this prince and his predecessor made liberal cessions to their European benefactors.

Before M. Dupleix had thus far succeeded in his plan, he was enabled to procure the nabobship of Arcot, in which Pondicherry is situated, for a man whose attachment and submission might be depended upon. The person singled out for that purpose, was Chunda Saheb, son-in-law to a former nabob, whom he had hoped to succeed. But the court of Delhi disappointed his ambition, by bestowing the nabobship of Arcot upon Anawaradean Khan, an aged prince, whose fortune had undergone a variety of revolutions. Through the intrigues of Dupleix, however, and the assistance of French troops, Chunda Saheb vanquished his rival, who fell in battle, and obtained a grant of the disputed government from Murzafa Jing.

The new nabob vigorously supported the French in their usurpations. They became masters of an immense territory, extending six hundred miles along the coast of Coromandel. M. Dupleix had even the address to get himself appointed nabob of the Carnatic during the life of Chunda Saheb. And he and his associates in the East, encouraged in their ambitious views by the court of Versailles (though afterward timidly abandoned by it), proposed to obtain from the great Mogul, or from the subah of the Deccan, a cession of the capital of the Portuguese settlements on the coast of Malabar, and to seize upon the whole country that lies, in a triangular form, between Masulipatam, Goa, and Cape Comorin.(1)

In the mean time, Mahommed Ally, son of the late nabob of Arcot, having taken shelter in Trichinopoly, a strong fortress still in his possession, implored the assistance of the English, with whom his father had lived in friendship. And in order to induce them to espouse his cause, he represented that his interests and theirs were intimately connected; that their danger was common, as the French, if suffered to proceed in their conquests, would soon make themselves masters of all the Carnatic. He accordingly received a reinforcement under major Lawrence, a brave and experienced officer; and the enemy being compelled to retire from Trichinopoly, he went in person to fort St. David, and entered into close alliance with the governor, in the name of the English East India company, to which he gave up some commercial points, of no small moment, that had been long disputed.

Mahommed Ally, in consideration of this alliance, received another reinforcement under captain Cope, and a third under captain Gingen. A number of actions took place, and with great diversity of fortune. Sometimes victory declared for the French, and sometimes for the English. But no decisive advantage had been gained before the campaign of 1751, when a great military character appeared on that theatre, where he was afterward to make so distinguished a figure.

This was the famous Mr. Clive, who had gone out to fort St. David as a writer, or accomptant, to the English East India company, and was at that time commissary to the army. He proposed to divide the French force, by attacking Arcot, the capital of the province of the same name, and the seat of the nabob. Being furnished, for that purpose, with one hundred and thirty European soldiers, he accordingly repaired to Madras; where receiving a small reinforcement, he happily accomplished his enterprise. Arcot was taken. But before the victor had leisure to secure his conquest, or to think of a retreat, he was besieged in the place, by a numerous army of French and Indians, under Rajah Saheb, the son of Chunda Saheb.

The ruin of captain Clive and his brave associates seemed now inevitable; and the more timid began to represent it (as posterity certainly would, if it had taken place) as the natural consequence and just punishment of his presumptuous rashness. By his courage and conduct, however, he repelled all the efforts of the assailants; who, having suffered severely in many desperate attacks, were forced to relinquish their enterprise, after a vigorous

(1) These ambitious projects are owned by Voltaire, Raynal, and other French writers. And Mr Orme, one of the most judicious English writers on the affairs of Hindostan, imputes to M. Dupleix yet more extensive plans of dominion.

siege of fifty days. (1) This defence is memorable in the annals of war. It was maintained with wonderful intrepidity and perseverance against greatly superior numbers, provided with skilful engineers, by a handful of men, under a young commander, in a great measure ignorant of the military science; but the resources suggested by whose genius were such as would have been employed by the greatest masters in the art of defending fortified places.

