CHAPTER X

ENGLAND AND FRANCE AT WAR FOR THE

CONTINENT

1535-1763

From the days when Cartier (1535) and Champlain (1608) began exploring the continent, and named a part of it New France, the relations between the French and the English in America had been hostile. In the St. Lawrence basin the French had strengthened themselves, as they thought, for all time. Quebec, a fortification by nature, was bristling with French cannon and was the Gibraltar of America. This was the chief French stronghold; the military capital of France in the New World. From it went forth missionaries and soldiers to win the continent for France. All missionaries were explorers and map-makers. They were the eyes of France spying out the land.

During all the years of English colonization, from the planting of Jamestown to the founding of Georgia, these missionaries and other resolute Frenchmen were traveling over the Mississippi Valley, selecting points for future fortification, conciliating the Indians, and mapping the country. Some of them visited the English colonies, and reported their condition as accurately as they reported that of the tribes in the Northwest. Thus France knew more about the English in America than England knew about the French. The chief causes of hostility between the two nations were their difference in religion, their treatment of the Indians, and their claims to the Mississippi Valley.

The French had been about sixty years in the valley of the St. Lawrence before they began the exploration of the greater valley to the southwest. Down to 1660 New France. extended only over the St. Lawrence basin. But the fur trade brought news to Quebec of a rich country beyond, and in 1672 the governor sent two remarkable men to ex

plore. Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet started on their eventful journey from the westernmost French tradingpost, Michilimackinac, in May, 1673. Even the Indians warned them not to make the venture. Taking six men with them, they sped over the lake westward in two canoes; entered Green Bay, breasted the rapids of the Fox River, waded the marshes at its head, crossed a narrow portage, and paddled down the Wisconsin through a region never before visited by white men. For a week they passed on, feasting their eyes on the glorious freshness of the New World clothed in the flower and foliage of early summer. Wider grew the river till at last it joined a greater which flowed to the south.

It was June 17th, a day destined also to mark another great event in American history a century later. Southward they turned their canoes, and now began looking for the sea. Wider grew the river and more turbulent, for the snow and ice of the north had melted and swelled the waters. But they never feared. They knew they had found the great river of which the Indians had told them. On they paddled; passed great rivers that joined the main stream on the cast and on the west. This must be the Ohio, which they called The Beautiful; that must be the main stream because it was so large, but we know that it was the Missouri they were passing. And so on they went toward the gulf till they reached the place near where De Soto had discovered the great river, thirty-two years before, probably not far from the mouth of the Arkansas. Then they turned their canoes about and paddled back to Lake Michigan. When they reported their wonderful voyage to the governor, he sent word to the king that New France was explored southward over twelve hundred miles. This canoe voyage was one of the most wonderful in human history. Only men of extraordinary character would attempt it. Its importance cannot be fully estimated. In recent years the state of Michigan has placed a statue of Marquette in the capitol at Washington. A city bears the name of Joliet and another that of Marquette. The two men may be called the great French pathfinders.

But Marquette and Joliet had not reached the sea, and

1681]

LA SALLE

107

New France must know no other boundary. In 1678, Robert de La Salle set forth to find it. He and his companions started from Quebec, continued southward to Lake Erie, and near Detroit they built and launched the Griffin, the first ship on the Great Lakes. Then they turned toward the northwest, over Huron, through the straits, westward to Green Bay, along Marquette's course, southward along the western shore of Lake Michigan. He crossed the portage to visit a camp of Indians on the Illinois near the present site of Peoria, and built a fort to which he gave the pathetic name of Fort Crèvecœur (broken heart). Leaving a small garrison under Henri de Tonti, with orders to build another ship that might carry the expedition to the sea, La Salle went back to Quebec for supplies. But on his return to the fort he found it ruined and deserted. Had Tonti gone down the Illinois? Had he set out for Quebec? In search of him he passed down the river as far as the Mississippi, but convinced that Tonti had not been there, he turned back and encamped for the winter on the St. Joseph River.

