the middle of the eighteenth century-problems which the future could not be long in solving. The history of these American colonies from their first feeble beginnings is full of interest and instruction. The people who laid the foundations of civilization in the New World were nearly all refugees, exiles, wanderers, pilgrims. They were urged across the ocean by a common impulse, and that impulse was the desire to escape from some form of oppression in the Old World. Sometimes it was the oppression of the Church, sometimes of the State, sometimes of society. In the wake of the emigrant ship there was always tyranny. Men loved freedom; to find it they braved the perils of the deep, traversed the solitary forests of Maine, built huts on the bleak shores of New England, entered the Hudson, explored the Jerseys, found shelter in the Chesapeake, met starvation and death on the banks of the James, were buffeted by storms around the capes of Carolina, built towns by the estuaries of the great rivers, made roads through the pine-woods, and carried the dwellings of men to the very margin of the fever-haunted swamps of the South. It is all one story-the story of the human race seeking for liberty. COLONIAL HISTORY.-CONTINUED. FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. THE CHAPTER XXX. CAUSES. HE time came when the American colonies began to act together. From the beginning they had been kept apart by prejudice, suspicion and mutual jealousy. But the fathers were now dead, old antagonisms had passed away, a new generation had arisen with kindlier feelings and more charitable sentiments. But it was not so much the growth of a more liberal public opinion as it was the sense of a common danger that at last led the colonists to make a united effort. The final struggle between France and England for colonial supremacy in America was at hand. Necessity compelled the English colonies to join in a comcause against a common foe. This is the conflict known as THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR; with this great event the separate histories of the colonies are lost in the more general history of the nation. The contest began in 1754, but the causes of the war had existed for many mon years. The first and greatest of these causes was the conflicting territorial daims of the two nations. England had colonized the sea-coast; France had colonized the interior of the continent. From Maine to Florida the Atlantic shore was spread with English colonies; but there were no inland settlements. The great towns were on the ocean's edge. But the claims of England reached far beyond her colonies. Based on the discoveries of the Cabots, and not limited by actual occupation, those claims extended westward to the Pacific. In grants of territory the English kings had always proceeded upon the theory that the voyage of Sebastian Cabot had given to England a lawful right to the country from one ocean to the other. Far different, however, were the claims of France; the French had first colonized the valley of the St. Lawrence. Montreal, one of the earliest settlements, is more than five hundred miles from the sea. If the French colonies had been limited to the St. Lawrence and its tributaries, there would have been little danger of a conflict about territorial dominion. But in the latter half of the seventeenth century the French began to push their way westward and southward; first, along the shores of the great lakes, then to the head-waters of the Wabash, the Illinois, the Wisconsin and the St. Croix, then down these streams to the Mississippi, and then to the Gulf of Mexico. The purpose of the French, as manifested in these movements, was no less than to divide the American continent and to take the larger portion, to possess the land for France and for Catholicism. For it was the work of the Jesuit missionaries. So important and marvelous are those early movements of the French in the valley of the Mississippi that a brief account of the leading explorations may here be given. The zealous Jesuits, purposing to extend the Catholic faith to all lands and nations, set out fearlessly from the older settlements of the St. Lawrence to explore the unknown West, and to convert the barbarous races. In 1641, Charles Raymbault, the first of the French missionary explorers, passed through the northern straits of Lake Huron and entered Lake Superior. In the thirty years that followed, the Jesuits continued their explorations with prodigious activity. Missions were established at various points north of the lakes, and in Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois. In 1673, Joliet and Marquette passed from the head-waters of Fox River over the watershed to the upper tributaries of the Wisconsin, and thence down that river in a seven days' voyage to the Mississippi. For a full month the canoe of the daring adventurers carried them on toward the sea. They passed the mouth of Arkansas River, and reached the limit of their voyage at the thirty-third parallel of latitude. Turning their boat up stream, they entered the mouth of the Illinois and returned by the site of Chicago into Lake Michigan, and thence to Detroit. But it was not yet known whether the great river discharged its flood of waters into the southern gulf or into the Pacific Ocean. It remained for ROBERT DE LA SALLE, most illustrious of the French explorers, to solve the problem. This courageous and daring man was living at the outlet of Lake Ontario when the news of Marquette's voyage reached Canada. Fired with the passion of discovery, La Salle built and launched the first ship above Niagara Falls. He sailed westward through Lake Erie