Receiving soon after a reinforcement under captain Kirkpatrick, captain Clive pursued the enemy; and coming up with them in the plains of Arni, gained a complete victory, after an obstinate dispute of five hours. But this victory did not put an end to the war. The French, who were still powerful at Pondicherry, quickly assembled a new army, and took the field in conjunction with their allies, Sallabat Jing and Chunda Saheb. The English, who persevered in supporting Mahommed Ally, were joined by the rajah of Tanjore, and other princes in their alliance. Major Lawrence assumed the chief command of the company's troops; and captain Clive, who shared his confidence, acted under him, and continued to give fresh proofs of his military genius. The whole peninsula of India rung with the din of arms, and some of its finest provinces were laid waste. At length, after a variety of efforts, in which the advantage was generally in favour of the English, the French and their allies were effectually humbled; and Chunda Saheb being made prisoner by the rajah of Tanjore, that prince cruelly, but politically, commanded his head to be struck off, in order to prevent future disputes.

In consequence of this success, the French were stripped of many of their late acquisitions. Mahommed Ally remained undisputed nabob of Arcot; and the ambitious and enterprising Dupleix being recalled in 1754, a cessation of arms took place between the hostile powers, as a prelude to a treaty of peace. A conditional treaty was accordingly negotiated, by which the French and English companies agreed for ever to renounce all oriental government and dignity; never to interfere in any disputes that might arise between the princes of the country; and that all places, except such as were particularly stipulated to remain in the possession of each company, should be delivered up to the government of Hindostan.(2) These stipulations it is unnecessary to enumerate, as they were never fulfilled. Before this conditional treaty had received the sanction of the two companies in Europe, a new war between the two nations broke out in another quarter of the globe, and soon embroiled the whole world.

The province of Nova Scotia, in North America, to which the French gave the name of l'Acadie, was ceded to Great Britain, as we have seen, at the peace of Utrecht. But the soil being reputed barren, and the climate intensely cold, only a few English families settled in that much-contested country, notwithstanding its advantageous situation for carrying on the fishing trade, and its abounding in naval stores; so that the French inhabitants, having taken the oath of allegiance to their new sovereign, continued to enjoy their possessions, their religion, and every other privilege, under the British government, which exacted from them neither rent nor taxes. As they were exempted from the obligation of carrying arms against the subjects of his most Christian majesty, they assumed to themselves the name of neutrals. This peaceful character, which they were bound by every tie of honour and gratitude to maintain, they shamefully violated in 1746, when France attempted to regain possession of the country. Their conduct on that occasion, though not altogether hostile, was utterly inconsistent with their political situation, and sufficiently showed the necessity of peopling Nova Scotia with British subjects; as well to secure its dependence as a colony, as to render it of any benefit to the mother country; the neutrals being clandestinely supplied with French commodities from Canada and Cape Breton.(3)

(1) Orme's Hist. of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Hindostan, book iii.
(2) Id. ibid.
(3) Contin. of Rapin, vol. ix.

The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, which left a number of men, belonging to the sea and land service, without employment, was highly favourable to such a project. The British ministry accordingly offered great encouragement to all soldiers, sailors, artificers, and reduced officers, who chose to settle in Nova Scotia. Besides large lots of land, proportioned to their rank in the army or navy, government engaged to pay the charge of their passage, to build them houses, to furnish them with all the necessary utensils for husbandry and the fishery, and to defray the expense of subsistence for the first year. In consequence of this liberality, about three thousand families, many of whom were German Protestants, embarked for Nova Scotia.The town of Halifax, intended as a naval and military station, in order to repress the encroachments of the French, was built, and the harbour strongly fortified.

Now it was that the disputes between France and England, concerning the limits of Nova Scotia (which had not hitherto been distinctly settled, by reason of its neglected condition) began to be hotly agitated by the commissaries of the two crowns. And new disputes, of still more importance, arose, relative to the boundaries of the British provinces to the southward, on which the French had attempted systematically to encroach. Their plan was to unite, by a chain of forts, Canada and Louisiana, their two extensive colonies, and to circumscribe the English colonies within that tract of country which lies between the Alleghany mountains and the sea. This matter will require some elucidation.

