Further defense of Quebec was useless. On the 17th of September the city capitulated to Genera. Townshend. The year 1759 had seen a successful issue to all three of the campaigns that had been planned. Great was the rejoicing in the colonies and in England, but the enthusiasm centered in the victory of Wolfe, which practically ended the war. The loss of so brave a hero, however, mingled grief with exul

tation.

In the spring of 1760 France made an effort to recover her lost ground. A battle was fought west of Quebec. The French, under Levi, suffered a loss of 300 men, but succeeded in driving the English, under Murray, into the city, with the loss of 1,000. Re-enforcements, however, arrived before long, and the siege was raised. Later in the year Amherst descended to Montreal by way of Oswego and the St. Lawrence, met the forces of Murray and others from Crown Point, and on September 8th received the capitulation of the city. The last important post of the French in the valley of the St. Lawrence passed into English hands, and the surrender included all of Canada.

In the summer of this same year the Cherokee Indians rose against the English and captured Fort Loudoun, in the northeastern part of Tennessee. Safety was promised to the garrison, but the savages violated their compact and massacred or made captive the whole of their prisoners. The next year Amherst sent Lieutenant-Colonel Grant against the Cherokees, and he succeeded in forcing them into a treaty of peace.

After the capitulation of Montreal, English soldiers were sent to take possession of the western forts of the French, which had been given up at the same time. By the last of November, 1760, Major Rogers had reached Detroit, but the posts at Mackinaw, St. Marie, and Green Bay were not garrisoned till the next sum

mer.

The English were thus brought into the very midst of the Indians, who were friendly to the French and still expected their triumph. They failed to understand that their allies had lost Canada. Rudely treated by the English, instigated by the French, and angry at real and fancied wrongs, they began to combine against the English. In 1761 a treacherous endeavor was made to capture Detroit, which happily failed, as did another attempt the next year.

It was in this state of affairs that Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas who wandered through the region between Lake Michigan and Lake Erie, organized the widest and most threatening conspiracy that was ever known among the Indians. Pontiac doubted that peace could be arranged between the rival French and English. Trusting to the hope that peace would not be secured, he planned a union of the Indian tribes from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi. The 7th of May, 1763, was set as the day on which all the English forts on the frontier should be simultaneously attacked.

Pontiac undertook nimself the task of capturing Detroit. The scheme was carefully prepared, but when the Indians attempted to gain possession of the post by treachery they found the garrison armed to receive them. The plot had been revealed, it is said, by the friendship of an Indian girl for the commandant, and after a long siege the Indians were driven

away.

Elsewhere the savages were more successful. Forts Sandusky, St. Joseph, and Mackinaw were taken and the English massacred. By midsummer all the forts in the west had been captured except Detroit, Niagara, and Pittsburg. Now, however, the Indians began to hear of a treaty between France and England, and one tribe after another sought peace. The confederacy was broken up. But Pontiac and his warriors of the Ottawas continued the struggle for two

years longer. Then his friends deserted him, and he was finally murdered by an Illinois Indian.

The war between France and England ended in America with the capture of Montreal, but it was still continued in other quarters of the world, these two countries being also engaged in the general European conflict known as the Seven Years' War, in which Spain also finally joined. The French and Indian War was at last terminated by the treaty of Paris, February 10, 1763 By the terms of this treaty France gave up her possessions in North America. with hardly an exception. All east of the Mississippi were surrendered to Great Britain except the Island of New Orleans. This island and the vast province known as Louisiana, west of the Father of Waters, was given to Spain, and Spain in turn gave up to Great Britain East and West Florida. All that France retained of her immense domain on this continent was two small islands near the Canadian coast as a refuge for her fishermen.

So closed a war most important in Europe and America. In the New World it settled forever the question as to what language, religion, and civilization should dominate the continent of North America. And we have already referred to its effect in establishing more friendly relations between the colonies and in showing them their strength and the necessity for united action,

CHAPTER XXXI.

CONDITION OF THE COLONIES.

Political and religious differences between the colonies-Diversity in character-Varying laws-Slavery-Life of the settlersMeans of conveyance-Educational interests-NewspapersBooks and learning-Colleges - Population - Manufactures and commerce-Agricultural products-Post-office systemMoney-The Revolution draws nigh.

Before we enter on the history of the struggle by which the colonists secured independence from Great Britain, it will be well to take a rapid glance at their condition as they emerged from the French and Indian War and passed into the Revolutionary stage of their history.

The thirteen colonies that afterward joined to make the thirteen original states of the Union had by this time all been founded-New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut; New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland; Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

The differences that existed between these colonies in the character of their people, their customs, and their laws was chiefly due to the nature of the settlers, the soil which they cultivated, and the climate in which they lived. New England was established by people whose sentiments developed, with those of their dissenting brethren in England, into opposition to the crown. Virginia was guided by men of aristocratic and royal inclinations. Their religions also differed. Puritan principles, strong and rigorous

and as they seem to us to-day, even harsh in their se verity prevailed in the northeast. New York, owing probably to the Dutch element of its population, paid little attention to religious controversies. New Jer sey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware followed the peaceful propensities of the Quakers. Virginia established Episcopalianism.

The cultivation of the soil in New England was, on the whole, attended with difficulties. What the settlers succeeded in obtaining from it was won by hard toil. In the south so much labor was not required. The climate in the north was severe: bitter winters and frequent changes of temperature occasioned numerous lung diseases, and a hardy constitution was necessary to bid defiance to the weather. The south was of course warmer all the year and much hotter in summer. So it very naturally happened, from their origin and their surroundings, that the colonists of New England developed into a hardy, vigorous race, and the settlers of the south into a more aristocratic and passionate and a less energetic people.

The results of these differences can be easily traced in the varying history of the colonies. Sumptuary laws-that is, laws regulating wages, prices of various articles and clothing-were adopted by all, in accordance with the ideas of the period in which they lived, but the northern colonies enforced severer morals than the south. The smoking of tobacco publicly and by minors was prohibited in New England and Pennsylvania, while in New York and the south it was freely used. Amusements were introduced into New England under protest from the elder and staid portion of the community, while they were freely indulged in at the south. But most of the colonies had stringent laws enforcing the observance of Sunday and attendance on church-services. The stocks and whipping-post were common forms of punishment, and numerous crimes were capital offenses.