'Summon

they carried them consolations and encouragements. your magnanimity,' they said, ' yield not to the fury of tyrants; hesitate not to prefer prisons to infamy, death to servitude. America has fixed her eyes on her beloved defenders; you will reap, doubt it not, the fruit of your sufferings; they will produce liberty, that parent of all blessings; they will shelter her forever from the assaults of British banditti. You are the martyrs of a cause the most grateful to heaven, and sacred for men.' By such words these generous women mitigated the miseries of the unhappy prisoners. They would never appear at the balls or routs that were given by the victors; those who consented to attend them were instantly despised, and dropped by all the others. The moment an American officer arrived at Charleston as prisoner of war, they sought him out, and loaded him with attention and civilities. They often assembled in the most retired parts of their houses, to deplore without restraint the misfortunes of their country. Many of them imparted their noble spirit to their hesitating and wavering husbands; they determined them ⚫ to prefer a rigorous exile to their interest and to the sweets of life. Exasperated at their constancy, the English condemned the most zealous to banishment and confiscation. In bidding a last farewell to their fathers, their children, their brothers, their husbands, these heroines, far from betraying the least mark of weakness, which in men might have been excused, exhorted them to arm themselves with intrepidity. They conjured them not to allow fortune to vanquish them, nor to suffer the love they bore their families to render them unmindful of all they owed their country. When comprehended, soon after, in the general decree of banishment issued against the partisans of liberty, they abandoned with the same firmness their natal soil. A supernatural alacrity seemed to animate them when they accompanied their husbands into distant countries, and even when immured with them in the fetid ships, into which they were inhumanly crowded. Reduced to the most frightful indigence, they were seen to beg bread for themselves and families. Among those who were nurtured in the lap of opulence, many passed suddenly from the most delicate and the most elegant style of living to the rudest toils, and to the humblest services. But humiliation could not triumph over their resolution and cheerfulness; their example was a support to their companions in misfortune. To this heroism of the women of Carolina, it is principally to be imputed, that the love, and even the name of liberty, were not totally extinguished in the southern provinces. The English hence began to be sensible, that their triumph was still far from secure. For, in every affair of public interest, the general opinion never manifests itself with more energy than when women take part in it with all the life of their imagination. Less powerful as well as less stable than that of men when calm, it is far more vehement and pertinacious when roused and inflamed.

Such was the spectacle presented at that time in South Carolina; on the one hand, an open resistance to the will of the conqueror, or a feigned submission; on the other, measures that continually operated an effect directly contrary to that which their authors expected from them. Meanwhile, the heat of the season, the dubious state of the province itself, and the necessity of deferring the campaign until the harvest was over, occasioned an almost general suspension of arms. It was not possible for the English to think of the conquest of North Carolina before the last of August or the beginning of September. Lord Cornwallis resolved to canton his troops in such a manner, that they should be in readiness to support the loyalists, to repress the discontented, and to undertake the invasion of that province as soon as the proper season should arrive. He was particularly careful to collect provision and munitions of war. principal magazines were established at Cambden, a large village situated on the banks of the river Wateree, and upon the road which leads into North Carolina.

His

He feared lest the loyalists of that province, stimulated by excess of zeal, should break out before the time, which might lead to their destruction. His emissaries continually exhorted them to await the time of harvest in tranquillity, and to content themselves with preparing subsistence for the royal troops, who would advance to their succour towards the month of September. These prudent counsels had not the effect to prevent the loyalists of Tryon county from rising at the instigation of colonel Moore. But instantly crushed by a corps of republicans, under the command of general Rutherford, they paid dearly for the contempt with which they had presumed to treat admonitions dictated by foresight. Eight hundred loyalists, however, under the conduct of colonel Bryan, made good their junction with the royal troops. But while the British generals were making their dispositions to profit of the favorable season to attack North Carolina, in order to open themselves a passage into the heart of Virginia, the Congress exerted all diligence to put themselves in a situation to recover South Carolina. Their efforts, as we shall see, were not without success. Thus the flames of war, for the moment almost extinguished, were on the point of being `rekindled with more violence than ever.

