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previous: §§57‑65 On this webpage you can read a chapter of Stories of Heroism by William Mace published by Rand McNally & Company New York, 1909. It's all right to copy it or use it any way you want. I checked this page carefully for mistakes, and didn't find any: but if you find one, please let me know! next: §§80‑93

 p116  The Men who Planted New France in America and Threatened to Keep the English south of the St. Lawrence and the Lakes and East of the Mountains

Samuel de Champlain, the Father of New France

66. The French in North America. France was the slowest of the great nations in the race for North America. Not until 1534 did Jacques Cartier, a French sea captain searching for a shorter route for India, sail into the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. He reached an Indian village where Montreal now stands and took possession of the country for his king.

One year after Jamestown was settled, and one year before the "Half Moon" sailed up the Hudson, Samuel de Champlain laid the foundations of Quebec (1608). Champlain was of noble birth, and had been a soldier in the French army. He had already helped found Port Royal in Nova Scotia.

Wherever he went, Champlain made fast friends with the Algonquin Indians, who lived along the St. Lawrence. He gave them presents and bought their skins of beaver and of other animals. In the fur trade he saw a golden stream flowing into the king's treasury. Champlain certainly made a good beginning in winning these Indians, but he made one great blunder out of which grew many bitter enemies among other tribes.

 p117  67. Champlain and the Indians. The Algonquins were bitter foes of the Iroquois or Five Nations. One time the Algonquins begged Champlain and his men, clad in steel and armed with the deadly musket, to join their war party (1609). This he did. They made their way up the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Richelieu, and up that river to the falls. The Indians then carried the canoes and the baggage around the falls.

What must have been Champlain's feelings when they glided out of the narrow river into the lake now bearing his name! A lake no white man had ever seen, and greater than any in his beloved France! On the left he saw the ridges of the Green Mountains, on the right the pine-clad slopes of the Adirondacks, the hunting grounds of the hated Iroquois.

One evening, near where the ruins of Ticonderoga  p118 now stand, they saw the war canoes of their enemies. That night the hostile tribes taunted each other and boasted of their bravery. On the shores of the lake the next day they drew up in battle array. The Iroquois chiefs wore tall plumes on their heads, and their warriors carried shields of wood or hide.

All at once the Algonquins opened their ranks and Champlain, in full armor, walked forth. The Iroquois gazed in wonder on the first European soldier that they had ever seen. Champlain leveled his musket and fired. Two chiefs fell. Then another report rang through the woods, and the boldest warriors in North America broke and fled in confusion. The Algonquins, yelling like demons, ran after them, killing and capturing as many as possible.

There was great rejoicing among the victors, and Champlain was their hero. But there must have been great sorrow and vows of revenge among the Iroquois.

The next year Champlain joined another Algonquin war party, and helped win another victory from the Iroquois. Again, in 1615, he joined a party of more than five hundred painted warriors. They traveled to the shore of Lake Ontario and boldly crossed to the other side in their bark canoes. They hid their boat and silently marched into the country of the Iroquois.

Some miles south of Oneida Lake they came upon a fortified  p119 Indian town. For several days Champlain and his Indians tried to break into or burn the fort, but had to give it up. These campaigns made the Iroquois hate the French almost as much as they did the Algonquins.

For this reason French men found it safer to go west by traveling up the Ottawa River and crossing over to Lake Huron than by paddling up the St. Lawrence and through lakes Ontario and Erie. The result was that the French discovered Lake Michigan and Lake Superior long before any Frenchman ever saw Lake Erie. On the other hand, we have seen how the Dutch made friends with the Iroquois.

Champlain remained many years in Canada, always working for the good of New France, as the country was called. He helped on the work of the missionaries, made peace between hostile tribes of Indians, and encouraged the fur trade and the coming of new settlers. Worn out with toil and travel, far away from kindred and native land, Champlain died at Quebec on Christmas Day, 1635.

