Chapter II

Successful Administration of Col. Nichols—Recapture of Manhattan by the Dutch—The Career and Tragic End of Leisler, The People's Choice—Captain Kidd, The New York Pirate—Rip Van Dam—The Trial and Triumph of Liberty—The Negro Plot of 1741—Triumph of the Anglo-Saxon—Troubulous Times Approaching.

It was in 1753, to avoid an open rupture which was rapidly approaching, that a young man of Virginia, destined to be heard from (George Washington), volunteered to carry a letter of ineffectual remonstrance, several hundred miles through a dangerous country, to the French commander. In 1755 three expeditions were fitted out against Canada—one under General Braddock, to dislodge the French from Fort Duquesne; one under General Shirley, for the reduction of Niagara; and one under William Johnson, a member of the Council of New York, against Crown Point. All three signally failed, though Johnson, gaining a slight advantage over the French wounding and capturing their commander, magnified it into a victory, for which he was rewarded by the English Government with £5,000 andthe title of baronet.

The preparations of 1756 were more extensive than in the preceding year, the Governors of Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland uniting in the campaigns, and pledging nineteen thousand American troops. This year closed also with the success of the French arms. Preparations for war were renewed in 1757, on a greatly enlarged scale. Four thousand troops were pledged from New England alone, and a large English fleet came over to take part in the struggle. Yet this year ended again in disaster, with a loss to the English of Fort Henry and three thousand captured troops. The affairs of the English colonists had now become very alarming, filling New York and the whole country with intense anxiety. The English colonists outnumbered the French by nearly twenty to one; yet, as they were divided in counsel, their expeditions had either been overtaken with disaster, or beaten by the French, who, united under a single military Governor, had so wielded their forces, and attracted to their ranks the Indians, as to have spread general disaster along the whole frontier.

It was in this critical exigency that William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, was called to the helm of State, and so rapid were his movements, and comprehensive his plans, that the three years of disaster were followed by three of brilliant victory, culminating in the reduction of Louisburg, Frontenac, Crown Point, Ticonderoga, Niagara, and Quebec, thus obliterating forever, after a doubtful struggle of one hundred and fifty-six years, the French dominion from the country. The triumphant conclusion of this long and anxious struggle was the occasion of great and universal rejoicing in New York. The merchants had long looked for the enlargement of their commerce, and the citizens for the expansion of the city.

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