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who joined him from the banks of the Mohawk, at the head of sixteen hundred soldiers. He was followed by a great number of pioneers, sumpter-men, carters, and other species of workmen, to open the roads, transport provisions, and ravage the country. The stock of provisions was considerable, but not so abundant as general Sullivan could have wished. The army had to traverse an immense tract of country, where no supplies were to be expected. The horses were sufficient in number, and the artillery consisted of six field pieces with two howitzers. The two generals made their junction at Wyoming, the twenty-first of August. They immediately set out for the upper parts of the Susquehanna. Upon the rumor of their destination, the Indians had made all the preparations in their power, to avert from their country the impending perdition. Under the conduct of the same Johnson, Butler, and Brandt, who have been mentioned in the preceding book, they had assembled in great number, and had been joined by two hundred and fifty loyalists. Full of confidence in their strength, they had advanced as far as Newtown, a village which lay upon the route of Sullivan. Here, while waiting his approach, they threw up a very extensive entrenchment, which they strengthened with a palisade, and some imperfect redoubts after the European manner. As soon as Sullivan arrived, he ordered the attack. The Indians defended themselves with great vigor for more than two hours, though they had no artillery. To dislodge them more easily from their lines, the American commander ordered general Poor to draw off to the right, and turn their position. At sight of this movement, which had not slackened the attack in front, the Indians lost their courage, and fled in disorder. Few were killed, however, and none fell into the power of the victors. The Americans took possession of Newtown. The terrorstruck savages made no other stand. Sullivan had, therefore, no further obstacle to contend with in overrunning their country, except the excessive difficulty of the ways, and the embarrassment of subsistence. His patience and dexterity triumphed over both. He guided his troops into the very heart of the settlements, whose inhabitants, men, women, and children, had already escaped to the deserts, and buried themselves in the most inaccessible forests. The habitations were burned, the crops were ravaged, the fruit trees cut down. The officers charged with the execution of these devastations, were themselves ashamed of them; some even ventured to remonstrate that they were not accustomed to exercise the vocation of banditti. But Sullivan, being himself controlled by superior orders, was inexorable. His soldiers served him with ardor; the remembrance of Wyoming was fuel to their rage. They burned an immense quantity of grain. They utterly destroyed forty villages,

*

* One hundred and sixty thousand bushels of corn were destroyed.

and left no single trace of vegetation upon the surface of the ground. All the cattle which had not been removed by the Indians, were brought off, or killed upon the spot. None of the bounties of nature, none of the products of human industry, escaped the fury of the Americans.

This expedition was not only remarkable for the rigor with which it was executed, but also for the light it threw upon the condition of these savage tribes. They were found more advanced in civilisation than was believed, or even than could have been reasonably supposed. Their houses were placed in the most pleasant and healthy situations; they were roomy, neat, and not without a sort of elegance, so that little more could have been wished. Their fields, covered with luxuriant harvests, attested that the art of culture was not unknown to them. The antiquity and marvellous beauty of their fruit trees, with the number of their orchards, were incontestable indications that it was no little time since they were arrived at this degree of civil improvement. The sowing of grain and planting of trees being an incontrovertible proof that man looks forward to the future, it is manifest how erroneous was the opinion, which had hitherto been maintained, that the savages were totally devoid of forecast. Their progress is to be attributed to the increase of their population, to their intercourse with Europeans, and particularly to the efforts of missionaries, who, in times past, and even perhaps at this epoch, had lived, or were living among them. The catastrophe of which they were now the victims, so filled them with consternation, that they never after made any remarkable movement. General Sullivan, having accomplished his mission, returned to Easton, in Pennsylvania. His officers and soldiers addressed him letters of thanks and felicitation, which were also made public by means of the press; whether they did this of their own motion, or in compliance with the insinuations of Sullivan, who was rather a light man, and exceedingly vain withal. A short time after, alleging the derangement of health, he requested leave to resign, and obtained it easily; the members of Congress were weary of his continual ostentation, no less than of the habitual asperity of his language with respect to themselves.

