Volume 12 — VOLUME XII (continued 10)

And so the summer passed away. A winter campaign became inevitable, and the abyss which Peter's unerring eye had scanned began to gape.

It was not till June that Charles XII left Radoshkovitse, and marched eastward to Borisov, where he crossed the Berezina. Menshikoff and Sheremetief made an attempt to stop him, on July 3d, as he was crossing a small river called the Bibitch, near Holovtchin. A night manoeuvre, and a wild bayonet charge, led by the King himself, carried him once more to victory. The town of Mohilef opened its gates to the Swedes, but there Charles was forced to stay, and lose more time yet waiting for Loewenhaupt. He marched again, early in August, in a southerly direction, and his soldiers soon found themselves in the grip of one of Peter's allies. They were driven to support themselves by gathering ears of corn, which they ground between two stones. Sickness began to thin their ranks. Their three doctors, so the fierce troopers said, were "brandy, garlic, and death"! Loewenhaupt had reached Shklof, and was separated from the invading army by two streams, the Soja and the Dnieper, between which Peter had taken up his position. The Swedish general, after having successfully passed the Dnieper, was met at Liesna, on October 9th, by a force three times as large as his own, and Peter was able, on the following day, to report a complete victory to his friends: "8500 men dead on the field, without mentioning those the Kalmucks have hunted into the forest, and 700 prisoners!" According to this reckoning, Loewenhaupt, who could not have brought more than 11,000 troops into action, should have been left without a man; as a matter of fact, he reached Charles with 6700, after a flank march which all military experts consider a marvel. But, not being able to find a bridge across the Soja, he was forced to abandon his artillery and all his baggage, and he led his starving troops into a famine-stricken camp.

There was bad news, too, from Ingria, where Luebecker had also been defeated, losing all his baggage and three thousand first-class troops. Charles grew so disconcerted that he is reported to have confessed to Gyllenkrook, his quartermaster-general, that he was all at sea, and no longer had any definite plan. On October 22d he reached Mokoshin on the Desna, on the borders of the Ukraine, where he had expected to meet Mazeppa. But the old leader broke his appointment. He still desired to temporize and was loath to take any decisive resolution. He was driven to take one at last, by the Cossacks about him, who were alarmed at the idea of the Russians following the Swedes into the Ukraine. It would be far better, so they thought, to join the latter against the former. One of these Cossacks, Voinarovski, who had been sent by the hetman to Menshikoff, had returned with most terrifying news. He had overheard the German officers on the favorite's staff, speaking of Mazeppa and his followers, say: "God pity those poor wretches; to-morrow they will all be in chains!" Mazeppa, when he heard this report, "raged like a whirlwind," hurried to Batourin to give the alarm, and then crossed the Desna and joined the Swedish army.

It was too late. The popular sentiment, on which both he and Charles had reckoned to promote an insurrectionary movement, confused by the tergiversations and the ambiguous actions of the hetman, had quite gone astray and lost all consistency. All Mazeppa could reckon upon was a body of two thousand faithful troops; not enough even to defend Batourin, which Menshikoff snatched from him a few days later—thus depriving the Swedish army of its last chance of revictualling. When the fortresses of Starodoub and Novgorod-Sievierski closed their gates against him, the whole of the Ukraine slipped from the grasp of the turncoat chief and his new allies. His effigy was first hung and then dragged through the streets of Glouhof in Peter's presence; another hetman, Skoropadski, was appointed in his place, and then came winter—a cruel winter, during which the very birds died of cold.

By the beginning of 1709 Charles' effective strength had dwindled to nearly twenty thousand men. The Russians did not dare to attack him as yet, but they gathered round him in an ever-narrowing circle. They carried his advanced posts, they cut his lines of communication. The King of Sweden, to get himself mere elbow-room, was driven to begin his campaign in the month of January. He lost one thousand men and forty-eight officers in taking the paltry town of Wespjik (January 6th). By this time the game, in Mazeppa's view, was already lost, and he made an attempt to turn his coat again; offering to betray Charles into Peter's hands if Peter would restore him his office. The bargain was struck, but a letter from the old traitor, addressed to Leszcynski, chanced to fall into the Czar's hands, and made him draw back, in the conviction that Mazeppa was utterly unreliable.

In March, the near approach of the Swedish army, then advancing on Poltava, induced the Zaporoje Cossacks to join it. But the movement was a very partial one, and Peter soon put it down, by means of a series of military executions, mercilessly carried out by Menshikoff, and of various manifestoes against the foreign heretics, "who deny the doctrines of the true religion, and spit on the picture of the Blessed Virgin." The capture of Poltava thus became the last hope of Charles and his army. If they could not seize the town, they must all die of hunger.

The fortifications of the place were weak, but the besieging army was sorely changed from that which had fought under the walls of Narva. It had spent too long a time in fat quarters, in Saxony and Poland, to be fit to endure this terrible campaign. Like the Russian army at Narva, it was sapped by demoralization before it was called on to do any serious fighting. Even among the Swedish staff, and in the King's intimate circle, all confidence in his genius and his lucky star had disappeared.

His best generals, Rehnskold and Gyllenkrook, his chancellor Piper, and Mazeppa himself were against any prolongation of the siege, which promised to be a long one. "If God were to send down one of his angels," he said, "to induce me to follow your advice, I would not listen to him!" An ineradicable illusion, the fruit of the too easy victories of his early career, prompted him to undervalue the forces opposed to him. He knew, and would acknowledge, nothing of that new Russia, the mighty upstanding colossus, which Peter had at last succeeded in raising up in his path. According to some authorities, Mazeppa, in his desire to replace Batourin by Poltava, as his own personal appanage, encouraged him in this fatal resolution. But it may well have been that retreat had already become impossible.

