Of all the younger generals James Wolfe was foremost. To him was given the task of capturing Quebec. Seated on a high bluff, Quebec could not be captured from the river. The only way to approach it was to gain the Plains of Abraham in its rear and besiege it on the land side. Again and again Wolfe sent his men to storm the bluffs below the town. Every time they failed. Wolfe felt that he must give up the task, when he was told that a path led from the river to the top of the bluff above the town. Putting his men into boats, they gained the path in the darkness of night. There was a guard at the top of the bluff, but the officer in command was a coward and ran away. In the morning the British army was drawn up on the Plains of Abraham. The French now attacked the British, and a fierce battle took place. The result was doubtful when Wolfe led a charge at the head of the Louisburg Grenadiers. He was killed, but the French were beaten. Five days later Quebec surrendered. Montreal was captured in 1760, and in 1763the war came to an end.

By this great treaty, or set of treaties, the French withdrew from the continent of North America. To Spain, who had lost Florida, the French gave the island of New Orleans and all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi. To Great Britain the French gave up all the rest of their American possessions except two small islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Spain, on her part, gave up Florida to the British. There were now practically only two powers in America,-the British in the eastern part of the continent, and the Spaniards west of the Mississippi. The Spaniards also owned the island of New Orleans and controlled both sides of the river for more than a hundred miles from its mouth. But the treaty gave the British the free navigation of the Mississippi throughout its length.