and Lake Huron, anchored in Green Bay, crossed Lake Michigan to the mouth of the St. Joseph, ascended that stream with a few companions, traversed the country to the upper Kankakee, and dropped down with the current into the Illinois. Here disas ters overtook the expedition, and La Salle was obliged to return on foot to Fort Frontenac, a distance of nearly a thousand miles. During his absence, Father Hennepin, a member of the company, traversed Illinois, and explored the Mississippi as high as the Falls of St. Anthony. In 1681, La Salle returned to his station on the Illinois, bringing men and supplies. A boat was built and launched, and early in the following year the heroic adventurer, with a few companions, descended the river to its junction with the Mississippi, and was borne by the Father of Waters to the Gulf of Mexico. It was one of the greatest exploits of modern times. The return voyage was successfully accomplished. La Salle reached Quebec, and immediately set sail for France. The kingdom was greatly excited, and vast plans were made for colonizing the valley of the Mississippi. In July of 1684 four ships, bearing two hundred and eighty emigrants, left France. Beaujeu commanded the fleet, and La Salle was leader of the colony. The plan was to enter the gulf, ascend the river, and plant settlements on its banks and tributa ries. But Beaujeu was a bad and headstrong captain, and against La Salle's entreaties the squadron was carried out of its course, beyond the mouths of the Mississippi, and into the Bay of Matagorda. Here a landing was effected, but the store-ship, with all its precious freightage, was dashed to pieces in a storm. Nevertheless, a colony was established, and Texas became a part of Louisiana. sippi. La Salle made many unsuccessful efforts to rediscover the Missis- lute spirit remained tranquil through all calamities. At last, with sixteen companions, he set out to cross the continent to Canada. The march began in January of 1687, and continued for sixty days. The wanderers were already in the basin of the Colorado. Here, on the 20th of March, while La Salle was at some distance from the camp, two conspirators of famous explorer, and shot him dead in his tracks. Only seven of the company, hiding in the prairie grass, took a deadly aim at the adventurers succeeded in reaching a French settlement on the Mis the sissippi. France was not slow to occupy the vast country revealed to her by the activity of the Jesuits. As early as 1688 military posts had been established at Frontenac, at Niagara, at the Straits of Mackinaw, and on the Illinois River. Before the middle of the eighteenth century, permanent settlements had been made by the French on the Maumee, at Detroit, at the mouth of the river St. Joseph, at Green Bay, at Vincennes on the Lower Wabash, on the Mississippi at the mouth of the Kaskaskia, at Fort Rosalie, the present site of Natchez, and on the Gulf of Mexico at the head of the Bay of Biloxi. At this time the only outposts of the English colonies were a small fort at Oswego, on Lake Ontario, and a few scattered cabins in West Virginia. It only remained for France to occupy the valley of Ohio, in order to confine the provinces of Great Britain to the country east of the Alleghanies. To do this became the sole ambition of the French, and to prevent it the stubborn purpose of the English. A second cause of war existed in the long-standing national animosity of France and England. The two nations could hardly remain at peace. The French and the English were of different races, languages and laws. For more than two centuries France had been the leader of the Catholic, and England of the Protestant, powers of Europe. Religious prejudice intensified the natural jealousy of the two nations. Rivalry prevailed on land and sea. When, at the close of the seventeenth century, it was seen that the people of the English colonies outnumbered those of Canada by nearly twenty to one, France was filled with envy. When, by the enterprise of the Jesuit missionaries, the French began to dot the basin of the Mississippi with fortresses, and to monopolize the fur-trade of the Indians, England could not conceal her wrath. It was only a question of time when this unreasonable jealousy would bring on a colonial war. The third and immediate cause of hostilities was a conflict between the frontiersmen of the two nations in attempting to colonize the Ohio valley. The year 1749 witnessed the beginning of difficulties. For some time the strolling traders of Virginia and Pennsylvania had frequented the Indian towns on the upper tributaries of the Ohio. Now the traders of Canada began to visit the same villages, and to compete with the English in the purchase of furs. Virginia, under her ancient charters, claimed the whole country lying between her western borders and the southern shores of Lake Erie. The French fur-gatherers in this district were regarded as intruders not to be tolerated. In order to prevent further encroachment, a number of prominent Virginians joined themselves together in a body called THE OHIO COMPANY, with a view to the immediate occupation of the disputed territory. Robert Dinwiddie, governor of the State, Lawrence and Augustus Washington, and Thomas Lee, president of the Virginia council, were the leading members of the corporation. In March of 1749 the company received from George II. an extensive land-grant covering a tract of five hundred thousand acres, to be located between the Kanawha and the Monongahela, or on the northern bank of the Ohio. The conditions of the grant were that the lands should be held free of rent for ten years, that within seven years a |