FOOTNOTES:
[19] “Mr. Laurens having been constituted one of the five Commissioners to negotiate a Peace, the New Administration consulted with Mr. Laurens, and after the first conference he was released from his Parole, as well as his securities. Earl Cornwallis was released from his parole in consideration of the favors granted Mr. Laurens.” (From a London Newspaper of May 8th, 1782.)
In a letter from Sir Guy Carelton and Admiral Digby to General Washington, dated at New York August 2, 1782, they stated:
“With respect to Mr. Laurens we are to acquaint you that he has been discharged from all engagements without any conditions whatever; after which he declared of his own accord, that he considered Lord Cornwallis as free from his Parole.”
[20] “In the month of July, 1782, four privateers, two of them, the Hero and the Hope of Salem, attacked Lunenburg in Nova Scotia. They landed ninety men who marched to the town against a heavy discharge of musketry, burnt the commander’s dwelling and a blockhouse. Their opponents retreated to another blockhouse upon which one of the privateers brought her guns to bear and forced them to surrender. The captors carried a considerable quantity of merchandise to their vessel and ransomed the town for one thousand pounds sterling. The Americans had three wounded.” (From Felt’s “Annals of Salem.”)
[21] The following is the text of the parole issued, granted to William Russell:
“We the Subscribers, having been captured in American Vessels and brought into this Port, hereby acknowledge ourselves Prisoners of War to the King of Great Britain; and having permission from His Excellency, Rear Admiral Digby, Commander in Chief, etc., etc., etc., to go to Rhode Island, Do Pledge our Faith and most Sacredly promise upon our Parole of Honour that we will not do, say, or write, or cause to be done, said, or written, directly or indirectly, in any Respect whatever, anything to the Prejudice of His Majesty’s Service; and that we will return to this Place unless Exchanged in three Months from the date hereof, and deliver up again to the Commissary General for Naval Prisoners, or to the Person acting for or under him; And do further promise upon our Honour that we will not in future enter on Board, or otherwise be concerned in an American Privateer.
“In Testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands and Seals, at New York, this 21st day of March, 1783.
“Present
Wm. Russell (seal)
“Wm. Weir
Samuel Thompson (seal)
“Bachus, a Negro Boy, their Servant, is also to go with them.
“These are to certify that the above is a true Copy of the Original Parole, signed by the Persons above named and filed in this Office; and that they have leave to pass by the way of Long Island to Connecticut.
“Commisary’s Office for Naval Prisoners at New York.
“March 21, 1783.
“To Whom it may Concern.
Thos. D. Hewlings,
“D. C. M. P.
CHAPTER IX
RICHARD DERBY AND HIS SON JOHN
(1774-1792)
The first armed resistance to British troops in the American colonies was made at Salem and led by Captain Richard Derby of the third generation of the most notable seafaring family in this country’s annals. Born in 1712, he lived through the Revolution, and his career as a shipmaster, merchant and patriot covered the greater part of the American maritime history of the eighteenth century. Until 1757, when he retired from active service on the sea, his small vessels of from fifty to one hundred tons burden were carrying fish, lumber and provisions to the West Indies and fetching home sugar, molasses, cotton, rum and claret, or bringing rice and naval stores from Carolina. With the returns from these voyages, assorted cargoes were laden for voyages to Spain and Madeira and the proceeds remitted in bills on London, or in wine, salt, fruit, oil, lead and handkerchiefs to America.
Captain Richard Derby’s vessels ran the gauntlet of the privateers during the French War from 1756 to 1763, and their owner’s letters to his London agents describe them as mounting from eight to twelve cannon, mostly six-pounders, “with four cannon below decks for close quarters.” Accustomed to fighting his way where he could not go peaceably, Richard Derby and the men of his stamp whose lives and fortunes were staked on the high seas, felt the fires of their resentment against England wax hotter and hotter as her shipping laws smote their interests with increasing oppression.
In fact, the spirit of independence and protest against interference by the mother country had begun to stir in the seaport towns a full century before the outbreak of armed revolution. It is recorded in Salem annals that “when it was reported to the Lords of Plantations that the Salem and Boston merchants’ vessels arrived daily from Spain, France, Holland, and the Canaries (in 1763) which brought wines, linens, silks and fruits, and these were exchanged with the other colonies for produce which was carried to the aforesaid kingdoms without coming to England, complaint was made to the Magistrates that these were singular proceedings. Their reply was ‘that they were His Majesty’s Vice-Admirals in those seas and they would do that which seemed good to them.’”
