104 THE FALL OF NEW FRANCE 
man who came over to America in 1734, and settled 
in the Mohawk Valley, building two strongholds there, 
known as Johnson Castle and Johnson Hall. Ac- 
quiring wealth by trade with the Indians of New York, 
and political importance through his skill in manag- 
ing them, Johnson was made a major-general in 1755, 
and defeated the French at Lake George in that year, 
and at Niagara in 1759. He was made a baronet for 
his services, and died in 1774, as some say through 
grief at the impending prospect of war between his 
sovereign and his fellow-citizens. 
Freed from the attacks of the Iroquois, Canada, at 
the beginning of the eighteenth century, entered upon 
a period of comparative prosperity, and during the 
first half of the century she continued to be a thorn 
in the side of New England. Before the final con- 
flict began, France and England were at war from 
1702 to 1713, and again from 1741 to 1748, a total of 
eighteen years, and during most of these years the 
New England frontier was exposed to savage inroads. 
There was an atrocious massacre at Deerfield in 1704, 
and another at Haverhill in 1708, and at all times there 
was terror on the frontier. Even in time of peace the 
Indians did not wholly cease from their incursions, 
and there is little doubt that their turbulence was 
secretly fomented by the Canadian government. In 
1745 the indignant New Englanders tasted for a 
moment the sweets of legitimate revenge. The 
strongest and most important fortress of the French 
in America, next to Quebec, was Louisburg, on Cape 
Breton Island, which commanded the fisheries and the 
approaches to the St. Lawrence. At the instance of 
Governor Shirley, three thousand volunteers were 