Before entering upon the recital of the events of the bloody campaign that ensued, it is necessary to describe what passed in the West Indies between two powerful and equally spirited rivals. Already a very obstinate action had taken place between the chevalier de la Motte Piquet and commodore Cornwallis, in the waters of La Grange, to the east of Cape Francois. The first had four ships, two of which of seventy-four guns, the Annibal and the Diademe. The other had only three, the heaviest of which was the Lion, of sixty-four guns. But this engagement was merely a prelude to the

battles that followed shortly after. About the last of March, the count de Guichen had arrived in the West Indies with such considerable reenforcements, that the French fleet there amounted to twentyfive sail of the line. Resolved to profit of their superiority by sea as well as by land, the French embarked a strong body of troops, under the conduct of the marquis de Bouille, and presented themselves with twenty-two ships of the line before the island of St. Lucia. Their intention was to carry it by assault. But general Vaughan, who commanded on shore, had neglected no measure of defence; and admiral Hyde Parker, who had repaired thither from the coasts of America, had so advantageously posted sixteen sail of the line at Gros Islet, that the French commanders abandoned their project, and returned to Martinico. A few days after, admiral Rodney arrived at St. Lucia with reenforcements from Europe; his junction with Parker placed at his command twenty-two sail of the line. Full of confidence in his strength, the English admiral sailed immediately for Fort Royal bay in Martinico, in order to challenge his enemy to battle. But the count de Guichen, who was not disposed to engage a decisive action, except when he should think it expedient, did not go out of the port. Rodney having left some swift sailing frigates to watch the motions of the French, and to give notice, in case they should sail, returned with the remainder of his fleet to St. Lucia. The count de Guichen did not remain long inactive. He put to sea, in the night of the thirteenth of April, with twenty-two sail of the line, and four thousand land troops, prepared to undertake any operation that should offer some hope of success. Rodney was soon advised of it, and sailed in quest of him; his fleet consisted of twenty ships of the line, and the Centurion of fifty guns. He commanded the centre himself, rear-admiral Hyde Parker the van, and rear-admiral Rowley the rear division. The French were standing through the channel of Dominica, intending afterwards to stretch off to windward of Martinico. Their van was under the conduct of the chevalier de Sade, the main body was led by the commander-in-chief, the count de Guichen, and the rear by the count de Grasse. The two armaments came in sight of each other towards evening, on the sixteenth of April. The French, whose ships were encumbered with soldiers, and who found themselves under the wind, endeavored to avoid an engagement. But the English bore down upon them. The count de Guichen profited of the night to manœuvre so as not to be obliged to join battle; Rodney, on the contrary, in order to render it inevitable. On the succeeding morning, the two fleets executed various evolutions with admirable skill; and, a little before one o'clock, the French rear was brought to action by the British van. For it is to be observed, that in tacking to take an inverse order of battle, the French van was become rear. Meanwhile, Rodney arrived with his division upon the French

