14 Preface to Third Edition 



waged by the hardy and restless pioneers of our 

 race, as with rifle and axe they carved out the 

 mighty empire that we their children inherit; it was 

 but the final effort with which they wrested from 

 the Indian lords of the soil the wide and fair do 

 main that now forms the heart of our great Re 

 public. It was the breaking down of the last bar 

 rier that stayed the flood of our civilization; it 

 settled, once and forever, that henceforth the law, 

 the tongue, and the blood of the land should be 

 neither Indian, nor yet French, but English. The 

 few French of the West were fighting against a race 

 that was to leave as little trace of them as of the 

 doomed Indian peoples with whom they made com 

 mon cause. The presence of the British mercenaries 

 did not alter the character of the contest ; it merely 

 served to show the bitter and narrow hatred with 

 which the Mother-Island regarded her greater 

 daughter, predestined as the latter was to be queen 

 of the lands that lay beyond the Atlantic. 



Meanwhile, on Lake Ontario, the Americans 

 made successful descents on York and Fort George, 

 scattering or capturing their comparatively small 

 garrisons, while a counter descent by the British 

 on Sackett's Harbor failed, the attacking force be 

 ing too small. After the capture of Fort George, 

 the Americans invaded Canada; but their advance 

 guard, 1,400 strong, under Generals Chandler and 

 Winder, was surprised in the night by 800 British, 

 who, advancing with the bayonet, broke up the camp, 

 capturing both the generals and half the artillery. 



