Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/223

 Against this strong fortress was sent a fleet of over one hundred and fifty vessels, and an army of twelve thousand men, under the command of Amherst and Wolfe. After a siege of seven weeks, in which Wolfe greatly distinguished himself, the garrison of five thousand men surrendered, and were sent prisoners to England.

But victories were not all on the side of the English. A large force under General Abercrombie was repulsed with heavy loss in 1758, while trying to take Ticonderoga, or Carillon, on Lake Champlain. The defeat was due to the death in the early part of the fight of young Lord Howe, and to the utter folly and rashness of Abercrombie, in ordering his brave troops to attack the French, protected as they were by felled trees and a breastwork of timber, with sharpened stakes pointing outward. In this battle Montcalm proved his skill as a general, and the Hnglish lost two thousand men, many of them Highlanders, who for the first time in their history, served in the foreign wars of Britain. The campaign of 1758 closed with the easy capture of Fort Du Quesne, by a force sent against it under General Forbes. Forbes, falling sick, was borne on a litter across the Alleghanies with his army. Finding winter approaching, he sent Washington ahead with a smaller force, to take the fort before it could get help. On the 25th of November, without a blow being struck, Du Quesne was taken possession of by Washington, and named Fort Pitt, in honor of Hngland’s greatest War Minister.

The year 1759 opened with great efforts put forth by Montcalm to save Canada to the French. The prospects of the colony were gloomy enough. The mother country gave but little assistance; in fact, she was not able to give much. So many men in Canada were drawn into the army, that the farms were only half-tilled, and the crops were scanty and poor. To add to the miseries of the people, the internal affairs of Canada were under the control of the worst official of French Rule. This was the Intendant Bigot, whose whole career was one of extortion, fraud and lewdness. Monopolists plundered the poverty-stricken people; grain, cattle, and horses were seized and sold abroad, and the money put into the pockets of Bigot and his tools. Every man between the age of sixteen and sixty was drafted into the army to defend the colony. Montcalm labored ceaselessly to put Quebec and the other fortresses in the best possible condition for defence, but he was hampered by the Governor and the Intendant. Meanwhile a plan of campaign