ans.

The English planted agricultural colonies--the French were chiefly
engaged in traffic with the Indians. This trade, and the operations of
the Jesuit missionaries, who were usually the self-denying pioneers of
commerce in its penetration of the wilderness, gave the French great
influence over the tribes of a vast extent of country lying in the
rear of the English settlements.

The ancient quarrel between the two nations, originating far back in
the feudal ages, and kept alive by subsequent collisions, burned
vigorously in the bosoms of the respective colonists in America, where
it was continually fed by frequent hostilities on frontier ground.
They had ever regarded each other with extreme jealousy, for the prize
before them was supreme rule in the New World. The trading-posts and
missionary-stations of the French, in the far Northwest, and in the
bosom of the dark wilderness, several hundred miles distant from the
most remote settlements on the English frontier, attracted very little
attention until they formed a part of more extensive operations. But
when, after the capture of Louisburg, by the English, in 1745, the
French adopted vigorous measures for opposing the extension of British
power in America; when they built strong vessels at the foot of Lake
Ontario--made treaties of friendship with powerful Indian
tribes--strengthened their fort at the mouth of the Niagara river--and
erected a cordon of fortifications, more than sixty in number, between
Montreal and New Orleans,--the English were aroused to immediate and
effective action in defence of the territorial limits given them in
their ancient charters. By virtue of these, they claimed dominion
westward to the Pacific ocean, south of the latitude of the north
shore of Lake Erie; while the French claimed a title to all the
territory watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries, under the
more plausible plea that they had made the first explorations and
settlements in that region. The claims of the real owner--the
Indian--were lost sight of in the discussion; and it was a significant
question asked by an Indian messenger of the agent of the English
_Ohio Company_: "Where is the Indian's land? The English claim it all
on one side of the river, and the French on the other: where does the
Indian's land lie?"

The territorial question was brought to an issue when, in 1753, a
company of English traders and settlers commenced exploring the
head-waters of the Oh