Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/218

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HISTORY OF CANADA.

reached Quebec and demanded its surrender. The demand met with a haughty and indignant refusal from Frontenac, who had prepared for a spirited defence. In vain Phips opened a furious fire on the town and landed his raw soldiers on the Beauport shore. He was driven back with heavy loss by the French and their Indian allies, and compelled to beat a retreat to Boston. Thus ended the second attempt by the English to capture Quebec. Meanwhile the savage border warfare went on unchecked. The Abenaquis Indians aided the French in the work of murder—the Iroquois, the English. A single incident will give us a glimpse of the savage nature of this warfare. Hannah Dustin of Haverhill, taken prisoner in one of these border raids, avenged the murder of her week-old child by slaying ten out of twelve of her sleeping Indian captors, and then succeeded in escaping to the British settlements. These were the days when both French and English offered prizes to the Indians for human scalps. Little wonder that the border settlements did not prosper. The Treaty of Ryswick (1697) put an end for a short time to the war between England and France, and each country restored to the other its conquests. The next year saw the death of Frontenac in his 78th year. His memory was cherished as the one man whose energy saved Canada when on the verge of ruin.


8. State of the Colony.—The war of the Spanish Succession in Europe, which broke out in 1702, was the signal for a renewal of the horrors of warfare between Canada and the English colonies in America. Not until the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, did the settlers along the frontier again breathe freely. This treaty gave Acadia, Newfoundland, and Hudson’s Bay Territory to England, while France kept Canada, Cape Breton, and Louisiana. For over thirty years the colony had rest, and a chance to grow and prosper. The principal Governor of this time was Vaudreuil, whose term of office began in 1705. He forsesaw that a fierce struggle must take place between the French and the English for control of the North American continent, and he laid his plans accordingly. The fortress of Louisburg in Cape Breton was begun; Quebec, Montreal and Fort Frontenac were strengthened, and a new stone fort was built at Niagara. Trade, ship-building, and manufactures were encouraged, and we find even woollen and linen goods among the home productions. Canada, at this time, exported largely to France and the