the money. I told the fellow that I never would pay deed, the nose exact. I was breathless, and I continued him." to gaze.

I turned the affair over in my mind as I undressedit was not honest-but I paid when I lost, and I only took the money when I won,-still I did not like it; but the bank notes caught my eye as they lay on the table, and I was satisfied. Alas! how easy are scruples removed when we want money! How many are there who when in a state of prosperity and affluence, when not tried by temptation would have blushed at the bare idea of a dishonest action, who have raised and held their hands in abhorrence, when they have heard that others have been found guilty; and yet, when in adversity, have themselves committed the very acts which before they so loudly condemned! How many of the other sex, who have expressed their indignation and contempt at those who have fallen, who, when tempted, have fallen Major," replied I, "I believe I am very absurd; but themselves! Let us therefore be charitable; none of us he was so like me, and I have so often longed after my can tell to what we may be reduced by circumstances; father, so long wished to see him face to face-that-that and when we acknowledge that the error is great, let us-I'm a great fool, that's the fact." feel sorrow and pity rather than indignation, and pray that we also may not be "led into temptation."

I ran down with my breakfast napkin in my hand, and Timothy could not obtain any intelligence from the hastened to the portico of the hotel-he was in his car-people of the inn at the last stage, except that the chariot riage, and the porter was then shutting the door. I look- had proceeded to London. We arrived late at night, and, ed at him. He was as Timothy said, very like me in- much exhausted, I was glad to go to bed.

From the United Service Journal.

admit of, into such a line as was compatible with a rollI must confess that the result of the latter manœuvre was generally to set both men and officers laughing, and that, after repeated trials, it was laid aside.

TRADITIONS OF THE AMERICAN WAR OF ing sea.
INDEPENDENCE.

NO. III.

We have this month the satisfaction of presenting to our readers the first portion of a narrative, which comprehends not only some striking historical details, but a good deal of stirring adventure. The original is contained in a series of letters addressed by the author to his sister, with which we have taken no other liberty than here and there to alter an expression, and to omit the customary head and tail pieces of epistolary communications. We do not know whether there be any members of the old 71st regiment now alive, but if there be, the name of the writer, which we are requested to conceal, will be no secret to them. For ourselves we lament that any restrictions in this respect should be imposed on us, where none, we are quite sure, can be necessary. But all men have their prejudices.

We had accomplished, according to the skipper's reckoning, the better half of our voyage, when the heavens became black with clouds, and a furious storm set in. How it fared with other vessels we could not tell, for we were driven before the wind with a rapidity which caused us from hour to hour to calculate on foundering, till every trace of convoy and partners was lost. The misery which we endured during the continuance of that gale I shall never forget. Indifferently provisioned at the best, and crowded even in fine weather, our condition throughout three days and nights, of closed hatches and cold stoves, may be imagined but cannot be described. At last, however, the fury of the elements became exhausted; and the heavy rolling swell which always succeeds a tempest wore itself out; so that the men began again to emerge, like ghosts out of their graves, from between decks. But such a change in their appearance!

tion of the vessel, their mothers would have scarcely recognised the fine young Highlanders whom they had brought into the world; nor were the youths themselves by any means disposed to think that, in ushering them into a state of so much trouble and annoyance, their mothers had done right. But the sorrows of a recruit are seldom very deep seated. A few fine days brought back their accustomed light-heartedness, and the bagpipe, though blown by a half-starved piper, soon put metal again into the heels of many a half-starved dancer.

