progress between the French and the English both in Europe and in America. The contest began in Europe. James II. succeeded to the English throne on the death of his brother, Charles II. His conduct was so outrageously against English interests, that the English rose in rebellion and drove him from the country. The French king welcomed him to his court and thus gave cause for war, which was declared in 1689 by King William III., whom an act of parliament had placed upon the throne. As soon as England and France began fighting, the colonists in America took up the quarrel and a struggle began for the possession of Acadia and New France.

130. Port Royal Expedition.-During the eight years of this war most of the action took place on the frontiers of the

troops, and such was the spirit displayed by leader and men that both Port Royal and Acadia fell an easy prey into their hands. A later naval attack on Quebec resulted in most disastrous failure.

131. Frontenac and Indian Atrocities.-For the conduct of the war in America, the king of France sent Count Frontenac,-in many respects a remarkable man, though lacking

in a spirit of humanity. He at once formed an alliance with the Algonkin tribes and made a strong effort to conciliate the Iroquois, whom Champlain had offended, but the traditions of nearly a century were stronger than any argument Frontenac could bring to bear, and the Iroquois remained faithful to the English. Frontenac carried the hardships of the war into the territory of the Iroquois with such severity as to force from them a treaty of peace. He kept the English frontiers in a constant state of terror by sending out marauding bands of his Indian allies, who committed the most terrible atrocities.

132. Peace: Results.-The war closed with a treaty made at Ryswick, Holland. Each nation retained the same territory which it had held in the beginning. The chief result in the colonies was the spirit of confidence it planted in the New Englander's breast-he had waged successful warfare with the French regular at Port Royal. It also awakened that feeling of dependence upon one another, which, fostered by the succeeding colonial wars, culminated in complete organization in the trying days of the Revolution.

QUEEN ANNE'S WAR

133. Cause-Parties Engaged.-Only five years of peace had been enjoyed by the colonists in America, when they were once more drawn into war by the opening of the great War of the Spanish Succession in Europe, a war in which France and England again took opposite sides. This time the French and Spanish colonies made common cause against the English colonies; who were therefore beset from all sides.

134. The War in the North.-Though Port Royal had been captured in the last war by the colonists, its return to the French at the close, again made it a convenient rendezvous for privateering expeditions down the coast. Two unsuccessful attempts were made against it. Finally, in 1710, a combined English and colonial army forced its surrender.

A similarly disastrous attempt to that made on