The spirit of those “Vice Admirals” who proposed to do what seemed good to them continued to flourish and grow bolder in its defiance of unjust laws, and the port of Salem was primed and ready for open rebellion long before that fateful April day at Lexington and Concord. In 1771, four years before the beginning of the Revolution, the Salem Gazette published on the first anniversary of the “Boston Massacre,” the following terrific proclamation framed in a border of black in token of mourning:
“As a Solemn and Perpetual Memorial:
“Of the Tyranny of the British Administration of Government in the years 1768, 1769, and 1770;
“Of the fatal and destructive Consequences of Quartering Armies, in Time of Peace, in populous cities;
“Of the ridiculous Policy and infamous Absurdity of supporting Civil Government by a Military Force.
“Of the Great Duty and Necessity of firmly opposing Despotism at its first Approaches;
“Of the detestable Principles and arbitrary Conduct of those Ministers in Britain who advised, and of their Tools in America who desired the Introduction of a Standing Army in this Province in the year 1768;
“Of the irrefragible Proof which those ministers themselves thereby produced, that the Civil Government, as by them Administered, was weak, wicked, and tyrannical;
“Of the vile Ingratitude and abominable Wickedness of every American who abetted and encouraged, either in Thought, Word or Deed, the establishment of a Standing Army among his Countrymen;
“Of the unaccountable Conduct of those Civil Governors, the immediate Representatives of His Majesty, who, while the Military was triumphantly insulting the whole Legislative Authority of the State, and while the blood of the Massacred Inhabitants was flowing in the Streets, persisted in repeatedly disclaiming all authority of relieving the People, by any the least removal of the Troops:
“And of the Savage cruelty of the Immediate Perpetrators:
“Be it forever Remembered
“That this day, The Fifth of March, is the Anniversary of
Boston Massacre in King St. Boston,
New England, 1770.
“In which Five of his Majesty’s Subjects were slain and six wounded, By the Discharge of a number of Muskets from a Part of Soldiers under the Command of Capt. Thomas Preston,
“God Save the People!
“Salem, March 5, 1771.”
The fuse was laid to the powder by the arrival of Lieutenant General Thomas Gage as the first military governor of Massachusetts in May, 1774. He at once moved the seat of government from Boston to Salem which was the second town in importance of the colony, and Salem began to exhibit symptoms of active hostility. Gage’s change of administrative headquarters was accompanied by two companies of the Sixty-fourth Regiment of the line, Colonel Alexander Leslie, which were encamped beyond the outskirts of the town. The presence of these troops was a red rag to the people of Salem, and furthermore, Gage outraged public opinion by proposing to choose his own councillors, which appointments had been previously conceded to the Provincial Assembly. A new Act of Parliament, devised to suit the occasion, eliminated the councillors who had been named by the Assembly or General Court, and Gage adjourned this body, then in session in Boston, and ordered it to reconvene in Salem on June 7th.
When the Assembly met in Salem it passed a resolution protesting against its removal from Boston, and acted upon no other political measures for ten days when the House adopted a resolution appointing as delegates to the Congress at Philadelphia, James Bowdoin, Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Robert Treat Paine “to consult upon measures for the restoration of harmony between Great Britain and the Colonies.” This action angered General Gage, and he at once prepared a proclamation dissolving the General Court. His secretary posted off to the Salem “town house” to deliver said proclamation, but he was refused admittance, word being brought out to him that the “orders were to keep the door fast.” Therefore the defeated secretary read the document to the curious crowd outside and afterwards in the empty council chamber. So ended the last Provincial Assembly of Massachusetts under a British Governor.
Richard Derby
Having moved his headquarters to Salem, General Gage let it be known that he regarded the odious Boston Port Bill as a measure which must be maintained by military law and an army of twenty thousand men if needs be. He also suppressed the town meetings, appointed new councillors, and heaped up other grievances with such wholesale energy that Salem flew up in arms and defied him. A town meeting had been called for August 24th to choose delegates to a county convention, and the people of the town refused to harken unto the order prohibiting their most jealously guarded institution of local government, the town meeting. Gage hurried back from Boston, took command of his troops, and ordered the Fifty-ninth Regiment of foot to make ready for active service. It is recorded that he showed “Indecent passion, denounced the meeting as treasonable and spoke with much vehemence of voice and gesture, threatened the committee of the town whom he met at the house of Colonel Brown, and ordered up his troops.”
The citizens thereupon held a meeting in the open air, chose their delegates to the county convention, and dispersed. Timothy Pickering, afterwards Washington’s Secretary of War, and other members of the Committee were placed under arrest for their part in this town meeting. Before nightfall of the same day three thousand men of Salem and nearby towns had armed themselves with muskets and were ready to march to the rescue if their town meeting should be further molested, or British troops employed to enforce any further punishments.
General Gage had declared with an oath that he would transport every man of the Committee, and the “embattled farmers” and sailors feared lest these fellow townsmen of theirs might be carried on board the frigate Scarboro which was making ready to sail for England. An express rider was sent out from Boston at midnight to carry the warning of the proposed sailing of this man-of-war, and with the threat of transportation bracing their resolution, the men of Salem replied that “they were ready to receive any attacks they might be exposed to for acting in pursuance to the laws and interests of their country, as becomes men and Christians.”
