Iberville now knew that he was on the Mississippi; but having seen no spot along its low banks suitable for the site of a city, he went back and led his colony to Biloxi Bay, and there settled it.  Thus when the eighteenth century opened there were in all Louisiana but two French settlements—­that founded on the Illinois River by La Salle, and that begun by Iberville at Biloxi.  But the occupation of Louisiana was now the established policy of France, and hardly a year went by without one or more forts appearing somewhere in the valley.  Before 1725 came, Mobile Bay was occupied, New Orleans was founded, and Forts Rosalie, Toulouse, Tombeckbee, Natchitoches, Assumption, and Chartres were erected.  Along the Lakes, Detroit had been founded, Niagara was built in 1726, and in 1731 a band of Frenchmen, entering New York, put up Crown Point.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Parkman’s A Half-century of Conflict, Vol.  I., pp. 288-314.  For the French posts see map on pp. 74, 75.]

The meaning of this chain of forts stretching from New Orleans and Mobile to Lake Champlain and Montreal, was that the French were determined to shut the English out of the valley of the Mississippi, and to keep them away from the shores of the Great Lakes.  But they were also determined at the first chance to reconquer Annapolis and Nova Scotia, which they had lost by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713.  As a very important step towards the accomplishment of this purpose, the French selected a harbor on the southeast coast of Cape Breton Island, and there built Louisburg, a fortress so strong that the French officers boasted that it could be defended by a garrison of women.

%75.  The Struggle for New France; “King George’s War."%—­Such was the situation in America when (in March, 1744) France declared war on England and began what in Europe was called the “War of the Austrian Succession”; but in our country it was known as “King George’s War,” because George II. was then King of England.  The French, with their usual promptness, rushed down and burned the little English post of Canso, in Nova Scotia, carried off the garrison, and attacked Annapolis, where they were driven off.  That Nova Scotia could be saved, seemed hopeless.  Nevertheless, Governor Shirley of Massachusetts determined to make the attempt, and that the King might know the exact situation he sent to London, with a dispatch, an officer named Captain Ryal, who had been taken prisoner at Canso and afterwards released on parole.[2]

[Footnote 2:  The reception of that officer well illustrates the gross ignorance of America and American affairs which then existed in England.  When the Duke of Newcastle, who was prime minister, read the dispatch, he exclaimed:  “Oh, yes—­yes—­to be sure.  Annapolis must be defended—­troops must be sent to Annapolis.  Pray where is Annapolis?  Cape Breton an island!  Wonderful!  Show it me on the map.  So it is, sure enough.  My dear sir [to Captain Ryal], you always bring us good news.  I must go and tell the King that Cape Breton is an island.”]