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Having enjoined secresy on the members of the general court, he laid before them his project. They deliberated upon it; but soon pronounced the enterprise too hazardous and uncertain to warrant their engaging in it. One of their members, who performed family devotion in his lodgings, so far forgot the governor's injunction of secrecy as to pray for the Divine blessing on the proposed expedition. It thus became known to the people; and numerous petitions were sent in to the general court praying for a reconsideration of their vote, and the adoption of the governor's design. The colonists were anxious to acquire Louisbourg, in order to save their fisheries from ruin.

Carried away by the enthusiasm of the people, the legislature resolved to prosecute the enterprise, and all classes were intent on the business of preparation. A general embargo was laid; funds were raised by voluntary contributions and by an emission of bills of credit; troops were embarked from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut; and by the middle of April, 1745, an army of four thousand men, under the command of Colonel Pepperel, was assembled at Canseau, where they were soon joined by Admiral Warren with a considerable part of his fleet. They soon after embarked for Chapeaurouge bay, and the fleet cruised off Louisbourg.

A landing being effected near Louisbourg, with little opposition, Vaughan, with four hundred men, marched round to the north-east part of the harbour, and set fire to some warehouses containing spirituous liquors and naval stores. The smoke concealed the number of the assailants, which being exaggerated by the fears of the French garrison, they abandoned the fort and fled into the town. Next morning, Vaughan was enabled to surprise a battery, and hold possession of it until the arrival of a reinforcement.

The troops were now occupied for fourteen nights in dragging cannon from the landing place, two miles through a deep morass, to the encampment. While the siege was thus proceeding, the British fleet, off the harbour, captured the Vigilant, a French frigate, having on board a reinforcement of five hundred and sixty men and supplies for the garrison. Soon after this an attack was made on the island battery by four hundred men, which failed with the loss of sixty killed, and one hundred and sixteen taken prisoners. But even this disaster seems to have been fortunate; for

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the prisoners united in giving the French a most exaggerated and formidable account of the English force.

Deprived of his expected supplies of men and provisions, and apprehending an immediate assault, the French governor of Louisbourg, Duchambon, determined to surrender, and in a few days sent in his capitulation. An examination of the fortress after its surrender convinced the victors that it would have proved impregnable against any assault.

It may well be supposed that the news of this important conquest spread universal joy through New England. It had been the people's own enterprise; undertaken at their own earnest solicitation; fitted out from their own resources of men and money, and accomplished by their own courage and perseverance. It remains a lasting monument of New England spirit and resolution.

Pepperel and Shirley were rewarded by the British government with the honours of knighthood; and parliament ordered reimbursements to be made for the expenses of the expedition. When Duvivier, the French admiral, charged with a fleet and an army to attempt the conquest of Nova Scotia, heard of the fall of Louisbourg, he relinquished the expedition and returned to Europe.

Shirley now wrote to the British government for reinforcements of men and ships, for the purpose of attempting the conquest of Canada, and raised a large body of forces in the colonies. But before offensive operations could be commenced, news was brought that the Duke d'Anville had arrived in Nova Scotia with a formidable armament, intended for the invasion of New England. The apprehensions caused by this intelligence were soon after dissipated by the arrival of some prisoners set at liberty by the French, who reported that the fleet had suffered so severely by storms on its passage, and the sickness of the troops, that it was in no condition to make a descent on New England. It sailed from Chebucto, however, for the purpose of attacking Annapolis, and was again overtaken and scattered by a terrible storm. The ships which escaped destruction returned singly to France. The French and Indians, who had invaded Nova Scotia, were afterwards expelled by the Massachusetts troops.

The French war was soon after terminated by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which restored to both parties all the possessions taken during the war, so that the colonists had the

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mortification of seeing their dear-bought conquest of Cape Breton restored to the French.

After the return of peace, the legislature of Massachusetts redeemed her bills of credit; and thus restored stability and vigour to her commerce, which had languished for some years in consequence of the depreciation of the currency.

The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle left the question of the boundaries between the American possessions of France and England unsettled; and the controversies concerning it were assuming an aspect more serious in proportion to the increasing wealth and importance of the respective territories. The right of discovery was pleaded on both sides, and the right of prior possession was urged wherever it existed; but so large a part of the country was still unsettled, and even unvisited, that the question of boundaries opened a wide field for discussion.

