=103. Colonies at Peace: the “Great Awakening.”=—Peace was to last for thirty years, a period which the French improved by exploring expeditions and by the building of forts to secure the great region watered by the Mississippi. Nor did the English lose sight of the vast interests at stake. They did perhaps the best thing to be done under the circumstances—they waited and grew strong in numbers and wealth, filling out as well as possible their more compact territory. They experienced also a spiritual awakening that must have strengthened the popular character in many ways. This was the “Great Awakening” which, beginning early in the century, became especially potent in 1734 under the preaching of the famous Jonathan Edwards[50] at Northampton, Massachusetts. The religious enthusiasm spread far and wide, and after a short lull, began, in 1739–1740, to flame out afresh under the inspiration of the great revivalist, George Whitefield. This eloquent English preacher went to Georgia to join John and Charles Wesley, and there carried on the religious work which the brothers had begun. Whitefield preached throughout the colonies, stirring men everywhere, and undoubtedly producing many good results in spite of the evil consequences which a period of excitement always leaves behind it. =104. Establishment of French Forts.=—After the Peace of Ryswick, Pierre le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville, established a French settlement at Biloxi, in the present state of Mississippi. La Salle had previously built Fort St. Louis on the Illinois River, and it was now the French policy to fill up the territory between these two points with a chain of forts and settlements. Mobile was founded in 1702, New Orleans in 1718. The founder of New Orleans was Iberville’s brother, Bienville. At the other end of the line Detroit was founded in 1701, Fort Niagara was built in 1726, and Crown Point was erected on Lake Champlain in 1731. In order that Acadia might be won back if possible, the strong fortress of Louisburg was erected on Cape Breton Island. =105. King George’s War (1744–1748).=—In 1744 the war known in Europe as the War of the Austrian Succession, and in America as King George’s War, was begun by a successful French attack on an English post in Nova Scotia, and by an unsuccessful attempt to take Annapolis. Great efforts were now made by Governor Shirley of Massachusetts to save Nova Scotia. He applied to the English king, but his main reliance was upon Massachusetts and her sister colonies of New England. In the spring of 1745, just one year after the commencement of hostilities, a large expedition set out to capture Louisburg, and after a siege of six weeks took that redoubtable fortress. The victory was celebrated in many long and sincere prayers of thanksgiving and in some remarkably bad poetry. But the English government was so blind to the importance of the interest at stake as to restore Louisburg to the French at the close of the war, in 1748.