It was long before Peter made up his mind to intervene; he was still distrustful of himself, desperately eager to increase his own resources, and with them his chances of victory. On his enemy's side, everything contributed to this result. By the end of June all the Swedish ammunition was exhausted, the invaders could use none of their artillery and hardly any of their fire-arms, and were reduced to fighting with cold steel. On the very eve of the decisive struggle, they were left without a leader. During a reconnaissance on the banks of the Vorskla, which ran between the hostile armies, Charles, always rash and apt to expose himself unnecessarily, was struck by a bullet. "It is only in the foot," he said, smiling, and continued his examination of the ground. But, when he returned to camp he fainted, and Peter, reckoning on the moral effect of the accident, at once resolved to cross the river. A report, as a matter of fact, ran through the Swedish camp that the King, convinced of the hopelessness of the situation, had deliberately sought death.

Yet ten more days passed by, in the expectation of an attack which the Russians did not dare to make. It was Charles who took action at last, informing his generals, on June 26th (July 7th) that he would give battle on the following morning. He himself was still in a very suffering condition, and made over the command to Rehnskold, a valiant soldier but a doubtful leader, for he did not possess the army's confidence, and, according to Lundblad, "hid his lack of knowledge and strategical powers under gloomy looks and a fierce expression." After the event, as was so commonly the case with vanquished generals, he was accused of treachery.

The truth would seem to be that Charles' obstinate reserve, and habit of never confiding his plans and military arrangements to any third person, had ended by gradually depriving his lieutenants of all power of independent action. In his presence they were bereft of speech and almost of ideas. All Rehnskold did was to rage and swear at everyone. Peter, meanwhile, neglected nothing likely to insure success. He even went so far as to dress the Novgorod regiment—one of his best—in the coarse cloth (siermiaga) generally reserved for newly joined recruits, in the hope of thus deceiving the enemy. This stratagem, however, completely failed. In the very beginning of the battle, Rehnskold fell on the regiment, and cut it to pieces.

The Russian centre was confided to Sheremetief, the right wing to General Ronne, the left to Menshikoff. Bruce commanded the artillery, and the Czar, as usual, retired modestly to the head of a single regiment. But this was a mere disguise; in real fact, he was everywhere, going hither and thither, in the forefront of the battle, and lavishing effort in every direction. A bullet passed through his hat, another is said to have struck him full on the breast. It was miraculously stopped by a golden cross, set with precious stones, given by the monks on Mount Athos to the Czar Feodor, and which his successor habitually wore. This cross, which certainly bears the mark of some projectile, is still preserved in the Ouspienski monastery, at Moscow.

The heroism and sovereign contempt of death betrayed by Charles were worthy of himself. Unable to sit a horse, he caused himself to be carried on a litter, which, when it was shattered by bullets, was replaced by another made of crossed lances. But he was nothing but a living standard, useless, though sublime. The once mighty military leader had utterly disappeared. The battle was but a wild conflict, in which the glorious remnants of one of the most splendid armies that had ever been brought together; unable to use its arms, leaderless, hopeless of victory, and soon overwhelmed and crushed by superior numbers, struggled for a space, with the sole object of remaining faithful to its king. At the end of two hours Charles himself left the field of battle. He had been lifted onto the back of an old horse which his father had formerly ridden, and which was called Brandklepper ("Run to the Fire"), because he was always saddled when a fire broke out in the city.

This charger followed the vanquished hero into Turkey, was taken by the Turks at Bender, sent back to the King, taken again at Stralsund in 1715, returned to its owner once more, and died in 1718—the same year as his master—at the age of forty-two. Poniatowski, the father of the future King of Poland, who was following the campaign as a volunteer—Charles had refused to take any Polish troops with him on account of their want of discipline—rallied one of Colonel Horn's squadrons to escort the King, and received seventeen bullets through his leather kaftan while covering the royal retreat. Field Marshal Rehnskold, Piper the chancellor, with all his subordinates, over one hundred fifty officers, and two thousand soldiers fell into the victor's hands.

The Russians' joy was so extreme that they forgot to pursue the retreating enemy. Their first impulse was to sit down and banquet. Peter invited the more important prisoners to his own table, and toasted the health of his "masters in the art of war." The Swedes, who still numbered thirteen thousand men, had time to pause for a moment in their own camp, where Charles summoned Loewenhaupt, and, for the first time in his life, was heard to ask for advice—"What was to be done?" The general counselled him to burn all wagons, mount his infantry soldiers on the draught-horses and beat a retreat toward the Dnieper. On June 30th the Russians came up with the Swedish army at Perevolotchna, on the banks of the river, and, the soldiers refusing to fight again, Loewenhaupt capitulated; but the King had time to cross to the other side. Two boats lashed together carried his carriage, a few officers, and the war-chests which he had filled in Saxony. Mazeppa contrived to find a boat for himself, and loaded it with two barrels of gold.

At Kiev, whither Peter proceeded from Poltava, a solemn thanksgiving was offered up in the church of St. Sophia, and a Little Russia monk, Feofan Prokopovitch, celebrated the recent victory in a fine flight of eloquence: "When our neighbors hear of what has happened, they will say it was not into a foreign country that the Swedish army and the Swedish power ventured, but rather into some mighty sea! They have fallen in and disappeared, even as lead is swallowed up in water!"

