During this year the Americans took a terrible revenge on their old enemies, the Indians. At the head of 5000 men General Sullivan undertook an expedition against the Indian tribes beyond the Mohawk River and upon the upper course of the Susquehanna. In the month of August he encountered a body of eight hundred savages and two hundred whites, under Brandt, Butler, and others acquainted with the art of war; whom, after a bloody conflict, he defeated. Sullivan then penetrated into the very heart of their country, where his followers destroyed houses, corn-fields, gardens, fruit-trees, and everything that would afford sustenance to man or beast. Such were the positive orders of congress, and Sullivan proved himself to be their willing agent in the evil work. Congress passed a vote approving his conduct, but Washington, whose exertions were crippled by the expedition, in consequence of the great force employed in it, inveighed bitterly against it, and in the end Sullivan retired from public service in disgust. While this terrible chastisement was inflicted on the tribes northward of Pennsylvania and New York, similar expeditions were Kent out from the southern provinces for the same purpose. On the other hand, whilst the Americans were spreading devastation and laying waste the towns of their savage enemies, the Indians, whose appetite for revenge was whetted by their disasters, made incursions into the provincial settlements, and made severe retaliation.
SPANISH INCURSIONS.
As Spain had concealed her hostile intentions towards England until preparations for war were completed, it was not a matter of surprise to see her commencing hostilities on the other side of the Atlantic, with all the advantages of early information and previous design. No sooner was war announced than Don Bernardo Galvez, Governor of Louisiana, made an incursion into West Florida, and invested and captured a British fort garrisoned with five hundred men, at the mouth of the Ibbeville. The fate of almost the whole of the Mississippi was involved in the fall of this fort, for the Spaniards overran a district of 1200 miles in extent; and only left the eastern part of the province, with the strong fort of Mobile untouched. With equal alacrity the Spanish Governor of Honduras commenced hostilities against the British cutters of logwood in the Bay of Honduras, and plundered the principal establishment at St. George’s Key. The logwood-cutters, who were chiefly sailors and men of a daring spirit, retreated before the Spaniards, and kept together in an inaccessible place, until the Governor of Jamaica dispatched Captain Dalrymple, with a small body of Irish volunteers, to convey to them a supply of arms. Sir Peter Parker dispatched a sloop of war to co-operate, and this sloop, having taken Dalrymple and his party on board, quickly drove the Spaniards from St. George’s Key and all that part of the coast. The sloop was shortly after joined by a small squadron under Captain Luttrell, who had been cruizing to intercept two Spanish register-ships, which had taken refuge under the strong fortress of St. Fernando de Omoa. Dalrymple, Luttrell, and the chiefs of the British bay-men resolved to attack this fort, which was the key of the whole settlement of Honduras; and a motley force of log-wood-cutters, sailors, soldiers, and volunteers proceeded against it. They had no artillery available for the purpose, and therefore they resolved to take the fort by surprise and assault. As they approached they were discovered by the garrison, but the works were nevertheless carried by escalade; and the garrison were so panic-stricken at the bold movement, that the Spanish governor could not keep them to their guns. One hundred escaped by flight, and the rest, amounting to five hundred men, surrendered as prisoners of war. The assailants now made for the harbour in search of the register-ships; and although the greater part of the treasure had been removed to a place of safety, there was still a galleon in the harbour, and an immense quantity of quicksilver, which, with other objects that fell into the hands of the conquerors, were of the estimated value of 3,000,000 dollars. The loss of the quicksilver was severely felt by the Spaniards, and they offered to redeem it at any price. They also made liberal offers for ransoming the fort; but the captors, preferring the public good to private emolument, refused all terms. At the same time they restored the plate found in the churches, to procure the liberation of some logwood-cutters who had been taken at George’s Key. A garrison was left to defend Fort Omoa, but the unhealthiness of the station led to its evacuation, and it was recovered by the Spaniards. They found the guns spiked, however, and the works for the most part demolished.
ACTION BETWEEN PAUL JONES AND CAPTAIN PEARSON.
