The Project Gutenberg ebook of a brief History of the United States

which the heat caused by friction would set on fire.

of football, in which they only forcibly encounter with the foot to carry

the ball the one from the other, and spurn it to the goal with a kind of

dexterity and swift footmanship which is the honor of it. But they never

strike up one another's heels, as we do, not accounting that praiseworthy

to purchase a goal by such an advantage."

took place when the Powhatan was crowned (p. 42): "In a fair plain field

they made a fire before which (we were) sitting upon a mat (when) suddenly

amongst the woods was heard ... a hideous noise and shouting. Then

presently ... thirty young women came out of the woods ... their bodies

painted some white, some red, some black, some particolor, but all

differing. Their leader had a fair pair of buck's horns on her head, and

an otter's skin at her girdle, and another at her arm, a quiver of arrows

at her back, a bow and arrows in her hand. The next had in her hand a

sword, another a club ... all horned alike.... These fiends with most

hellish shouts and cries, rushing from among the trees, cast themselves in

a ring about the fire, singing and dancing.... Having spent near one hour

on this masquerade, as they entered in like manner they departed."
[9] Read Longfellow's _Hiawatha_.
[10] Thirty-one years later another outbreak occurred, and for months

burning and scalping went on along the border, till the Indians were

beaten by the men under Nathaniel Bacon (p. 94).
[11] Read Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 128-133, 211-226,

235-236.
[12] Read Fiske's _Dutch and Quaker Colonies_, Vol. I, pp. 177-180,

183-188.
[13] Read Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_, Vol. II, pp. 298-304.

CHAPTER IX

While English, Dutch, and Swedes were settling on the Atlantic seaboard of

North America, the French took possession of the St. Lawrence, the Great

Lakes, and the Mississippi. Though the attempt of Cartier to plant a

colony on the St. Lawrence failed (p. 30), the French never lost interest

in that part of the world, and new attempts were made to plant colonies.

Champlain (sham-plan') [1] came over in 1604 with two shiploads of

colonists. Some landed on the shore of what is now Nova Scotia and founded

Port Royal. The others, led by De Monts, explored the Bay of Fundy, and on

an island at the mouth of a river planted a colony called St. Croix. The

name St. Croix (croy) in time was given to the river which is now part of

the eastern boundary of Maine. One winter in that climate was enough, and

in the spring (1605) the coast from Maine to Massachusetts was explored in

search of a better site for the colony. None suited, and, returning to St.

Croix, De Monts moved the settlers to Port Royal.

colonists were back in France. Champlain, however, longed to be again in

the New World, and soon persuaded De Monts once more to attempt

colonization. In 1608, therefore, Champlain with two ships sailed up the

St. Lawrence and founded Quebec. Here, as was so often the case, the first

winter was a struggle for life; when spring came, only eight of the

colonists were alive. But help soon reached them, and France at last had

secured a permanent foothold in America. The drainage basin of the St.

Lawrence was called New France (or Canada); the lands near Port Royal

became another French colony, called Acadia.

Indians, and in 1609 went with a party of Hurons to help fight their

enemies, the Iroquois Indians who dwelt in central New York. [2] The way

was up the St. Lawrence and up a branch of that river to the lake which

now bears the name of Champlain. On its western shore the expected fight

took place, and a victory, due to the fire-arms of Champlain and his

companions, was won for the Hurons. [3] Later Champlain explored the

Ottawa River, saw the waters of Lake Huron, and crossed Lake Ontario. But

the real work of French discovery and exploration in the interior was done

by Catholic priests and missionaries.

on their backs, these brave men pushed boldly into the Indian country.

Guided by the Indians, they walked through the dense forests, paddled in

birch-bark canoes, and penetrated a wilderness where no white man had ever

been. They built little chapels of bark near the Indian villages, and

labored hard to convert the red men to Christianity. It was no easy task.

Often and often their lives were in danger. Some were drowned. Some were

burned at the stake. Others were tomahawked. But neither cold nor hunger,

nor the dangers and hardships of life in the wilderness, could turn the

priests from their good work. One of them toiled for ten years among the

Indians on the Niagara River and the shores of Lake Huron; two others

reached the outlet of Lake Superior; a fourth paddled in a canoe along its

south shore.
[Illustration: FRENCH PRIEST AND INDIANS IN BIRCH-BARK CANOE.]
THE KING'S MAIDENS.--For fifty years after the founding of Quebec few

settlers came to Canada. Then the French king sent over each year a

hundred or more young women who were to become wives of the settlers. [4]

Besides encouraging farming, the government tried to induce the men to

engage in cod fishing and whaling; but the only business that really

nourished in Canada was trading with the Indians for furs.