The Sweden of Gustavus Adolphus had indeed disappeared. Charles XII was ere long to be a mere knight-errant at Bender. The Cossack independence, too, was a thing of the past. Its last and all too untrustworthy representative was to die in Turkey before many months were out—of despair, according to Russian testimony—of poison voluntarily swallowed, according to Swedish historians. The poison story has a touch of likelihood about it, for Peter certainly proposed to exchange Mazeppa's person for that of the chancellor Piper. The cause of the Leszcynski, too, was dead. It was to be put forward again by France, but for the benefit of France alone; and with the Leszcynski cause, Poland itself had passed away and lay a lifeless corpse on which the vultures were soon to settle.

Out of all these ruins rose the Russian power, its northern hegemony, and its new European position, which henceforth were daily to increase and reach immense, immoderate proportions. Europe played a special part in the festivities which graced the return of the victors to Moscow, a few months later. European ideas, traditions, and forms appeared in the triumphal procession, and served as trappings for the trophies of victory. Peter, playing the part of Hercules, and conquering a Swedish Juno, in a cortege in which Mars figured, attended by furies and by fauns, was a fit symbol of the alliance of Russia with the Graeco-Latin civilization of the West. Old Muscovy—Eastern and Asiatic—was numbered with the dead.

%CAPTURE OF PORT ROYAL[1]%

FRANCE SURRENDERS NOVA SCOTIA TO ENGLAND

A.D. 1710

DUNCAN CAMPBELL

[Footnote 1: From Duncan Campbell's History of Canada.]

Each time that England and France quarrelled in Europe their colonies became engaged in strife. In 1690, when William III fought Louis XIV the able Governor of Canada, Frontenac, despatched his Indian allies to ravage New England, while with rare military skill he defended himself and his province. He could not, however, prevent the capture of Port Royal (now Annapolis) in Nova Scotia. This great fortress, the pride of Louis XIV, was attacked by the New England colonists under Sir William Phips, the Governor of Massachusetts, and was captured by a most dashing attack. When England and France made peace, Port Royal was restored to the French, much to the dissatisfaction of the English colonists, who saw clearly that as soon as another war arose they would have to make the assault again.

During the era of Queen Anne's War (1702-1713) French and Indian forays and incursions were frequent on the borders of Acadia and New England. Britain, meanwhile, was desirous of limiting the growth of France in the New World, and, with the provocation that had been given the New England colonies by the murderous raids of the French and Abenaquis Indians on her towns and border settlements, the English colonists retaliated by attempting, in 1704 and 1707, to recapture Acadia. They finally succeeded in 1710 under General Nicholson. The story of this expedition will be found appended in Campbell's narrative, as well as the account given of the disastrous failure of Admiral Sir Hovenden Walker's formidable expedition in 1711 up the St. Lawrence with the design of assaulting Quebec. On the capture by the New England colonies of Port Royal, and the expulsion of its French garrison, the place became an English fortress and was renamed Annapolis Royal, in honor of Queen Anne.

In perusing the history of Nova Scotia, the reader is struck with the frequency with which the country, or, in other words, the forts, passed from the French to the English, and vice versa. As a rule, permanent retention was not contemplated. Hence we find that when Port Royal was taken by Phips, he departed without leaving a solitary man to defend it. A few days after the expedition had left, the Chevalier de Villebon, the newly appointed French Governor, arrived, and if accompanied by the means, had a favorable opportunity of putting it once more in a state of defence and retaining it as a French stronghold. But Phips was not far off, and he therefore deemed it prudent, considering the small force at his disposal, to retire to the river St. John, where he remained for some years, destroying New England vessels and organizing schemes for the consolidation of French authority in the province.

In the mean time Villebon showed his temper toward the New Englanders by building a chapel on the disputed territory, and driving their fishermen from the coast of Nova Scotia. Villebon was succeeded by Brouillan, in 1700, and not only was an enemy to the fishermen, but actually afforded protection to pirates who preyed on the trade of Massachusetts, which inspired a degree of hostility in New England that, on the accession of Queen Anne, in 1702, the declaration of war which followed was hailed in that colony with demonstrations of joy.

The New Englanders had a long catalogue of grievances unredressed, hostile attacks unrevenged, and were more determined than ever to put forth their strength for the expulsion of the French from the province. In 1704 a preliminary expedition was despatched by them to the coast of Nova Scotia, consisting of a ship of forty-two and another of thirty-two guns, a number of transports and whale-boats, on board of which were upward of five hundred men, under the command of Colonel Church, whose instructions were to destroy settlements, and where dams existed to deluge the cultivated ground and make as many prisoners as possible. One detachment visited Minas, and spread desolation and ruin in that fertile region, through which Brouillan passed on his way to Annapolis, representing the people as living like true republicans, not acknowledging royal or judicial authority, and able to spare eight hundred hogsheads of wheat yearly for exportation, and as being supplied with abundance of cattle.

