There was another potent cause of strife which
had not existed in the earlier days. When, during the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, the antagonists had fought through the
interminable Hundred Years' War, they had been of the same
religious faith. Since then, however, England had become
Protestant, while France had remained Catholic. When the rivals
first met on the shores of the New World, colonial America was
still very young. It was in 1607 that the English occupied
Virginia. At the same time the French were securing a foothold
in Acadia, now Nova Scotia. Six years had barely passed when
the English Captain Argall sailed to the north from Virginia
and destroyed the rising French settlements. Sixteen years
after this another English force attacked and captured Quebec.
Presently these conquests were restored. France remained in
possession of the St. Lawrence and in virtual possession of
Acadia. The English colonies, holding a great stretch of the
Atlantic seaboard, increased in number and power. New France
also grew stronger. The steady hostility of the rivals never
wavered.
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