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The Mentor, No. 35, The Story of America in Pictures: The Contest for
North America




THE MENTOR

“A Wise and Faithful Guide and Friend”

    Vol. 1             No. 35




THE STORY OF AMERICA IN PICTURES

THE CONTEST FOR NORTH AMERICA

    LA SALLE

    CAPTURE OF LOUISBURG

    DEERFIELD MASSACRE

    CAPTURE OF QUEBEC

    BRADDOCK’S DEFEAT

    PONTIAC WAR

[Illustration]

_By ALBERT BUSHNELL HART Professor of Government, Harvard University_


The whole round world is now open. Gone is the pleasure of finding new
lands, sighting strange mountains, floating down mysterious rivers,
and meeting unknown races of men. After Mt. Everest is climbed by some
daring mountaineer, and after an airship lands on the highest peak of
Mt. McKinley, what will be left for the seeker of novelty? Where can
you now find a river or mountain range or tribe certified never before
to have been seen by white men?

That rich pleasure was enjoyed in the fullest measure by the explorers
in North America; in fact, they enjoyed it so much that they kept it
alive for four centuries. For a good two hundred and fifty years the
English at intervals battered their way into Hudson Bay, and Davis
Strait, and the Arctic deserts, trying to smash a route through the
ice, around to the north of Asia and Europe. Nearly three centuries
passed after De Soto reached the lower Mississippi before Lieutenant
Pike found its source in its native lair. As late as 1880 no man, white
or red, knew the passes across the Canadian Rockies; and to this day
only three boat parties have ever gone through the length of the canyon
of the Colorado.

[Illustration: ROBERT CAVELIER DE LA SALLE

_Born 1643; died 1687._]

In the work of opening up North America the French surpassed the
English: if no bolder, they were more adventurous. From the lower St.
Lawrence they held a direct route into the interior, which flanked the
two great obstacles to western exploration; namely, the Six Nations of
the Iroquois and the Alleghany Mountains. It is hard to say which was
the firmer wall against English discovery.


FRENCH ADVENTURE

[Illustration: LA SALLE’S SHIP, THE GRIFFIN

_From an old print._]

If we were only French, we could weep at the splendid story of French
discovery, as compared with the final collapse of the French empire on
the continent of North America. The French were the first to find the
St. Lawrence; first to see each one of the Great Lakes; first to spread
exaggerated ideas about Niagara Falls--where, according to Mark Twain,
the hack fares in his time were so much higher than the falls that the
visitor did not perceive the latter. They were first to be awestruck at
the site of the future city of Chicago; first to reach the Mississippi;
first to be stopped by the Falls of St. Anthony, which unfortunately
were not at that time subject to conservation; first to navigate the
Mississippi; first to see the Rocky Mountains; first to cross from Lake
Superior to Hudson Bay. What a fate, to be the star actors in so many
first performances, and then not to appear at all in the last act!
What a destiny for the earliest explorers of our country!

One reason why the French secured early control of the interior
was that they had an astonishing gift of living on the country.
When Stanley crosses the Dark Continent, or Amundsen penetrates the
White Continent, he carries great quantities of stores with him; but
Champlain, and Marquette, and La Salle went light. The Frenchmen
paddled their canoes along with their Indian friends, lived on game and
Indian corn, found much to engage and interest them, and were always
ready for a joyous fight. Frenchmen know how to draw the pleasures of
life out of unpromising surroundings.


FOUNDING OF QUEBEC

The French made their first permanent settlement at Quebec in 1608;
but the English had then been in Jamestown a year. From the first the
continent was too small to hold two such boisterous, expanding, and
conflict-loving people. Captain Argall in 1613 opened the ball by
capturing the little Jesuit settlement at Flying Mountain on Mount
Desert. From that time, for just a hundred and fifty years, the two
nations were sparring with each other.

[Illustration: Copyright, 1897, by Little, Brown & Co. Reproduced by
permission.

LA SALLE PRESENTING A PETITION TO KING LOUIS XIV]

For many years this warfare was hedged in, because mountains, woods,
and sav