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being the author of that poem to the glory of beating the French to-morrow."

25. The flotilla reached a cove which Wolfe had marked for a landing place, and which still bears his name, before daybreak. At the head of the main division, Wolfe pushed eagerly up a narrow and rough ravine, while the light infantry and Highlanders climbed the steep acclivity by the aid of the maple, spruce, and ash saplings, and shrubs, which covered its rugged face. The sergeant's guard on its brow was soon dispersed, and at dawn, on the 13th, almost five thousand British troops were drawn up in battle array on the Plains of Abraham, three hundred feet above the St. Law

rence.

26. Montcalm could hardly believe the messenger who brought him intelligence of this marshalling of the English upon the weak side of the city. It can be but a small party come to burn a few houses, and return,' he said; but he was soon undeceived. Then he saw the imminent danger to which the town and garrison were exposed, and he immediately abandoned his intrenchments, and led a large portion of his army to attack the invaders. Wolfe placed himself on the right : Montcalm was on the left. So the two commanders stood face to face. Wolfe ordered his men to load with two bullets each, and to reserve their are until the French should be within forty yards.

27. These orders were strictly obeyed, and the doubleshotted guns did terrible execution. After delivering several rounds in rapid succession, which threw the French into confusion, the English charged upon them furiously with their bayonets. While urging on his battalions in this charge, Wolfe was slightly wounded in the wrist.. He stanched the blood with a handkerchief, and, while cheering on his men, received a second wound. A few minutes afterward, another bullet struck him on the breast, and brought him to the ground mortally wounded. At that moment, regardless of self, he thought only of victory for his troops.

1763

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Closing Events of the War.

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Support me,' he said to an officer near him; 'let not my brave soldiers see me drop. The day is ours-keep it!' He was taken to the rear while his troops continued to charge.

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28. The officer on whose shoulder he was leaning, exclaimed, They run! they run! The waning light returned to the dim eyes of the hero, and he asked, 'Who run?'-' The enemy, sir; they give way everywhere.'-' What,' feebly exclaimed Wolfe, do they run already? Now God be praised, I die happy!' These were his last words, and, in the midst of sorrowing companions, just at the moment of victory, he expired. Montcalm, who was fighting gallantly at the head of the French, also received a mortal wound. 'Death is certain,' said his surgeon. 'I am glad of it,' replied Montcalm: 'how long shall I live?' Ten or twelve hours, perhaps less.' 'So much the better: I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec.' Five days afterward the city capitulated."

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Closing events of

the war.

29. This victory really decided the war, though the French, the next year, made an attempt to recover Quebec. Montreal was also surrendered, and thus the whole of Canada became the property of the English (1760). In 1763 a treaty of peace was signed at Paris, by the terms of which, France gave up to Great Britain all her American possessions east of the Mississippi and north of the I'-ber-ville river, in Louisiana. This gave great dissatisfaction to the Indians of the northwest, for they disliked the English. Soon a combination, known as the "Pontiac Conspiracy," was formed by the various tribes, and all the posts were captured, except Niagara, Fort Pitt, and Detroit. Hundreds of families were butchered or driven from their homes. Detroit was besieged six months, but the Indians were finally compelled to sue for peace (1763). Pontiac, their great leader, wandered to the Mississippi, and there, in

The Iberville is an outlet of the Mississippi, fourteen miles south of Baton Rouge, connecting the Mississippi on the east with Lake Maurepas.

a forest, an Indian who had been bribed with a barrel of liquor, stole close upon his track and buried a tomahawk in his brain (1769).

Condition of the Colonies.

1. At the close of the French and Indian War the thirteen colonies that afterward became the United States, contained a population of more than two millions of persons, one fourth of whom at least were negro slaves. This estiPopulation. mate does not include the Indians. The whites were descendants, in large part, of persons who had come from the old world to secure for themselves freedom to worship God as they desired. In general, they were intelligent and industrious, and of good moral and religious culture.1 The number of slaves imported into the colonies direct from Africa up to this time, was probably not far from three hundred thousand. Slavery existed in all the colonies, though, Georgia at first, had laws against the holding of slaves, and the Quakers were always opposed to slavery. Slavery is opposed to the gospel," said Oglethorpe, and yet, within seven years after his settlement was begun, slave-ships were discharging their cargoes at Savannah.

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2. The number of slaves in New England was small, but Governor Stuyvesant so encouraged their importation into his province, that, at one time, there were more slaves in New York, in proportion to the white population, than in Virginia. Afterward the slaves in Virginia were the majority of her inhabitants. Philadelphia, with a population not much exceeding thirty thousand, was the first city in size and wealth. New York came next, though that city never was, even under English rule and up to the close of colonial times,

1 The Huguenots came in great numbers, and settled in New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, and South Carolina. Large settlements were also made by the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians in New Hampshire, Western Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.

Industry, Mechanical and Agricultural.

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"much more than a prosperous and drowsy Dutch village. Boston, Charleston, and Baltimore followed.

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Government.

3. There were three forms of government in force among the colonies. These were the provincial, or royal; the proprietary; and the charter. New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia were under the first form. Each had a governor who had received his appointment from the king, and who ruled according to instructions from his royal master. Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland were of the second form. They were governed by owners or proprietors. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut were under charter governments. Their charters, which had been conferred by the crown, gave to the people certain civil rights, which, it was believed, could not be taken from them.

cultural.

4. When it is recollected that England, by her “Navigation Acts" and other oppressive laws would not allow other nations to trade with her colonies, and would not permit the colonists to manufacture any article, not even a Industry, nail or a pin, a wheel or a plow, we can under- mechanical stand how the cultivation of the soil came to be and agrithe chief pursuit of the people. The northern colonies were famous for wheat and corn. "The cultivation of tobacco in Virginia and Maryland was an epoch in the history of man: all other products of the soil there were neglected for it." Ships from England every year ascended the Potomac or the James, to gather at the wharves of the large planters the great crops of tobacco. Every year, for a long time, the proceeds from the sale of tobacco exported, reached nearly $4,000,000. This amount was at least one third of the total sum received from the sale of all the productions exported from the colonies. And what did we get in return? Hinges, pins, locks, plows, and a great variety of other things which the English laws would not permit us to make.

5. At a very early period seed-rice was brought into the Carolinas from the island of Madagascar, and soon became an

article of general cultivation and a staple export. The rice of Carolina was esteemed the best in the world. Indigo was

also raised in large quantities. The production of silk was quite active in Georgia. Cotton had been grown for many years in the south, but the quantity produced was not yet equal to the demand for home use. The largest branch of manufacturing industry in which the New England colonists were employed, was the making of lumber. The building of ships, for the coasting and river trade and for sale, was extensively carried on in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and New York. More than a hundred ships were sold every year to English merchants.

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LINEN SPINNING-WHEEL

6. All the labor throughout the south, during the latter part of the colonial period, whether in the shops or the fields, was done by slaves. "Tobacco,

which was the source of the wealth of Virginia, was altogether produced by slaves. The progress of the physical sciences in Europe, and many admirable inventions of industrial art, created in the course of time a demand for another product, cotton, which experience proved could be more advantageously produced in the Southern States than anywhere else, but produced in them only by slaves. Thence, very soon, the whole economy of the south centered on slavery. At the north, it was different. There the slaves being few, the cobbler used his brain as well as his lapstone; the blacksmith was an artisan, a leader in the church choir, and a chief speaker in town meetings. The carpenter was a craftsman; with poor tools,

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WOOLLEN SPINNING-WHEEL.

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