Joliet and Marquette, Fur Trader and Missionary, Explore the Mississippi Valley for New France

68. French Explorers in the Northwest. Year after year, as fur traders and missionaries made their way back from the west to Montreal and Quebec, they told strange stories of great tracts of land where only grass and flowers grew, and of a river larger than any that Frenchmen had ever seen.

 p120  Count Frontenac, the able governor of Canada, commanded Joliet, a fur trader born at Quebec, and Marquette, a Catholic missionary, to find the great river and explore it. Joliet made his way on foot and by canoe to the Straits of Mackinac, where he found Marquette, who had already been two years in that wild north country trying to teach the Indians the gentler ways of a Christian life and to win their friendship for France. There in Marquette's log mission house the fur trader and the Indians met for worship and to buy and sell.

In May, 1673, Joliet and Marquette with five others, set out in birch-bark canoes, to discover the Mississippi River. They were well supplied with smoked meat and Indian corn. They paddled along the north shore of Lake Michigan, through Green Bay, up the Fox River, and crossed overland to the beautiful Wisconsin. Every night they carried their boats on shore and built a fire, over which, Indian fashion, they cooked their food, and around which they slept with only skins of animals and boughs of trees for beds.

69. On the Mississippi River. Quietly, but rapidly, their boats passed down the Wisconsin. One day in the month of June a valley several miles in width opened before them, just below where Prairie du Chien and McGregor now are. Here was the great river about which they had long heard so many wonderful stories. They paddled eagerly into its mighty current. But they knew not whence it came nor whither it would bear them.

 p121  One day they came upon the mouth of the gently-flowing Illinois, and near by passed rocky bluffs looking like ruined castles. Near where Alton now is they saw two great figures painted in red, black, and green on the face of a high rock. These rude images had the horns of deer and the faces of men; but their bodies were covered with scales, and their tails passed around their bodies, over their heads, and between their legs.

These pictures were to represent Manitou, the Great Spirit or god of the Indians. What thoughts must have run through the mind of Marquette, who had forsaken his own beautiful France to tell the Indians the story of the true God!

Day after day they paddled on; they passed the rushing and muddy Missouri, and the slower and clearer Ohio, which the French called the "beautiful river." New sights now began to appear. Instead of giant bluffs, the shores were low; instead of prairies, they often saw dense thickets of wild cane. The hot summer of the South was now upon them and lessened the pleasure of the journey.

They reached the mouth of the Arkansas in July (1673), and were now convinced that the Mississippi flowed into the Gulf of Mexico. They decided, therefore, to return to Canada and report their discoveries to Count Frontenac. They knew that he would rejoice with them in the success of their journey and that he would send the story of their brave deeds to the home land, where king  p122 and people would listen in wonder and would perhaps resolve that this new land should one day belong to France.

70. Marquette, the Missionary. But they were more than two thousand miles from Quebec, and it was up stream to the Great Lakes. Marquette fell ill, thus making the work of the other men harder. Finally they turned their canoes from the Illinois over to Lake Michigan, and they traced its western shore till Green Bay was reached. Here, at one of the missions they had passed on the outward trip, Marquette stayed to rest and get well.

But it was not until the fall of the next year that he was well enough to continue his work. With two comrades and two small bands of Indians and a little fleet of canoes he set out to establish a mission among the Indians whom he had seen on the Illinois. But he fell ill again. His companions built him a comfortable log hut for the winter, and the next spring he crossed over to the Illinois, near where Ottawa now stands.

After preaching for a time, word was sent to the surrounding Indians that the missionary wished to meet them in council on the great meadow. On the appointed day the old men and chiefs sat around in a great ring, while behind them were the warriors, many hundred strong. On the outside stood two great crowds of Indian women and children, all curious to hear the words of the missionary.

 p123  It was a sad meeting, for when the chiefs urged Marquette to make his home among them, he said his days were few, and he must hasten to reach his old mission at Mackinac, for he wished to die there. The Indians escorted him to Lake Michigan and bade him a sad farewell. Northward, along the eastern shore, the two faithful companions paddled their great friend. But one day he could go no farther, so they hastily built a bark hut for the sick man. That night, as he lay dying, he thanked God that he had been permitted to die a missionary to the Indians.