centre; his own ship, the Sandwich, of ninety guns, was encountered by M. de Guichen, in the Couronne, of eighty, and by his two seconds, the Fendant and Triumphant. But in crowding sail before the action, the French fleet had not been able to keep its distances perfectly. Its rear, moreover, which had become head of the line, being composed of more heavy sailing ships than those of the two other divisions, there had resulted thence a considerable chasm between that squadron and the centre. This separation was still increased by the drift of the Actionnaire, which, instead of standing, as the last vessel of the centre, the first of the rear, had suffered herself to fall to leeward of the line. Rodney resolved to seize the opportunity, and moved in order to cut off this rear guard from the rest of the fleet. But the Destin, commanded by M. Dumaitz de Goimpy, being at the head of that division, threw herself across his way, and engaged the Sandwich with so much vigor as to arrest his passage. The French ship would have been crushed, however, by a force so greatly superior, if the count de Guichen, perceiving the design of his adversary, had not made a signal to the ships of his centre to put about, and push, wind aft, all together, in order to rejoin and extricate the rear. This movement, executed with extreme celerity, completely baffled the plan of the British admiral, and, consequently, saved the French fleet from a total defeat. Rodney now finding himself exposed to have the blow he had meditated against his adversary retorted upon himself, recoiled instantly, and pressed to regain his place in the line with his other ships. Soon after he made his dispositions for renewing the action; but seeing the crippled condition of several of his ships, and the particularly dangerous state of the Sandwich, which was with difficulty kept above water, he thought it more prudent to desist. The count de Guichen drew off to refit; he afterwards touched at Guadaloupe in order to put ashore his sick and wounded. Rodney continued to manœuvre in the open sea for some days, and then returned to cruise off Fort Royal bay, hoping to intercept the French fleet, which he believed was on its way for that anchorage. But at length, the enemy not appearing, and finding it necessary to disembark the sick and wounded, and to refit and water his fleet, he put into Choc Bay, in St. Lucia. The loss of the British in this action, amounted to one hundred and twenty killed, and to three hundred and fiftythree wounded. Of the French, two hundred and twenty-one died, and five hundred and forty were wounded. Rodney in the report of the battle which he sent to England, passed high encomiums on the talents and gallantry of the French admiral; and added, that he had been admirably seconded by his officers. This was an indirect reproach to his own; of whom, generally, he felt that he had much reason to complain. The two parties alike claimed the honor of victory, as it is usual in every combat, the issue of which is not deci

sive. After having repaired his ships, and taken aboard the troops under the command of the marquis de Bouille, M. de Guichen again put to sea. His design was to ascend to windward of the islands by the north of Guadaloupe, and then to disembark his land forces at Gros Islet, in St. Lucia. Apprised of this movement, Rodney immediately set sail in search of the French fleet. He issued from the channel of St. Lucia, as it was standing off the extremity of Martinico, towards Point de Salines. At sight of the British armament, the French admiral became sensible that he must abandon the attack of St. Lucia. His prudence is to be applauded in abstaining from coming to battle, although his position to windward of the enemy had placed it in his power; but he inclined first to secure the advantages which were offered him by the nature of those seas, and the direction of the wind. He manoeuvred to retain the weathergage, and, at the same time, to draw the English to windward of Martinico. In case of a check, he had in that island a certain refuge, and if victor, he left none for his enemy. The British admiral labored on his part to gain the wind, and continued to approach more and more. The hostile fleet had received each a reenforcement of one ship of the line; the French, the Dauphin Royal; the English, the Triumph. These evolutions, in which the two admirals displayed no ordinary degree of skill and judgment in seamanship, were prolonged for several days, and still Rodney had not been able to attain the object of his efforts. The French, whose ships were superior in point of sailing, to entice the English, as has been said, more to windward of Martinico, suffered themselves to be approached from time to time, and then suddenly spreading all sail, departed out of reach. This sport succeeded with them at first perfectly; but at length the French were nearly entangled into a general engagement, in a situation which presented more than one sort of peril; for their intention being to avoid it, they found themselves in no suitable order for battle. The wind had gradually veered to the south. Vigilant to profit of this change, Rodney put his ships about, and pushed on the other tack to gain the wind upon the French. He would have effected his purpose, if the wind had not, in this critical moment, suddenly shifted to the southeast. The count de Guichen could then also put himself on the other tack, which movement presented such a front to the English as no longer permitted them to gain the wind of him. He afterwards continued to retire in order to avoid an action. But in consequence of the last manœuvres, the two fleets being brought within cannon-shot of each other, the English pressed forward their van upon the French rear. It was already towards night fall, on the fifteenth of May. The headmost of the British ships, and particularly the Albion, found themselves exposed unsupported to the fire of the whole French division, and were excessively damaged. The others rejoined them; but the French