ommand of the British troops in America; but did little more than
consult with the Governors of the several provinces as to military
operations for the ensuing year, the relations of provincial and regular
officers, the amount of men and means to be contributed by each province
for common defence. He gave much offence by his haughty and imperious
demands for the quartering of the troops in New York and in
Massachusetts. Additional troops were sent from England, under
Major-General Abercrombie, who superseded the Earl of Loudoun as
Commander-in-Chief. The fortress at Oswego was taken and destroyed by
the French.[234]

The French, led by Montcalm, took Fort William Henry.[235]

The Massachusetts Assembly refused to allow British troops to be
quartered upon the inhabitants.[236]

At the close of the year 1757, the situation of the colonies was
alarming and the prospects of the war gloomy. The strong statements of
Mr. Bancroft are justified by the facts. He says: "The English had been
driven from every cabin in the basin of the Ohio; Montcalm had destroyed
every vestige of their power within the St. Lawrence. France had her
forts on each side of the lakes, and at Detroit, at Mackinaw, at
Kaskaskia, and at New Orleans. The two great valleys of the Mississippi
and the St. Lawrence were connected chiefly by three well-known
routes--by way of Waterford to Fort du Quesne, by way of Maumee to the
Wabash, and by way of Chicago to the Illinois. Of the North American
continent, the French claimed and seemed to possess twenty parts in
twenty-five, leaving four only to Spain, and but one to Britain. Their
territory exceeded that of the English twenty-fold. As the men composing
the garrison at Fort Loudoun, in Tennessee, were but so many hostages in
the hands of the Cherokees, the claims of France to the valleys of the
Mississippi and the St. Lawrence seemed established by possession.
America and England were humiliated."[237]

The colonies had shown, by their divided and often antagonistic
counsels, their divided resources and isolated efforts, how unable they
were to defend themselves even when assisted at some points by English
soldiers, commanded by unskilful generals, against a strong and united
enemy, directed by generals of consummate skill and courage. The
colonies despaired of future success, if not of their own existence,
after incurring so heavy expenditures of men and money, and wished
England to assume the whole manage