The next year a band of Ottawa Indians, recalling the many good deeds of Marquette, dug up his bones and tenderly but sadly placed them in a birch bark box. A procession, singing funeral songs, bore his remains by canoe to Mackinac. Here gathered the Catholic missionaries, Indians, and fur traders from all the surrounding region to do honor to the memory of Marquette, whose bones they buried beneath the chapel floor in his own mission house at Mackinac.

71. Joliet Reported to Frontenac. After Joliet bade Marquette a last good-by, he set out with all speed with his maps and papers to Quebec, still many hundred dangerous miles away. No serious accident  p124 occurred on the trip until, passing the rapids above Montreal, his canoe upset and two men and a boy were drowned, and all his papers were lost. Undismayed, Joliet made his way to Quebec and told Frontenac the story of his discoveries and adventures.

La Salle and Hennepin Pushed Forward the Work Begun by Joliet and Marquette

72. Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. While Joliet and Marquette were on their long journey, Frontenac was making use of another fur trader, La Salle, and of another missionary, Hennepin. La Salle belonged to a rich French family, and had left home at the age of twenty-three (1666) for the wild life in the American forests.

He first built a fort-like post just above Montreal and named it Lachine, because he supposed it was located on the route to China. In 1673 he helped build Fort Frontenac where the Canadian city of Kingston now stands.

La Salle returned home, and the king received him with honor and made him governor of the region around Fort Frontenac. He came back and built a great stone fort. Settlers came and built their cabins around it, making a little frontier village.

Here the fur trader came each season with his pack, and here the faithful missionary said good-by before plunging into the wilds of the unknown wilderness, perhaps never to return.

La Salle was growing rich, but he longed to make good his  p125 country's right to the richer soil and to the milder climate of the Mississippi Valley. Once more he returned to France, and the king gave him permission to explore the great valley and to build forts along the way.

La Salle came back bringing sailors, carpenters, anchors, and cables, for he intended to build a ship on the lakes. But best of all, he brought Tonti, his faithful Indian friend and helper. Hennepin, the missionary, carried an altar so made that he could strap it on his back and set it up for worship wherever he chose.

La Salle had resolved to build his first fort at the mouth of the Niagara River, but the Iroquois permitted him to build only a large storehouse. They were greatly displeased when he set about building a ship above Niagara to sail the Great Lakes to the west, and threatened to burn it.

When the new ship, the "Griffin," was ready to sail, they towed her up the Niagara River and then into Lake Erie. There was great rejoicing over the "Griffin." Amid the firing of cannon and the singing of songs, she spread her sails, the first to whiten the waters of Lake Erie.

On they sailed, through sunshine and storm, up Lake Huron until the mission town where Marquette was buried came  p126 into view. When the "Griffin" fired her cannon, all was astir in that town of fur traders, missionaries, and Indians. La Salle's men landed with great show. They marched to the little chapel and knelt before the altar.

La Salle then sailed through the straits and to the head of Green Bay, where some of his men, sent out many months before, had collected a great quantity of furs. Laden with these, the "Griffin" sailed for the storehouse on the Niagara, but La Salle never saw again this first ship of the lakes.

73. Exploring the Mississippi Valley. With fourteen men in four large canoes, La Salle set out for the Illinois River. They passed southward along the Wisconsin shore, sometimes living only on parched corn and wild berries, but at other times feasting on the wild game killed by their Indian hunter.

They passed the spot where Chicago stands, and reached the mouth of the St. Joseph River. Here another fort was built while waiting for the  p127 return of Tonti, who had gone to find the "Griffin." Three months had passed by since the ship sailed. Tonti finally came, but brought no word of the ill-fated "Griffin."

Disappointed, but still brave, La Salle with a party of thirty men and fourteen canoes paddled up the St. Joseph River to where South Bend now is. From this point the party, carrying canoes and baggage, made its way over to the headwaters of the Illinois. They were glad to reach the region near the present site of Ottawa, where Marquette had been a few years before. They saw Buffalo Rock and Starved Rock, high bluffs renowned in Indian history.