He had accomNew France now

At last, in November, 1681, he could wait no longer, and turning again southward he began his eventful journey. He crossed Lake Michigan, entered the Chicago River, carried his canoe over the portage to the Illinois, and was soon on the Mississippi. Marquette had passed this way in June; La Salle reached the river in February, but he was not terrified by the vast mass of floating ice and trees. Boldly he kept on till he came to the sea. plished the great object of his journey. extended from Labrador to the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle was the first European to reach the gulf from the north. Standing at the mouth of the Mississippi, he unfurled the Lilies of France, claimed all the country watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries as French soil, and to the new region he had found he gave the name Louisiana, in honor of Louis XIV. Now began the toilsome journey back to Canada. La Salle retraced his course, and with military sagacity selected sites for fortifications. He knew that his mere claim of Louisiana could not hold it against England and Spain. Forts must be built at commanding points and colonies must be settled about them. Nor was this all.

The Indians must be won over and be made firm allies of the French. This in brief was La Salle's policy, and he proceeded to carry it out. In December, on his way back to Canada, he built a fort, which he called St. Louis, on the Illinois, near the present site of the town of Ottawa. This would keep the Indians in order and also guard the portage to Lake Michigan.

For many years his route was the French highway from Louisiana to Canada. It passed through the Chicago River. In 1703 the French Academy published a splendid map of North America, which shows the results of the wonderful explorations of the "pioneers of France in the New World." La Salle returned to France full of enthusiasm. In 1684 he started with many colonists for the mouth of the Mississippi. There he planned to build a fort and to close the great river to the Spaniards. But by some error in navigation, he missed the Mississippi and landed at Matagorda Bay, in Texas. Here a fort was built. Fever attacked the colonists. They quarreled among themselves. At last La Salle turned his face toward Canada, and with a few companions sought the familiar waters of the Illinois. We know that there was treachery and that the brave La Salle was murdered by his companions. Little did his murderers know that in striking him down they had dealt New France a fatal blow.

While Champlain was founding New France at Quebec, John Smith was at Jamestown, laying the foundations of Virginia; Henry Hudson was exploring the Hudson; the Dutch were settling New Amsterdam (New York City); the Pilgrims were settling Plymouth, and Winthrop and his associates were founding Boston and Massachusetts.

While Marquette and Joliet were on their wonderful voyage down the Wisconsin, the Mississippi, and return, the Friends, or Quakers, were settling New Jersey at Burlington; the first settlers of Carolina were building their houses on the Ashley and Cooper rivers; Governor Berkeley was oppressing the Virginians, and Bacon was brooding over some plan for their relief.

While La Salle was floating down the Mississippi in search of the sea, William Penn was receiving a charter for

1689]

THE FRENCH WAR

109

Pennsylvania, where seventy years later the first blood was shed in the final contest between France and England for the Mississippi Valley. Thus from the days of Champlain (1608) to those of La Salle (1684) France was exploring the valley and erecting a few forts to hold it. England was sending thousands of settlers to her colonies to build homes. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia claimed westward to the South Sea, thus covering nearly all claimed by the French in the Mississippi Valley. How was the approaching contest likely to end? It will be noticed that the period of French exploration coincides with the seventeenth century.

In less than five years after La Salle's death, the contest began. New France now consisted of three parts: Acadia, in the northeast, consisting of the greater part of Maine and Nova Scotia and New Brunswick; New France, on the St. Lawrence basin; and Louisiana, the valley of the Mississippi. The contest began in 1689, when Louis XIV. of France took up the cause of James II., whom the English people had forced to flee from his throne and whom William and Mary had succeeded by parliamentary title. Thus France and England were at war, and the people of North America were involved in the contest. In English America it was known as King William's War; in French America it was known as a war for Louis XIV. and the defense of Acadia. But the statesmen of England and France knew it was the beginning of a great struggle that should decide which nation should have the mastery in America.

France began the war in 1689. Count Frontenac, a distinguished soldier and governor of New France, was ordered to destroy the English colonies. Accompanied by his Indian allies, he promptly moved down upon New England and New York, and for six years ravaged their frontier. This was the time when Leisler called the first American Congress to assemble quickly at New York City and unite in a plan for the protection of the country (1689-90). Happily for the English, the powerful Five Nations were between them and Canada and were unappeasable foes of the French. While Frontenac and his Hurons were burn