III 
THE FALL OF NEW FRANCE 
To any one looking superficially at a map of North 
America in the year 1755, it might well have seemed 
that, of the three great nations which had competed 
for the possession of the continent, the foremost posi- 
tion had been firmly secured by France. Certainly in 
geographical extent the French domain held the first 
place. From the St. Lawrence to the Great Lakes, 
and northward to Hudson Bay, stretched the French 
province of Canada. From Lake Champlain slanting 
through central New York to where Pittsburg now 
stands, then following the Alleghanies down to east- 
ern Tennessee, and slanting again in a somewhat arbi- 
trary line to Mobile Bay, ran the eastern boundary of 
French Louisiana. The western limits of this huge 
province were ill defined, but they extended in theory 
to the sources of the Missouri; and in a north and 
south line Louisiana comprehended everything from 
Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico. Nor was the 
control of France over this territory merely nominal, 
at least so far as the portion east of the Mississippi is 
concerned. Though the settlements of the French 
were but few and far between, they were placed with 
admirable skill, both for commercial and for strategic 
purposes. Each settlement, besides forming the nucleus 
of a lucrative trade, was a strong military centre from 
which the allegiance of surrounding Indian tribes might 
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