Just as the little fleet was passing through Peoria Lake, some one saw the smoke of an Indian camp. At once every Frenchman dropped his paddle, seized his gun, and sprang ashore. The Indians ran about in wild excitement, but La Salle talked peace to the chiefs while Hennepin tried to quiet the children.

The Indians told La Salle of fierce warriors farther on who would kill them, and of great monsters ready to eat them. These stories frightened some of La Salle's men and they ran away.

La Salle decided to build a fort on the bluff over­looking the river and remain there through the winter (1680). They named it Fort Crèvecoeur, meaning that the builders had grieved until their hearts were broken.

 p128  La Salle returned to Fort Frontenac. In the meantime he ordered Tonti to fortify Starved Rock, and Hennepin to explore the Illinois and the upper Mississippi rivers.

While La Salle was gone, a great army of fierce Iroquois destroyed the villages of the Illinois Indians, "the children of Count Frontenac."

La Salle's heart was indeed full of grief when he returned and saw the awful desolation where once stood the villages of his Indian friends. But worse still, he could not find Tonti. With a sad but brave heart the great leader resolved to bring all the Illinois tribes into a union that should be a match for the Iroquois. He went from tribe to tribe, and night after night he sat around the council fires with the chiefs.

Before he could unite them he heard that Tonti was safe at Mackinac. He hastened to meet his long lost friend, and there he and Tonti once more planned the exploration of the lower Mississippi. He returned to Fort Frontenac, collected supplies, and was soon crossing the portage between the Chicago and Illinois rivers. On they went, till early in February their canoes floated out upon the bosom of the "Father of Waters" (1682).

 p129  Down the river they floated, passing the Missouri, the Ohio, and the Arkansas, where Joliet and Marquette had turned back. With the kindly help of new guides, they passed on until they found the Mississippi branching into three streams. La Salle divided his party, and each took a stream to the Gulf.

On shore, just above the mouth, a cross was raised and La Salle took possession of all the country he had explored "in the name of Louis the Great, King of France." The company shouted, "Long live the king!" La Salle's first great object had been accomplished.

Then the party began the slow journey up stream. La Salle finally reached Mackinac, and there again began to lay great plans. The first thing he did was to go to Starved Rock and build a fort for the protection of his union of Indian tribes.

Starved Rock is a rough cliff which rises one hundred thirty-five feet high, right out of the valley. Its sides are almost perpendicular. La Salle and his men cut away the trees on top and built storehouses, log huts, and a palisade. They named it Fort St. Louis. In the valley below, hundreds of Indians came and built their wigwams that they might be safe from their enemies, the Iroquois. Tonti was put in command of the fort.

La Salle's next step was to return to France and ask the king to  p130 plant a colony of Frenchmen at the mouth of the Mississippi River. The king agreed, and La Salle set sail for the Gulf of Mexico with a fleet of four ships and a colony of more than one hundred fifty persons (1684). He missed the Mississippi and landed at Matagonia Bay in Texas. The colonists blamed La Salle. He tried in vain to find the Mississippi.

Suffering and discontent increased till a party of La Salle's men lay in ambush and shot him, and left his body in the woods. More than a year went by before the faithful Tonti at Starved Rock heard of the sad fate of the great leader.

The French king refused to send aid to the starving colonists in Texas, but the brave and heroic Tonti, though saddened by the death of La Salle, resolved to rescue them. His rescuing party suffered awful hardships. They deserted Tonti on the lower Mississippi, and he was forced to return to Starved Rock, where he commanded the fort for many years.

74. Hennepin Explores the Upper Mississippi. Obeying the orders of La Salle, Hennepin and two companions had left the fort on the Illinois, had floated down that river, and had turned their canoes up the Mississippi. After several weeks they were suddenly surrounded by a hundred painted, yelling Sioux Indians. Only by giving plenty of presents did the French men save their lives.

For many days they were carried up the river. They passed where La Crosse and Winona now stand, and finally reached the Falls of St. Anthony. There the Indians hid their canoes and traveled due north till the Indian village was reached.