Another detachment went to Port Royal, which they deemed it prudent not to attack. Brouillan having died in 1706, M. Subercase was appointed governor. In the spring of 1707 another expedition was sent from New England to attack Port Royal. It consisted of twenty-three transports and the province galley, convoyed by a man-of-war of fifty guns, on which were embarked two regiments of militia, under Colonels Wainwright and Hilton. The expedition arrived at the entrance to Port Royal on June 6th. A landing was soon effected; but Subercase's dispositions for resistance were so able that the English found it impossible to make any impression on the defences, and, after losing eighty men, the troops were reembarked and proceeded to Casco Bay, from which place the commanders communicated with the Governor of New England and waited orders. The failure of the expedition caused great indignation in New England, and the Governor immediately resolved to strengthen the army with a hundred recruits and to order a second attack. Accordingly the expedition again sailed for Port Royal, when Subercase was in a far more formidable position than formerly. After a siege of fifteen days, in which the English officers displayed unaccountable cowardice, the ships retired, having lost sixteen men, while the French had only three men killed and wounded.

Subercase immediately proceeded to strengthen his position in anticipation of a third attack. A bomb-proof powder magazine was accordingly constructed, capable of containing sixty thousand pounds of powder, and the fort was otherwise improved. This Governor, who had formed a high estimate of the climate, soil, and general resources of the province, was one of the ablest appointed under French rule. He made urgent appeals to the French government to colonize the country on a large scale, pointing out the advantages that would follow; but all his suggestions were disregarded, and he had the mortification, notwithstanding his zeal and personal sacrifices in the service of his country, to receive less encouragement and support from the home government than any of his predecessors.

In the year 1710 great preparations were made for the conquest of Canada and Nova Scotia. The New York House of Assembly sent a petition to Queen Anne, praying for such assistance as would expel the French entirely from the country. Colonel Vetch is said to have inspired this application, and to have submitted to the British government a plan of attack. Promises of liberal support are said to have been made, which, however, the government was tardy in affording.

The command of the New England forces was intrusted to Francis Nicholson, who was appointed Governor of New England, under Sir Edmund Andros, in 1688, being Governor of New York in 1689, and in the following year Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia. In 1692 he was transferred to the government of Maryland, and in 1698 sent back to Virginia as Governor-in-Chief, at which time he held the rank of colonel in the army. Nicholson was an earnest advocate of a confederation of the British North American provinces for purposes of defence, to which the people of Virginia were popularly opposed.

Nicholson sailed from Boston on September 18, 1710, with a fleet of about thirty-six vessels, including five transports from England, conveying a considerable force, composed of troops supplied by Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, which arrived at Port Royal on September 24th. Subercase was not in a condition to resist so formidable a force; hence we find him writing to the French minister that the garrison is dispirited, and praying for assistance in men and money. The strait to which he was reduced is indicated by the following passage: "I have had means," he says, "by my industry to borrow wherewith to subsist the garrison for these two years. I have paid what I could by selling all my movables. I will give even to my last shirt, but I fear that all my pains will prove useless if we are not succored during the month of March or early in April, supposing the enemy should let us rest this winter."

But it was far from the intention of the enemy to let them rest; for three days after the despatch of the communication in which the passage quoted occurred, Nicholson sent a summons to the Governor requiring the immediate delivery of the fort, and in the event of non-compliance, expressing his resolution to reduce it by force of her majesty's arms. No reply having been sent to the summons, Nicholson prepared to land his troops, to which Subercase offered no resistance, as he could not trust the garrison beyond the walls of the fort on account of the discontent induced by the universal conviction of their inability to oppose the English, who mustered to the number of upward of three thousand, exclusive of seamen, to which force the Governor could not oppose more than three hundred fighting men. In the mean time the garrison became disorganized and many desertions took place, when the Governor, yielding to necessity, opened a communication with Nicholson with the view to capitulation.

The articles were, in the circumstances, highly favorable to the garrison. They provided that the soldiers should march out with their arms and baggage, drums beating and colors flying; that they should be conveyed to Rochelle, and that the inhabitants within three miles of Port Royal should be permitted to remain on their lands, with their corn, cattle, and furniture, for two years, if so disposed, on their taking the oath of allegiance to the Queen of Great Britain. The destitute condition of the garrison was manifested by their tattered garments and absence of provisions necessary to sustain them even for a few days. In conformity with the terms of the capitulation four hundred eighty men in all were transported to Rochelle, in France. A garrison, consisting of two hundred marines and two hundred fifty New England volunteers, was left in Port Royal, under Colonel Vetch, as governor—General Nicholson returning to Boston with the fleet.

The English, sensible of the disastrous consequences resulting from the policy hitherto adopted of abandoning Port Royal after having taken repeated possession of it, had now resolved to retain it permanently. The Acadians were alarmed at the indications of permanent occupancy which they witnessed, and evinced a degree of hostility which caused the Governor to adopt such measures as were calculated to convince them that they must act in virtue of their temporary allegiance to the British crown, as became faithful subjects. The restraints imposed were galling to the French, and they despatched a messenger with a letter to the Governor of Canada, referring to their general misery under British rule, and praying to be furnished with the means of leaving a country where they could not enjoy absolute freedom, but the letter contained no specific charges.

In the hope of regaining the fort, and impressed with the importance in the mean time of intensifying Indian hostility to English rule, the Canadian Governor sent messengers to the French missionaries to exert their influence in that direction. The consequence was that parties sent out to cut wood were attacked, and that travelling beyond the fort was rendered dangerous. Eighty men sent from the garrison on that service were attacked by the Indians, who killed about thirty of the party, taking the rest prisoners. Vaudreuil, the Governor of Canada, had made preparations to assist in the recapture of the fort, but intelligence of a strong force being in preparation to attack Canada prevented the accomplishment of his purpose.