On the 21st of April, 1776, the Frazer Highlanders-Pale, filthy, and sick with long confinement and the mothen numbered as the 71st regiment of the line-embarked at Greenock on board of a fleet destined for North America. The battle of Bunker's Hill having been by this time fought, and the last hope of an amicable arrangement between the mother country and the colonies laid aside, it was deemed advisable, by those at the head of affairs, to send over without delay as large a force as possible; and as there were but few old corps disposable for service, even regiments, which, like our own, had not yet completed their first drill, were directed to hold themselves in readiness. I had then the honour to rank as a lieutenant in the 71st, having, like most of my brother officers, raised men for my commission; and am, therefore, enabled to speak with confidence both as to the condition of the regiment and the temper and feelings of the men composing it. The latter were excellent, nothing, indeed, could be superior; for the recruits, having been collected chiefly from the lands of their chief, were, with few exceptions, young, able-bodied, and full of attachment to their superiors, whom, for the most part, they followed from motives of hereditary affection. But the former was, according to the criterion of the horse guards, bad enough. As a battalion, indeed, we knew nothing. Not only were we ignorant of the most common field-movements, but the very manual and platoon exercise was strange to us; yet we obeyed the order of embarkation with the highest satisfaction, and looked forward to what might rise out of it without a shadow of distrust.

For some time after clearing the Frith of Clyde, no occurrence befel worthy of being recorded. A large convoy always moves slowly; and as our fleet consisted of upwards of a hundred sail, including store-ships, transports, and a due allotment of men-of-war, we made no exception to the general rule. Nevertheless both officers and soldiers turned even delay to good account, and bore it with philosophic equanimity. The greater portion of every fine day was devoted to giving the men some knowledge of such portions of their duty as could be explained to them on board of ship. In the first place they were trained to obey the word of command when uttered in English-a language of which, when they first joined, they knew nothing. In the next place, they were taught to face, and wheel, and even to march, to handle their arms with gracefulness, and to fire; while occasionally an attempt was made to deploy from such a column as the narrow quarter-deck of a transport would

We were now alone in the middle of the Atlantic. Of the fleet not a vestige could be descried, and as far as the eye could reach over the wide ocean, there appeared nothing like a sail between us and the horizon. No apprehensions were, however, excited by that circumstance, for, except with the colonies, England was not yet at war; and even America could be said to be rather in a state of commotion than of open rebellion. Still when, on the second day, after the return of fair weather, a vessel hove in sight, our commanding officer considered it prudent to load the four pieces which encumbered our deck, and to fill the men's pouches with musket ammunition. This done, we held our course, and as they still edged towards us, the lapse of two hours or something more brought us within eye-shot of each other. She proved to be one of our late consorts, filled, like our own ship, with a detachment of troops. Our greetings, so soon as a communication was established, were cordial enough. Something like a consultation likewise was held between the senior officers in each vessel, as to the course which it would be judicious to follow; and they agreed that they could not do better than bear up for Boston, that being the port to which, when we quitted Greenock, the expedition was understood to be directed.

Time passed, and on the 16th of June, almost two months from the date of our embarkation on the Clyde, the look-out seamen, from the mast-head, greeted our ears with the joyful tidings of land on the larboard bow. Every soldier who has been long pent up on board of ship knows with what delight such an announcement is received. We strain our eyes in the direction pointed out, and if there be nothing else to reward the exertion, we fancy in every cloud, or even in the line of the horizon itself, that we behold the forms of a coast. the ship moves on, and the land breeze meets us, we perceive, or persuade ourselves that we perceive, perfumes, in comparison with which all the odours of Ara

And as

bia would be, under other circumstances, counted tame. Nor, in minor matters, are there many grievances more vexatious, than that the night should close in without giving to persons so circumstanced a full prospect of the shores to which their wishes pant. On the present occasion, however, we had not to complain on that score, for the breeze, though light, was favourable; and bore us along, if not as rapidly as our impatience desired, yet, as the event proved, too much so for our ultimate satisfaction.

The shores of North America are, in almost all directions, singularly low and uninteresting, and the point towards which we were steering differed little in this respect from other portions of coast; for the land hung for some time cloud-like over the water, and when it did assume a definite form, it was that of low sand-hills loosely covered with pines. This, however, gradually changed its character, till Cape Cod, with its sharp promontory, had been left behind; after which the rocks and islets, which lie scattered in beautiful disorder through Boston Bay, rose one by one into view. By and by Long Island pushed itself forward, like an advanced guard to the town, which covered, in a somewhat straggling manner, the tongue of a peninsula; and, finally, we found ourselves under a dying breeze, and with a tide running strongly against us, in the centre of Nantucket Roads. There, at the distance of three quarters of a mile from a redoubt or battery that protected the island, we cast anchor; happy in the assurance that ere four-and-twenty hours should have run their course, we should be snugly settled beside our comrades on terra firma.