The issue was not forced by General Gage and having made a failure of the campaign and a blunder of the transfer of the seat of government he returned to Boston with his troops in September. In February of the following year, 1775, he was informed that the Provincial Congress had stored a large amount of munitions and a number of cannon in Salem, and he ordered Colonel Leslie to embark in a transport with a battalion of infantry, disembark at Marblehead, march across to Salem and seize this material of war. These troops, two hundred and fifty strong, sailed from Boston at night and landed on the Marblehead beach Sunday afternoon. Major Pedrick, a patriot of the town, at once mounted a horse and galloped to Salem, two miles away, to carry warning of this invasion. The British infantry marched along the turnpike until they came to the North River, a small, navigable stream making up from Salem Harbor. This was spanned by a drawbridge, and Colonel Leslie was much disturbed to find the drawbridge raised and a formidable assemblage of Salem citizens buzzing angrily at the farther side of the stream. The British officer had no orders to force the passage, and the situation was both delicate and awkward in the extreme. Timothy Pickering had been chosen colonel of the First Regiment of militia and forty of his armed men were mustered, drawn up ready to fire at the order. Colonel Leslie threatened to let loose a volley of musketry to clear the road, and was told by Captain John Felt of Salem:
“You had better not fire, for there is a multitude, every man of whom is ready to die in this strife.”
Some of the more adventurous patriots climbed to the top of the raised drawbridge and hurled insulting taunts at the British infantry, yelling “Fire and be damned to you.” Rev. Thomas Barnard of the North Church tried to make peace and addressed Colonel Leslie: “You cannot commit this violation against innocent people, here on this holy day, without sinning against God and humanity. Let me entreat you to return.”
At the head of the crowd of armed men of Salem stood Captain Richard Derby. He owned eight of the nineteen cannon which had been collected for the use of the Provincial Congress and he had not the slightest notion of surrendering them. There was a parley while Colonel Leslie argued that he was in lawful use of the King’s highway. The Salem rejoinder was to the effect that the road and the bridge were private property to be taken from them only by force and under martial law. At this juncture, when bloody collision seemed imminent, Captain Richard Derby took command of the situation, and roared across the stream, as if he were on his own quarterdeck:
“Find the cannon if you can. Take them if you can. They will never be surrendered.”
A fine portrait of this admirable old gentleman has been preserved, and in a well-powdered wig, with a spyglass in his hand, he looks every inch the man who hurled this defiance at Great Britain and dared a battalion of His Majesty’s foot to knock the chip off his stalwart shoulder. Colonel Leslie made a half-hearted attempt to set his men across the river in boats, and it was at this time that the only casualty occurred, a Salem man, Joseph Whicher, receiving a bayonet thrust. Meanwhile the Marblehead regiment of patriot militia had been mustered under arms, and the Minute Men of Danvers were actually on the march toward the North River bridge. Perceiving that to force a passage meant to set the whole colony in a blaze, and unwilling to shoulder so tremendous a responsibility without orders from General Gage, the British colonel delayed for further discussion. At length Captain Derby and his friends proposed that in order to satisfy Colonel Leslie’s ideas of duty and honor, he should be permitted to cross the bridge and immediately thereafter return whence he came. This odd compromise was accepted, and after marching to the farther side of the river the troops faced about and footed back to their transport at Marblehead, without finding the cannon they had come out to take. It was a victory for Captain Richard Derby and his townsmen and well worth a conspicuous place in the history of the beginnings of the American Revolution.
Another prominent figure in this tremendously dramatic situation was Colonel David Mason, a veteran soldier who had commanded a battery in the French War in 1756-7, and a scientist of considerable distinction who had made discoveries in electricity of such importance that he was requested to journey to Philadelphia to discuss them with Doctor Franklin. Colonel Mason was a man of great public spirit and patriotism, and in November, 1774, he had received an appointment as Engineer from the “Massachusetts Committee of Safety,” which was the first military appointment of the Revolutionary War. He was from this time actively engaged in collecting military stores for the use of his country and making secret preparation for the approaching contest with England. He had obtained from Captain Derby the cannon which Colonel Leslie wished to confiscate and had given them to a Salem blacksmith to have the iron work for the carriages made and fitted.
Colonel Mason resided near the North Bridge and Doctor Barnard’s church. When he heard the British troops were drawing near he ran into the North Church and disrupted the afternoon service by shouting at the top of his voice: “The regulars are coming and are now near Malloon’s Mills.” He and others in authority among their fellow-townsmen tried to control the hotheads and avert hostilities. But the task was made difficult by defiant patriots who bellowed across the drawbridge:
“Soldiers, red jackets, lobster coats, cowards, damn your government.”
