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At length, after a continuous controversy, but without open warfare, for thirty years, the inevitable was realized. In 1744 active hostilities were resumed. As usual, the French sought the assistance of the Indians to attack the English, particularly the advanced posts on the Ohio and towards Hudson Bay. They planned also to destroy Oswego, but found the Iroquois strongly opposed to such action and they were compelled to abandon it for a time. The capture or destruction by the English of several of the French vessels bringing stores to Canada prevented the French from carrying out their early plans of attack, which were usually so successful, owing to the constant efficiency of their military forces and the unprepared condition of the English, absorbed as they were in the development of their colonies.

The successful attack of the New Englanders on Louisbourg indicated the pitch to which they had been aroused by the repeated attacks of the French cruisers on the English fishing fleets. Apart, however, from the capture of Louisbourg, nothing of a very decisive nature had been accomplished in America when the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, arrested open hostilities and required the restoration of Louisbourg to the French. This was a severe blow to the New Englanders, who saw in it the wanton resignation by the English government of that which had cost them so dearly and which constituted so perpetual a menace to their fishing and commercial interests.

Immediately after the treaty, the French took formal possession of the Ohio River and its tributaries. A post was also established at La Présentation, now Ogdensburg. A year following the peace, La Galissonière^[1] prepared a very interesting survey of the French colonies in America. It is now more plain than ever, he says, that the English are stirred up over the international problems in America as never before and are determined to make an invasion of the French colonies during the next war. He then proceeds to discuss the relation of the several French colonies to the mother country. He first deals with the economic advantages to be derived from colonies, and on this ground has to admit that hitherto Canada has been a very unprofitable colony, while some of the small West India Islands have been sources of great revenue to France. But there are other considerations from a national point of view, such as honour, glory and religion. He first points out that it is quite impossible, in point of national honour, for France to desert the people of Canada who have settled there under her protection. It is also impossible to give up the great work of converting the heathen.

The chief reason, however, for maintaining a colony such as Canada is that it furnishes the best possible means for putting a drag upon the development of the British power in America. The importance of this must be recognized from the extraordinarily rapid development which the British colonies have achieved within the past few years. Were the French check upon the British power in America wholly removed, they would soon control the whole continent of America, including the West Indies. The strength of Canada, therefore, lies not in its being an asset in itself, but as a severe check upon the otherwise marvellous natural growth of the English colonies. In the first place, the French have the majority of the Indians on their side, and the Indians are beginning to realize that if one power becomes too strong for the other, the Indians will soon be disposed of by the stronger power. It is their policy, therefore, to maintain the weaker side, and a consciousness of this will attach them to the French cause. In the second place, there are a large number of French Canadians, originally settlers but who have broken away from the settlements and become coureurs de bois, living in the woods after the manner of the Indians and having a great influence with them, and these would be very powerful allies of the regular French forces. Lastly, if the English colonies in America are not kept in check, they will ultimately become a powerful force in every part of the world, including Europe, and France before long will find itself unable to cope with the strength of Britain. Canada, therefore, in spite of its expense, ought to be retained by France for her own preservation. The control of the Indians is the central matter, and Montreal is the key to the Canadian situation, as it affords a basis for the Indian trade and connection. It also enables Canada to control the Lake Champlain route, as well as that to the Great Lakes. Oswego is obviously the most dangerous English post. Another attempt is being made to establish English posts on the Ohio River, through which they will come into contact with the western Indians and possibly interrupt the French connection between Canada, the Illinois country and Louisiana.

In 1752 Duquesne succeeded La Jonquière as governor of Canada. In his instructions, it is pointed out that, at all hazards, the English must be prevented from trading with, or otherwise coming into contact with, the Indians of the west. As the English are now pressing into the Ohio Valley, it will be necessary to attack them and drive them from the country. Hitherto, the French policy with reference to the Indians has been to set one section against another, in order to weaken them and prevent their becoming a menace to the colony. Now they are well under French influence and there is no longer any fear of their attacking Canada. Henceforth, therefore, it must be the policy of the French to prevent conflicts between the Indian tribes, and to mediate their differences and to secure their united and firm alliance with the French, in order that their strength may be employed entirely against the English. He is informed, however, that the custom which has prevailed among the French of dressing and painting themselves in the guise of Indians in order to undertake scalping expeditions among the English settlers must be discontinued.

It appears from the reports of Longueuil^[2] that the English are showing considerable determination in their western movements. They are getting the better of the Indians on the Ohio and turning some of them against the French.

It is rather remarkable that on the eve of the final conflict, the French government seems to have lost faith in its Indian allies. In the instructions to Vaudreuil the younger (1755) he is advised not to place too much reliance on the Indians and to avoid as far as possible Indian wars. He should not attempt to collect the Indians together, but should leave them to their own course, provided they do not attach themselves to the English. The Indians had been making a practice of getting the English and French to bid against one another for promises of their favour and support. One of the most profitable forms of traffic of this sort was that in flags. The Indians accepted flags and other emblems from the rival nations as marks of their friendship and alliance. These they immediately carried to the representatives of the rival power and exchanged them, together with their promises of loyalty, for handsome returns of goods and presents. At length the French king ordered the French side of this traffic to be discontinued, as it was becoming very expensive.

PIERRE DE RIGAUD, MARQUIS DE VAUDREUIL

From a painting in the Château de Ramezay

In order as far as possible to offset the English post at Oswego, the French established Fort Rouillé at Toronto, on the north side of the lake, to intercept the Indians from that direction. In the Detroit region things were in a very bad condition owing to the outbreak of smallpox.

The appointment of the Marquis de Vaudreuil as governor in 1755 gave great satisfaction to the people. In the darkening days before the final struggle they remembered with pleasure the administration of his father, which was the brightest period in the later history of New France. They naturally looked to him to redeem the colony, alike from corruption and oppression within and from powerful enemies without. Under the circumstances they were, of course, expecting the impossible even if the second Vaudreuil had been the equal of his father in energy, ability and soundness of judgment.

With the open outbreak of hostilities in 1755, the political history of New France virtually ceases. Thereafter, everything is absorbed in the military operations and the commissariat system which furnished the troops with supplies and enabled Bigot and his associates to plunder the colony.

[1]	Administrator of New France in the interregnum (1747-49) between the governors Beauharnois and La Jonquière.

[2]	Charles le Moyne, Baron de Longueuil, administrator of the colony 1752, before the arrival of Duquesne.