Montreal, to which hundreds of Indians came from the far western lakes.

They brought canoe loads of beaver skins and furs of small animals, and

exchanged them for bright-colored cloth, beads, blankets, kettles, and

knives.
[Illustration: INDIAN AND FUR TRADER.]
This great trade was a monopoly. Its profits could not be enjoyed by

everybody. Numbers of hardy young men, therefore, took to the woods and

traded with the Indians far beyond the reach of the king's officers. By so

doing these wood rangers (_coureurs de bois_), as they were called,

became outlaws, and if caught, might be flogged and branded with a hot

iron. They built trading posts at many places in the West, and often

married Indian women, which went a long way to make the Indians friends of

the French. [5]

Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, they heard from the Indians of a great

river called the Mississippi--that is, "Big Water" or "Father of Waters."

Might not this, it was asked, be the long-sought northwest passage to the

Indies? In hopes that it was, Father Marquette (mar-ket'), a priest who

had founded a mission on the Strait of Mackinac (mack'i-naw) between Lakes

Huron and Michigan, and Joliet (zho-le-a'), a trapper and soldier, were

sent to find the river and follow it to the sea.

VALLEY IN 1700]

Their way was from the Strait of Mackinac to Green Bay in Wisconsin, up

the Fox River, across a portage to the Wisconsin River, and down this to

the Mississippi, on whose waters they floated and paddled to a place

probably below the mouth of the Arkansas. There the travelers stopped, and

turned back toward Canada, convinced that the great river [6] must flow

not to the Pacific, but to the Gulf of Mexico.
[Illustration: MARQUETTE AND JOLIET AT A PORTAGE.]
LA SALLE ON THE MISSISSIPPI, 1682.--The voyage of Marquette and Joliet was

of the greatest importance to France. Yet the only man who seems to have

been fully awake to its importance was La Salle. If the Mississippi flowed

into the Gulf of Mexico, a new and boundless Indian trade lay open to

Frenchmen. But did it flow into the Gulf? That was a question La Salle

proposed to settle; but three heroic attempts were made, and two failures,

which to other men would have been disheartening, were endured, before he

passed down the river to its mouth in 1682. [7]

rude cross, nailed to it the arms of France, and, in the name of the

French king, Louis XIV, took formal possession of all the region drained

by the Mississippi and its branches. He named the country Louisiana.

possessions of France in the New World. But the claim was valid, and

Louisiana stretched from the unknown sources of the Ohio River and the

Appalachian Mountains on the east, to the unknown Rocky Mountains on the

west, and from the watershed of the Great Lakes on the north, to the Gulf

of Mexico on the south.

had planned was yet to be done. Louisiana had to be occupied.

Indians and secure the fur trade. Hurrying back to the Illinois River, La

Salle, in December, 1682, on the top of a steep cliff, built a stockade

and named it Fort St. Louis.

keep out the Spaniards and afford a place whence furs floated down the

river might be shipped to France. This required the aid of the king.

Hurrying to Paris, La Salle persuaded Louis XIV to help him, and was sent

back with four ships to found the city.
LA SALLE IN TEXAS, 1684.--But the little fleet missed the mouth of the

river and reached the coast of Texas. There the men landed and built Fort

St. Louis of Texas. Well knowing that he had passed the river, La Salle

left some men at the fort, and with the rest started on foot to find the

Mississippi--but never reached it. He was murdered on the way by his own

men.
[Illustration: LA SALLE'S HOUSE (CANADA) IN 1900.]

or captured the rest, and the plans of this great explorer failed utterly.

[8]
BILOXI.--La Salle's scheme of founding a city near the mouth of the

Mississippi, however, was carried out by other men. Fear that the English

would seize the mouth of the river led the French to act, and in 1699 a

gallant soldier named Iberville (e-ber-veel') built a small stockade and

planted a colony at Bilox'i on the coast of what is now Mississippi.
NEW ORLEANS FOUNDED.--During fifteen years and more the little colony,

which was soon moved from Biloxi to the vicinity of Mobile (map, p. 134),

struggled on as best it could; then steps were taken to plant a settlement

on the banks of the Mississippi, and (1718) Bienville (be-an-veel') laid

the foundation of a city he called New Orleans.

