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ference with the chief justice of the province, settled upon the atrocious measure of driving the people into banishment. The first movement was to demand an oath of allegiance which was so framed that the French, as honest Catholics, could not take it. The priests advised the peasants to declare their loyalty, but refuse the oath, which was meant to ensnare their souls. The next step on the part of the English was to accuse the French of treason, and to demand the surrender of all their firearms and boats. To this measure the broken-hearted people also submitted. They even offered to take the oath, but Lawrence declared that, having once refused, they must now take the consequences. The British vessels were made ready, and the work of forcible embarkation began.

The country about the isthmus was covered with peaceful hamlets.

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These were now laid waste, and the people driven into the larger towns on the coast. Others were induced by artifice and treachery to put themselves into the power of the English. Wherever a sufficient number of the French could be gotten together they were driven on shipboard. They were allowed to take their wives and children and as much property as would not be inconvenient on the vessels. The estates of the province were confiscated, and what could not be appropriated was given to the Longfellow's Evangeline is founded on this incident.

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flames. The wails of thousands of bleeding hearts were wafted to heaven with the smoke of burning homes. At the village of Grand Pre four hundred and eighteen unarmed men were called together and shut up in a church. Then came the wives and children, the old men and the mothers, the sick and the infirm, to share the common fate. The whole company numbered more than nineteen hundred souls. The poor creatures were driven down to the shore, forced into the boats at the point of the bayonet, and carried to the vessels in, the bay. As the moaning fugitives cast a last look at their pleasant town, a column of black smoke floating seaward told the story of desolation. More than three thousand of the hapless Acadians were carried away by the British squadron and scattered, helpless, half starved and dying, among the English colonies. The history of civilized nations furnishes no parallel to this wanton and wicked destruction of an inoffensive colony.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

EXPEDITIONS OF SHIRLEY AND JOHNSON.

1755 THE third campaign planned by Braddock at Alexandria was to be conducted by Governor Shirley of Massachusetts. The expedition

was to proceed from Albany to Oswego, and thence by water to the mouth of the Niagara. It was known that Fort Niagara was an insignificant post, depending for its defence upon a small ditch, a rotten palisade and a feeble garrison. To capture this place, to obtain command of the river, and to cut off the communications of the French by way of the lakes, were the objects of the campaign. "Fort du Quesne can hardly detain me more than three or four days," said Braddock to Shirley, "and then I will meet you at Niagara."

In the early part of August, Shirley set out at the head of nearly two thousand men. It was the last of the month before he reached Oswego. Here the provincial forces had been ordered to assemble. Four weeks were spent in preparing boats for embarkation. When everything was in readiness, a storm arose; and when the storm abated, the winds blew in the wrong direction. Then came another tempest and another delay; then sickness prevailed in the camp. With the beginning of October

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Shirley declared the lake to be dangerous for navigation. The Indians deserted the standard of a leader whose skill in war consisted in framing excuses. The fact was that the general, while on the march to Oswego, had learned of the destruction of Braddock's army, and feared that a similar fate might overtake his own. On the 24th of October the greater part of the provincial forces, led by Shirley, marched homeward. Only one result of any importance followed from the campaign-the fort at Oswego was well rebuilt and garrisoned with seven hundred men under Mercer.

Far more important was the expedition entrusted to General William Johnson. The object had in view was to capture the enemy's fortress at Crown Point, and to drive the French from the shores of Lake Champlain. Johnson's army numbered three thousand four hundred men, including a body of friendly Mohawks. body of friendly Mohawks. The active work of the campaign began early in August, when General Phineas Lyman, at the head of the New England troops, proceeded to the Hudson above Albany, and at a point just below where the river bends abruptly to the west built Fort Edward. Thither in the last days of summer came the commanding general with the main division. The watershed between the Hudson and Lake George is only twelve miles wide. Johnson's army marched across to the head of the lake and laid out a commodious camp. A week was spent in bringing forward the artillery and stores. The soldiers were busy preparing boats for embarkation, and the important matter of fortifying the camp was wholly neglected.

