Dear Aileen

I have been reading an old history book and it tells of how “we” the English acquired the Empire. As you may imagine I do not approve , and thank goodness it is a thing of the past. The part that might interest you was the conquest – almost - of the whole of Canada. I can only touch on a small part of the course, and I start with 1758 – a long time ago, you could say. But think; my father was born in 1865 or 1867. He married a young woman of 18 (the silly man). He remembered his grandfather as an old withered man who died at the age of 104, when my father was 5 or 6 or so – 1760. So the date 1758 is not too long ago by that ruling.

At that time, France ruled a good part of the North American continent, with Spain in South America. The English Prime Minister was Pitt the Elder, or Lord Chatham. He determined to drive the French out of the North American Continent, which at the time was part of the British Empire. The Boston Tea Party was still to come. Pitt assembled an army of 100 000 to reinforce those already there. The French first conquered Louisberg, at the mouth of the St Laurence River between Montreal and Quebec. By that time several very brave officers had been killed in battle, including Lord Howe. They then conquered Frontenac at the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario. The third expedition was to pass due west from Pennsylvania across mountains to Fort Duguesne. The two generals in charge were General Forbes and (imagine) General George Washington. They changed the name of Fort Duquesne to Pitt, now called Pittsberg. There were three other attacks; they ascended the St Lawrence River to attack Quebec and Montreal. Another attack was from Lakes George and Champlain to the St Lawrence. Then from Lake Niagra on to Lake Ontario. The third from Pittsburg to Lake Erie. All this through wild country with virgin forests. These events led to ultimate triumph. The main task was to come by.

General Wolfe at 32 was a brilliant man and already a hero of battles in Germany, France and America. He was now in charge of an army of 8600 men, and supported by sailing ships of 50 sail. He was opposed by a similar gallant General Montcalm. For eleven weeks, the British force sought to pierce some point in the vast defence that Montcalm had spread around Quebec – the fortress towering like another Gibraltar Rock, above the rushing tide of the St Lawrence defied all. Montcalm and an army double the size of Wolfe’s lay entrenched below the ramparts. Wolfe was at his wits end but decided to have one last go. By a kind of heroic intuition, he put his whole force on barges at night and silently stole past the sleeping enemy till he reached the other side of the mighty fortress. Here a few Scottish Highlanders scaled the precipitous crags which rise 300 feet from the water’s edge, and dragged up a single cannon. There Montcalm found in the morning a British Army in the battle line. In the ensuing battle both Montcalm and Wolfe died. They are commemorated by one monument.

Rose Lynch 9-May-2006