Early French voyages--Jacques Cartier--The Marquis de la Roche --Samuel Champlain--A passage to the East--The Franciscans and Jesuits--The Company of the One Hundred Associates--Character of Champlain--Colbert and colonisation--The Company of the West --System of government--Count Frontenac--Western discoveries-- Joliet and Marquette--La Salle--The Mississippi--La Salle's great expedition--His failure--His place in history--The Iroquois--The Treaty of Utrecht 200 CHAPTER XI FRENCH AGGRESSION The colonies were not united--Dongan and Denonville--King William's war--The Albany Conference--Expedition against Quebec --The Abenaki Indians--Incapacity of the colonies--The Treaty of Ryswick--The War of the Spanish Succession--The horrors of Indian warfare--Samuel Vetch--Colonial jealousies--English indifference--The capture of Acadia--Colonial fear of English interference--The English view of the colonials--The Hill-Walker expedition--Walker's cowardice--The character of the expedition --The Treaty of Utrecht--A lost opportunity--Relations between Indians and Canadian Government--The French scheme--Crown Point --The War of the Austrian Succession--Louisburg--Character of forces--The capture of Louisburg--Shirley's plans--The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle 224 CHAPTER XII THE CLIMAX: THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN ENGLISH AND FRENCH COLONISTS The colonial share in the capture of Canada--The internal jealousies of the colonies--French aggression in the Ohio valley--George Washington--Results of the campaign of 1754-- Character of General Braddock--Schemes for 1755--Braddock's disaster--The work of Dinwiddie and Johnson--The deportation of the Acadians--The results of the campaign of 1755--The Seven Years' War--The character of the Marquis de Montcalm-- Webb, Abercromby, and Loudoun--Unsuccessful attack upon Louisburg--Montcalm at Fort William Henry--The rise of William Pitt--The plan of campaign of 1758--The character of General Wolfe--The capture of Louisburg--Abercromby's disaster at Ticonderoga--The character of Lord Howe--Capture of Forts Frontenac and Duquesne--The campaigns of 1759--Amherst's delay--The siege of Quebec--English despair--The discovery of the path--Death of Wolfe--Wolfe and Montcalm--The climax--The collapse of the French Empire in the West--The rise of a new nation 254 CHRONOLOGY 285 BIBLIOGRAPHY 296 INDEX 299 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS GEORGE WASHINGTON _Frontispiece_ _From the painting attributed to Gilbert Stuart in the National Portrait Gallery._