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In the mean time, Dieskau, the daring commandant at Crown Point, determined to anticipate the movements of the English. With a force of fourteen hundred French, Canadians and Indians he sailed up Lake Champlain to South Bay. From this point he marched to the upper springs of Wood Creek, intending to strike to the south, pass the English army and capture Fort Edward before the alarm could be given. But the news was carried to General Johnson; and a force of a thousand `men under command of Colonel Williams, accompanied by Hendrick, the gray-haired chieftain of the Mohawks, with two hundred warriors, was sent to the relief of the endangered fort. On the previous night Dieskau's guides had led him out of his course. On the morning of the 8th of September the French general found himself and his army about four miles north of Fort Edward, on the main road from the Hudson to Lake

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George. Just at this time Colonel Williams's regiment and the Mohawks came in sight, marching toward the fort. Dieskau quickly formed an ambush, and the English were entrapped; but the Indian allies of the French showed themselves to their countrymen, and would not fire. The Canadians and the French poured in a deadly volley; both Williams and Hendrick fell dead, and the English were thrown into confusion. But Colonel Whiting rallied the troops, returned the enemy's fire, and retreated toward the lake. St. Pierre, one of the French generals, was killed.

The noise of battle was heard in Johnson's camp, and preparations were made for a general engagement. There were no entrenchments, but trees were hastily felled for breastworks, and the cannons were brought into position. It was Dieskau's plan to rush into the English camp along with the fugitives whom he was driving before him; but the Indians, afraid of Johnson's guns, would not join in the assault; the Red men retired to a hill at a safe distance. The Canadians were disheartened; and the handful of French regulars made the onset almost unsupported. It was the fiercest battle which had yet been fought on American soil. For five hours the conflict was incessant. In the beginning of the engagement Johnson received a slight wound and left the field; but the troops of New England fought on without a commander. Nearly all of Dieskau's regulars were killed. At last the English troops leaped over the fallen trees, charged across the field, and completed the rout. Three times Dieskau was wounded, but he would not retire. His aids came to bear him off; one was shot dead, and he forbade the others. He ordered his servants to bring him his military dress, and then seated himself on the stump of a tree. A renegade Frenchman belonging to the English army rushed up to make him a prisoner. The wounded general felt for his watch to tender it in token of surrènder. The Frenchman, thinking that Dieskau was searching for a pistol, fired, and the brave commander fell, mortally wounded.

The victory, though complete, was dearly purchased. Two hundred and sixteen of the English were killed, and many others wounded. General Johnson, who had done but little, was greatly praised; Parliament made him a baronet for gaining a victory which the provincials gained for him. Made wiser by the battle, he now constructed on the site of his camp a substantial fort, and named it William Henry. The defences of Fort Edward were strengthened with an additional garrison, and the remainder of the troops returned to their homes. Meanwhile, the French had reinforced Crown Point, and had seized and fortified Ticonderoga. Such was the condition of affairs at the close of 1755.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

TWO YEARS OF DISASTER.

AFTER the death of Braddock the chief command of the English

forces in America was given to Governor Shirley. But no regular military organization had been effected; and the war was carried on in a desultory manner. Braddock had ruined one army; Shirley had scattered another. On Lake George, Johnson had achieved a marked suc

cess.

In the beginning of 1756, Washington at the head of the Vir-1756 ginian provincials repelled the French and Indians in the valley of the Shenandoah. At the same time the Pennsylvania volunteers, choosing Franklin for their colonel, marched to the banks of the Lehigh, built a fort, and made a successful campaign. In the preceding December,( Shirley met the colonial governors at New York and planned the movements for the following year. One expedition, proceeding by way of the Kennebec, was to threaten Quebec. Forts Frontenac, Toronto and Niagara were to be taken. Du Quesne, Detroit and Mackinaw, deprived of their communications, must of course surrender.

In the mean time, after much debate in Parliament, it was decided to consolidate and put under one authority all the military forces in America. The earl of Loudoun received the appointment of commanderin-chief. General Abercrombie was second in rank; and forty Britishand German officers were commissioned to organize and discipline the colonial army. In the last of April, 1756, Abercrombie, with two battalions of regulars, sailed for New York. Lord Loudoun was to follow with a fleet of transports, bearing the artillery, tents, ammunition and equipage of the expedition. The commander waited a month for his vessels, and then sailed without them. On the 15th of June a man-ofwar was despatched to America with a hundred thousand pounds to reimburse the colonies for the expenses of the previous campaigns. At the same time the corps of British officers arrived at New York. Meanwhile, on the 17th of May, Great Britain, after nearly two years of actual hostilities, made an open declaration of war, which was followed by a similar declaration on the part of France.

On the 25th of June, Abercrombie reached Albany. He began his great campaign by surveying the town, digging a ditch and quartering

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