The Passing of New France | Page 8

trouble
still with the fifth force, the Indians, who were under their own chiefs.
These men admired Montcalm; but they had to make treaties with
Vaudreuil. They were cheated by Bigot and were offered presents by
the British. As they very naturally desired to keep their own country for
themselves in their own way they always wished to side with the
stronger of the two white rivals, if they could not get rid of both.
Such was the Canada of 1756, a country in quite as much danger from
French parasites as from British patriots. It might have lasted for some
years longer if there had been no general war. The American colonists,
though more than twelve to one, could not have conquered it alone,
because they had no fleet and no regular army. But the war came, and it
was a great one. In a great war a country of parasites has no chance
against a country of patriots. All the sins of sloth and wilful weakness,

of demagogues and courtiers, and whatever else is rotten in the state,
are soon found out and punished by war. Canada under Vaudreuil and
Bigot was no match for an empire under Pitt. For one's own parasites
are always the worst of one's enemies. So the last great fight for Canada
was not a fight of three against three; but of one against five. Montcalm
the lion stood utterly alone, with two secret foes behind him and three
open foes in front-- Vaudreuil the owl, and Bigot the fox, behind; Pitt,
Saunders and Wolfe, three lions like himself, in front.

CHAPTER III
OSWEGO 1756
In 1753 the governor of Virginia had sent Washington, then a young
major of only twenty-one, to see what the French were doing in the
valley of the Ohio, where they had been busy building forts to shut the
gateway of the West against the British and to keep it open for
themselves. The French officers at a post which they called Venango
received Washington very politely and asked him to supper.
Washington wrote in his diary that, after they had drunk a good deal of
wine, 'they told me that it was their absolute design to take possession
of the Ohio, and by God they would do it.' When Washington had
returned home and reported, the Virginians soon sent him back with a
small force to turn the French out. But meanwhile the French had been
making themselves much stronger, and on July 4, 1754, when
Washington advanced into the disputed territory, he was overcome and
obliged to surrender--a strange Fourth of July for him to look back
upon!
Exciting events followed rapidly. In 1755 Braddock came out from
England with a small army of regulars to take command of the British
forces in America and drive the French from the Ohio valley. But there
were many difficulties. The governments of the thirteen British
colonies were jealous of each other and of the government in Britain;
their militia were jealous of the British regulars, who in turn looked
down on them. In the end, with only a few Virginians to assist him,

Braddock marched into a country perfectly new to him and his men.
The French and Indians, quite at home in the dense forest, laid an
ambush for the British regulars. These stood bravely, but they could not
see a single enemy to fire at. They were badly defeated, and Braddock
was killed. The British had a compensating success a few weeks later
when, in the centre of Canada, beside Lake George, the French general,
Baron Dieskau, was defeated almost as badly as Braddock had been.
Following this, down by the Gulf the French Acadians were rooted out
of Nova Scotia, for fear that they might join the other French in the
coming war. Their lot was a hard one, but as they had been British
subjects for forty years and had always refused to take the oath of
allegiance to the British crown, and as they were being constantly
stirred up against British rule, it was decided that they could not be
safely left inside the British frontier.
At sea the French had also suffered loss. Admiral Boscawen had seized
two ships with four hundred seasoned French regulars on board
destined for Canada. The French then sent out another four hundred to
replace them. But no veteran soldiers could be spared. So the second
four hundred, raised from all sorts of men, were of poor quality, and
spoiled the discipline of the regiments they joined in Canada. One of
the regiments, which had the worst of these recruits, proved to be the
least trust. worthy in the final struggle before Quebec in 1759. Thus the
power of the British navy in the Gulf of St Lawrence