excite the indignation of the whole community; but téndeð particularly to incense the militia, who, as they became more numerous by the arrival of the loyalists from the Carolinas and Georgia, were more tenacious of those rights of which Englishmen boast with so much pride. The affair was hushed, and the sufferings of the injured Scot were assuaged by a donation in money, better calculated to alleviate his circumstances, than to palliate the enormity of the offence.

This was a period at which the arm of government required all the strength it could collect; for an invasion was threatened by Colonel White from Georgia, who was said to be advancing on the Altamaha, which the Americans had fortified, so as to secure that frontier by a chain of forts. At the same time a proclamation was sent forth, inviting all the citizens of the United States to assemble at a camp formed in Burke county, and from thence to march into Florida, under the command of the governor of the state-provisions and ammunition to be supplied gratis, and all captures free plunder. These circumstances, together with the news of the treaty of alliance entered into between the United States and France, and a wavering disposition, manifested on the part of the Indian tribes, were alarming. The warriors, also, became restless, and were desirous of returning from the frontiers to their families; while Colonel Stuart, the superintendent of the southern department, who was actively engaged in negotiations among them, had much difficulty in restraining the Cussitahs, Oakfuskies, Big Talassies, Apalachicolas and Watskays, all favourable to the Americans, from taking an active part against the royalists, who were joined by the

Chehaws and other lower Creeks. The arrival of Captain Elphinstone (Lord Keith) and of Captain Moncrief, two distinguished officers, high in the prominent departments of the navy and engineers, promising strong reinforcements, encouraged offensive operations. Upon which Colonel Fuser, of the 60th regiment, proceeded with about 500 men and a train of artillery against Sunbury, with a view of supporting the king's party in Georgia. However, his want of success, and his loss of men and officers, (among whom was Captain Muller of the 60th,) obliged him to fall back, for the purpose of awaiting the promised reinforcements.

The daring inroads made by the Americans, whose hardihood brought them, on the 24th of June, 1778, to Amelia narrows, where they were cutting a passage through with a force said to amount to 1000 men, required the united forces of Captain Mowbray of the navy, who was preparing an expedition from St. Augustine, for the purpose of co-operating with Major Graham with 140 men of the 16th regiment, and Major Prevost, with a detachment of the 60th, who marched from the Cowford, to prevent their farther progress. But such was the jealousy which existed in the various departments of the service, that notwithstanding every effort was made, a sufficient number of men could not be found willing to man two galleys carrying twenty-four pounders. Colonel Brown could only muster seventy half-starved men ; and the Crackers refused to join: thus rendering it necessary to fortify St. John's Bluff. For which purpose, and to allay the apprehensions of danger, Colonel Fuser, as commander of the troops, issued a proclamation on the 27th June, requiring

all those who had not entered the militia, to join him,

as

the rebels might be expected every instant at the bar, or thereabouts."

To the alarm which this state of things naturally created, was added a catastrophe, in the death of Captain Skinner, deputy superintendent of Indian affairs, an active and faithful officer, while on service on the frontiers of Georgia. The cause and manner of his death were variously and not satisfactorily accounted for. The event created doubts as to the farther attachment of those important allies at such a critical juncture.

Thus far, the war in the south had been carried on experimentally, by both parties, in threatening proclamations; and, when those were found to be of no effect, by rangers, scouts, and riflemen, for want of regular troops, or of materials to form them in a thinly-peopled country. In the north, resistance to the king's armies became more systematic and violent; and the American forces, now joined by the French and Spaniards, were more successful.

Policy, or necessity, prescribed a change of measures to the British ;-Georgia and the Carolinas became the theatre of war. General Prevost left Florida to be guarded by the militia, and marched into Georgia, with a considerable force of regulars and others, who endured many hardships, having been obliged to depend on oysters for food. On the 6th of January, 1779, he took possession of Sunbury, and subsequently of Savannah and Augusta; thus securing East Florida from any encroachments. Colonel Brown had succeeded in bringing over the Indians from the Cassetas, Big Talassies, and

Oakfuskies, (towns in favour of the Americans,) and prevailed upon them, by what was termed a pardonable artifice, to annoy the settlers on the Georgia frontiers. From 2000 to 3000 of them marched to the aid of General Campbell, whom the Cherokees also had promised to join, as soon as required; notwithstanding the exertions used, and great encouragement offered, to dissuade them, by Don B. de Galvez, a young enterprising General in the Spanish service, and Governor of Louisiana, who besieged Pensacola, and became master of West Florida on the 21st of September, 1779.

The loss sustained by the British in the west, was not counterbalanced by the temporary conquests they made in Georgia; where they were most formidably assailed, in October of the same year, (1780,) by the combined forces of the United States and France, under Count D'Estaing; who allowed General Prevost, by a ruse de guerre, time to fortify Savannah, and to receive such reinforcements as to oblige the Count to retire, to the astonishment of the besieged, and the no small mortification and detriment of the allied forces.

This state of things carried the war out of East Florida; so that the province had, from various quarters, an increase of population, seeking repose, and looking to it as an asylum to repair their misfortunes: but they demanded a representative form of government, which was soon admitted in the manner prescribed by royal authority in 1763.

About this time, the British government was vascillating between the extremes of adopting a lenient policy, or a rigorous course, in prosecuting a war which had become formidable from the accession of powerful allies to the American

cause. While its armies were compelled to submit to the former policy, the commanders in the south resorted to an opposite and less conciliatory course, by laying violent hands upon some of the most respectable and most illustrious citizens in the Carolinas, as will be seen by the following list of their names, arranged in alphabetical order: John Budd, Edward Blake, Joseph Bee, Richard Beresford, John Berwick, D. Bordeaux, Robert Cochrane, Benjamin Cudworth, H. V. Crouch, J. S. Cripps, Edward Darrell, Daniel Dessaussure, John Edwards, George Flagg, Thomas Ferguson, General Gadsden, William Hazil Gibbes, Thomas Grimball, William Hall, Thomas Hall, George A. Hall, Isaac Holmes, Thomas Heyward, jun. Richard Hutson, Noble William Jones, William Johnstone, John Loveday, William Livingstone, William See, Richard Lushington, William Logan, Rev. I. Lewis, William Massey, Alexander Moultrie, Arthur Middleton, Edward M'Bready, John Mowatt, Edward North, John Neufville, Joseph Parker, Christopher Peters, Benjamin Postell, Samuel Prideaux, John Ornes Poyas, Edward Rutledge, Dr. David Ramsay, General Jacob Reed, Hugh Rutledge, John Samsam, Thomas Sarage, Josiah Smith, Thomas Singleton, Philip Smith, James Hambden Thomson, John Todd, Peter Timothy, Anthony Toomer, Edward Weyman, Benjamin Walter, Morton Wilkinson, and James Wakefield. Of these sixty-one gentlemen of high standing and character, forty were most ungraciously transported from Charleston, in August, 1780, to St. Augustine and in a few months after, the remainder were compelled to submit, in spite of every remonstrance, to similar atrocities, and dragged from their