In the month of July 1778 the enemy appeared in force to the number of about fixteen hundred men, of whom about one-fourth were Indians, and immediately invefted the fort. The Commandant, knowing its inability to make any effectual defence, difpatched a flag to Colonel Butler, to know what terms he would grant on a furrender; to which he replied in two words, THE HATCHET. The garrison, though refolute to fell their lives as dear aş poffible, were foon overpowered; and the favage conquerors, after gratifying their infernal rage by a moft bloody military execution, shut up the remainder in the barracks, to which they set fire, and confumed the whole in one general blaze. The entire fettlement was now delivered up to all the horrors of Indian barbarity, of which the detail is not to be endured. A terreftrial paradife was in a fhort time converted into a frightful wafte; and men, women, and children underwent one common butchery, in all the poffible varieties of torture. A Provincial officer, of the name of Bedlock, being stripped naked, had his body ftuck full of fharp pine fplinters; and a heap of knots of the fame wood being then piled around him, the whole was fet on fire-two other officers alfo, Captains Ranfey and Durgie, being thrown alive into the flames. Such are the accurfed confequences of that princely ambition which is exalted fo high above the level of common life as to admit of no fympathy fympathy with human mifery. Feeling deeply for the honor of Britain, a veil has been perhaps too partially caft over the enormities committed by the Indians employed in the northern expedition, and in other parts of the continent. There are indeed degrees of human depravity and wickednefs creative of fenfations which no tongue can exprefs, and no language impart*. To defcend to what must be regarded as an authorized and civilized mode of warfare, it is neceffary to mention that Major General Grey, an officer who had repeatedly diftinguished himself by his military skill and courage, was detached in the month of September from New York on an expedition to a place called Fair-Haven, on the coaft of New England, where he destroyed about seventy fail of fhipping, together with the magazines, wharfs, ftores, &c.; and proceeding to Martha's Vineyard, a beautiful island in the vicinity, he carried off an immenfe booty in oxen and fheep, which afforded a welcome fupply to the army at New York. *They ERR who count it glorious to fubdue Large countries-deferving freedom more MILTON. In a fhort time after this, the fame officer, acting under the direction of Lord Cornwallis, furprised in the night, afleep and naked, a regiment of American light-horse, stationed near the right bank of the North River. Quarter being refused, and the men wholly incapable of resistance, a terrible execution took place, which the Congrefs in a fubfequent remonftrance fcrupled not to ftigmatize as "a maffacre in cold blood." A fimilar enterprise was undertaken with fimilar fuccefs by Captain Ferguson, against a detached corps of Pulawski's legion of light infantry; and the Americans were not a little embarraffed to conjecture what those worse extremes of war could be, which the manifefto of the Commiffioners menaced them with in the future conduct of it. An undertaking of greater importance was now determined upon by Sir Henry Clinton, who detached a confiderable body of troops under the command of Colonel Campbell, convoyed by a fquadron under Sir Hyde Parker, to attempt the recovery of the province of Georgia-General Prevoft, Governor of East Florida, having at the fame time orders to co-operate with them. On the 23d of December 1778, the whole armament arrived at the mouth of the Savannah. The force which that weak and infant colony was able to oppose to the invaders was foon dispersed, and the town of Savannah fell of course into the hands of the victors. General Prevoft foon after arriving with a large re-inforcement, took upon him the command of the whole. From this sketch of the campaign of 1778 in America, it is now expedient to advert to the fituation of affairs in Europe. When a war with France appeared inevitable, Admiral Keppel, an officer of diftinguished merit and reputation, but wholly unconnected with the present Ministers, was, on the perfonal and urgent folicitation of the King, prevailed on to accept the command of the channel fleet, though, as he himself obferved, "his forty years fervices were not marked by any favor from the Crown, except that of its confidence in the time of danger." The admiral, at parting, might with propriety have faid to his Sovereign, as Marechal Villars to Louis XIV. "I go to fight your Majefty's enemies, and leave mine in your closet." On the 13th of June the admiral failed from St. Helen's with twenty fhips of the line, and at the entrance of the Bay of Bifcay he fell in with the Licorne and the Belle Poule, two French frigates. Through that feeblenefs and indecifion of counfels which prevailed at this period in the British Cabinet, the admiral had no pofitive orders as to the commiffion or avoidance of actual hoftilities, but was invested with an unmeaning and, as to himfelf, dangerous difcretion of acting according to to circumftances. Perceiving the frigates intent on taking an accurate furvey of his fleet, he thought it expedient to fire a gun in order to compel them to bring-to; and on their refufal to obey the fignal a chace enfued, when the Licorne, after wantonly difcharging a whole broadfide, ftruck to the America of feventy-four guns. The Belle Poule, after a warm engagement with the Arethusa, escaped by running on fhore. The Pallas alfo, another French frigate, was in the mean time captured and detained. From the papers found on board thefe frigates, the admiral difcovered to his inexpreffible aftonishment that the French fleet, lying in Breft water, amounted to no less than thirty-two fail of the line: he was therefore under the immediate neceffity of returning to port for a reinforcement; and, on tranfinitting accounts of his proceedings to Government, he received no intimation of approbation or disapprobation. On the 9th of July, however, he was enabled again to fail with twenty-four fhips, and was foon afterwards joined by fix more. In a few days he came in fight of the French fleet, commanded by M. d'Orvilliers, who feemed, on perceiving the English fleet nearly equal in force, inclined to avoid an engagement; but the wind changing fome points in favor of the English, they gained fo much upon the enemy that an engagement became inevitable, and the French ranging in order of |