but it was an utter failure, and the Spaniards were left free to employ all their forces against the English settlements. Accordingly, early in 1742 they made ready for an invasion. The wisdom of Oglethorpe's arrangements was now seen. The woods, held as they were by Indians friendly to the English, were a sufficient guard on the land side. Thus the Spaniards could make their attack only from the sea. As they could not safely leave a strong place like Frederica in their rear, it was necessary as a first step to take it, and thus it became the key of the country. St. Simons, the island on which Frederica stood, was about twelve miles long and from two to five miles broad. Frederica was on the west side facing the mainland, and the only approach to it was a road running for two miles between a forest and a marsh, and so narrow that only two men could go abreast. On every other side Frederica was protected by thick woods. On the 5th of July the Spaniards began by attacking St. Simons, a fort on the east side of the island. They had a fleet of thirty-six ships, but were beaten off by the batteries, after an engagement which lasted four hours. Oglethorpe however, doubting whether St. Simons could be defended, destroyed it, lest it should fall into the enemy's hands, and collected his whole force in Frederica. Two days later his Indian scouts brought news that the Spaniards were two miles from the town. Oglethorpe at once marched out at the head of his light troops, fell upon the Spanish vanguard and routed them, taking two prisoners with his own hand. He pursued the Spaniards for about a mile, and then halted till his regular troops had come up. These he posted in the woods, and returned to Frederica to prepare for defence. The Spaniards marched forward and halted within a hundred yards of the main ambush, who opened a heavy fire upon them. In spite of the disgraceful flight of the larger part of the English force, the Spaniards were utterly defeated with a loss of three

hundred, besides those who fled to the woods and were there killed by the Indians. The Spaniards, having failed by land, tried an attack by sea, but were beaten off by the guns of the fort. Nevertheless the English were far from safe. Their stock of food was scanty, and if this and the smallness of their force became known, the enemy were almost sure to return to the attack. The English therefore were much alarmed when they found that a Frenchman who had joined them with some volunteers had fled to the Spaniards. In this strait Oglethorpe bribed a Spanish prisoner to take a letter professedly to the Frenchman, but really meant to fall into the hands of the Spanish commander. This letter told the Frenchman that he was to be rewarded for misleading the Spaniards as to the English force, and so tempting them to rush into destruction. The Spaniards fell into the trap, and believed that the Frenchman was really a friend to the English. Oglethorpe had also said in his letter, to alarm the Spaniards, that he expected some ships in a day or two. Just at this time, by good fortune, some English ships appeared in the distance. This confirmed the Spaniards in their distrust, and they at once embarked hastily, leaving their fire-arms and ammunition behind them. On their way back they attacked some of the English forts, but were be ten off, and then retreated into their own territories. On the 14th of July a public thanksgiving was celebrated in Georgia for the deliverance of the colony. After their defeat no further attempt was made by the Spaniards to molest the English settlements.

9. Oglethorpe's Departure.-Next year Oglethorpe sailed to England, and never again visited the colony that he had founded and saved. But his memory was long held in honour there, and a city and county were called after him, and kept alive his name. Of all the founders of American colonies, om Raleigh onwards, none deserve such high honour as

Oglethorpe. Penn laboured unsparingly and wisely, but it was for a sect to which he belonged, and for a colony which bore his name. Winthrop and his friends left their homes and gave up all their hopes of prosperity and greatness in England, but it was to become the rulers of a new State and to win a refuge from tyranny for themselves and their children. Oglethorpe, urged by a yet nobler and more unselfish spirit, overcame the temptations of riches and high birth, cast behind him the pleasures of the world and forsook the society of friends, to spend the best years of his life in toil and hardship, with no hope of earthly reward beyond the fickle gratitude of those whom he served.

10. Georgia becomes a Royal Colony.-After Oglethorpe's departure, the trustees placed the government in the hands of a President and four assistants. They were to hold four courts a year, to manage the affairs of the colony and to try law-suits, but they might not spend money without the consent of the trustees. It was soon found that some of the restraints placed on the settlers were injurious to the colony. In the first seven years Parliament granted 94,000l. towards the advancement of the settlement, and fifteen hundred emigrants were sent out from England, but not more than half of these stayed in Georgia. The trustees thought that the restriction on the sale of land had led many of the settlers to leave the colony, and accordingly they removed it. Still the colony did not thrive. Nearly all the inhabitants, except the Germans and the Highlanders, were idle and discontented. In 1752 the trustees, dissatisfied with the result, gave up their charter to the crown. A government was established, modelled on that of South Carolina. The prohibition of slavery and of the importation of rum was done away with, and Georgia became in every respect like the other southern colonies.

CHAPTER XV.

THE CONQUEST OF CANADA AND OF THE OHIO VALLEY.

The French in Louisiana (1)—Washington in the Ohio Valley (2)— the Albany conference (3)-Braddock's defeat (4)—Washington in command (5)-conquest of Southern Acadia (6)—banishment of the Acadians (7)-attack on Canada (8)-conquest of the Ohio Valley (9)-the conquest of Canada (10)—the Cherokee war (11) the peace of Paris (12)—Pontiac's war (13).

1. The French in Louisiana.—Besides Canada, the French had another colony in North America. This was Louisiana, a fertile tract of land at the mouth of the Mississippi. In 1673, Marquette, a Jesuit missionary, starting from Canada, had penetrated into the countries now forming the States of Wisconsin and Illinois, and had journeyed some way down the Mississippi. A few years later, La Salle, a French fur-trader, descended the Mississippi to the sea. In 1684 he persuaded the French government to found a colony at the mouth of the river. He then explored the whole valley of the Mississippi; but, before he could bring back the report of his discoveries, he was murdered by two of his own followers. The position of this southern French colony threatened the English settlements with not a little danger. If once the French could connect Canada and Louisiana by a continuous range of forts along the valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi, they would completely surround the English settlements. They would form, as it has been described, a bow, of which the English colonies were the string. Even if these did not annoy the English settlers, they would withhold them from spreading towards the west. William III. saw the danger of this, and planned a scheme

for placing a number of French Protestants on the Mississippi as a check on the French settlements there. This however came to nothing. Like Canada, Louisiana was, in its early years, unprosperous. But about 1730 it began to flourish, and in a few years it contained seven thousand inhabitants. Measured by actual numbers, the French colonies seemed no match for the English. In 1740 the former contained only fifty-two thousand Europeans, the latter more than a million. But their alliance with the Indians, and the strength of their position, made the French dangerous. Moreover they had the advantage of being all under a single governor.

2. Washington in the Ohio Valley.-The two French colonies were separated by the valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi. Between the Ohio and Virginia lay dense forests and a range of mountains, the Alleghanies, rising at some points to four thousand feet, and in few places to less than three thousand. The French and English both claimed this territory, the former on the strength of Marquette's and La Salle's discoveries, the latter by a treaty made with the Mohawks in 1744. It seemed doubtful however whether the lands in question really belonged to the Mohawks, and also whether the treaty gave the English more than the east side of the river. But in a dispute of such importance between two nations who had been lately at war, neither side was likely to be very scrupulous as to the grounds of its claims. Before 1750 no regular settlements had been formed by the English beyond the Alleghanies, and the mountains had only been crossed by traders. But in that year a small body of rich men in England, called the Ohio Company, obtained from the king a grant of six hundred thousand acres of land in the Ohio valley. This, as probably was expected, soon brought the dispute to an issue. In 1752 the French governor proceeded to connect Canada and Louisiana by a