General Nicholson, on leaving Port Royal, went to England, for the purpose of inducing the Government to adopt measures for the thorough conquest of Canada, preparations for that end being in progress in New England. His appeal was cordially responded to, and a fleet of twelve line-of-battle ships, with storeships and transports, and having eight regiments and a train of artillery on board, the whole commanded by Admiral Walker, left England on April 28, 1711, arriving in Boston, June 25th. If his formidable force, which consisted of sixty-eight vessels in all, having about six thousand fighting-men on board, left Boston on July 30th, arriving at Gaspe, August 18th, where wood and water were taken in. They sailed thence on the 20th.

The pilots seem to have been incompetent, for on August 23d the ships got into difficulties in a fog, losing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, near Egg Island, eight transports and eight hundred eighty-four men. At a council of war it was determined to abandon the enterprise, and intelligence of the resolution was sent to General Nicholson, who had left Albany with an army for the purpose of attacking Montreal, and who consequently had the mortification of being obliged to return immediately. On September 4th the fleet arrived at Spanish Bay and anchored in front of Lloyd's Cove. It is questionable if the noble harbor of Sydney has ever since presented so lively a spectacle as on this occasion.

Admiral Walker was instructed if he succeeded in taking Quebec, to attack Placentia, in Newfoundland, but at a council of war it was declared impracticable to make any attempt against that place, while from the condition of the stronghold it could have been easily taken. On his return Walker was the laughing-stock of the nation. Literary squibs and pamphlets were showered upon him, and his attempts at a vindication of his conduct only rendered him the more ridiculous. He stood in the estimation of the nation in precisely the same position as Sir John Cope, the commander of the force sent to attack Prince Charles Edward Stuart on his march from the north of Scotland, in 1745, to Edinburgh, who, after having held a council of war, resolved to march in the opposite direction from that in which the enemy was to be found, and whose consummate folly or cowardice in doing so is a standing national joke.

The severe contests in which France and Britain were almost continually engaged required occasional breathing-time. Hence, notwithstanding the series of brilliant victories gained by Marlborough, the war had become unpopular, and the governmental policy had to be assimilated to the national will. France was equally desirous of peace, and no great difficulty was experienced in coming to terms. In the preparation of previous treaties, France had succeeded in making the cession to her of any portion of North American territory wrested from her a fundamental condition of agreement. Great Britain had hitherto shown a degree of pliability, in yielding to the desire of her great opponent, in this matter, which seems unaccountable, and certainly incompatible with British interests; but the representations of the New Englanders as to the impolicy of such procedure were so urgent and unanswerable that the Government had resolved that the period of vacillation was past, and that the exercise of firmness in the permanent retention of Nova Scotia was necessary. Hence, in the celebrated Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, it was provided that all Nova Scotia or Acadia should be yielded and made over to the Queen of Great Britain and to her crown forever, together with Newfoundland, France retaining possession of Cape Breton.

General Nicholson, having been appointed governor of Nova Scotia in 1714, as well as commander-in-chief, Queen Anne addressed a graceful letter to him, dated June 23, 1713, in which, after alluding to her "good brother," the French King, having released from imprisonment on board his galleys such of his subjects as were detained there professing the Protestant religion, she desired to show her appreciation of his majesty's compliance with her wishes by ordering that all Frenchmen in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland who should desire to remain should be permitted to retain their property and enjoy all the privileges of British subjects; and if they chose to remove elsewhere, they were at liberty to dispose of their property by sale ere they departed.

Meanwhile the Acadians, as well as the inhabitants of Newfoundland, were pressed by the French Governor of Louisburg, M. de Costabelle, to remove to Cape Breton, which the great body of the latter did. The Acadians, however, could not appreciate the advantages to be gained in removing from the fertile meadows of the Annapolis Valley to a soil which, however excellent, required much labor to render it fit for cultivation. It appears that they sent a deputation to examine the island and report as to its adaptability for agricultural purposes, for one of their missionaries, addressing M. de Costabelle, the Governor, says that from the visits made they were satisfied there were no lands in Cape Breton suitable for the immediate maintenance of their families, since there were not meadows sufficient to nourish their cattle, from which they derived their principal support. He at the same time represents the Indians—who had been also desired to remove—as being of opinion that living as they did by the chase, the island was quite insufficient for that purpose, as well as from its narrow limits, equally unfitted for the exercise of their natural freedom.

But while declining to leave Nova Scotia, the Acadians expressed a firm determination to continue loyal to the King of France, affirming that they would never take the oath of allegiance to the crown of England, to the prejudice of what they owed to their King, their country, and their religion, and intimating their resolution, in the event of any attempt to make them swerve from their fidelity to France, or to interfere with the exercise of their religion, to leave the country and betake themselves to Cape Breton, then called the Ile Royale. And they there remained until 1755, at which time the English and New England colonists finally drove forth and dispersed them with hateful cruelty.

%CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY EMBRACING THE PERIOD COVERED IN THIS VOLUME%

A.D. 1661-1715

JOHN RUDD, LL.D.

Events treated at length are here indicated in large type; the numerals following give volume and page.

Separate chronologies or the various nations, and of the careers of famous persons, will be found in the INDEX VOLUME, with volume and page references showing where the several events are fully treated.

A.D.

%1661%. Execution of the Marquis of Argyle. Burning of the League and Covenant by the hangman, in all parts of England.

Episcopacy restored in Scotland.

