admiral Barrington confifted only of three ships of the line, two of fifty guns, and three frigates, which he stationed across the entrance of the Careenage, supported by several batteries erected on the shore. On the morning of the 15th of December the French admiral bore down with ten fail of the line, but met with so gallant a reception that he thought proper in a short time to draw off. In the afternoon he renewed the attack with his whole squadron, and a furious cannonade, directed chiefly against admiral Barrington's division, was kept up for several hours, without making any impreffion upon the English line; and the French admiral was again obliged to desist from his attack. He now landed a body of five thousand troops, and putting himself at their head marched with great resolution to the affault of the British lines: but they were received by general Meadows with the fame determined valor as they had before experienced from admiral Barrington; and being repulsed with great loss, the count re-embarked his troops, and left the island to its fate. It foon after furrendered to the British arms on honorable terms of capitulation, and this conquest was confidered as much more than an equivalent for the lofs of Dominique.

On the continent of America the war still raged with dreadful and unremitted malignity. In consequence of the horrid mode of warfare adopted by the court of Great Britain, which in the midst of pleasure and festivity issued its orders to desolate and destroy, an expedition was undertaken by a colonel Butler, in conjunction with one Brandt, an half Indian by birth, and a man beyond example cruel and ferocious, against the beautiful and flourishing settlement of Wyoming. This was an infant rising colony, situated on the eastern branch of the Susquehanna, confifting of eight townships, in a country and climate luxuriantly fertile.

In the month of July 1778 the enemy appeared in force to the number of about fixteen hundred men, of whom

The

about one-fourth were Indians, and immediately invested the fort. The commandant, knowing its inability to make any effectual defence, dispatched a flag to colonel Butler, to know what terms he would grant on a furrender; to which he replied in two words, THE HATCHET. garrifon, though resolute to fell their lives as dear as poffible, were foon overpowered; and the savage conquerors, after gratifying their infernal rage by a most bloody military execution, shut up the remainder in the barracks, to which they fet fire, and confumed the whole in one general blaze. The entire fettlement was now delivered up to all the horrors of Indian barbarity, of which the detail is not to be endured. A terrestrial paradife was in a short time converted into a frightful waste; and men, women, and children underwent one common butchery, in all the poffible varieties of torture. A Provincial officer, of the name of Bedlock, being stripped naked, had his body stuck full of sharp pine splinters; and a heap of knots of the fame wood being then piled around him, the whole was set on firetwo other officers also, captains Ransey and Durgie, being thrown alive into the flames. Such are the accurfed consequences of that princely ambition which is exalted so high above the level of common life as to admit of no sympathy with human mifery. Feeling deeply for the honor of Britain, a veil has been perhaps too partially caft over the enormities committed by the Indians employed in the northern expedition, and in other parts of the contiThere are indeed degrees of human depravity and wickedness creative of sensations which no tongue can express, and no language impart*.

nent.

To

To descend to what must be regarded as an authorized and civilized mode of warfare, it is necessary to mention that major general Grey, an officer who had repeatedly diftinguished himself by his military skill and courage, was detached in the month of September from New York on an expedition to a place called Fair-Haven, on the coast of New England, where he destroyed about seventy fail of shipping, together with the magazines, wharfs, stores, &c. and proceeding to Martha's Vineyard, a beautiful island in the vicinity, he carried off an immense booty in oxen and sheep, which afforded a welcome supply to the army at New York.

In a short time after this, the same officer, acting under the direction of lord Cornwallis, surprised in the night, asleep and naked, a regiment of American light-horse, stationed near the right bank of the North River. Quarter being refused, and the men wholly incapable of resistance, a terrible execution took place, which the Congress in a subsequent remonstrance scrupled not to stigmatize as " a massacre in cold blood." A fimilar enterprise was undertaken with similar success by captain Ferguson, against a * detached corps of Pulawski's legion of light infantry; and the Americans were not a little embarrassed to conjecture what those worse extremes of war could be, which the manifesto of the commissioners menaced them with in the future conduct of it.