A high-spirited dame, Sarah Tarrant by name, poked her head out of a window of her cottage overlooking the scene and shrilly addressed the British colonel:
“Go home and tell your master he has sent you on a fool’s errand, and broken the peace of our Sabbath. What? Do you think we were born in the woods to be frightened by owls? Fire at me if you have the courage, but I doubt it.”
John Howard of Marblehead, who was one of the militia men under arms, stated in his recollections of the affair at the North Bridge that there were eight military companies in Marblehead at that time, comprising nearly the whole male population between sixteen and sixty years of age. They were all promptly assembled under Colonel Orne, to the number of a thousand men. Their orders were “to station themselves behind the houses and fences along the road prepared to fall upon the British on their return from Salem, if it should be found that hostile measures had been used by them; but if it should appear that no concerted act of violence upon the persons or property of the people had been committed, they were charged not to show themselves, but to allow the British detachment to return unmolested to their transport.”
The episode was taken seriously in England as shown by an item in the Gentleman’s Magazine of London of April 17, 1775, which reported: “By a ship just arrived at Bristol from America, it is reported that the Americans have hoisted the standard of liberty at Salem.”
William Gavett of Salem wrote an account of the affair of which he was an eye-witness and described certain lively incidents as follows:
“One David Boyce, a Quaker, had gone out with his team to assist in carrying the guns out of reach of the troops, and they were conveyed to the neighborhood of what was then called Buffum’s hill, to the northwest of the road leading to Danvers and near the present estate of Gen. Devereux. My father looked in between the platoons, as I heard him tell my mother, to see if he could recognize any of the soldiers who had been stationed at Fort William on the Neck, many of whom were known to him, but he could discover no familiar faces and was blackguarded by the soldiers for his inquisitiveness, who asked him, with oaths, what he was looking after. The northern leaf of the draw was hoisted when the troops approached the bridge, which prevented them from going any further. Their commander (Col. Leslie) then went upon West’s, now Brown’s, wharf, and Capt. John Felt followed him. He then remarked to Capt. Felt, or in his hearing, that he should be obliged to fire upon the people on the northern side of the bridge if they did not lower the leaf. Capt. Felt told him if the troops did fire they would be all dead men, or words to that effect. It was understood afterwards that if the troops fired upon the people, Capt. Felt intended to grapple with Col. Leslie and jump into the river, for said he, ‘I would willingly be drowned myself to be the death of one Englishman.’ Mr. Wm. Northey, observing the menacing attitude assumed by Capt. Felt, now remarked to him, ‘don’t you know the danger you are in opposing armed troops, and an officer with a drawn sword in his hand?’ The people soon commenced scuttling two gondolas which lay on the western side of the bridge and the troops also got into them to prevent it. One Joseph Whicher, the foreman in Col. Sprague’s distillery, was at work scuttling the Colonel’s gondola, and the soldiers ordered him to desist and threatened to stab him with their bayonets if he did not—whereupon he opened his breast and dared them to strike. They pricked his breast so as to draw blood. He was very proud of this wound in after life and was fond of exhibiting it.”
From a painting by Lewis J. Bridgman
“Leslie’s Retreat,” North Bridge, Salem, Mass., February 26, 1775
It was a son of this Captain Richard Derby who carried to England the first news of the Battle of Lexington in the swift schooner Quero, as the agent of the Provincial Congress. No American’s arrival in London ever produced so great a sensation as did that of this Salem sailor, Captain John Derby, in May, 1775. He reached England in advance of the king’s messenger dispatched by General Gage, and startled the British nation with the tidings of the clash of arms which meant the loss of an American empire.
Three days after the fight at Lexington, the Provincial Congress met at Concord, and appointed a committee “to take depositions in perpetuam, from which a full account of the transactions of the troops under General Gage in the route to and from Concord on Wednesday last may be collected to be sent to England by the first ship from Salem.”
Captain Richard Derby was a member of this Congress, and he offered his fast schooner Quero of sixty-two tons for this purpose, his son Richard, Jr., to fit her out, and his son John to command her for this dramatic voyage. Old Captain Richard, hero of the North River bridge affair, was a sturdy patriot and a smart seaman. He knew his schooner and he knew his son John, and the news would get to England as fast as sail could speed it.
General Gage had sent his official messages containing the news of the Lexington fight by the “Royal Express-packet” Sukey, which sailed on April 24th. Captain John Derby in the Quero did not get his sailing orders from the Provincial Congress until three days later, on April 27th. These orders read as follows:
“Resolved: that Captain Derby be directed and he hereby is directed to make for Dublin, or any other good port in Ireland, and from thence to cross to Scotland or England, and hasten to London. This direction is given so that he may escape all enemies that may be in the chops of the Channel to stop the communication of the Provincial Intelligence to the agent. He will forthwith deliver his papers to the agent on reaching London.