Having related the events which took place upon the American continent, between the royalists and republicans, and between the latter and the savages, the order of this history requires that we should pass to the recital of the operations of the English and French in the West Indies, after the first had been reenforced by the squadron of commodore Rawley, and the second by that of the count de Grasse. By the addition of these new forces, the strength of the hostile fleets was rendered nearly equal. The English were strongly desirous of a naval battle; but the count d'Estaing, being much superior in land forces to admiral Byron, had principally in view the conquest of the neighboring English islands. He declined a general

engagement, which, if unsuccessful, would render his superiority by land of no avail. He therefore lay quietly at anchor in Fort Royal of Martinico, waiting a favorable occasion to attempt some enterprise of moment for the service of his sovereign. Fortune delayed not long to offer it; admiral Byron had sailed the sixth of June from St. Lucia, for the island of St. Christophers, where the West India fleet of merchantmen had assembled, to wait for convoy. His intention was to escort them with his whole squadron, for some considerable part of their voyage to Europe. He reflected that he could not leave a part of it in any of the ports of those islands, without exposing it to the attacks of an enemy greatly superior in force; he knew, besides, that M. de la Motte Piquet was then on his way from France with a strong reenforcement to d' Estaing; and it was plain, that no ordinary convoy would have been sufficient for the protection of the British merchant fleet, in case of its falling in with that squadron. No sooner was Byron departed from St. Lucia, than the French hastened to profit of his absence. D'Estaing detached the chevalier de St. Rumain, with five ships and four hundred land troops, between regulars and militia, to attack the island of St. Vincents. This officer fully answered the confidence of the admiral ; notwithstanding the currents which drifted him out of his course, and the loss of one ship, he at length effected his landing. He immediately occupied, sword in hand, the heights which command Kingston, the capital of the island. The Caribbs, or Aborigines, an intrepid and warlike race, came in multitude to join the assailants. Governor Morris, though he had more troops to defend himself than de Rumain had to attack him, perhaps through fear of the Caribbs, whom the avarice and cruelty of the English had greatly exasperated, surrendered upon terms. The capitulation was honorable, and similar to that which the governor of Dominica had obtained, when that island fell into the power of the French.

In the meantime, the count d'Estaing was reenforced by the arrival of the squadron commanded by M. de la Motte Piquet. His fleet now consisted of twenty-five sail of the line, among which were two of eighty guns and eleven of seventy-four.

This increase of force rendered him superior to Byron, who had only nineteen sail of the line, of which one of ninety guns, and eleven of seventy-four; the others of inferior rate. La Motte Piquet had also brought a reenforcement of regular troops, with a copious supply of naval and military stores and provisions. The count d'Estaing, with such means at his disposal, was encouraged to extend the scale of his projects.

The conquest of Grenada was the immediate object of his enterprise. The natural strength of that island presented great difficulties; but its situation and products rendered it highly important. He had long thought of this expedition, but had chosen to defer its execution

