AMERICAN DISASTER AT PENOBSCOT.
During the month of June, General Francis Maclean, who commanded the British troops in Nova Scotia, proceeded with a detachment of six hundred and fifty men in transports, conveyed by three sloops of war, to the Bay of Penobscot, in order to form a settlement, and to establish a post which might serve the double purpose of checking the incursions of the people of Massachusets Bay into Nova Scotia; and to obtain ship-timber for the use of the king’s yards at Halifax and other ports in America, He had already commenced the construction of a fort on the Penobscot River, when a hostile armament, consisting of 3000 troops, which had been fitted out by the executive government of Massachusets, appeared in the bay to thwart his designs. Being prevented from entering the harbour by the presence of the three English sloops of war, which were anchored right across the mouth; on the night of the 28th of June, the American troops climbed up some steep precipices on the opposite side of that tongue of land; dragged up some artillery, and erected a battery within a few hundred yards of the unfinished fort. But Maclean was prepared for this manouvre. He had filled up his bastions with logs of timber; had carried a sort of chevaux-de-frise round the fort; and had constructed platoons and mounted his artillery. He, therefore, returned fire for fire, and the American troops being chiefly militia, or undisciplined recruits, soon grew weary of the business, and longed to return. They were commanded by General Lovel, who perceiving that he could not effect his object with such lovers of home, applied to General Gates for a reinforcement of regular troops. A regiment was sent by Gates; but before this force arrived Sir George Collier came to the assistance of Maclean with a squadron and some land-troops; and the Americans, leaving their works, ran to their ships, embarked, and endeavoured to make for Boston harbour. But this was now impracticable. Two of the largest vessels, in endeavouring to gain the open sea, were intercepted, and one was captured; while the other ran on shore and was blown up by her own crew. The other American ships entered the mouth of the Penobscot River, where they were abandoned by the Americans, both soldiers and sailors, who landed and fled for their lives. Nearly all the ships were captured or destroyed by the British sailors, who were close in their wake; while the fugitives who had landed in a wild country, had to traverse a pathless desert for upwards of a hundred miles, before they could reach any human habitation. On their route a quarrel took place between the seamen and landsmen, and a battle was fought in which fifty or sixty lives were lost, and a great many more perished from fatigue and famine. This exploit terminated Sir George Collier’s career. When he returned to New York he found himself superseded by Admiral Arbuthnot, and he returned to England. The season for action was not yet over, but a rumour that d’Estaing intended to attack New York, compelled Sir Henry Clinton to forego all thoughts of further operations, and he even withdrew the garrison from Rhode Island, for the purpose of concentrating his force.