“J. Warren, Chairman.
“P. S.—You are to keep this order a profound secret from every person on earth.”
The letter which Captain John Derby carried with his dispatches read as follows:
“In Provincial Congress, Watertown,
“April 26, 1775.
“To the Hon. Benjamin Franklin, Esq., London:
“Sir: From the entire confidence we repose in your faithfulness and abilities, we consider it for the happiness of this Colony that the important trust of agency for it, on this day of unequalled distress, is devolved on your hands; and we doubt not your attachment to the cause of the liberties of mankind will make every possible exertion in our behalf a pleasure to you, although our circumstances will compel us often to interrupt your repose by matters that will surely give you pain. A single instance hereof is the occasion of the present letter; the contents of this packet will be our apology for troubling you with it. From these you will see how and by whom we are at last plunged into the horrours of a most unnatural war. Our enemies, we are told, have despatched to Great Britain a fallacious account of the tragedy they have begun; to prevent the operation of which to the publick injury, we have engaged the vessel that conveys this to you as a packet in the service of this Colony, and we request your assistance in supplying Captain Derby, who commands her, with such necessaries as he shall want, on the credit of your constituents in Massachusetts Bay. But we most ardently wish that the several papers herewith enclosed may be immediately printed and dispersed through every Town in England, and especially communicated to the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of the City of London, that they may take such order thereon as they may think proper, and we are confident your fidelity will make such improvement of them as shall convince all who are not determined to be in everlasting blindness, that it is the united efforts of both Englands that must save either. But whatever price our brethren in one may be pleased to put on their constitutional liberties, we are authorized to assure you that the inhabitants of the other, with the greatest unanimity, are inflexibly resolved to sell theirs only at the price of their lives.
“Signed by order of the Provincial Congress,
“Jos. Warren, President pro tem.”
John Derby cracked on sail like a true son of his father, and made a passage across the Atlantic of twenty-nine days, handsomely beating the lubberly “Royal-Express packet” Sukey, which had sailed from Boston four days ahead of him. It is supposed that he made a landing at the Isle of Wight, went ashore alone, and hurried to London as fast as he could. The tidings he bore were too alarming and incredible to be accepted by the statesmen and people of Great Britain. Nothing had been heard from General Gage and here was an audacious Yankee skipper, dropped in from Heaven knew where, spreading it broadcast that the American colonists were in full revolt after driving a force of British regulars in disastrous rout. From the office of the Secretary of State, Lord Dartmouth issued this skeptical statement, May 30th:
“A report having been spread and an account having been printed and published, of a skirmish between some people of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and a detachment of His Majesty’s troops, it is proper to inform the publick that no advices have as yet been received in the American Department of any such event. There are reasons to believe that there are dispatches from General Gage on Board the Sukey, Captain Brown, which though she sailed four days before the vessel that brought the printed accounts, is not arrived.”
On the following day, Hutchinson, who had preceded Gage as Governor of Massachusetts, wrote from London to his son in Boston:
“Captain Darby, in ballast arrived at Southampton from Marblehead the 27, and came to London the next evening. I am greatly distressed for you. Darby’s own accounts confirm many parts of the narrative from the Congress, and they that know him say he deserves credit and that he has a good character; but I think those people would not have been at the expense of a vessel from Marblehead or Salem to England for the sake of telling the truth.”
On June 1st, Lord Dartmouth wrote General Gage as follows:
“Whitehall, 1st June, 1775.
“Sir: Since my letter to you of 27th ult. an account has been printed here, accompanied with depositions to verify it, of skirmishes between a detachment of the troops under your command and different bodies of the Provincial Militia.
“It appears upon the fullest inquiry that this account, which is chiefly taken from a Salem newspaper, has been published by a Capt. Darby, who arrived on Friday or Saturday at Southampton in a small vessel in ballast, directly from Salem, and from every circumstance, relating to this person and the vessel, it is evident he was employed by the Provincial Congress to bring this account, which is plainly made up for the purpose of conveying every possible prejudice and misrepresentation of the truth.
“From the answers he has given to such questions as has been asked, there is the greatest probability that the whole amounts to no more than that a Detachment, sent by you to destroy Cannon and Stores collected at Concord for the purpose of aiding Rebellion, were fired upon, at different times, by people of the Country in small bodies from behind trees and houses, but that the party effected the service they went upon, and returned to Boston, and I have the satisfaction to tell you that, the affair being considered in that light by all discerning men, it has had no other effect here than to raise that just indignation which every honest man must feel at the rebellious conduct of the New England Colonies. At the same time it is very much to be lamented that we have not some account from you of the transaction, which I do not mention from any supposition that you did not send the earliest intelligence of it, for we know from Darby that a vessel with dispatches sailed four days before him. We expect the arrival of that vessel with great impatience, but ’till she arrives I can form no decisive judgment of what has happened, and therefore can have nothing more to add but that I am, &c., Dartmouth.”