66

some far over, and one right through the shrouds, so as to cut away several of the ratlins. "This is a rough reception," said our commanding officer; “and devil take me if I don't see into it." The sentence, however, was as yet incomplete, when the whole mystery received its solution. By G-d," exclaimed the skipper, "that is no union jack,”—and no union jack was it, sure enough. The thirteen stripes with the thirteen stars ornamented the flag-staff-a piece of coarse bunting having been slowly run up while the cannon were firing; and we were taught to our sorrow that we had laid ourselves in a position which admirably suited us to act as a mark for the inexperienced of the enemy's gunners to practise upon.

Thick and fast came now the shot, against which we had nothing in the world to oppose; for our miserable 4-pounders were too light to make an impression even on a fieldwork, and our distance from the shore was too great to permit of musketry being made available. Neither were our chances of escape at all satisfactory. The breeze had died wholly away, so that our sails, had we hoisted them, would have hung useless as gossamer-webs from the masts; while the run of the tide gave us the comfortable assurance that, in the event of our cable being cut, we should be carried directly ashore, under the very muzzles of the guns which now played upon us. To lie, on the other hand, where we were, was to become consenting parties to our own destruction; for, having got the range, the Yankees struck us either in the hull or rigging, at almost every discharge. Under such circumstances, the commandant gave orders that the cable should be cut, and the chances taken (and desperate indeed they were) that the ship might drift round the point, and so escape into the open sea; but no such good fortune attended us. We drifted, it is true, so soon as the cable parted, but it was not to a place of safety; for there were numerous sand-banks in the channel, and on one of these we struck. If our plight had been evil before, it was now a thousand times worse. We lay exposed to the enemy's battery; and merciless was the accuracy with which the people who manned it took advantage of our untoward situation.

It had been remarked by some of us, while the vessel held her course, not without surprise, that matters were not altogether in the condition which we had expected to witness in such a place as Boston Bay. No light cruisers had met us as we approached the cape, nor, as far as we could discern, were there any symptoms of a fleet either in the inner or the outer harbour. When we looked again to the telegraph station, we could discover no movement indicating the vigilance of those who kept it, or denoting that a strange sail was in sight. The As yet very few lives had been lost. Repeatedly the might of the battery also slumbered, and our ensign re-ship was hulled, and our mainmast, severely wounded in ceived no salute. This was curious enough, for the customs of the service required that, in time of war, no vessel should cast anchor in a British roadstead till her name should have been made known, and the object of her coming notified. Still we could not doubt that we were in a British roadstead, nor were plausible answers wanting, as often as any, more curious than the rest, ventured to ask why so unsatisfactory a course should have been pursued. But our anxiety, if such it may be called, was not destined to be of very long continuance. Our sails were clewed up; our anchor plunged heavily into the water; the cable was veered out, and the vessel swung head to the tide,-when a solution to such misgivings as might yet linger in the minds of the most incredulous was not very agreeably afforded.

The men were clustering in the forecastle, and the officers leaning over the taffrail, with glasses turned towards the town, when a flash from the battery on the island, followed by an instantaneous report, caused us to look up. We had scarce done so, when a ball, after touching the water once or twice in its course, buried itself in a swell of the sea, just under our stern. We stared with astonishment one upon another, for the signal-if such it was-had been very awkwardly managed; but ere a word had been exchanged, another and another gun was fired, the shots from which passed some ahead,