Though the British colonists had made few settlements beyond the Apalachian mountains, and those few chiefly for the convenience of the Indian trade, the inhabitants of Virginia always considered the extent of their country towards the west to be unlimited, as it had been settled before the French had so much as discovered Louisiana. Nor did the people of the two Carolinas ever doubt but they might extend their plantations to the banks of the Mississippi, without encroaching on the property of an European nation. Their only care was to quiet the jealousy of the Indians, who were apt to take alarm at any settlement in the back country, as an invasion on that portion of their native soil which the ambition of the Europeans had still left them, and which they seemed determined to preserve, with the last drop of their blood, in a state of savage nature, for the purposes of the chase, their favourite amusement, and, besides war, their sole occupation. Towards the north, the boundaries of the British colonies, those of Nova Scotia excepted, were better understood, as the province of Canada, on which they bordered, had been longer settled than Louisiana; yet on our northern colonies the French had made encroachments, and with impunity.

In consequence of those encroachments, and others necessary to complete her ambitious plan, France would have enjoyed, in time of peace, the whole Indian trade, and the English colonies, in time of war, must have had a frontier of fifteen hundred miles to defend against bloodthirsty savages, conducted by French officers, and supported by disciplined troops. It was in effect to attempt the extinction of the British settlements. And yet, without such interior communication between Canada and Louisiana as was projected, the French settlements on the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence could never, it was said, attain to any high degree of consequence or security; the navigation of the one river being at all seasons difficult, and that of the other blocked up with ice during the winter months, so as to preclude exterior support or relief.

This scheme of usurpation, which is supposed to have long occupied the deliberations of the court of Versailles, was ardently embraced by De la Jonquier, now commander-in-chief of the French forces in North America, and by la Galissioniere, a man of bold and enterprising spirit, who had been appointed governor of New France in 1747. By their joint efforts, in addition to those of their predecessors, forts were erected along the great lakes, which communicate with the river St. Lawrence, and also on the Ohio and the Mississippi. The vast chain was almost completed from Quebec to New-Orleans

when the court of England, roused by repeated injuries, broke off the conferences relative to the limits of Nova Scotia.

These conferences had been artfully protracted and perplexed by the commissaries of the court of France. They wanted to confine the province of Nova Scotia solely to that peninsula, which is formed by the bay of Fundy, the Atlantic Ocean, and the gulf of St. Lawrence; while the English commissaries made it extend to Pentagoet, to the west, and to the banks of the river St. Lawrence, on the north, and proved, by incontrovertible arguments, that these were its real boundaries; boundaries which the French themselves had marked out, when it was restored to them by treaty, under the name of l'Acadie, and particularly at the peace of Breda.(1)

During those unavailing disputes, the French were carrying on their encroachments in America, with great boldness, in different quarters. The rising settlement of Halifax, which they foresaw was intended as a bridle upon them, particularly excited their jealousy; and the active and vigilant governor of Canada, besides erecting several forts within the disputed limits of Nova Scotia, had instigated, first the Indians, and afterward the French neutrals, to take up arms against the British government. Hostilities were likewise commenced on the banks of the Ohio, where the French surprised a fortified post of considerable importance, called Log's Town, which the Virginians had established for the convenience of the Indian trade; and after pillaging its warehouses of skins and European goods to the amount of twenty thousand pounds, under pretence that it was within the government of New France, which comprehended in its jurisdiction both Canada and Louisiana, they murdered all the English inhabitants except two, who fortunately escaped to relate the melancholy tale. About the same tine, M. de Dontrecœur, with a thousand men and eighteen pieces of cannon, embarked at Venango, a fort which the French had raised on the banks of the Ohio, and reduced another British post, established by the Virginians, on the forks of the Monongahela.

Certain intelligence of these hostilities having reached England, orders were sent to the governors of her colonies to drive the French from their usurpations in Nova Scotia; from their fortified posts upon the Ohio; and every where to oppose force to force. But fatal experience soon made the British ministry sensible of the great superiority of the military strength of their enemies in North America; a superiority arising from the original constitution of the colonies of the two rival kingdoms, and other concurring circumstances. The government of New France, being moved by one spring, was capable of more vigorous efforts than the powerful but separate governments belonging to Great Britain. The interests of the English colonies were often contradictory: they had frequent disputes with each other, concerning their boundaries; and the inhabitants (little habituated to arms, and divided by religious feuds) were perpetually quarrelling with their governors, and disputing, on the most urgent as well as the most trivial occasions, the prerogatives of the crown or the rights of the proprietary, as their governments happened to be constituted; in one colony verging towards monarchy, in another bordering on democracy. This want of concert, which had often rendered our more wealthy and populous colonies inadequate to their own defence against a naturally inferior enemy, had long been lamented by the more enlightened part of the inhabitants, and was well understood by the French.(2) In order to remedy so palpable a political defect, two measures seemed necessary; namely, a confederacy among all the British governments on the continent of North America, and an alliance with the most considerable Indian nations in their neighbourhood.

