THE TIMES AND THE MEN

There was rejoicing throughout the Thirteen Colonies, in
the month of September 1760, when news arrived of the
capitulation of Montreal. Bonfires flamed forth and
prayers were offered up in the churches and meeting-houses
in gratitude for deliverance from a foe that for over a
hundred years had harried and had caused the Indians to
harry the frontier settlements. The French armies were
defeated by land; the French fleets were beaten at sea.
The troops of the enemy had been removed from North
America, and so powerless was France on the ocean that,
even if success should crown her arms on the European
continent, where the Seven Years' War was still raging,
it would be impossible for her to transport a new force
to America. The principal French forts in America were
occupied by British troops. Louisbourg had been razed to
the ground; the British flag waved over Quebec, Montreal,
and Niagara, and was soon to be raised on all the lesser
forts in the territory known as Canada. The Mississippi
valley from the Illinois river southward alone remained
to France. Vincennes on the Wabash and Fort Chartres on
the Mississippi were the only posts in the hinterland
occupied by French troops. These posts were under the
government of Louisiana; but even these the American
colonies were prepared to claim, basing the right on
their 'sea to sea' charters.

The British in America had found the strip of land between