two places, threatened, should a third shot take effect, to go by the board; yet only three men had fallen, of whom one was a sailor. Though galled and annoyed, therefore, we did not think of surrendering; when, suddenly, a numerous flotilla, consisting of schooners, launches, and row-boats of the most formidable size, put off from the town. Onwards they came, and our glasses soon made us aware that they were all crowded with men ; nor did many minutes elapse ere ample proof was given that most of the craft had cannon. They took up a position in line exactly abaft our beam; and while the shore battery raked us from stem to stern, they poured whole volleys of round and grape across our quarter. Our commandant, so far from giving way under this accumulation of evils, seemed to take courage from it. caused the ship's guns to be traversed aft, and answered the enemy's salute with admirable spirit, though, as the event proved, to but little purpose. But such a combat could not long be maintained. Seeing that our fire produced no visible effect, and perceiving that his men began to fall fast around him; warned also by the skipper, that the transport was so riddled as to render it impossi ble for her to float after the tide should have turned, Colonel Campbell reluctantly gave the word to strike; and our flag, which had hitherto floated both at the peak and from the mainmast head, was, with inexpressible

He

mortification, hauled down. We shrugged up our shoul- | saved the ship's guns, it is true, but he did not succeed

ders as we gazed on one another, and felt that we were prisoners.

in creating a belief among the Americans that he was
not a party to the destruction of the men's muskets.
The enemy had continued their cannonade about a

I cannot pretend to describe what were my own sensations, far less the sensations of others, after this humili-quarter of an hour, and several of our comrades had ating ceremony was gone through. Had we suffered our present fate, under almost any other circumstances; had we been taken in the field, or fallen with some town or fort, there would have been this at least to console us, that to such a destiny all soldiers are liable, and that all ought to be prepared for it. But to run, as it were, with eyes open, into the lion's mouth; to be taken through our own negligence, or rather through the negligence of those whose duty it was to have provided egainst the possible occurrence of such a misfortune; and, above all, to become captives at the very outset of our career, ere an opportunity had been afforded of striking one blow for freedom; these were reflections which brought with them no comfort. We hung down our heads, like men who had disgraced themselves; for though we were all conscious that nothing had happened which either courage or skill could have averted, even that consideration went for nothing under the painful excitement of the mo

ment.

fallen under it, when they seemed to have discovered all at once, that our colours were not flying. The firing accordingly ceased; and a boat pushing ahead of their line, approached within hail to demand whether we had surrendered. We replied of course in the affirmative; upon which a signal was hung out for the flotilla to advance. The whole moved forward till they surrounded us on all hands, and sending their boarders over the chains, our decks were crowded with people, whose dress and language equally gave proof that they belonged to no regular service, naval or military. Such a cut-throat looking crew never indeed came together, except under the bloody flag of some fierce rover. There were landsmen in round frocks, with carving-knives stuck by their sides in place of daggers; there were militia men in all manner of dresses, armed with long duck-guns; and there were seamen-hardy and brave I do not doubt-but as ferocious in their bearing as if piracy were their profession, and life and death matters of no importance where interest came in the way. The latter were chiefly equipped with pistols and cutlasses, which they brandished with an air of insolent triumph, as uncalled for as it was unbecoming.*

Upon the scene which followed I gladly draw a veil, for it was such as I cannot think of without disgust. Irritated by the destruction of our arms, and indignant at what they were pleased to term our presumption in re

Our flag was lowered, yet even the poor recompense of an immediate exemption from personal danger was not afforded. Whether the smoke which, in a dead calm, rolled off heavily from the ship, obscured us, or whether, as in the bitterness of our chagrin, we were inclined to believe, the enemy saw, without regarding, our condition, I cannot tell; but for several minutes after all opposition on our part had ceased, they continued their fire. Shot after shot struck us, till there arose at last a wild cry, insisting a foe so superior, the miscreants forgot what was which all ranks participated, that it would be better to perish like men, with arms in our hands, than thus stand idly to be mowed down by those who seemed determined to give no quarter. "Out with the boats!" was now heard from various quarters. "The island is not far off; let us make a dash at the battery; and if we cannot carry it, let us at all events sell our lives as dearly as we can." But the utter hopelessness of such an attempt did not escape Colonel Campbell's consideration. He therefore exerted himself to soothe his irritated followers, and sending most of them below, continued himself to walk the deck with the utmost composure.