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until he should become possessed of a superiority by sea. The junction of la Motte Piquet having therefore decided him, he sailed the thirtieth of June from Martinico, and the second of July came to anchor in the harbor of Molinier. He immediately landed twentythree hundred men, for the most part Irish, in the service of France, under the conduct of colonel Dillon. They rapidly occupied the adjacent posts. The governor of the island was lord Macartney, and its garrison consisted of two hundred regulars with six hundred militia. They were posted upon a height, called Morne de l' Hopital, which, besides, being naturally very steep, the English had rendered still more difficult of access by rude walls of stone, erected from distance to distance up the ascent. They had also fortified its declevity with a strong palisade, and, above it, with three intrenchments, towering in gradation. This hill commands the town of St. George, the fortress and harbor. D'Estaing sent to summon Macartney. He answered, in truth he did not know the force of the French, but that he well knew his own, and was determined to defend himself. The French commander was not ignorant that the principal hope of success lay in the celerity of his operations. He was fully persuaded that, if he delayed his attack, he should be interrupted by the arrival of Byron, to the relief of the island. He, therefore, gave orders for the assault, without hesitation. The following night the French approached the hill, and by two o'clock in the morning they had invested it on every side. To divide the attention of the enemy, they were formed in three columns, the right commanded by the viscount de Noailles, the left by Dillon, and that of the centre by the count d'Estaing in person, who had intrepidly put himself at the head of the grenadiers. The artillery, not having cannon to serve, requested and were permitted to form the van. The action was commenced by a false attack at the foot of the hill, on the part of the river St. John. At this signal, the three columns, with great order and greater resolution, pressed up the hill to the assault. The besieged sustained their onset with much firmness, and for an instant the success appeared doubtful. The English even pretend to have repulsed the assailants. But animated by their chiefs, they returned to the charge with irresistible impetuosity. The soldiers supported and impelled one another. Neither the palisades, nor the steepness of the acclivity, nor the parapets, nor the most violent fire could arrest the French; their victory was complete. D'Estaing, with his grenadiers, sprung the first into the English intrenchments. The others followed. In a moment all the works were inundated with enemies. The English demanded quarter, the French granted it. The darkness of the night had increased the horror of the combat, and even the glory of the victors. They seized eleven cannon, of different sizes, and six mortars. At break of day they turned this artillery against the fort, which was still in the power of the English.

At the first discharge, Macartney sent a flag, with an offer to capitulate. D'Estaing granted him an hour and a half for framing his proposals; those, which at the end of this time he presented, were rejected. The French general then framed some terms himself, with which he required immediate compliance, without the smallest deviation on either side, or relaxation on his. But these were so unexampled and extraordinary, that Macartney and the inhabitants thought it better to abandon themselves, without any condition, to the discretion of the conquerors, than to accept them; and accordingly did so. If the French in this assault displayed a valor deserving of eternal memory, the moderation and humanity which they manifested after the victory, merit no inferior encomium. The capital was preserved from pillage, to which it was liable by the ordinary rules of war. The inhabitants were protected in their persons and properties. Dillon, in particular, distinguished himself by the generosity of his behavior. The French found in the fort an hundred pieces of cannon and sixteen mortars; they made seven hundred prisoners. They also seized thirty merchant vessels, with rich cargoes, that lay in the harbor. Their loss, in killed and wounded, amounted to little more than a hundred men.

The count d'Estaing had soon occasion to felicitate himself upon the promptitude with which he had prosecuted his enterprise of Grenada. For, on the sixth of July, Byron, with all his fleet, appeared in view of St. Georges harbor. It was accompanied by a great number of transports, filled with troops, drawn from St. Lucia. This admiral, after accompanying the homeward bound West India fleet till out of danger, and appointing them a convoy to see them safe home, had returned with eighteen ships of the line and one frigate to St. Lucia. On being apprised of the reduction of St. Vincent, he sailed immediately with a body of troops under general Grant for its recovery. They had not proceeded far, when they were informed that the count d'Estaing had attacked Grenada. On this intelligence they directly changed their course, and made the best of their way for its relief. The French admiral had been apprised, by the frigates he had sent out upon discovery, of the approach of the British fleet. He immediately ordered the captains of his ships to get under sail, and form their line well off the coast. Some had already obeyed, and the others were preparing to follow them, when the British armament came up, all sail out, and offered battle to the count d'Estaing. The winds blew from the east and east northeast, and were consequently favorable to a squadron coming from St. Lucia towards Grenada.

Upon sight of the British fleet, the French admiral ordered those ships which had not yet hoisted their anchors, to slip their cables and proceed to take their stations with the others in order of battle. But as the British approached with rapidity, these vessels placed

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