After a time Hennepin fell in with another party of Indian hunters and returned to the Falls. Here they were overjoyed to meet five other French explorers and traders. As winter approached all the Frenchmen set out for the Green Bay Mission and Mackinac  p131 by way of the mouth of the Wisconsin and the Fox rivers. They spent the winter in Mackinac with fur traders and missionaries.

The next spring Hennepin made the long journey to Quebec, where he told the story of his wanderings to Count Frontenac, who received him into his own house as one returned from the dead.

We have seen how the Mississippi Valley had been added to New France by the courage and devotion of fur traders and missionaries. Will the French king be able to keep this vast country abounding in lakes and rivers, in hills and valleys, far greater than any in all Europe?

Montcalm, the Defender, and Wolfe, the Conqueror of New France

75. The French and Indian Wars. For nearly a hundred years after Joliet and La Salle and Marquette and Hennepin had laid down paddle and pack and cross and robe, the Canadian governors struggled to make New France strong. From the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico they built many forts and filled them with soldiers to hold the country against the English settlers.

As settlements grew thicker, fur-bearing animals grew scarcer, and both the French and the English hunters had to go deeper into  p132 the forests. Canadian Indians took the side of the French, and the Iroquois took the side of the English. Woe to the brave settlers of either race who lived on the lonely frontier!

Only a few years after La Salle's death some Iroquois stole away to Canada and surrounded his town of Lachine. In the dead of night, they let loose their awful war-whoop and murdered and scalped men, women and children to the number of two hundred. More than one hundred prisoners were carried home by the Iroquois to be adopted into their families or to be tortured and burned at the stake (1689).

That very year the French took revenge upon the friends of the Iroquois, English settlers from Casco Bay in Maine to Schenectady in New York. The Canadian Indians now burned and scalped to their hearts' content.

Following these massacres several long, hard wars came, with a few years of peace between. Finally the French leaders decided on a bold move. In spite of the Iroquois, they began to build forts from the place where the city of Erie is down to the sources of the Ohio. So the English Governor of Virginia sent young George Washington with orders for the French to leave the region. The French declared that they had come to stay. Both sides prepared for war, for both wanted possession of the beautiful Ohio Valley.

 p133  The English king sent an army to America to help the English settlers attack the French (1755). But the British generals did not know how to fight Indian fashion, that is, to fight in ambush, behind trees or by stealing upon the enemy at night. In the war that followed the French won most of the battles for the first three years. This war is known as the French and Indian War.

76. General Montcalm. The French not only knew how to fight in the woods, but they had a great leader, General Montcalm, who was born in southern France (1712). By the age of fifteen he had a good knowledge of Greek, Latin, and history, and was already an officer in the French army.

At the age of thirty-one, Montcalm commanded a regiment. The king made him a general for his bravery, and sent him to America to take command of the French army.

But Montcalm loved his beautiful, sunny country home and, when not engaged in war, was always in the company of his wife, his children, and his mother. He loved books, and read them even when on his campaigns.

 p134  Just before reaching America he wrote to his wife: "I have taken very little liking for the sea, and think that when I shall be so happy as to rejoin you, I shall end my voyage there. I thought that my mother and you, my dearest and most beloved, would be glad to read all these dull details." Montcalm was certainly something more than a soldier.

Events began to move quickly as soon as he reached Canada. With an army he pushed over from Fort Frontenac and captured and destroyed Oswego, and then sent many small parties to attack the English on the border from New York to Virginia. Only now and then could the English strike back, as when Colonel Armstrong surprised and destroyed the Indian village of Kittaning on the Allegheny.

More than a thousand Indians came to join Montcalm from far-away Mackinac. One said: "We wanted to see this famous man who tramples the English under his feet. We thought we should find him so tall that his head would be lost in the clouds. It is when we look into your eyes that we see the greatness of the pine tree and the fire of the eagle."

Montcalm marched against Fort William Henry at the southern end of Lake George and captured it. But his Indian warriors, mad with victory and rum, fell upon the prisoners and murdered many of them, although Montcalm tried in vain to save them from the fury of the savages.

But Montcalm's greatest victory was yet to come. In 1758,  p135 with only four hundred men, he defeated an English army of more than fifteen thousand, which had been sent to capture old Fort Ticonderoga. It did seem that this great French warrior was really going to trample the English under his feet. But his match was already at hand.

