short of a miracle." 1 "The capture of Louisburg," wrote Smollet, "was the foremost achievement of the war of 1745." And one of the actors in the scene declared that "in all the histories he had read, he never met with an instance of so bold and presumptuous an attempt." Flattered by their brilliant success, the Americans now conceived the project of the conquest of Canada. The governors of all the colonies as far south as Virginia were ordered by the Duke of New Castle, then secretary of state, to raise companies of men and to await future orders. England promised to send over eight battalions, under the command of Lieutenant General St. Clair, with a squadron commanded by Rear Admiral Warren. These and the New England forces were to rendezvous at Louisburg, and from thence to proceed to Quebec. The southern troops were to assemble at Albany, and from thence to march to Montreal. Meanwhile the French, inflamed by their recent disaster, were planning the recovery of Louisburg and the destruction of Boston. In 1746 an Armada, a huge fleet consisting of seventy sail, and commanded by the Duke d'Anville, left the harbor of Brest, to "conquer the British North American coast from Virginia to Newfoundland." Unparalleled and disastrous storms proved more terrible than the enemy's fire; and when, in September, D'Anville reached Halifax, he could boast of only two ships of the line and a few transports. Suddenly he was removed by death. A few days later the vice-admiral committed suicide, the men perished of disease by hundreds, and what remained of the fleet hastily retired from American waters. After this disastrous failure, La Jonquière, with sixteen men-of-war and twenty-eight other Murdock, Hist. of Nova Scotia. The siege is minutely described in Brown's Hist. of Cape Breton, 168-248. Off vessels, was sent from France on the same mission. Cape Finisterre he was attacked by the fleets of Anson and Warren, and was signally defeated. From this time onward the American colonies suffered only on the frontier. The expedition against Quebec was deferred; Fort Massachusetts, in Williamstown, the post nearest to Crown Point, — long known "as the Thermopyla of America," was attacked by de Vaudreuil, and surrendered only when every grain of powder was exhausted. In 1748 the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle put an end to the war. Those who took no part in framing this treaty suffered the most. The peace was, in fact, a mere truce, forced on the contending powers by sheer exhaustion, and both parties were agreed simply to restore their conquests. On these terms Louisburg and Cape Breton were restored to France, and thus, "after four years of warfare in all parts of the world, after all the waste of blood and treasure, the war ended just where it began." About this time a serious tumult occurred in Boston. A number of sailors having deserted from the squadron at Nantasket, Commodore Knowles sent boats to the town the next morning and seized several of the seamen belonging to the vessels in port, "impressing some ship's carpenters' apprentices and laboring landsmen." This outrage aroused the indignation of the people, and a mob was formed. About dusk, several thousand men assembled in King Street, below the town-house, where the General Court was in session. All attempts to appease the animosity of the crowd proved fruitless; and even Pepperell, "with all his personal popularity, was equally unsuccessful in stilling the tumult." On the following day the troops were ordered under arms; the governor, fearful of his safety, withdrew to the castle; and Commodore Knowles was requested to propose some method of conciliation. The only method which he would accede to was to bombard the town. On the 19th of November, the court, who had hitherto withheld their interference, resolved "to stand by, and support with their lives and estates, his excellency the governor and the executive part of the government, and to exert themselves, by all ways and means possible, in reducing such grievances as his Majesty's subjects have been and are under." This and other resolves quieted the excitement, and on the 20th the governor was conducted back to his residence with great parade. The commodore freed the seamen whom he had impressed, and shortly afterwards took his departure. - From this time onward the province continued to prosper. In 1748 the population somewhat exceeded two hundred thousand souls; that of Boston alone was upward of twenty thousand. In all the counties there were one hundred and forty towns, nearly double the number at the grant of William and Mary. The commercial wealth was, also, steadily increasing. The value of the imports from Great Britain to America, from 1738 to 1748, amounted, in the aggregate, to more than thirty millions of dollars, or about seven and a half millions sterling. It may be said, finally, that the province had increased in wisdom; that its experience at the hands of the mother country was not forgotten; and that already many honestly believed that the same old drums that beat at the fall of Louisburg would soon be required to rally American patriotism in defence of God-given rights and liberties. CHAPTER X. THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. THE peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, which was forced on the contending powers by sheer exhaustion, was more a truce than a league. France was dreaming of far wider schemes for the humiliation of England; and her aims spread far beyond Europe. In America, she not only claimed the valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, but forbade the English colonists to cross the Alleghanies, and planted Fort Duquesne on the waters of the Ohio. At the same time England was looking forward to the day when she should be able to expel the French from North America, supply the farthest wigwam from her workshops, and assume absolute sway from the Atlantic to the Pacific. For the purpose of frustrating the plans of France, a company, chiefly of Virginians, was formed, and, in 1749, settlements were projected on the banks of the Ohio. By the terms of the treaty of 1748, the bounds of the two nations were to remain the same as before the war; but, for a quarter of a century, these bounds had been in dispute. Measures were taken, in 1750, for the adjustment of these bounds, and commissioners were appointed. Nearly two years were spent in idle conference, and no satisfactory result was reached. Meanwhile a fleet, under Edward Cornwallis, arrived in American waters, and established an English settlement near the harbor of Chebucto, which received the name of Halifax, in honor of the Earl of Halifax. Thus sprang into existence the first town of English origin east of the Penobscot. Before the winter of 1749 had closed, nearly three hundred houses were covered in. Shortly afterwards a blockhouse was raised at Minas, now Lower Horton, and a fort was built at Pesaquid, now Windsor, to protect the communications with Halifax. These posts, with Annapolis on the Bay of Fundy, secured the peninsula.1 Governor Shirley, who had won renown at Louisburg, was now desirous of gathering fresh laurels on the field of action. To him it seemed, since the failure of the commission, that war between England and France was inevitable; and he himself was quite urgent that it should commence speedily. Should hostilities open, he felt sure that he would be promoted at once to the charge of a regiment, if not made a general officer. Both at home, and in his despatches to England, he urged the necessity of repelling the designs of the French, and of extending the territory of Massachusetts to the eastward. In 1752 hostilities began in the south. In the following year Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, his attention being attracted by supposed encroachments of the French, and by their seeming efforts to connect the Lakes with the Ohio by a line of posts, sent a letter to St. Pierre, the commanding officer on the Ohio, requiring him to withdraw from the English dominions. George Washington, then just twenty-two years of age, was commissioned to be the bearer of this demand. But little did he foresee the consequences which were to result from this movement, or dream of the honors which the future had in store for him. It was late in the spring when Washington, commanding 1 Haliburton, Nova Scot. i. 136-142. Bancroft, iv. 44-46. |