An undertaking of greater importance was now determined upon by Sir Henry Clinton, who detached a confiderable body of troops under the command of colonel Campbell, convoyed by a squadron under Sir Hyde Parker, to attempt the recovery of the province of Georgia general Prevost, governor of East Florida, having at the same time orders to co-operate with them. On the 23d of December 1778, the whole armament arrived at the mouth of the Savannah. The force which that weak and infant colony was able to oppose to the invaders was foon dispersed, and the the town of Savannah fell of course into the hands of the victors. General Prevost soon after arriving with a large re-inforcement, took upon him the command of the whole.

* FROM this sketch of the campaign of 1778 in America, it is now expedient to advert to the situation of affairs in Europe. When a war with France appeared inevitable, admiral Keppel, an officer of distinguished merit and reputation, but wholly unconnected with the present ministers, was, on the personal and urgent folicitation of the king, prevailed on to accept the command of the channel fleet, though, as he himself observed, "his forty years services were not marked by any favor from the crown, except that of its confidence in the time of danger." The admiral, at parting, might with propriety have faid to his sovereign, as Marechal Villars to LOUIS XIV. "I go to fight your majesty's enemies, and leave mine in your closet."

On the 13th of June the admiral failed from St. Helen's with twenty ships of the line, and at the entrance of the Bay of Bifcay he fell in with the Licorne and the Belle Poule, two French frigates. Through that feebleness and indecifion of counsels which prevailed at this period in the British Cabinet, the admiral had no positive orders as to the commiffion or avoidance of actual hostilities, but was invested with an unmeaning and, as to himself, dangerous difcretion of acting according to circumstances. Perceiving the frigates intent on taking an accurate furvey of his fleet, he thought it expedient to fire a gun in order to compel them to bring to; and on their refusal to obey the fignal a chace ensued, when the Licorne, after wantonly difcharging a whole broadside, struck to the America of seventy-four guns. The Belle Poule, after a warm engagement with the Arethusa, escaped by running on shore. The Pallas also, another French frigate, was in the mean time captured and detained. From the papers found on board these frigates, the admiral discovered to his inexpref

,

fible aftonishment that the French fleet, lying in Brest water, amounted to no less than thirty-two fail of the line: he was therefore under the immediate neceffity of returning to port for a reinforcement; and, on tranfmitting accounts of his proceedings to government, he received no intimation of approbation or disapprobation.

On the 9th of July, however, he was enabled again to fail with twenty-four ships, and was foon afterwards joined by fix more. In a few days he came in fight of the French fleet, commanded by M. d'Orvilliers, who seemed, on perceiving the English fleet nearly equal in force, inclined to avoid an engagement; but the wind changing some points in favor of the English, they gained so much upon the enemy that an engagement became inevitable, and the French ranging in order of battle, but on the opposite tack, the Aeets paffed each other about noon in a diagonal direction. The action, though very warm, was consequently partial; but the English admiral having in a short time sufficiently repaired his damages, made the proper signals for the van and rear divisions to take their respective stations. This order was instantly obeyed by Sir Robert Harland, of the van; but admiral Sir Hugh Pallifer, of the rear or blue division, who had fallen a great way to leeward, took no notice whatever of the fignals. Admiral Keppel, after waiting perhaps too long, sent the Fox frigate at five o'clock with peremptory directions to Sir Hugh Palliser, to bear down into his wake in order to renew the engagement. Sir Hugh answered, "that he was knotting and splicing, but would obey the order as foon as poffible."

At fix o'clock the commander threw out another signal for ALL SHIPS to come into their stations; and at seven o'clock, wearied with expectation, he threw out a third fignal, for each particular ship of the blue division to come into her station in the line-but all to no purpose, and the day finally closed before Sir Hugh Palliser rejoined his commander. In the night the French made fail for their own coaft,