SUMMARY
1. After many failures, a French colony was planted at Port Royal in

Acadia (Nova Scotia) in 1601; but this was abandoned for a time, and the

first permanent French colony was planted by Champlain at Quebec in 1608.

and New France or Canada.

Wisconsin to the Arkansas (1673).

Mississippi to the Gulf (1682), and formally claimed for France all the

region drained by the river and its tributaries--a vast area which he

called Louisiana.

trading posts were built, and in 1718 New Orleans was founded.

FOOTNOTES

navy, and had visited the West Indies, Mexico, and the Isthmus of Panama,

across which he suggested a canal should be cut. In 1603 he was offered a

command in a company of adventurers to New France. On this voyage

Champlain went up the St. Lawrence to the site of the Indian town called

Hochelaga by Cartier (p. 30); but the village had disappeared. Returning

to France, he joined the party of De Monts (1604).
[2] The year 1609 is important in our history. Then it was that Champlain

fought the Iroquois; that the second Virginia charter was granted; and

that Hudson's expedition gave the Dutch a claim to territory in the New

World.
[3] The fight with the Iroquois took place not far from Ticonderoga. When

the two parties approached, Champlain advanced and fired his musket. The

woods rang with the report, and a chief fell dead. "There arose," says

Champlain," a yell like a thunderclap and the air was full of arrows." But

when another and another gun shot came from the bushes, the Iroquois broke

and fled like deer. The victory was won; but it made the Iroquois the

lasting enemies of the French. Read Parkman's _Pioneers of France in the

New World_, pp. 310-324.
[4] About 1000 came in eight years. When married, they received each "an

ox, a cow, a pair of swine, a pair of fowls, two barrels of salted meat,

and eleven crowns in money." Read Parkman's _Old Regime in Canada_,

pp. 219-225.

in Parkman's _Old Regime in Canada_, pp. 302-315.

abundance of fish in its waters, the broad prairies on which grazed herds

of buffalo, and the flocks of wild turkeys in the woods. On his way home

he ascended the Illinois River, and crossed to Lake Michigan, passing over

the site where Chicago now stands. Read Mary Hartwell Catherwood's _Heroes

of the Middle West_; also Parkman's _La Salle and the Discovery of the

Great West_, pp. 48-71; and Hart's _American History as told by

Contemporaries_, Vol. I, pp. 136-140.

shore of Lake Ontario, crossed over and went up the Niagara River, and

around the Falls to Lake Erie. There he built a vessel called the

_Griffin_, which was sailed through the lakes to the northern part of

Lake Michigan (1679). Thence he went in canoes along the shore of Lake

Michigan to the river St. Joseph, where he built a fort (Fort St. Joseph),

and then pushed on to the Illinois River and (near the present city of

Peoria) built another called Fort Crèvecoeur (crav'ker). There he left

Henri de Tonty in charge of a party to build another ship, and went back

to Canada.

was in ruins, and Tonty and his men gone. In hope of finding them La Salle

went down the Illinois to the Mississippi, but he turned back and passed

the winter on the river St. Joseph. (Read Parkman's description of the

great town of the Illinois and its capture by the Iroquois, in _La Salle

and the Discovery of the Great West_, pp. 205-215.)

started westward for the third time (late in 1681), crossed the lake to

where Chicago now is, went down the Illinois and the Mississippi, and in

April, 1682, floated out on the waters of the Gulf.

he sent down the Illinois and up the Mississippi. But the Sioux (soo)

Indians captured Father Hennepin, and took him up the Mississippi to the

falls which he named St. Anthony, now in the city of Minneapolis.

CHAPTER X

KING WILLIAM'S WAR.--When James II was driven from his throne (p. 93), he

fled to France. His quarrel with King William was taken up by Louis XIV,

and in 1689 war began between France and England. The strife thus started

in the Old World soon spread to the New, and during eight years the

frontier of New England and New York was the scene of French and Indian

raids, massacres, and burning towns.
[Illustration: SCENE OF THE EARLY WARS WITH THE FRENCH.]
THE FRONTIER.--The frontier of English settlement consisted of a string of

little towns close to the coast in Maine and New Hampshire, and some sixty

miles back from the coast in Massachusetts; of a second string of towns up

the Connecticut valley to central Massachusetts; and of a third up the

Hudson to the Mohawk and up the Mohawk to Schenec'tady. Most of Maine and

New Hampshire, all of what is now Vermont, and all New York north and west

of the Mohawk was a wilderness pierced by streams which afforded the

French and Indians easy ways of reaching the English frontier.

shores of Acadia (what is now Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and eastern

Maine), arid a few settlements along the St. Lawrence to Fort Frontenac,

just where the river leaves Lake Ontario.

nahk'ee) Indians, close allies of the French and bitter enemies of the

English; and in New York the Iroquois, allies of the English and enemies

of the French since the day in 1609 when Champlain defeated them (p. 115).

