his fatal error at the last, he apologized to Washington for his petulant reply to his urgent advice. Dunbar and the troops hurried onward to Fort Cumberland, and despite all remonstrances, rested not till they had reached Philadelphia. Truly, it was "the most extraordinary victory ever obtained, and the farthest flight even made." And the effect upon the colonists was not without importance: "the whole transaction," as Franklin significantly observes, "gave us the first suspicion, that our exalted ideas of the prowess of British regular troops had not been well founded."
| CHAPTER IX. |
1755—1763.
PROGRESS AND CONCLUSION OF THE WAR.
Expedition up the Bay of Fundy—Acadie and the French neutrals—Their expatriation—Cruelty of thin act—Shirley's expedition against Oswego—William Johnson—Influence with the Indians—Hendrick the old Sachem—Battle of Lake George—Dieskau's death—Fort William Henry—Indians on the frontier—Action in Pennsylvania and Virginia—Washington made colonel—Campaign of 1755 unsuccessful—Washington's devotion to duty—War declared by England—Loudon commander-in-chief—Bradstreet at Oswego—Montcalm takes Oswego—His activity and skill—London's procrastination—1756 also unsuccessful—Plans for 1757—Loudon against Louisburg—Too late—Montcalm assaults Fort William Henry—Slaughter of the troops, after the surrender, by the Indians—Montcalm's share in this act of treachery—Great alarm in the colonies—Complaints and discontent general—Pitt prime minister—His energetic course—Attack on Louisburg—This stronghold taken—Abercrombie's expedition against Ticonderoga—Lord Howe's death—Abercrombie repulsed—Superseded by Amherst—Bradstreet against Fort Frontenac—Forbes takes Fort Duquesne—Plan of the campaign of 1759—Conquest of Canada determined upon—Amherst's expedition, and capture of Ticonderoga—Prideaux and Johnson take Niagara—Neither able to join Wolfe—The attack on Quebec—Wolfe's and Montcalm's death—Canada subdued—Views of French statesmen as to the consequence—Washington's marriage—Is a member of the House of Burgesses—Great exultation in the colonies at the success of the contest with the French—Cherokee war at the South—Its progress and conclusion—Otis against "Writs of Assistance"—Otis's eloquence—English arms turned against the French in the West Indies—The peace of Paris—The English masters on the continent—Further Indian troubles—The conspiracy of Pontiac—End of the contest.
While Admiral Boscawen was cruising off the coast of Newfoundland, watching for the French fleet, which, as we have before stated, escaped falling into his hands, a force of ten thousand men embarked at Boston for the Bay of Fundy. The French settlements here, it was asserted, were encroachments on tie province of Nova Scotia. Colonel Monckton took the command of the troops, and in the early part of June, 1755, succeeded, without much difficulty, in taking the forts at Beau Sejour and Gaspereau. The fort at the mouth of the St. John's River, on the approach of the English, was abandoned and burned. It had proved not difficult to drive out the French troops from the Bay of Fundy; but it became a