77. General Wolfe. William Pitt, a great English statesman whom Americans admire, now took the lead in England. He dismissed the generals whom Montcalm had defeated and put able fighters in their places. Among these was James Wolfe. His father was a great soldier, and James was early put to studying the art of war. He was made an officer at sixteen, and proved his bravery in several hard fought battles. At the age of thirty-one Wolfe was made a general.

But he did not look like a great general. He was tall, slender, and awkward. He had a narrow chest and stooped shoulders, an ugly forehead, a long nose, and red hair. Many poorer officers looked far grander on dress parade.

Like his great French rival, Wolfe was tender-hearted. He loved nothing better, even in his soldier days, than to get home and spend his time with his mother. He was gentle in his manners, refined in his tastes, and loved to read poetry. But when the call to duty came he was eager to answer. He never shirked. When his soldiers saw the fire flash from his piercing black eyes they never failed to face death at his command.

 p136  78. The Overthrow of New France. While Montcalm was winning a great victory at Ticonderoga, Wolfe was helping to capture the powerful fortress of Louisburg, which guarded the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. He was the hero of this great event.

When the news got out that Pitt had put Wolfe at the head of the great expedition to capture Quebec, the capital of Canada, a great English lord hastened to tell the king that Pitt's new general was mad. "Mad is he?" said the king. "Then I hope he will bite some of my other generals."

With a large fleet of war vessels and an army of nine thousand soldiers, Wolfe reached Quebec in June, 1759. Montcalm had fortified the city at every point. He had an army of sixteen thousand French, Canadians, and Indians. The fort itself was on a rocky cliff so high that cannon from the war ships could not reach it.

The French taunted the English, telling them that they were fools to think they could capture Quebec. But Wolfe declared that he would have Quebec or stay until November. In August hundreds of his soldiers fell sick. Wolfe went from camp to camp cheering and planning, until he, too, fell sick. "I know perfectly well you cannot cure me," he said to the doctor, "but make me up so that I may be able to do my duty; that is all I want."

 p137  September first, he wrote: "I have not taken off my clothes since the twenty-third of June."

But Wolfe's time was growing short. Montcalm would not come out and fight. How could he get at the French? He decided to send his picked troops up the river above the city and climb the rocky heights to the Plains of Abraham. On September 12, 1759, British war ships made a pretended attack below the city near Montcalm's headquarters. The ship's "cannon flashed and thundered, and shot ploughed the beach."

But far up the river in the dead of night, Wolfe, with three thousand five hundred British redcoats in boats, was waiting for the ebb of the tide. Wolfe told one of his old schoolfellows that he expected to be killed in the coming battle. As the boats floated silently down the dark river, Wolfe, in a low voice, repeated this stanza from Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard":

When Wolfe had finished reciting the poem, he paused, then said: "Gentlemen, I would rather be the author of that poem  p138 than to have the glory of beating the French to-morrow." The last line of the stanza was a sad prophecy of his own fate.

79. The Fall of Quebec. When the boats reached the right place the soldiers quickly landed, but were not yet sure that they could climb the rocky path leading far away to the top. Twenty-four men volunteered to try. Up they went, clambering over stones and catching at the trees and bushes, until, presently, Wolfe and his men heard their guns and shouts on the heights as they captured some French guards.

The others followed, and in the gray of the morning Wolfe formed his redcoats for the desperate charge which he knew was coming. Montcalm was amazed when he saw "the close ranks of the English, a silent wall of red, and the wild array of the Highlanders, with their bagpipes screaming defiance."

Both leaders were in the thickest of the fight encouraging their men. The English finally charged bayonets, and the French ran. Wolfe was shot three times before he would quit the field. As he lay dying he heard the shouts of victory and murdered: "Now, God be praised, I die in peace."

Montcalm, also, received a deadly wound. He calmly said to his excited friends: "It's nothing. It's nothing. Don't be troubled for me, good friends. Thank God, I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec."

