Bold words, well spoken by a bold man!
“But,” continued the able sailor, “I most sadly deplore the fate of my poor negroes. The plantation was to them a home, not a place of bondage. Their existence was a species of grown-up childhood, not slavery. Now they are torn away and carried off to die under the pestilence and lash of Jamaica cane-fields; and the price of their poor bodies will swell the pockets of English slave-traders. For this cruelty to those innocent, harmless people, I hope sometime, somehow, to find an opportunity to exact a reckoning.”
Again bold sentiments,—and the reckoning, too, was forthcoming.
“I have no fortune left but my sword, and no prospect except that of getting alongside of the enemy,” wrote the impoverished sea-captain to a Mr. Hewes.
This prospect also was to soon have ample fulfilment.
Ordered to take command of the Alfred, Captain Jones made a short cruise eastward, in 1776, accompanied by the staunch little Providence. The journey lasted only thirty-three days, but, during that time, seven ships of the enemy fell into the clutches of the two American vessels.
“Aha!” cried Captain Jones, as he rubbed his hands. “This looks more propitious for our cause. We have taken the Mellish and the Biddeford. Let us break into them and see how much of the King’s treasure has been secured.”
And it was indeed good treasure!
The Mellish was found to contain ten thousand complete uniforms, including cloaks, boots, socks and woollen shirts, for the winter supply of General Howe’s army; seven thousand pairs of blankets; one thousand four hundred tents; six hundred saddles and complete cavalry equipments; one million seven hundred thousand rounds of fixed ammunition (musket cartridges); a large quantity of medical stores; forty cases of surgical instruments; and forty-six soldiers who were recruits sent out to join the various British regiments then serving in the Colonies.
The larger prize—the Biddeford—carried one thousand seven hundred fur overcoats for the use of the Canadian troops; eleven thousand pairs of blankets, intended partly for the British troops in Canada, and partly for the Indians then in British pay along the northern frontier; one thousand small-bore guns of the type then known as the “Indian-trade smooth-bore,” with hatchets, knives, and boxes of flint in proportion, to arm the redskins. There were eight light six-pounder field guns and complete harness and other equipage for the two four-gun batteries of horse-artillery. Also some wines and table supplies for Sir Guy Carleton and a case of fine Galway duelling pistols for a British officer then serving in Canada.