In France Louis XIV assumes personal rule; Colbert begins his ministry. See "Louis XIV ESTABLISHES ABSOLUTE MONARCHY," xii, i.

%1662%. Sale of Dunkirk to the French by Charles II. Passage of a new Act of Uniformity; ejectment of nonconformist ministers from their livings, in England.

A charter given the Connecticut and New Haven colonies.

%1663%. Hungary overrun by the Turks under Koprili.

Foundation of the French Academy of Inscriptions.

The Carolinas granted by charter to Clarendon and others.

%1664%. Passage of the Conventicle Act in England, directed against nonconformists or dissenters.

Victory of the united forces of Germany, France, and Italy, under Montecucoli, general of Leopold I, at St. Gotthard, Hungary.

Charles II grants the territory between the Connecticut and James rivers to his brother, James, Duke of York; New Amsterdam occupied and New Netherland taken by the English; New York is the name given to both province and city. James sells a portion of his domain, to which the title of "New Caesarea" was first given, afterward changed to New Jersey. See "NEW YORK TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH," xii, 19.

East and West India companies formed in France; colonies planted in Cayenne, Martinique, Guadelupe, Ste. Lucia, and Canada.

1665. Continued persecution of dissenters in England by the passage of the Five-mile Act.

War between England and Holland.

Newton invents his methods of fluxions.

Completion of the union of the Connecticut and New Haven colonies.

Death of Philip IV; his son, Charles II, ascends the throne of Spain.

"GREAT PLAGUE IN LONDON." See xii, 29.

1666. Great naval victory of the English over the Dutch, in the Downs.

Resort to arms by the Scotch Covenanters; they are defeated.

"DISCOVERY OF GRAVITATION." See xii, 51.

War against England declared by France.

Foundation of the Academie des Sciences, Paris.

Burning of London. See "GREAT FIRE IN LONDON," xii, 45.

William Penn joins the Society of Friends.

1667. Opening of the first fire-insurance office in London. Ravages up the Medway and Thames, England, by the Dutch, during negotiations for peace.

Treaty of Breda; peace between England, Holland, France, Denmark. Publication of Milton's Paradise Lost.

1668. Triple alliance against France formed by England, Holland, and Sweden.

Recognition by Spain of the independence of Portugal. Foundation of the mission of Sault Ste. Marie, by Father Marquette. Introduction of the art of dyeing into England by Brewer, who fled from Flanders before the French invaders.

1669. John Locke draws up a constitution for the government of the Carolinas.

Candia surrenders to the Turks.

Expedition of La Salle from the St. Lawrence to the West.

Discovery of phosphorus by Brandt.

1670. A secret treaty (Dover) between Charles II of England and Louis XIV of France; Charles basely sells his allies, the Dutch, and engages himself to become a Catholic.

Incorporation of the Hudson Bay Company.

1671. Leopold attempts the subjugation of the liberties of Hungary; his drastic methods include the execution of Frangepan, Nadasdy, and Zrinyi.

Attempt of Colonel Blood to steal the English crown and regalia from the Tower; the King pardons and pensions him.

"MORGAN, THE BUCCANEER, SACKS PANAMA." See xii, 66.

Building of Greenwich Observatory.

1672. William III, Prince of Orange, has supreme power conferred on him by the Dutch. The De Witts massacred. See "STRUGGLE OF THE DUTCH AGAINST FRANCE AND ENGLAND," xii, 86.

1673. Passage in England of the Test Act, excluding dissenters and papists from all offices of government.

Battle of Khotin; defeat of the Turks by John Sobieski.

"DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI." See xii, 108.

Occupation of New York and New Jersey by the Dutch.

Joliet and Marquette make discoveries on the upper Mississippi.

1674. Peace between England and Holland; the former regains New Netherland.

Occupation of Pondicherry by the French.

John Sobieski elected to the Polish throne.

1675. "KING PHILIP'S WAR." See xii, 125.

Battle of Fehrbellin; the Swedes, having invaded Brandenburg, are defeated by Frederick William. See "GROWTH OF PRUSSIA UNDER THE GREAT ELECTOR," xii, 138.

Beginning of the building of St. Paul's, London, by Sir Christopher Wren.

Leeuwenhoek discovers animalculae in various waters.

1676. Rebellion of Bacon in Virginia.

Defeat of the Dutch admiral, De Ruyter, by the French, under Duquesne, off the Sicilian coast.

Building of Versailles.

1677. William of Orange defeated by the French at Casel. Freiburg captured by the French.

Mary, daughter of the Duke of York (James II), marries William of Orange.

1678. Invention of the Popish Plot by Titus Oates.

Peace of Nimeguen between France, Spain, and Holland.

First war between Russia and Turkey.

Struggle of the Hungarians, under Tokolyi, against Austria.

1679. Persecution of the Covenanters in Scotland; they take up arms but are defeated by Monmouth, at Bothwell Bridge. Murder of the primate, Sharp.

Passage in England of the Habeas Corpus Act.

La Salle builds the Griffon on Niagara River.

Peace of Nimeguen between France and the German Emperor.

1680. Beginning of the captivity of the Man with the Iron Mask. (Date uncertain.)

Execution of Viscount Strafford for alleged participation in the Popish Plot.

Alsace incorporated with French territory.

The Whig and Tory parties first so named in England.

1681. Strasburg seized by Louis XIV.

A patent by the crown granted to William Penn. See "WILLIAM PENN RECEIVES THE GRANT OF PENNSYLVANIA," xii, 153.