As a preliminary step towards such a confederacy, the governor of NewYork, accompanied by deputies from the other colonies, gave a meeting to

(1) Mod. Univ. Hist, vol. xv. fol. edit. Smollett's Hist. Eng. vol. xii.

(2) It was on this principle, and the military spirit of the French colonists, that the old and experienced duke de Noailles encouraged, by memorials, the court of Versailles in its ambitious projects in North America, though under colour of providing for the security of its own settlements. Mem. tom. iv.

the Iroquois, or, as they are commonly called, the Indians of the Six Nations, at Albany. But only a few of their chiefs attended; and it was evident that even those were much cooled in their affection to the English government. This change was occasioned by the powerful but secret influence of the French agents, who had lately employed every means to corrupt the savages. In order to counteract their intrigues with the Six Nations, valuable presents were made, in the name of his Brittanic majesty, to such of the Indian chiefs as had thought proper to attend; and liberal promises to the whole. They refused, however, "to take up the hatchet," their phrase for going to war. They could only be induced to declare, that they were willing to renew their treaties with the king of England, and hoped he would assist them in driving the French from the places they had usurped in the back country.

Encouraged even by so slight an indication of friendship, and the ardour of the people of the different colonies for war, a resolution was adopted by the general assembly at Albany, to support the British claims in every quarter of North America. In consequence of this resolution, major Washington, a provincial officer, was despatched from Virginia, with four hundred men, to watch the motions of the enemy; and to recover, if opportunity should offer, the places they had taken upon the Ohio. Washington encamped on the banks of that river, where he threw up some works for his security, and hoped to be able at least to defend himself until he should receive a reinforcement, which was speedily expected, from New-York.

In the mean time, De Villier, the French commandant on the Monongahela, having in vain summoned Washington to abandon his post, marched up to his intrenchments, at the head of eight hundred men, and attempted to carry the works by assault. But Washington defended himself with so much intrepidity, as to render all the efforts of the enemy abortive: and he obtained very honourable terms for himself and his detachment. It was agreed that both parties should retire; the English towards Will's Creek, and the French towards the river Monongahela. But scarce were the articles signed, when a fresh body of French and Indians appeared; and although De Villier pretended to adhere to his engagements, he very patiently suffered the Indians to harass the English in their retreat, and even to plunder their baggage.(1)

No sooner did the courts of London and Versailles obtain intelligence of those violent proceedings, than both were made sensible that a rupture was now become inevitable. France continued to send reinforcements of men, and supplies of money and stores to Canada, for the prosecution of her ambitious projects; and orders were sent by Great Britain to the governors of her several colonies to arm the militia, and use their utmost endeavours to repel the hostile attempts of the enemy, until troops could be embarked for their farther protection. But although prepared to cut with the sword the Gordian knot of a long and intricate negotiation, the ministers of the two kingdoms breathed nothing but peace; and exchanged, in the name of their masters, reciprocal professions of good-will. At length, however, undoubted information having been received in England, that a powerful armament, destined for America, was ready to sail from Brest and Rochefort, an end was put to dissimulation.

Roused at this information, the British government equipped, with all possible expedition, a fleet under the command of Boscawen, in order to watch the motions of the enemy; and on the 27th of April, the English admiral, having taken on board two regiments of soldiers, sailed from Plymouth with eleven ships of the line, and one frigate. He directed his course to the banks of Newfoundland; and, a few days after his arrival there, the French fleet, from Brest, under the command of M. de la Mothe, came to the same latitude, in its passage to Quebec. But the thick fogs which prevail on those banks, especially in the spring season, prevented the hostile fleets from see

(1 Mem. tom. iv.