One of the most active partisans in the American cause was the celebrated Paul Jones. This man was a native of Scotland, and the son of a gardener of Galloway. He had taken to the sea at a very early age, and had finally settled in Virginia. At the breaking out of the war he offered his services to congress, and a commission was given him, under which he cruised among our West India Islands, where he made many prizes. His nautical skill and his success were so great that he acquired the name of the best of all corsair captains. In 1777 he was appointed to the command of a French-built ship under American colours, and he then proceeded upon a cruise to the coast of Britain. Many were the exploits which he transacted. He took many prizes in places where the American flag had never before been seen; he made a descent at the mouth of the Dee, near to Kirkcudbright, and plundered the house of the Earl of Selkirk; and he made another descent on the Cumberland coast, spiked the guns of the fort at Whitehaven, and burned one or two vessels. He also cruised up and down between the Solway and the Clyde; scaring the whole coast, after which he returned to Brest, boasting that he had kept the north-western coast of England and the southern coast of Scotland in a constant state or alarm. In the summer of the present year he returned to cruise along our eastern coasts, having at this time a squadron manned by desperadoes of various countries under his command. Alarm spread from Flamboroughhead to the Frith of Tay, for the name of Paul Jones had become synonymous with all that is terrible. His great object this year was to intercept the Baltic trade, which was under the convoy of Captain Pearson, in the ship “Serapis,” of forty guns, and Captain Piercy, in the “Countess of Scarborough,” of twenty guns. This fleet arrived safely off the Yorkshire coast, when Paul Jones appeared to encounter it. Captain Pearson made a signal for his convoy to bear down under his lee; and he himself made way to get between the enemy’s ships and the convoy. The “Countess of Scarborough” took a similar position, and while the enemy was advancing, the merchant-vessels made their way in haste to the shore. At length the squadron of Paul Jones, consisting of three large ships, a cutter, and a brig, reached the “Serapis” and the “Countess,” and a terrible conflict took place between the former and the “Bon Homme Richard,” a two-decker, carrying forty guns, and which was Paul Jones’s own ship. The two ships were brought into such a situation that the muzzles of their guns came in contact, and in this manner the action continued with the greatest fury for two hours, during which time Jones, who had far more men than his opponent, vainly attempted to board, and the “Serapis” was set on fire ten or twelve times. The fire each time was extinguished, and Captain Pearson had the best of the battle; but, in the meantime the “Countess of Scarborough” had been disabled by the other ships of the enemy, and then one of the frigates came to the assistance of the “Bon Homme Richard.” Almost every man on the quarter or main-decks of the “Serapis” was killed or wounded by the united fire of the enemy; and the calamity was increased by the accidental ignition of a cartridge of powder near one of the lower deck-ports, and the flames spreading from cartridge to cartridge all the way aft, blew up the whole of the officers and people that were quartered abaft the mainmast. In this state Captain Pearson was compelled to strike his colours, and Captain Piercy was under the necessity of following his example. The “Bon Homme Richard,” however, was in a still more pitiful condition than the “Serapis.” Her quarters and counter on the lower deck were driven in; all her guns on the deck were dismounted; her decks were strewed with killed and wounded; and she was on fire in two different places, and had seven feet of water in her hold. On the day after the battle Paul Jones was obliged to quit her, and she sank with a great number of her wounded on board. The prizes were carried by their captor into the Texel, and the French government gave Paul Jones thanks, in the name of Louis XVI., and conferred upon him the Order of Merit! Congress, also, at a later date, sent him a vote of thanks, and promoted him to the command of a new ship, called the “America!”
CHANGES IN THE MINISTRY.
During the recess, some partial changes occurred in the administration. Lord Stormont was made secretary of state, in the room of Lord Suffolk, deceased. Earl Bathurst was made lord president of the council, Earl Gower having resigned office in disgust; the Earl of Hillsborough succeeded the Earl of Weymouth as secretary of the southern department; and the Earl of Carlisle was nominated first lord of trade and plantations, which was an ancient office resuscitated. Mr. Thurlow had received the great seal, with a peerage, last session, and he was succeeded as attorney-general by Wedderburn, while Wallace took Wedderburn’s place of solicitor-general.