French had done wonders in the way of exploration, and in contending with Indian ferocity and valor, greatly beyond anything to which the English had been exposed, yet the climate and soil were unfavorable, the government was a military despotism, the people had no share in public affairs, and the population at most did not exceed twelve thousand. Acadie was even still more feeble, the total of its inhabitants being less probably than three thousand. Yet, seeing that the eastern Indians, both those of the peninsula and those of the main land, were wholly under French influence, it added materially to the strength of the French in that vicinity.
The contrast between New France and the English colonies was at this date quite striking; for the latter occupying territory more favorably situate along the coast, and every year developing new energies and stimulated to new enterprises, were steadily advancing in prosperity and ability to understand and maintain their just rights. The French, on the other hand, though ever brave and chivalrous, had not in their colonies the elements of strength and permanency which were characteristic of their rivals in the New World.[1]
At this date, according to Mr. Bancroft, the twelve oldest States of our Union "contained not very many beyond two hundred thousand inhabitants, of whom Massachusetts, with Plymouth and Maine, may have had forty-four thousand; New Hampshire and Rhode Island, with Providence, each six thousand; Connecticut, from seventeen to twenty thousand; that is, in all New England, seventy-five thousand souls; New York, not less than twenty thousand; New Jersey, half as many; Pennsylvania and Delaware, perhaps twelve thousand; Maryland twenty-five thousand; Virginia, fifty thousand or more; and the two Carolinas, which then included the soil of Georgia, probably not less than eight thousand souls."[2]
Such was the condition and state of affairs when William III, mounted the English throne, and the American colonies were involved in the war that soon raged between France and England.
