Because, as people do assert,
He almost had his just desert
Here, on the tenth day of last June,
Between the hours of twelve and one—
Did chase the sloop call'd the Hannah,
Of whom one Linsey was commander;
They dogg'd her up to Providence Sound,
And there the rascal got aground.
The news of it flew, that very day,
That they on Nanquit Point did lay,
That night, about half after ten,
Some Narragansett Indian-men—
Being sixty-four, if I remember,
Soon made this stout coxcomb surrender:
And what was best of all their tricks,
They in his breech a ball did fix.
They set the men upon the land,
And burn'd her up, we understand;
Which thing provoked the king so high,
He said, "those men should surely die."
So, if he can but find them out,
The hangman he'll employ, no doubt:
For he has declared, in his passion,
"He'll have them tried in a new fashion."
Now for to find those people out,
King George has offered, very stout,
One thousand pounds to find out one
That wounded William Doddington.
One thousand more he says he'll spare,
For those who say they sheriffs were:
One thousand more there doth remain
For to find out the leader's name.
Likewise, one hundred pounds per man,
For any one of all the clan.
But let him try his utmost skill,
I'm apt to think he never will
Find out any of those hearts of gold,
Though he should offer fifty fold.
The duty on tea, imposed five years before by Townshend, had been retained by the British government as a matter of principle, and in the autumn of 1773 the King determined to assert the obnoxious principle which the tax involved. Several ships loaded with tea were accordingly started for America. On Sunday, November 28, the first of these arrived at Boston, and two others came in a few days later. The town went wild, meeting after meeting was held, and on the night of Tuesday, December 16, 1773, a band of about twenty, disguised as Indians, boarded the ships, cut open the tea-chests and flung the contents into the water.