abandoned the fort, and retired down the Ohio. General Forbes took poffeffion and gave it the name of Pitt burg, which the town fince built continues to bear.

Of the Operations of General Amberft. In 1759, the efforts of the British and Americans to reduce the French were more fuccessful. General Amherst, with the main army, croffed lake George, to lay feige to Ticonderoga; but the French abandoned that poft and Crown Point. General Amherst took poffeffion, repaired the fort at Ticonderoga, and leaving a ftrong garrifon in it, proceeded to Crown Point, where he built a new fort. Here he built a floop of fixteen guns and a large boat for fix guns, with a brig. With thefe and his battoes, he embarked to proceed down the lake, but he was baffled by tempeftuous weather. The land forces were compelled to return, but the armed veffels proceeded and drove afhore three of the French veffels. General Amherst spent the winter in completing the fortifications at Crown Point, and in opening roads to the colonies.

Of the Reduction of Niagara. During thefe tranfactions, general Prideaux laid feige to the French fort at Niagara, in the profecution of which he was killed, and the command devolved on Sir William Johnfon.. This officer urged the feige, and defeated a party of troops, coming from Detroit and Venango, to the relief of the place. This fuccefs haftened the furrender of the fort, which capitulated the laft week in July. This was a valuable acquifition, as we as the poffeffion of Crown Point, and Ticonderoga.

Of the Victory of General Wolfe, and Surrender of Quebec. The forces deftined against Quebec were entruited to General Wolfe, a young officer, who had diftinguished himfelf, the preceding year, at the feige of Lewisburg. The army, amounting to eight thoufand men, landed on the ifland of Orleans, below Quebec, in June. Quebec ftands on a rock, at the confluence of Charles River and the Iroqucis; it is nat urally frong, and was well fortified and defended by a

fuperior force under General Montcalm. General Wolfe had to contend with immenfe difficulties, and a detachment of his troops attacking the French entrenchments, at the falls of Montmorence, was repulfed with the lofs of five hundred men. At length, the British troops landed in the night and afcended a fteep, craggy cliff, to an elevated place which commanded the town. This compelled the French to hazard a battle, which was fought on the 13th of September; in which General Wolfe was killed, and the French General Montcalm, mortally wounded; but the French were defeated; and in a few days the town was surrendered to General Townfend upon capitulation.

Of the Operations at Quebec in the year 1760. General Murray, with fix thousand troops, was left to garrifon Quebec. By means of the rigors of the climate, and a want of fresh provifions, one thoufand of thefe men died, before fpring, with the fcurvy and two thoufand were difabled from duty. Near the clofe of April, the French troops, which had been collected during the winter, to the number of ten thousand, attacked General Murray, and defeated his fmall army, with confiderable lofs. But General Murray retreated to the town, which he bravely defended, against fuperior numbers, until the arrival of a fquadron of fhips, and the deftruction of the French fhips in the river, induced the French commander, Vaudrueil, to abandon the feige.

Of the final Reduction of Canada. Early in the fummer of 1760, General Amherst put in motion his troops, with a view to attack Montreal, the last fortrefs of confequence remaining in the hands of the French. Advancing from Albany to the lake, he took the French fort, at Ifle Royal, and proceeded down the Iroquois, to Montreal, where he was joined by General Murray from Quebec. While preparing to lay feige to the place, Vaudreuil made offers of capitulation, which were accepted, and the town was fürrendered on the 7th of September. A fmall French squadron, fent

with provifion and ftores to relieve the troops at Montreal, was deftroyed by Captain Byron in the bay of Chaleurs. The inhabitants of Canada fubmitted and took the oath of allegiance to the British crown. Thus, after a century of wars, maffacres, and deftruction, committed by the French and favages, the colonies were fecured from ferocious invaders, and Canada, with a valuable trade in furs, came under the British dominion.