When a fortress or a ship surrenders, it is in accordance with the laws of war, that all arms, stores, and military implements contained in it, shall be handed over, exactly as they are, to the conquerors. Of this we were well aware; nor, when we hauled down our flag, was there the slightest intention on the part of any one on board to contravene the custom. But furious, at what they regarded as a wanton disregard of the dictates of humanity, our soldiers no sooner found themselves below, than they ran to the arm-racks. In five minutes there was not a musket there of which the stock was not broken across. The belts, cartouch-boxes, and bayonets, likewise were caught up, and all, together with the fragments of the firelocks, were cast into the sea.

Had Colonel Campbell been aware of what was going on, he would have doubtless put a stop to it; for he was a strict disciplinarian as well as a man of rigid honour; but the work of destruction went forward so rapidly, that long ere a whisper reached him there remained nothing further to be done. When, however, the enraged soldiers made a movement to throw the cannon likewise overboard, he withstood them; nor would he permit a particle of the spare ammunition in store to be injured. But his fair dealing in this instance was wasted; he

due, not so much to us as to themselves. They loaded us with scorn and insults,-stripped us of every valuable,-threatened to tie up the officers to the gratings,and beat the men with the flats of their swords: indeed, in more than one instance it occurred that the edge of the cutlass was used, and that severe, if not dangerous wounds, were inflicted. Finally, they drove us, like a herd of oxen, on board of their small craft, and sent us, without a single article of baggage, to be towed in the schooners into Boston. This done, they plundered the transport of every thing contained in it, whether of public property or belonging to individuals; and finding on examination that it would not float, they summed up all by setting it on fire.

As there was a strong tide against us, and the schooners overloaded with heavy cannon went much by the head, our progress towards the landing place proved slow; indeed the sun had set some time ere we gained the extreme edge of the Long Wharf. To say the truth, we experienced little mortification at the circumstance. Though not without curiosity as to the appearance of a town in which we had anticipated a very different reception, we were content to postpone its gratification, rather than become in open day, objects of impertinent remark to the rabble, who, we could not doubt, were assembled to greet us. Nor were we deceived in this expectation. The whole extent of the wharf was crowded with men, women, and children, all on foot to witness the arrival of the British prisoners, and all anxious to testify by their hootings and yells, how cordial was the abhorrence in which they held us. Through that crowd we were marched, our guards, as it appeared to us, being more anxious to exhibit the trophies of their own valour, than to protect the captives from insult; and having passed

* A British account, truly!-Ed Mus.

to our capture. We learned that General Howe, unable to maintain himself in Boston, had withdrawn so long ago as the preceding April. He had, however, stationed a cruiser in Nantucket Sound in order that stragglers from England and elsewhere might not run into danger. But the cruiser, overpowered by the fire of the same bat

several streets, some of them tolerably capacious, we arrived ere long at a massy building which we were given to understand was the common jail. Into it the officers were thrust; while the men were moved off to a meeting-house hard by, where, under the close surveillance of a military guard, they passed the night. People circumstanced as we then were, are not gener-tery which had done us so much damage, had been forced ally inclined to indulge much in conversation; though off the coast only three days previous to our arrival; there were four of us together, the tenants of one small and as we unfortunately came up ere another had come apartment, little of the spirit of companionship reigned to relieve her, we ran head foremost into the toils. This among us. If our feelings were not precisely the same, was but poor consolation to us; neither were we made there was nothing in the manner of one which contrasted happy by the narrative which the governor gave, of the in a remarkable degree with that of another. When we views, both political and military, which marked the openspoke at all it was in brief sentences,-from which all ing of the contest. Nevertheless we all felt, from the that could be gathered was, that we were equally mise-tone assumed by our host, that he spoke it out of no unrable, and even the important question, though occa- worthy disposition to annoy. Whatever our sentiments sionally broached—namely, how it behoved us to act might be in reference to others, towards himself our resrelative to our parole, received that night slender consi-pect was undiminished. deration. It is worthy of remark that our captors took no pains to lighten our sorrows, or to reconcile us to our fate. We saw no one from the moment of our incarceration except the jailer, and neither supper nor beds were offered to us.

