The year 1759 brought decisive success to the English. Knowing that they intended to attack Quebec, Montcalm drew in his troops to defend that city. It therefore was an easy matter for the English to capture Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Fort Niagara, General Wolfe, one of the very ablest of English leaders, left Louisburg with a fleet and sailed up the St. Lawrence. He found the fortifications of Quebec at so great an elevation that he could make no impression upon them. Three months passed in idle waiting and the besiegers were almost disheartened. Wolfe himself was so distressed by anxiety that he fell ill. The sagacious Montcalm could not be induced to come out and give battle, and there seemed no way of reaching him. [Illustration: A DUTCH HOUSEHOLD. As seen in the early days in New York.] But the lion-hearted Wolfe would not be denied. He found a path leading up to the Heights of Abraham, as the plain above was called, and, selecting a mild night in September, his troops floated down the river in their boats and landed at the foot of the cliff. All night long the English soldiers were clambering up the steep path, dragging a few guns with them, and, when the morning sun rose, it shone on the flashing bayonets of the whole army drawn up in battle array before the walls of Quebec. The astonished Montcalm, instead of remaining within the city, marched his army out and gave battle. In the fight both Wolfe and Montcalm were fatally wounded. Wolfe lived long enough to learn that the French were fleeing before his victorious troops. "Now, I can die happy," he said, and shortly after expired. When Montcalm was told he must die, he mournfully replied: "So much the better; I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." MOMENTOUS RESULTS OF THE WAR. This battle was one of the decisive ones of the world, for, as will be seen, its results were of momentous importance to mankind. The conquest of Canada followed in 1760, and the other French forts fairly tumbled into the possession of the English. Pontiac, Chief of the Ottawas, was so angered at the turn of events that he refused to be bound by the terms of the surrender. He brought a number of tribes into an alliance, captured several British posts in the West, and laid siege to Detroit for more than a year, but in the end he was defeated, his confederacy scattered, and Pontiac himself, like Philip, was killed by one of his own race. The war was over, so far as America was concerned, but England and France kept it up for nearly three years, fighting on the ocean and elsewhere. In 1762, Spain joined France, but received a telling blow in the same year, when an English expedition captured the city of Havana. In this important event, the provincials gave valuable aid to the British regulars. The colonies also sent out a number of privateers which captured many rich prizes from the Spaniards.