in South Carolina, to act in conjunction with
the regular forces, with the addition of some Indian allies--in all
about 2,600 men--defeated them, destroyed their towns, magazines and
cornfields, and drove them for shelter and subsistence to the mountains,
when their chieftains solicited peace.

"This reduction of the Cherokees was among the last humbling strokes
given to the power of France in North America." (Heevatt, II., 244-254;
quoted in Holmes' Annals, Vol. II., p. 108).]

[Footnote 252: Minot's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I., pp. 256,
257.]

[Footnote 253: Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. III., p.
79.]

[Footnote 254: Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. III., p.
101.]

[Footnote 255: Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. III., pp.
101, 102.]

CHAPTER IX.

RELATIONS OF ENGLAND AND THE COLONIES WITH EACH OTHER AND WITH FOREIGN
COUNTRIES.

I. The position of England in respect to the other European Powers after
the Peace of Paris, 1763.

Mr. Bancroft remarks: "At the peace of 1763, the fame of England was
exalted throughout Europe above that of all other nations. She had
triumphed over those whom she called her hereditary enemies, and
retained half a continent as the monument of her victories. Her American
dominions stretched without dispute from the Atlantic to the
Mississippi, from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson's Bay; and in her older
possessions that dominion was rooted firmly in the affections of the
colonists as in their institutions and laws."[256]

The envy and fears of Europe were excited at this vast extension of
British territory and power, which they regarded as the foundation of
her still more formidable future greatness. "Her navy, her commerce, and
her manufactures had greatly increased when she held but a part of the
continent, and when she was bounded by the formidable powers of France
and Spain. Her probable future greatness, when without a rival, with a
growing vent for her manufactures and increasing employment for her
marine, threatened to destroy that balance of power which European
sovereigns have for a long time endeavoured to preserve. Kings are
republicans with respect to each other, and behold with democratic
jealousy any one of their order towering above the rest. The
aggrandizement of one tends to excite a combination, or at least the
wishes of many, to reduce him to the common level. From motives of this
kind, the naval su