Alas for British hopes and fears, the eagerly awaited arrival of the Sukey confirmed the disastrous news revealed by Captain John Derby, as may be learned from the following article in The London Press:
“To the Publick.
“London, June 12, 1775.
“When the news of a massacre first arrived, the pensioned writer of the Gazette entreated the publick ‘to suspend their judgment, as Government had received no tidings of the matter.’ It was added that there was every reason to expect the despatches from General Gage, by a vessel called the Sukey. The publick have suspended their judgment; they have waited the arrival of the Sukey; and the humane part of mankind have wished that the fatal tale related by Captain Derby might prove altogether fictitious. To the great grief of every thinking man, this is not the case. We are now in possession of both the accounts. The Americans have given their narrative of the massacre; the favorite servants have given a Scotch account of the skirmish. In what one material fact do the two relations, when contrasted with each other, disagree? The Americans said ‘that a detachment of the King’s Troops advanced toward Concord; that they attempted to secure two bridges on different roads beyond Concord; that when they reached Lexington they found a body of Provincials exercising on a green; that on discovering the Provincial militia thus employed, the King’s Troops called out to them to disperse, damned them for a parcel of rebels, and killed one or two, as the most effectual method intimidating the rest.’ This the writer of the Scotch account in the Gazette styles, ‘marching up to the rebels to inquire the reason of being so assembled.’ Both relations, however, agree in this, that a question was asked; the pensioned varnisher only saying that it was asked in a civil way, attended with the loss of blood.
“Thus far, then, the facts, in every material circumstance, precisely agree; and as yet, we have every reason to believe that the Salem Gazette is to the full as authentick as our Government paper, which, as a literary composition, is a disgrace to the Kingdom.
“The Salem Gazette assured us that the King’s Troops were compelled to return from Concord; that a handful of militia put them to rout, and killed and wounded several as they fled. Is this contradicted in the English Gazette? Quite the contrary; it is confirmed. The Scotch account of the skirmish acknowledges that ‘on the hasty return of the troops from Concord, they were very much annoyed, and several of them were killed and wounded.’ The Scotch account also adds ‘that the Provincials kept up a scattering fire during the whole of the march of the King’s Troops of fifteen miles, by which means several of them were killed and wounded.’ If the American Militia ‘kept up a scattering fire on the King’s Troops, of fifteen miles,’ the Provincials must have pursued, and the regulars must have fled, which confirms the account given in the Salem Gazette, wherein it is asserted that the Regulars ‘were forced to retreat.’ Whether they marched like mutes at a funeral, or whether they fled like the relations and friends of the present ministry who were amongst the rebel army at the battle of Cullodon, is left entirely to the conjecture of the reader; though it should seem that a scattering fire, poured in upon a retreating enemy for fifteen miles together, would naturally, like goads applied to the sides of oxen, make them march off as fast as they could.”
The newspaper account which Captain Derby carried to London was printed in The Essex Gazette of the issue of “from Tuesday, April 18, to Tuesday, April 25.” The Salem Gazette had suspended publication the day before the great events of Concord and Lexington, and therefore it was The Essex Gazette of Salem which was taken to England, the slight error in the name of the journal being immaterial. This edition of the little four-paged weekly newspaper which shook the British Empire to its foundations, was not made up after the pattern of modern “scarehead” journals. The story of Concord and Lexington was tucked away on an inside page with no headline, title or caption whatever, and was no more than a column long. It may be called the first American war correspondence and no “dispatches from the front” in all history have equaled this article in The Essex Gazette as a stupendous “beat” or “scoop,” measured by the news it bore and the events it foreshadowed. The Gazette carried on its title page the legends, “Containing the freshest advices, both foreign and domestic”; “Printed by Samuel and Ebenezer Hall at their Printing-Office near the Town House.”
The article in question read, for the most part, as follows:
“Salem, April 25.
“Last Wednesday, the 19th of April, the troops of his Britannick Majesty Commenced Hostilities upon the People of this Province, attended with circumstances of cruelty not less brutal than what our venerable Ancestors received from the vilest savages of the Wilderness. The Particulars relative to this interesting Event, by which we are involved in all the Horrors of a Civil War, we have endeavoured to collect as well as the present confused state of affairs will admit.
“On Tuesday Evening a Detachment from the Army, consisting, it is said, of 8 or 900 men, commanded by Lieut. Col. Smith, embarked at the Bottom of the Common in Boston, on board a Number of Boats, and landed at Phip’s farm, a little way up Charles River, from whence they proceeded with Silence and Expedition, on their way to Concord, about 18 miles from Boston. The People were soon alarmed, and began to assemble, in several towns, before Daylight, in order to watch the Motion of the Troops. At Lexington, 6 miles below Concord, a Company of Militia, of about 100 Men, mustered near the Meeting House; the Troops came in Sight of them just before Sun-rise, and running within a few rods of them, the Commanding Officer accosted the Militia in words to this Effect:
“‘Disperse, you Rebels—Damn you, throw down your Arms and disperse.’
