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operation of England, arrested the immediate prosecution of the design; and, in the mean time, intelligence was received of the approach of a formidable French fleet and army, which had been fitted out for the devastation of the whole of the American coast, and the entire conquest of New England. It was commanded by the duke D'Anville, and consisted of forty ships of war and fifty-six transports, laden with provisions and military stores, carrying thirtyfive hundred land forces, and forty thousand stand of arms designed for the Canadians and friendly Indians. But an accident, which was assigned by the English colonies to an immediate interposition of Providence, relieved them from the calimities with which they were threatened. The fleet was envelloped in a furious storm. Many of the vessels were wrecked with the loss of their crews, and the rest were dispersed. The scattered troops only reached the point of destination to be destroyed, almost to utter extinction, by a contagious disease. The projected invasion was consequently relinquished. The fragments of this mighty armament being, however, collected, an attempt was devised against Anapolis. They sailed for this purpose, and being again overtaken, on the coast, by a tempest, were wrecked or dispersed. The few who escaped of this fatal armada returned singly to France. The commander

in chief, and vice admiral, rendered desperate by so rapid a succession of disasters, and unwilling to survive their humiliation, perished by suicide. The treaty of Aix-la Chapelle was now signed, in 1748, by which, it was stipulated that all conquests, during the late war, should be restored. And the repossession of Cape Breton by the French, was regarded in America, with much discontent and mortification.

The implacable animosity which a rivalry of interests had kindled in the bosoms of the French and English nations, left to the European continent, but few and transient intervals of repose. The unpropitious proximity of their possessions in the new world, had engendered the same principles of discord. The flames of war, which were scarcely composed, by the late peace, burst out again into a more violent conflagration, and with a rage only to be extinguished by the final dissolution of the French power in America..

The French, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, having discovered the mouth of the Mississippi, had founded there, in 1722, the colony of New Orleans. Allured by the commercial advantages of that river, and by the delicious climate and fertile regions of Louisiana, they had advanced, in detached settlements, towards the Illinois and Ohio,

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and had penetrated at length to the vicinity of their Canadian dominions. A new field was here insensibly opened to their ambition. Already strengthened by a continuity of fortifications, stretched along a line of twelve hundred miles; by the affection of the savages, whose numerous tribes were trained under their standard to military subordination; possessing or claiming an immense territory, unlimited towards the western ocean, they now aspired to the conquest of the English settlements upon the Atlantic, and to the establishment of an universal monarchy in the new world. The extensive country embraced within the grasp of the St. Lawrence and Mississippi, were but a section of the projected

empire of New France;" and the great lakes, which form the point of connexion of these rivers, were designed as the throne of their magnificent dominions.

This project, so congenial to the illimitable and gothic ambition of the French, was laid upon a deep and solid foundation. In magnitude, as well as conformity of design, it appears, indeed, to have been modelled upon the conceptions of nature herself in the production of this vast continent. The bonds of union, and strength of empire, must necessarily be more indissoluble in the vicinity of navigable rivers. The numerous conveniences and reciprocity of

interests produced by such streams, afford the strongest motives of association; and the laborious inhabitants who cultivate their adjacent and fertile plains, must ever prevail over the luxurious population of overgrown sea-port towns. The waters of the great lakes, of the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, with their various communicating streams, are the characteristic lineaments by which the hand of Providence has designated the force and direction of the American empire. These are the channels through which the principles of life and vigor are to circulate, by which the heart is to be animated, and the extremest members to receive their nutriment and control.

The English colonists saw with alarm the ambitious projects of their enemy, and were conscious of the necessity of breaking down, in its origin, the formidable circumvallation with which they were enclosed. Settlements were attempted by the English, in 1753, upon the Ohio, which intersected the line of connexion between the northern and southern colonies of the French. They were warned by the governor of Canada to desist. The admoniton was disregarded. Some traders of the company were, therefore, seized and carried off as prisoners of war to the neighbouring French forts upon lake Erie. Major Washington was despatched,

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by the governor of Virginia, to remonstrate against this outrage, and to require, at the same time, that the French commander should retire from the dominions of his Britannic majesty. But the conference terminated, in mutual recriminations; and it became soon evident, from the haughty replies of the French, that these disputed claims were to be submitted to the decision of the sword.

A small force was levied and placed under the command of Washington, for the occupation and defence of the disputed territory. He encountered a party of the enemy, who offered resistance to his march, and defeated them. Proceeding, then, to occupy an advantageous position at the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela, for the erection of a fort, he was attacked by a superior force in the vicinity of that place, and compelled, after a courageous defence, to capitulate. The French were. enabled, by the defeat of this enterprise, to seize the advantageous position designed by Washington, and to put themselves in a firm posture of defence.

The population of the English colonies was, at this period, computed at about one million of inhabitants; that of the French did not exceed fifty-two thousand. With this disparity of force, the French, however, possessed collateral advantages, arising both from the nature of their government and local