Renewed persecution of Protestants in France.

First museum of natural history in London.

1682. Attempt of Louis XIV to seize the Duchy of Luxemburg.

Bossuet, in behalf of the French clergy, draws up a declaration which sets forth the liberties of the Gallican Church.

Colonizing of Pennsylvania by William Penn; he founds Philadelphia; also, with other Friends, purchases East Jersey.

Expedition of La Salle to the mouth of the Mississippi. See "DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI," xii, 108.

Death of Czar Feodor III; his sister, Sophia, regent in the name of her brothers Ivan V, of weak intellect, and Peter I (Peter the Great).

%1683%. A penny-post first established in London, by a private individual. Execution in England of Lord Russell and Algernon Sidney, for participation in the Rye House Plot.

Siege of Vienna by the Turks. See "LAST TURKISH INVASION OF EUROPE," xii, 164.

Attack on the Spanish Netherlands by Louis XIV.

%1684%. Forfeiture of the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company.

Formation of the Holy League by Venice, Poland, Emperor Leopold I, and Pope Innocent XI against the Turks.

Genoa bombarded by the French. Louis XIV forcibly occupies Luxemburg.

An embassy sent from the King of Siam to France.

Publication by Leibnitz of his invention of the differential calculus. (See Newton, 1665.)

%1685%. Death of Charles II; his brother, James II, ascends the English throne. Insurrection of Argyle and Monmouth; they are both executed. Jeffries' Bloody Assizes. See "MONMOUTH'S REBELLION," xii, 172.

Pillage of the coast of Peru by the buccaneers.

"REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES." See xii, 180.

A demand made for the surrender of Connecticut's charter; it is hidden in Charter Oak.

Bradford's printing-press arrives in Pennsylvania. See "ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PRINTING," viii, i.

%1686%. Attempt of James II to restore Romanism in the British domains; a camp established by him at Hounslow Heath. Revival of the Court of High Commission.

League of Augsburg formed by William of Orange, by which the principal continental states unite to resist French encroachments.

A bloody crusade waged by Louis XIV, and Victor Amadeus II of Savoy, against the Waldenses of Piedmont.

Recovery of Buda by the Austrians from the Turks.

Appointment of Sir Edmund Andros as Governor over the consolidated New England colonies.

%1687%. Refusal of the University of Cambridge to admit Francis, a Benedictine monk, recommended by James II.

Leopold I compels the Hungarian Diet to make the kingdom hereditary in the Hapsburg family.

Battle of Mohacs; defeat of the Turks by the Duke of Lorraine.

Capture of Athens by the Venetians.

Appointment of Tyrconnel, a Roman Catholic, as Lord Deputy of Ireland.

Publication of Newton's Principia.

Assumption of power by Peter the Great, in Russia.

1688. Louis XIV declares war against Holland: he makes war on Germany.

Capture of Philippsburg by the French.

Battle of Enniskillen in Ireland.

Landing in England of William of Orange, on invitation of the malcontents in that country. See "THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION," xii, 200.

New York and New Jersey united with New England under Governor-General Sir Edmund Andros.

1689. William and Mary, she being daughter of the ex-king, are proclaimed King and Queen of England. Passage of the Bill of Rights.

James II lands in Ireland; he unsuccessfully besieges Londonderry: battle of Newtown Butler, defeat of the Irish Catholics.

Great Britain joins the League of Augsburg.

Overthrow of Andros in New England. See "TYRANNY OF ANDROS IN NEW ENGLAND," xii, 241.

At the instance of Louvois, his war minister, Louis XIV lays waste the Palatinate.

Battle of Killiecrankie, Scotland; defeat of the government forces by the Highlanders; Claverhouse, their leader, slain.

"MASSACRE OF LACHINE, CANADA." See xii, 248.

"PETER THE GREAT MODERNIZES RUSSIA." See xii, 223.

1690. Battle of the Boyne. See "SIEGE OF LONDONDERRY," xii, 258.

Presbyterianism reestablished in Scotland.

Defence of Canada by Frontenac.

James II leaves Ireland and returns to France.

Destruction of Schenectady by the French and Indians.

Conquest of Acadia and unsuccessful attempt on Quebec by the English.

John Locke publishes his Essay Concerning the Human Understanding.

1691. Overthrow of the Jacobites in Scotland.

Battle of Salankeman; victory of Louis of Baden over the Turks.

Execution in New York of Jacob Leisler.

1692. Union of the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts.

Beginning of the witchcraft mania in New England. See "SALEM WITCHCRAFT TRIALS," xii, 268.

The duchies of Hanover and Brunswick become an electorate; Ernest Augustus elector.

Battle of La Hogue; the attempted French invasion of England defeated by the victory of the English and Dutch fleets.

Massacre, at Glencoe, of the MacDonalds.

1693. Defeat of the English fleet, off Cape St. Vincent, by Tourville, admiral of the French fleet.

Distress in France from famine and the expense of the war with England.

Founding of the College of William and Mary, Virginia.

Bradford's printing-press removed from Pennsylvania to New York. See "ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PRINTING," viii, i.

1694. Attacks on the coast of France by the English.

Death of Queen Mary, consort of William. Cessation of the censorship of the press in England.

"ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND." See xii, 286.

Peter the Great of Russia employs Brant, a Dutch shipwright, to build a vessel at Archangel.

1695. Peace arranged between France and Savoy.

Azov captured from the Turks by Peter the Great.