“Upon which the Troops huzza’d, and immediately one or two Officers discharged their Pistols, which were instantaneously followed by the Firing of 4 or 5 of the Soldiers, and then there seemed to be a general discharge from the whole Body; Eight of our Men were killed, and nine wounded. In a few minutes after this action the Enemy renewed their March for Concord; at which Place they destroyed several Carriages, Carriage Wheels, and about 20 barrels of Flour; all belonging to the Province. Here about 150 Men going toward a Bridge, of which the Enemy were in Possession, the latter fired and killed 2 of our Men, who then returned the Fire, and obliged the Enemy to retreat back to Lexington, where they met Lord Percy, with a large Reinforcement, with two Pieces of Cannon. The Enemy now having a Body of about 1800 Men, made a Halt, picked up many of their Dead, and took care of their Wounded. At Menotomy, a few of our Men attacked a Party of twelve of the Enemy (carrying stores and Provisions to the Troops), killed one of them, wounded several, made the Rest Prisoners, and took Possession of all their arms, Stores, Provisions, &c., without any loss on our side. The Enemy having halted one or two Hours at Lexington found it necessary to make a second Retreat, carrying with them many of their Dead and Wounded, who they put into Chaises and on Horses that they found standing in the Road. They continued their Retreat from Lexington to Charlestown with great Precipitation; and notwithstanding their Field Pieces, our People continued the Pursuit, firing at them till they got to Charlestown Neck (which they reached a little after Sunset), over which the Enemy passed, proceeded up Bunker Hill, and soon afterward went into the Town, under the protection of the Somerset Man of War of 64 guns.”
There follows a list of the names of the Provincial Casualities, numbering 38 killed and 19 wounded, with accusations of savage and barbarous behavior on the part of the British troops. The writer then goes on to say:
“I have seen an account of the Loss of the Enemy, said to have come from an officer of one of the Men of War; by which it appears that 63 of the Regulars, and 49 Marines were killed, and 103 of both wounded; in all 215. Lieut. Gould of the 4th Regiment, who is wounded, and Lieut. Potter of the Marines, and about twelve soldiers, are Prisoners....
“The Public most sincerely sympathize with the Friends and Relations of our deceased Brethren, who gloriously sacrificed their Lives in fighting for the Liberties of their Country. By their noble, intrepid Conduct, in helping to defeat the Forces of an ungrateful Tyrant, they have endeared their Memories to the present generation who will Transmit their Names to Posterity with the highest Honour.”
The opposite page of The Gazette contained an editorial, or communication, signed “Johannes in Ermo,” which Captain John Derby must have enjoyed spreading broadcast in London. It was a battle-hymn in prose, the voice of a free people in arms, indomitable defiance at white-heat. This was the message it flung to the mother country over seas:
“Great Britain, adieu! no longer shall we honour you as our mother; you are become cruel; you have not so much bowels as the sea monsters toward their young ones; we have cried to you for justice, but behold violence and bloodshed! your sword is drawn offensively, and the sword of New England defensively; by this stroke you have broken us off from you, and effectually alienated us from you. O, Britain, see you to your own house!
“King George the third, adieu! no more shall we cry to you for protection, no more shall we bleed in defense of your person. Your breach of covenant; your violation of faith; your turning a deaf ear to our cries for justice, for covenanted protection and salvation from the oppressive, tyrannical, and bloody measures of the British Parliament, and putting a sanction upon all their measures to enslave and butcher us, have Dissolved our Allegiance to your Crown and Government! your sword that ought in justice to protect us, is now drawn with a witness to destroy us! Oh, George, see thou to thine house!
“General Gage, pluck up stakes and be gone; you have drawn the sword, you have slain in cool blood a number of innocent New England men—you have made the assault—and be it known to you, the defensive sword of New England is now drawn, it now studies just revenge; and it will not be satisfied until your blood is shed—and the blood of every son of violence under your command—and the blood of every traitorous Tory under your protection; therefore, depart with all your master’s forces—depart from our territories, return to your master soon, or destruction will come upon you; every moment you tarry in New England, in the character of your Master’s General, you are viewed as an Intruder, and must expect to be treated by us as our inveterate enemy.
“O, my dear New England, hear thou the alarm of war! the call of Heaven is to arms! to arms! The sword of Great Britain is drawn against us! without provocation how many of our sons have been fired upon and slain in cool blood, in the cool of the day....
“I beseech you, for God’s sake, and for your own sake, watch against every vice, every provocation of God Almighty against us; against intemperance in drinking—against profane language and all debauchery!—and let us all rely on the army of the Most High....”
