[Footnote 120: "Lord Clive declared to the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry, instituted A.D. 1773, that 'he never called a council of war but once, which was previous to his passing the Ganges on his famous expedition to Moorshedabad; and if he had then followed the decision of the council, the company had been undone.'"--Belsham, vol. ii., p. 401.] CHAPTER V. From the brilliant successes on the island of Cape Breton, it is now necessary to turn to the painfully checkered course of events on the American continent, where the execution of Pitt's magnificent designs[121] was unhappily intrusted to very different men from the conquerors of Louisburg. The great minister's plan of operations had embraced the whole extent of French American dominions, from the embattled heights of Louisburg and Quebec, to the lone but luxuriant wilderness of the West. By the protracted defense of the loyal and skillful Drucour, the overwhelming forces of Amherst and Boscawen were delayed till the advancing season had rendered impossible, for that year, their descent upon the Valley of the St. Lawrence. The next British expedition in order and in importance was directed against Ticonderoga and Crown Point. By the possession of these strongholds the French had long been enabled to harass the English frontier almost with impunity, and to command the navigation of the extensive lakes which formed the high road to the heart of Canada. The third army was destined to march upon Fort du Quesne, of disastrous memory, and to establish the British power in the Valley of the Ohio, for the possession of which the sanguinary war had commenced, and the spot where blood had first been shed. By the success of this object, all communication between the French of Canada and Louisiana would be effectually cut off, and the countries watered by the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi left at the mercy of England's naval power.