[1]
THE FRENCH ATTACK THE ENGLISH FRONTIER.--The governor of New France was

Count Frontenac, a man of action, keen, fiery, and daring, a splendid

executive, an able commander, and well called the Father of New France.

Gathering his Frenchmen and Indians as quickly as possible, Frontenac

formed three war parties on the St. Lawrence in the winter of 1689-90:

that at Montreal was to march against Albany; that at Three Rivers was to

ravage the frontier of New Hampshire, and that at Quebec the frontier of

Maine. The Montreal party was ready first, and made its way on snowshoes

to the little palisaded village of Schenectady, passed through the open

gates [2] in a blinding storm of snow, and in the darkness of night

massacred threescore men, women, and children, took captive as many more,

and left the place in ashes.

January, 1690, spent three months struggling through the wilderness, and

in March fell upon the village of Salmon Falls, laid it in ashes, ravaged

the farms near by, massacred some thirty men, women, and children, and

carried off some fifty prisoners. This deed done, the party hurried

eastward and fell in with the third party, from Quebec. The two then

attacked and captured Fort Loyal (where Portland now stands), and

massacred or captured most of the inhabitants.

Indians, New England struck back. Its fleet, with a few hundred militia

under William Phips, captured and pillaged Port Royal, and for a time held

Acadia. A little army of troops from Connecticut and New York marched

against Montreal, and a fleet and army under Phips sailed for Quebec. But

the one went no farther than Lake Champlain, and Phips, after failing in

an attack on Quebec, returned to Boston. [3]
For seven years more the French and Indians ravaged the frontier [4]

before the treaty of Ryswick (riz'wick) put an end to the war in 1697.

French made a settlement at Biloxi, as we have seen, and founded Detroit

(1701). In Europe the French king (Louis XIV) placed his grandson on the

throne of Spain and, on the death of James II, recognized James's young

son as King James III of England. For this, war was declared by England in

1701. The struggle which followed was known abroad as the War of the

Spanish Succession, but in our country as Queen Anne's War. [5]
Again the frontier from Maine to Massachusetts was the scene of Indian

raids and massacres. Haverhill was laid waste a second time, [6] and

Deerfield in the Connecticut valley was burned.
THE ATTACK ON DEERFIELD was a typical Indian raid. The village, consisting

of forty-one houses strung along a road, stood on the extreme northwestern

frontier of Massachusetts. In the center of the place was a square wooden

meetinghouse which, with some of the houses, was surrounded by a stockade

eight feet high flanked on two corners by blockhouses. [7] Late in

February, 1704, a band of French and Indians from Canada reached the town,

hid in the woods two miles away, and just before dawn moved quietly across

the frozen snow, rushed into the village, and, raising the warwhoop, beat

in the house doors with ax and hatchet. A few of the wretched inmates

escaped half-clad to the next village, but nine and forty men, women, and

children were massacred, and one hundred more were led away captives. [8]
END OF QUEEN ANNE'S WAR.--As the war went on, the English colonists twice

attacked Port Royal in vain, but on the third attack in 1710 the place was

captured. This time the English took permanent possession and renamed it

Annapolis in honor of the queen. To Acadia was given the name Nova Scotia.

Encouraged by the success at Port Royal, the greatest fleet ever seen, up

to that time, in American waters was sent against Quebec, and an army of

twenty-three hundred men marched by way of Lake Champlain to attack

Montreal.

mouth of the St. Lawrence, returned to Boston, and the commander of the

army, hearing of this, marched back to Albany. When peace was made by the

treaty of Utrecht (u'trekt) in 1713, France was forced to give up to Great

Britain [9] Acadia, Newfoundland, and all claim to the territory drained

by the rivers that flow into Hudson Bay (map, p. 131).

France and Great Britain were again at war, and in this period France took

armed possession of the Mississippi valley, constructed a chain of forts

from New Orleans to the Ohio, and built Forts Niagara and Crown Point.