Of the Expedition of Col. Montgomery. While the troops were conquering Canada, the Cherokees, a powerful tribe of favages, were committing outrages on the frontiers of Virginia and Carolina. Governor Lyttleton of South Carolina, with a body of colonial troops, entered the country and obliged the Indians to fue for peace, which was granted. But the favages violated the treaty and attempted to furprize a fort onthe frontiers of Carolina. General Amherft, on application, fent Col. Montgomery, with twelve hundred troops, to protect the fouthern colonies. This officer penetrated into the heart of the Cherokee country, plundering and destroying all the villages and magazines of corn. In revenge, the favages befeiged fort Loudon, on the confines of Virginia; the garrifon, after being reduced to extreme diftrefs, capitulated ;but on their March towards Carolina, a body of favages fell upon the party and murdered five and twenty of them, with all the officers, except Capt. Stuart.

Of the Progress and Termination of this War. Col. Montgomery being obliged by his orders to return to Canada, the Carolinians were alarmed for the fafety of the colony, and prevailed with him to leave four companies of men for their defenfe. Canada being entirely fubdued, General Amherst fent Col. Grant, with a body of troops, who landed at Charleston early in 1761. Thefe troops, being joined by a regiment of colonial forces under Col. Middleton, undertook an expedition into the Cherokee country; in which they defeated the favages, with the lofs of fifty or fixty of

their own men. After deftroying fourteen Indian towns, with the corn and ftores, the troops repaired to fort Prince George for reft and refreshment. In a few days after, feveral chiefs of the Indians arrived with propofals of peace, which were gladly received, and peace concluded.

Of the Conclufion of the War in Europe, and the Peace of Paris. The reduction of Canada, and to the expul fion of the French from the Ohio, put an end to important military operations in America. The great purpofe of the war, which was expel or cripple the power of the French, on the western frontiers, was happily accomplished. In Europe, the war continued to rage, and in the Weft Indies, the British, aided by colonial troops, took Havanna from the Spaniards in 1762; an expedition in which multitudes of men fell victims to the bilious plague. But on the 10th of February, 1763, a definitive treaty of peace was figned at Paris, by which the French king ceded Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and Canada to the British king, and the middle of the Miffifippi, from its fource to the river Ibbervils and the middle of that river to the fea, was made the boundary between the British and French dominions in America. Spain ceded to Great Britain Florida, and all her poffeffions to the east of the Miffifippi. Such was the ftate of the European poffeffions in America, at the commencement of the revolution.

A

SECTION X.

BILLS OF CREDIT.

Of the Hiftory of Paper Money.

FTER the year 1660, while the people of America were fubject to the crown of Great Britain, their commerce was entirely regulated by acts of par

liament, which limited and reftrained the trade of the colonies principally to British ports. By this means the colonies were deprived of the benefit of many of the best markets for their produce; and the enterprizing fpirit of the inhabitants was checked, or rendered fubfervient to the politic views of the parent ftate. In confequence of thefe difadvantages, the balance of trade was usually against the colonies; that is, they imported goods to a greater value than they exported; and the difference was paid in fpecie, as long as it could be procured. This unprofitable trade exhaufted the colonies of money, to a diftreffing degree; and when the public exigences called for extraordinary. taxes, the people could not pay them in cafh. For a long period, taxes were paid in produce, which was depofited in public flores and fold to raise money. But this was very trouble fome and expenfive; and the colonies adopted the plan of iffuing bills of credit for a medium of trade, in lieu of fpecie.

Of the firft Emiffion of Bills of Credit in Maffachu-fetts. The colony of Maffachusetts, in 1652 coined, into fmall pieces, a quantity of filver bullion taken: from the Spaniards, or received from the Weft Indies, in the courfe of trade. The pieces bore the figure of a pine tree, and circulated in New England. This practice continued more than thirty years, and this was the only inftance of a mint in the colonies. But this coinage extended only to fmall change, and. could not fupply the requifit cafh for the colony. The unfortunate expedition against Quebec in 1690, had. created a confiderable debt againft Maffachusetts,, which there was no money in the treafury to pay. When the foldiers returned, they clamored for their wages-a tax was laid to raife the money-but to prevent a mutiny, the colony iffued bills of credit which were to be received in payment of the tax. With thefe the foldiers were paid; the value of them funk immediately one third; but as the bills were receivable on