sects were found: Protestants and Catholics in Maryland, Episcopalians in Virginia, Congregationalists in New England, and a mixture of almost all in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. Massachusetts, however, tried to keep out all who were not Congregationalists, and some other colonies tried to be equally intolerant, but they failed in the end. The French Catholic priests who came to New France spared no effort to convert the Indians. They went to distant and hostile tribes and some were tortured to death, but neither torture nor martyrdom turned them back. Father Marquette (p. 38), one of the most famous of these priests, was both explorer and missionary. The Indians loved him so that when he was sick they became his escort for a ninety-day journey. How the French treated the Indians.-The French knew how to win the hearts of the red men by sharing their experiences and treating them almost like equals. The Englishman might deal fairly with them, but they felt that he despised them as an inferior race and did not care to associate with them more than was necessary. Frenchmen often spent the entire winter hunting fur-bearing animals with the Indians. Champlain did not think it beneath his dignity to pass a winter in Indian wigwams near Lake Huron. Even Count Fron'tenac (1620?-1698), the greatest governor of New France, joined the Indians in their war dance. He painted his face red, brandished a tomahawk, and delighted the red men with the vigor of his war whoops. One can hardly imagine staid Governor Bradford of the Plymouth colony acting like this. The Indians liked the companionship of the French, and nearly all of them, except the Iroquois, were willing to help them fight the English. Wars between England and France.-The French king declared war against the English, partly because his enemy, William the Prince of Orange, became king of England (1689) after James II had been driven from the throne. The war between England and France, which affected their American colonies, lasted with a few intervals for three quarters of a century (1689-1763). After the fighting had stopped for a while, it several times started again when some move was made which threatened to destroy the balance of power in Europe. Disputes over the succession to the throne in Spain and in Austria, for instance, caused war. Difference in religion helped make England and France hostile to each other. France was Catholic and England, Protestant. France refused (1685) to continue the toleration of her Protestants, or Huguenots, many of whom escaped to England and America. England granted (1689) toleration to all Christians except Catholics and thus increased the enmity between herself and France. Religion may have added to the bitterness of the struggle, but possession of the New World became the goal for which France and England fought. Three of the wars during this period are known in American history as King William's War, Queen Anne's War, and King George's War, from the names of English rulers. During Queen Anne's War, in 1707, England and Scotland were united under the name of Great Britain. The two countries had had the same king since 1603 (p. 78); but now they gave up their separate Parliaments and elected a single British Parliament instead. The English colonies became the British colonies, but were still usually called English. Suffering in the English colonies. Some of the English colonies suffered terribly during the long struggle for the possession of North America. A band of French and Indians massacred the settlers at Schenectady (skě-něk'tȧ-di), New York (1690), only a few miles from Albany. A little later many in northern New England were killed or taken captive. A Frenchman led a band of Indians one winter night to Deerfield (1704) in northwestern Massachusetts, where they killed many and then drove III captives over the snow toward Canada. The minister of the church and his wife and children were among the captives. When his wife sank from exhaustion, she was tomahawked. Such outrages were repeated so often that Massachusetts finally offered a large reward for any Indian scalp. COLONISTS ESCAPING FROM THEIR BURNING HOUSE, ATTACKED BY INDIANS Massachusetts from time to time made expeditions against the French. Her greatest success was the capture of Louisburg (1745), a fortified seaport on Cape Breton Island, which had furnished a base for French privateers in capturing the merchant vessels of New England. For LONDON, The Ship Antilope, JOHN GRIFFITHS, Mafter, ADVERTISEMENT IN THE WEEKLY NEW YORK POST-BOY, 1746 For George Washington begins to play a part in American history. -The most prominent man in the history of our country is George Washington. He was born on a plantation in Virginia |