Wolfe had won one of the greatest victories in the history of the world. By the treaty of peace in 1763, the King of France surrendered all of New France from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, to England. The courage, devotion, and self-sacrifice of Champlain, of Joliet and Marquette, of La Salle and Hennepin, and the bravery of Montcalm, were all lost as far as France was concerned.

 p139  Suggestions Intended to Help the Pupil

The Leading Facts. 1. Champlain laid the foundations of New France at Quebec, and made a treaty with the Indians on the St. Lawrence. 2. Count Frontenac sent Joliet and Marquette to explore the Mississippi River. 3. Joliet returned to tell Frontenac the story of their discoveries and Marquette remained among the Indians. 4. La Salle and Hennepin were sent to complete the exploration of the Mississippi. 5. La Salle made his way to the Gulf of Mexico and later built the fort at Starved Rock. 6. Hennepin went up the Mississippi, discovered the Falls of St. Anthony, and told Frontenac his story. 7. The French built forts from Erie to the head of the Ohio River. 8. George Washington sent into Pennsylvania to tell the French to get out. 9. Montcalm took charge of the French and Indians, and won many victories over the English. 10. William Pitt sent Wolfe and his army to capture Quebec, the stronghold of the French in Canada. 11. Wolfe and his men climbed the Heights of Abraham and defeated Montcalm. 12. Both Wolfe and Montcalm were killed in the battle. 13. England got all of Canada and nearly all the territory east of the Mississippi River.

Study Questions. 1. What part of North America did France first settle? 2. Who was Champlain? 3. Tell the story of his first  p140 battle with the Iroquois. 4. What things in New France did Champlain help? 5. When Champlain died what were the people doing in Virginia? in New Netherland? in Massachusetts? in Maryland? in Rhode Island? and in Connecticut? 6. What was Champlain's blunder?

7. Who were Count Frontenac, Joliet, and Marquette? 8. Where was Marquette's log mission house? 9. Tell the story of Joliet and Marquette. 10. How did they get back to Canada? 11. Make a picture of Marquette and the Indians on the great meadow near Ottawa.

12. What was in La Salle's mind when he named Lachine? 13. Why was La Salle not satisfied merely to get rich? 14. Describe the first voyage on the Lakes. 15. Find on the map the places named from Mackinac to Fort Crèvecoeur. 16. How did La Salle reach the Mississippi? 17. Picture Tonti's fort on Starved Rock. 18. Tell the story of the fate of La Salle. 19. What massacre did Hennepin escape, and into whose hands did he fall? 20. Find on the map La Crosse and the Falls of St. Anthony.

21. What was the great problem for the French? 22. What expedition to Lachine did the Iroquois make and who had to pay for this? 23. What bold move was made by the French? 24. Who was sent to warn the French to leave the Ohio Valley? 25. What advantages did the French have at first? 26. Tell the story of Montcalm. 27. Tell the story of Wolfe. 28. Who selected Wolfe to head the expedition against Quebec and what did the king think of Wolfe? 29. What double move did Wolfe make? 30. Tell the story of Wolfe's preparation. Read all of Gray's Elegy. 31. How did the soldiers find their way up the heights to the Plains of Abraham? 32. What did Montcalm see when the English got up? 33. The dying words of each — quote them.

Suggested Readings. Champlain: Wright, Children's Stories in American History, 269‑280; McMurry, Pioneers on Land and Sea, 1‑34; Williams, Stories from Early New York History, 96‑101; Higginson, American Explorers, 269‑278.

Joliet and Marquette: McMurry, Pioneers of the Mississippi Valley, 1‑15; Thwaites, Father Marquette.

La Salle and Hennepin: Wright, Children's Stories in American History, 316‑330; Pratt, Later Colonial Period, 1‑28; McMurry, Pioneers of the Mississippi Valley, 16‑67.

Montcalm and Wolfe: Pratt, Later Colonial Period, 29‑88; Williams, Stories from Early New York History, 102‑106; Morris, Half Hours with American History, I, 355‑366; Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, I, 356‑374, 452‑472, 474‑513; II, 83‑114, 181‑234, 259‑325.

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