That after a safe homeward voyage Captain Derby reported to General Washington in person[22] on the 18th of July, appears from the Essex Gazette for that month as follows:
“Cambridge, July 21.
“Capt. John Derby, who sailed from Salem for London a few Days after the Battle of Lexington, returned last Tuesday, and the same Day came to Head-Quarters in this Place. Very little Intelligence has yet transpired—we only learn, that the News of the Commencement of the American War through the People in England, especially the City of London, into great Consternation, and occasioned a considerable Fall of the Stocks. That the Ministry (knowing nothing of the Battle till they saw it published in the London papers) advertised, in the Gazette, that they had received no Account of any Action, and pretended to believe that there had been none. That the Parliament was prorogued two Days before Capt. Derby arrived, but it was said would be immediately called together again. That, when he left London, which was about the 1st of June, no Account of Hostilities had been received by the Ministry from General Gage, notwithstanding the Vessel he dispatched sailed four Days before Capt. Derby. That our friends increased in Number; and that many who had remained neuter in the dispute, began to express themselves warmly in our Favor: That we, however, have no Reason to expect any Mercy from the Ministry, who seem determined to pursue their Measures (long since concerted) for ruining the British Empire.
“Capt. Derby brought a few London Papers, some as late as the 1st of June, but we have not been able to obtain a Sight of them. We are informed they contain very little News, and scarce any Remarks on American Affairs.”
It was singularly appropriate that this same Captain John Derby who carried the news to England of the beginning of the American Revolution should have been the shipmaster to carry home to the United States the first tidings of peace in 1783, when he arrived from France in the ship Astrea with the message that a treaty had been signed.
This Captain John Derby won a claim to further notice in the history of his times as one of the owners of the ship Columbia which sailed from Boston in 1787, circumnavigated the globe, and on a second voyage discovered and named the mighty Columbia River on the northwest coast of America. The vast territory which includes the states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho was then an unknown and unexplored land, claimed by Spain because her navigators discovered it, by Great Britain because Francis Drake had sailed along the coast in 1759, by Russia because Bering had mapped the North Pacific and prepared for the opening in 1771 of the fur trade from Oregon to China. But no nation had established a foothold in this territory and its extent and natural features were wrapped in mystery.
In 1783, a young American seaman who had sailed with Captain Cook on an exploring voyage of the North Pacific, published a chart and a journal of the voyage, and first brought to the attention of American shipowners the importance of the Northwest fur trade. Ledyard was called an enthusiast, a visionary, until his story attracted the serious consideration of the leading shipping merchants of Boston and Salem. John Derby joined three men of Boston in the venture and the quartette of partners subscribed what was then a huge capital of fifty thousand dollars to equip and despatch a ship to the northwest coast and open an American trade in furs with the Indians.
The Columbia was chosen, a ship of two hundred and thirteen tons, small even for that period, mounting ten cannon. Captain John Kendrick was given the command. As consort and tender for coastwise navigation and trade a sloop of ninety tons, the Lady Washington, Captain Robert Gray, was fitted out.
Besides the ship’s stores, the two vessels carried a cargo of hardware, tools, utensils, buttons, toys, beads, etc., to be bartered with the Indians. The State and Federal Governments granted special letters to the captains, and “hundreds of medals signalizing the enterprise were put aboard for distribution wherever the vessel touched. Years afterward some of these medals and cents and half-cents of the State of Massachusetts were to be found in the wake of the Columbia among the Spaniards of South America, the Kanakas of Hawaii and the Indians of Oregon.”[23]
The two little vessels fared bravely around Cape Horn, and steered north until they reached the fur wilderness country of the great Northwest. After many hardships and thrilling adventures the Columbia returned to Boston with a cargo of tea from China. It was a famous voyage in the history of American commercial enterprise, but it brought so little profit to the owners that Captain John Derby and one other partner sold out their shares in the Columbia. She was refitted, however, and again sent to the Northwest in 1790 in command of Captain Gray. On this voyage Captain Gray discovered the Columbia River shortly after he had met at sea the English navigator, Vancouver, who reported passing the mouth of a small stream “not worthy his attention.” By so close a margin did Vancouver miss the long-sought great river of Oregon, and the chance to claim the Northwestern America for the British flag by right of discovery.
On May 19, 1792, Captain Gray landed with his seamen, after sailing twenty-five miles up the river and formally named it the Columbia. “It has been claimed for many men before and since Marcus Whitman that they saved Oregon to the United States. But surely the earliest and most compelling title to this distinction is that Captain Robert Gray of Boston, and the good ship Columbia. They gave us the great river by the powerful right of discovery, and the great river dominated the region through which it ran.... The voyage of the Columbia was plainly and undeniably the first step which won for the United States a grip on the Oregon territory that no diplomatic casuistry and no arrogant bluster could shake.[23]