The line between Canada and New England, the boundaries of Nova Scotia, and the extent of Louisiana, were all subjects of dispute. The last-mentioned territory had been acquired by the French in 1722, when New Orleans received the remnant of a colony of that nation, which had been planted near Mobile. It was now beginning to flourish; and settlements were extending up the Mississippi, towards the great lakes. This circumstance gave rise to a grand project for connecting New Orleans with Canada by a chain of forts extending along the whole western and northern frontier of the British colonies.

Such a project was too important not to receive the most earnest attention of both nations. Its execution became the grand object of desire to one and dread to the other; and was the central point of all the operations of the succeeding French war, which will become the subject of attention in another part of this history.

At the period to which we have now brought our narrative, the New England colonies had acquired no small importance, not only in the view of the other North American communities, but of Europe. The inhabitants had displayed a degree of hardihood and perseverance in their early settlements, an activity and enterprise in their commercial operations, a firmness in defence of their liberties, and an indomitable courage in their wars, which could not pass unnoticed. Their resources in agriculture and trade were greatly developed; and their population exceeded

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COLONISATION OF NEW YORK.

a million of souls. The influence which they exercised on the subsequent destinies of the whole country was commensurate with these important advantages of character and ability.

CHAPTER XIV.

COLONISATION OF NEW YORK.

THE territory, now occupied by the middle states of the American Union, was originally settled by the Dutch and Swedes. In 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman, in the service of the East India company of Holland, set sail from the Texel for the discovery of a north-west passage to India. On his voyage he touched at Long Island, and sailed a considerable distance up the river to which his own name was afterwards given. The right of discovery, supposed to be thus acquired, and the favourable reports of subsequent voyagers, induced a company of Dutch merchants to establish a trading settlement; and the States-general promoted the enterprise by granting them a patent for the exclusive trade of the Ĥudson river. They built a fort near Albany, which they called Fort Orange, and a few trading houses on Manhattan island, which is now called the island of New York. These events took place in 1613.

The claim, thus established by the Dutch, was regarded by them as valid; but in the same year the English, who considered themselves entitled to all North America, because the continent was first discovered by Cabot, sent Captain Argall from Virginia to dispossess all intruders on the coast. Having taken possession of Port Royal, St. Saviour, and St. Croix, French settlements in Acadia, Argall paid a visit to the Dutch at Manhattan, and ordered them to surrender the place. The Dutch governor having no means of defence submitted himself and his colony to the British authority, and consented to pay tribute.

In the year following, however, a new governor having arrived at the fort, with a reinforcement of settlers, the claim of the English to dependence, was forthwith defied, and the payment of tribute, imposed by Argall, resisted. For the

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better protection of their claim to the country, they erected a fort at the south-west point of the island. Here they were left undisturbed by the English for many years; maturing their settlements, increasing their numbers, and establishing a prosperous and 'quiet little colony.'

In 1621, the attention of the government of Holland being directed to the importance of this settlement in America, they granted a patent to the Dutch West India Company, embracing the territory from the Connecticut river to the Delaware, under the title of the New Netherlands. Under this company, the colony was considerably extended. The city of New Amsterdam, afterwards called New York, was built on Manhattan island; and in 1623, at the distance of 150 miles higher up the Hudson river, the foundations were laid of the city of Albany. Their first fort in this place was called Fort Aurania, a name which was afterwards changed to Fort Orange. The same year they built a fort on the east side of the Delaware, which they named Fort Nassau. Ten years afterwards, they erected a fort on the Connecticut river near Hartford, and called it Fort Good Hope. Their possessions were thus extended, or rather scattered, from the Connecticut to the Dela

ware.

The Swedes were already settled on the Delaware; and the claims of the two nations were afterwards the subject of controversy, until the final subjugation of the whole territory by the Dutch. The English extended their settlements to the Connecticut, and after disputes, which lasted many years, finally ejected the Dutch from their fort on that river.

During their occupancy of this post, however, the Dutch received frequent assistance from their English neighbours, in their wars with the Indians. So little accustomed were the Dutch to this species of warfare, that, on one occasion, their governor, Kieft, was obliged to engage the services of Captain Underhill, who had been banished from Boston, for his eccentricities in religion. This commander, with one hundred and fifty men, succeeded in making good the defence of the Dutch settlements. In 1646, a great battle was fought on Strickland's Plain, in which the Dutch gained the victory.

In 1650, Peter Stuyvesant, the governor of New Netherlands, went to Hartford, and demanded from the commissioners of the United Colonies of New England a full surrender of the lands on Connecticut river. Several days were spent in controversy on the subject, and articles of agreement