There was so much truth in these remarks, that, in spite of a half-formed determination to the contrary, we agreed to be guided by them. We gave our word of honour that we would not attempt to pass beyond a certain distance out of Boston, till the privilege of parole should be withdrawn, or an exchange of prisoners effected; and we became, in consequence, as much mas

All this was as it was meant to be, and the governor, seeing that he had made an impression, which was certainly not diminished by an offer to find out and to restore our private baggage, proceeded to speak on the subject of our future treatment. "It can be a matter of no moment In this comfortless manner the night wore away, what to me," said he, "whether you avail yourselves of the inlittle sleep any of us obtained being snatched upon the dulgence of parole or not; for we have many depôts in bare boards; but the morrow brought with it a change of which you can be safely kept: but for your own sakes I circumstances considerably for the better. As if ashamed earnestly advise that the offer be not refused. Consider that of the conduct of his subalterns, Colonel Thomas Crofts, you are at least two hundred miles from the nearest Brithe governor of the place, sent his aide-de-camp to as-tish post,—that of your recapture by force of arms there sure us, that nothing but the lateness of the hour at which is not the most distant probability,—and that if you dewe arrived would have induced him to permit our being termine on keeping yourselves in a condition to attempt lodged in prison even for a single night; and that he was an escape whenever an opportunity shall offer,—you will now ready either to release us on the customary terms, lay me under the disagreeable necessity of treating you or to transfer us to a more commodious as well as res- with a degree of restraint which I should be very unwillpectable place of safe-keeping. We were at the same ing to apply. No doubt it is mortifying to find your time invited to become his guests at breakfast; and of professional career cut short, just as the prospect of gathfered every accommodation in the way of money and ap-ering laurels had opened; but the evil is without remedy, parel of which we might stand in need. Now, as ours and a wise man always bends to events which he finds was not a situation in which it would have been prudent to himself unable to control." indulge anything like bad humour, we agreed to gulp, as well as we could, the treatment of the past night; and followed without hesitation his well-bred messenger to the governor's quarters. But the subject of parole required further consideration, and both the aide-de-camp and his chief were too considerate to insist on a hasty determination. The kind of reception which met us on our first arri-ters of our own time as was consistent with a moderate val in Boston, had been such as to impress us with an degree of surveillance. Besides, the kindness of Colonel unfavourable opinion of the American character: the be- Crofts did not end here: he caused excellent quarters to haviour of Colonel Crofts, and of the gentlemen attached be assigned to us in the houses of certain families who to his household, went far to remove it. The former was were suspected of a leaning in favour of the royal cause; not only hospitable and kind, but thoroughly well-bred. and he issued orders that our wants should be duly atHe apologised for the rudeness to which we had been tended to, and the utmost respect paid to our persons. subjected, and accounted for it by explaining, that we had | Here then, we were, prisoners at large, in a town famous, fallen into the hands of privateersmen and other despera-above all in the New World, for its hostility to the Engdoes, over whom his control was much more nominal lish, yet well treated both by the civil and military authan real. He hinted, indeed, that the breaking of the thorities; and with a fair prospect of spending our days arms by our men was not quite fair, though he at once among them till a war, just begun, should be brought, gave credit to our assertion that the officers had no hand one way or another, to its close. in it; and he wound up all by alluding to the benefit which the republican cause had obtained, by the removal, from among its enemies, of so many gallant soldiers. In a word, he exerted himself so much to purpose, and made himself so agreeable, that whatever reserve it had been our purpose to maintain gradually melted away; and we were, before the conclusion of the meal, as completely at our ease, as if our acquaintance had been of a year's standing. Among other topics of conversation it was natural that allusion should be made to the circumstances which led

Of the manner in which my days were spent during many weeks of compulsory inaction, I kept no record. A captive among entire strangers, to whose habits and notions I found it impossible to assimilate my own, time rolled over my head as unsatisfactorily as possible; indeed, there were moments when I heartily repented that I had been cajoled into the acceptance of my parole, and pondered upon the best method of having the indulgence withdrawn. But my comrades, on all such occasions, withstood me, while they argued with great justice, that the