Paul Jones.
22. So closed the year 1779. The national treasury was bankrupt. The patriots of the army were poorly fed, and paid only with unkept promises. The disposition of Great Britain was still for war. The levies of sailors and soldiers made by Parliament amounted to one hundred and twenty thousand, while the expenses of the War Office were set at twenty million pounds sterling.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Reverses and Treason. Events of 1780.
French Allies in Rhode Island.
DURING the year 1780 military operations at the North were suspended. Early in July Admiral De Ternay arrived at Newport with a French squadron, and six thousand land-troops under Count Rochambeau. In September the commander-in-chief held a conference with Rochambeau, and the plans of future campaigns were determined.
2. In the South the patriots suffered many reverses. South Carolina was completely overrun by the enemy. On the 11th of February, Admiral Arbuthnot anchored before Charleston. Sir Henry Clinton and five thousand men were on board the fleet. The city was defended by fourteen hundred men under General Lincoln. The British effected a landing, and advanced up the right bank of Ashley River. On the 7th of April Lincoln was reinforced by seven hundred Virginians. Two days afterwards Arbuthnot succeeded in passing Fort Moultrie, and came within cannon-shot of the city.