XLI. Feb. Before this declaration of war was generally known in CHAPTER the West Indies, Rodney's fleet, just returned from New York, surrounded the Dutch island of Eustatius, which, 1781. by its neutral character, its possession of a good harbor, and its privilege of a free port, had become a sort of entrepôt for supplying America with British goods. An immense quantity of merchandise was collected there, a considerable part of which belonged to British merchants and American refugees. Besides two hundred and fifty ships, many of them loaded, the whole merchandise on the island, estimated as worth fifteen millions of dollars, was seized as lawful prize. A fleet of thirty Dutch ships, which had sailed a few days before, was pursued and taken. All this immense plunder was sold at a military auction, to which buyers of all nations-even those at war with Great Britain-were invited, under promise of safe-conduct. The inhabitants, including many British subjects, besides being robbed, were treated with great harshness, and shipped off the island. The islands of Saba and St. Martin's, and the Dutch colony of Demerara and Essequebo, also submitted to the British. The appetite for plunder, so characteristic at all times of the British army and navy, and so outrageously displayed at Eustatius, raised a great outcry against these military robbers, and brought down upon them the deserved odium of all Europe-an outcry in which many British merchants joined. The plunder of Eustatius presently became the subject of bitter discussion in the British House of Commons. Rodney, who appeared there, being himself a member, excused it on the ground that all the residents of that island were engaged directly or indirectly in traffic with the enemy, and that British subjects so engaged were among the fittest objects for military plunder. CHAPTER CHAPTER XLII. REVOLT OF THE PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY LINES. ARNOLD, rewarded for his treachery by a gratuity of $50,000 and a commission as brigadier general in the 1780. British army, had published, shortly after his flight, an "Address to the Inhabitants of America," in which he attempted to gloss over his treason by abusing Congress and the French alliance. He also put forth a "Proclamation to the Officers and Soldiers of the Continental Army," contrasting the beggary and wretchedness of their condition with the prompt pay and abundant supplies of the British service. To invite them to desert, he offered three guineas, $15, to every private soldier, and to the officers commissions in the British army according to their rank and the number of men they might bring with them. This effort on the part of one, himself a traitor, to corrupt the American soldiers, was received with contempt, and produced no result. Other causes, however, occasioned a most alarming revolt. A warm dispute had sprung up in the Pennsylvania regiments, hutted near Morristown, as to the terms on which the men had enlisted. The officers maintained, and such seems to have been the fact, that the soldiers, at least the greater part of them, had enlisted for three years and the war. The soldiers, disgusted by want of pay and clothing, and seeing the large bounties paid to XLII. Jan. those who re-enlisted, alleged, on the other hand, an en- CHAPTER listment for three years or the war; and, as the three years had now expired, they demanded their discharges. 1781. This demand being refused, the whole line, to the number of thirteen hundred men, broke out into open revolt. They killed an officer who attempted to restrain them, wounded several others, and, under the leadership of a board of sergeants, marched off toward Princeton, with the avowed intention of procuring redress at the point of the bayonet. Wayne, who commanded at Morristown, sent provisions after the troops to keep them from plundering. He followed himself, with one or two other offi cers; and, though his authority was no longer regarded, being a favorite among the soldiers, he was suffered to remain in their camp. Wayne proposed to the sergeants to send a deputation to Congress and the Pennsylvania Assembly, which proposition they seemed inclined to adopt, but the soldiers would not listen to it, and the next day continued their march. The crisis was truly alarming. The temper of the other troops, unclothed and unpaid, was very uncertain. The position of the revolters at Princeton would enable them to throw themselves at any moment under British protection. Already some British agents had been sent. to tamper with them; these they had arrested; but who could tell how long this would last? Under these circumstances, pride bent to necessity, and a committee of Congress, and another of the Pennsylvania Council, after conferring together, proceeded to meet the revolters. The Congressional committee stopped at Trenton; President Reed proceeded to Princeton. As terms of accommodation, he offered, and the revolters accepted, an immediate supply of clothing; certificates for the arrearages of their pay; the promise of a speedy set CHAPTER tlement of all arrears; and the discharge of all who had XLII. enlisted for three years or the war. On this latter point 1781. it was judged best not to be very particular; the oaths of the soldiers were taken as to the terms of their enlistment, and almost the whole line was discharged. The British emissaries, being given up by the soldiers, were Jan. 11. hung as spies. Very much alarmed at this outbreak, Washington had Jan. 7. written urgent letters to the governors of the New England states, setting forth the dangerous necessities of the army, and calling loudly for money. These letters were sent by Knox, who was instructed to press the matter in person. Congress also addressed a letter to the seven Northern states, calling for $900,000 in specie, or its equivalent, for the immediate payment of their respective lines. Half this sum, equivalent to three months' pay, was presently forwarded. Massachusetts and New Hampshire sent besides, to each of their soldiers engaged for the war, a gratuity of twenty-four specie dollars. Such, however, was the difficulty of raising money in the States, that a foreign loan to a large amount seemed the only hope of saving the army from speedy dissolution. A faction in Congress, especially the friends of Arthur Lee, thought Franklin too inefficient in this matter, and Colonel John Laurens, one of Washington's aids-de-camp, son of President Laurens, was dispatched to France, to represent the pressing wants of the American army. The success of the Pennsylvania troops in obtaining their discharge induced a part of the Jersey line to imitate their example. The New Jersey Legislature had Jan. 20. already appointed a committee to inquire into the griev ances of the soldiers, and that committee offered to proceed in the inquiry as soon as the revolters returned to their duty. Some did so; but the larger number still XLII. stood out, claiming to be discharged, as the Pennsylva- CHAPTER nians had been, on their own oaths. Washington was satisfied, by this time, that he could rely on the fidelity 1781. of the Eastern troops; and he sent from West Point a detachment under Howe, which compelled the revolters to absolute submission. Their camp was surrounded, they were obliged to parade without arms, and the officers were called upon to name three of the most guilty, who were tried by drum-head court-martial, and sentenced to death. From some mitigating circumstances one was reprieved; the other two were shot on the field, the executioners being drafted from among their companions, who, then divided into platoons, were made to apologize to their officers, and to promise submission for the future. The sympathies of Washington, so warm for the officers, did not extend in the same degree to the men of the army. On a former occasion he had checked the officers of the New Jersey line for mingling up their grievances with those of the men. Common soldiers, he thought, could not reasonably expect any thing more than food and clothing. That was all they received in other armies; their pay, by reason of the numerous deductions to which it was subject, being little more than nominal. Washington regarded as an expensive anomaly the plan adopted in New England and some other states, of providing for the families of the soldiers. Shortly after Leslie's departure from the Chesapeake, as mentioned in the preceding chapter, to proceed by water to Charleston to join Cornwallis, sixteen hundred British troops under Arnold, principally of the Loyalist corps, were sent from New York to reoccupy Portsmouth. Anxious to signalize himself by some remarkable exploit, Arnold, with about nine hundred men, proceeded up James River. Governor Jefferson called out Jan. 4 |