1696. On the death of John Sobieski the Polish crown is purchased by Frederick Augustus, Elector of Saxony.

1697. Barcelona captured by the French.

Peace of Ryswick between France, Holland, England, and Spain.

Election of Francis I as King of Poland.

Battle of Zenta; crushing defeat of the Turks by Leopold I.

1698. Foundation of Calcutta by the English.

A Scotch colony established on the Isthmus of Darien: abandoned in 1700.

Peter the Great recalled from England by a revolt of the Strelitz guards; he subdues and disbands them.

Society for Propagating Christianity formed in London.

Partition of Spain arranged between England, France, and the Netherlands.

1699. Iberville settles a French colony in Louisiana. See "COLONIZATION OF LOUISIANA," xii, 297.

Reduction of the Turkish territories in Europe, by nearly one-half, arranged by the Peace of Carlowitz, between Turkey, Austria, Venice, and Poland.

Peter the Great introduces the computation of time in Russia by the Christian era, but adheres to the old style, which still obtains in that country.

1700. Russia, Poland, and Denmark make joint war against Sweden. The army of Peter the Great overwhelmed at Narva, by Charles XII of Sweden.

Foundation of the future Yale College, Connecticut.

1701. Frederick III of Brandenburg crowns himself King of Prussia. See "PRUSSIA PROCLAIMED A KINGDOM," xii, 310.

Passage of the Act of Settlement in England; the Hanoverian succession founded.

Beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession.

Charles XII defeats the Poles and Saxons.

1702. Death of William III; Queen Anne succeeds to the throne of England.

Command of the army of the States-General given to Marlborough, the English general.

Battle of Vigo; naval victory of the English and Dutch over the Spaniards and French.

Beginning of Queen Anne's War in America.

Foundation of a French settlement on the Mobile River, Alabama.

Charles XII occupies Warsaw; he defeats Augustus II at Klissow; Cracow entered by him.

1703. Methuen Treaty between England and Portugal, for facilitating commerce between those countries.

Peter the Great lays the foundation of St. Petersburg. See "FOUNDING OF ST. PETERSBURG," xii, 319.

Defeat of Augustus II by Charles XII at Pultusk.

1704. English conquest of Gibraltar from Spain. "BATTLE OF BLENHEIM." See xii, 327.

At Boston is published the first newspaper in the American colonies of England. See "ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PRINTING," viii, i.

Sack, burning, and massacre of the inhabitants of Deerfield, Massachusetts, by French and Indians.

Charles XII completes the subjugation of Poland.

1705. Failure of the French and Spaniards in an attempt to recapture Gibraltar.

Invasion of Spain by the English under the Earl of Peterborough; capture of Barcelona.

1706. Battle of Ramillies; Marlborough defeats the French under Villeroi.

Unsuccessful attempt of the French and Spaniards on Barcelona. Birth of Benjamin Franklin.

1707. Sanction of the Union of England and Scotland by the Scotch Parliament. See "UNION OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND," xii, 341.

Charles XII subjugates Saxony; he dictates the Peace of Altranstaedt.

1708. Russia invaded by Charles XII.

Battle of Oudenarde; victory of Marlborough and Prince Eugene over the Dukes of Burgundy and Venddme.

1709. Annihilation of the army of Charles XII at Poltava See "DOWNFALL OF CHARLES XII," xii, 352.

Invasion of Sweden by the Danes. Recovery of Poland by Augustus II.

1710. Expulsion of the Danes from Sweden by Stenbock. Request of the Irish Parliament for union with that of Great Britain. "CAPTURE OF PORT ROYAL, CANADA." See xii, 373.

1711. After further successes in Flanders, Marlborough is removed from command; the Whig ministry falls in England.

Under Walker, the English and New England forces make an unsuccessful attempt on Canada.

Having taken up arms for Charles XII, the Turks nearly achieve the ruin of Peter the Great, whose army is hemmed in near the Pruth River; peace arranged, the Turks recovering Azov and other towns.

%1712%. Peace conference at Utrecht.

Newspapers come under the operation of the Stamp Act, in England; so many discontinue publication that it is called the "Fall of the Leaf."

Second Toggenburg War between the Reformed and Catholic cantons of Switzerland.

%1713%. Peace of Utrecht ending the War of the Spanish Succession. Great Britain acquires Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Gibraltar, Minorca, Hudson Bay, and the Isle of St. Kitts; with the title of king the Duke of Savoy is ceded Sicily by Spain, and by France, Savoy and Nice with certain fortified places; the King of Prussia exchanges the principality of Orange and Chalons for Spanish Gelderland, Neuchatel, and Valengin; Spain cedes to Austria, Naples, Milan, Spanish Tuscany, and sovereignty over the Spanish Netherlands; the harbor and fortifications of Dunkirk to be destroyed.

Charles I issues the Pragmatic Sanction securing succession to the female line in default of male issue.

%1714%. Establishment of the Clarendon Press at Oxford, from the profits of Clarendon's History of the Rebellion.

Death of Anne and accession in England of George (I), Elector of Hanover.

Capture of Barcelona by the French and Spanish forces; the citizens deprived of their liberties.

Fahrenheit invents his thermometer.

%1715%. Jacobite rebellion in Britain in behalf of the Pretender.

Death of Louis XIV; he is succeeded by his great-grandson, Louis XV; the Duke of Orleans regent.

A Barrier Treaty made between Austria, England, and Holland; it gave the Dutch a right to garrison certain places in the Austrian Netherlands.