[101] _Graham's Journal_, published by the Society of the Colonial Wars, in New York. When Cuba was thus gained for the Union Jack the colonists of America were joined with their British brothers from the Old Land in lowering the flag of Spain, but the island was restored to Spain by the Treaty of Paris, February 10th, 1763.[102] [102] When, in the Spanish-American war of 1899, the forces of the United States placed the American ensign, containing the thirteen stripes of the old colonies, above the flag of Spain, in Cuba, Great Britain stood by the descendants of her men of 1762 and kept the field clear from interference by other nations. Thus for over two and a half centuries (1497-1762) had the English Jacks wrestled with the forests and battled along the shores of America, carried first by the merchant adventurers, and afterwards by the several and the United Colonies, as sign of their origin and allegiance. For yet another long period was the two-crossed Jack to be carried by those who had so manfully won competence and glory beneath it, so that at length, even when joining for contest with their parent realm, the Thirteen Colonies held its past and record in such esteem that they placed the Union Jack of Queen Anne in their new Union Ensign as a sign and remembrance of their common history. CHAPTER XVI. _THE UNION FLAGS OF THE UNITED STATES._ The thirteen English colonies which in succession had been planted in North America, along the shores of the Atlantic from the French possessions in Acadia to the Spanish possessions in Florida, had each its own "colony flag"; the "United Colonies of New England" had devised the New England flag to distinguish their particular union; but the national flag which declared the union of all the colonies with one another, and with the Motherland beyond the seas, was the "Union Jack" of Great Britain. It was under the Union Jack that the forces of the colonies of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia had marshalled in 1755, and with the English regulars had advanced, under the leadership of Braddock and Washington, to drive the French out of the Ohio Valley, but to meet with such signal disaster on the banks of the Monongahela. In the same year, under the cross of St. George in their United Colonies flag, the colonists of New England joined in the victories over the French, and changed the name of the lake, by whose shores they fought, from "St. Sacrament" to "Lake George." Under the successive Jacks the colonies had grown into commonwealths, had expanded their territories, and their sons had written their names in British history by gallant deed and notable achievement. Thus the crosses in the Union Jack had a vivid meaning, and their local historic record had won for them the attachment of the people in the colonies.