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me the honor of being on board the Maria, I called off the Carleton and gun-boats, and brought the whole fleet to anchor in a line as near as poffible to the rebels, that their retreat might be cut off; which purpose was, however, fruftrated by the extreme obfcurity of the night; and in the morning the rebels had got a confiderable distance from us up the Lake.

Upon the 13th I again faw eleven fail of their fleet making off to Crown-Point, who, after a chace of feven hours, I came up with in the Maria, having the Carleton and Inflexible a small diftance a-ftern; the rest of the fleet almoft out of fight. The action began at twelve o'clock, and lafted two hours; at which time Arnold, in the Congrefs galley, and five gondolas, ran on fhore, and were directly abandoned and blown up by the enemy; a circumftance they were greatly favoured in, by the wind being off fhore, and the narrowness of the Lake. The Washington_galley ftruck during the action, and the reft made their escape to Ticonderoga.

The killed and wounded in his Majefty's fleet, including the artillery in the gun-boats, do not amount to forty; but, from every information I have yet got, the lofs of the enemy muft indeed be very confiderable.

Many particulars which their Lordships may wish to know, I muft, at prefent, take the liberty of referring you to Mr. Dacres for ; but as I am well convinced his modefty will not permit him to fay how great a thare he had in this victory, give me leave to affure you, that during both actions nothing could be more pointedly good than his conduct. I must alfo do the juftice the officers and feamen of this fleet merit, by faying that every perfon under my command exerted themselves to act up to the character of British feamen.

A circumflantial and authentis Account of the ROADS and DISTANCES from NEW-YORK to CROWN-POINT.

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to the last gasp. It was well-nigh exterminated, but it had not suffered in vain. taught the British that the Americans were not only willing, but they were able fighters. In spite of the tremendous odds against them, at the last they had proved themselves as unyielding as the rocks that echoed back the roar of the conflict. Their stubborn wills bade the ambitious Carleton pause and consider. If, with a shattered hulk, they had kept the three best British vessels on the lake at bay until the gondolas were aground and on fire, and if they were then still able to make such a murderous fight as enabled them to fire and burn the last ship with its flag flying till burned away, what would they not do in resisting the British were an attack made on Ticonderoga ?

The thought was cooling to the ardor of even Carleton. Worse yet, should he succeed in taking Ticonderoga, these unyielding Yankees would contest every rod of the long wilderness route with a skill that excelled that of Carleton's best men. And that settled the question that had arisen in Carleton's mind— the question of the advisability of continuing on his course. As a most excellent account of this fight, which appeared in Dodsley's (London)" Annual Register" says, "the strength of the works, the difficulty of approach, the countenance of the enemy, and the ignorance of

their number, with other cogent reason, prevented this design from taking place."

Having looked upon "the countenance of the enemy," Sir Guy Carleton changed his mind. He decided to return to Canada. The most glorious defeat in the annals of the American navy had saved the nation from an invasion that would have severed it in twain, and probably whelmed its forces in utter defeat.

CHAPTER V

UNDER THE CRAGS OF THE "TIGHT LITTLE ISLE"

THE SAUCY YANKEE CRUISERS IN BRITISH WATERS -WHEN
FRANKLIN SAILED FOR FRANCE-WICKES IN THE REPRISAL
ON THE IRISH
ESCAPE FROM A LINER-A

PLUCKY

COAST-NARROW

ENGLISH LIEUTENANT-HARSH FATE OF THE AMERICANS IN THE BRITISH PRISON-STARVED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT -DEEDS OF THE GALLANT CONNYNGHAM-WELL-NAMED CRUISERS-A SURPRISE AT A BREAKFAST TABLE-TAKING PRIZES DAILY-WHY FORTY FRENCH SHIPS LOADED IN THE THAMESINSURANCE RATES NEVER BEFORE KNOWN.

SIGNAL as has been the value of the services of the little vessels of the infant navy of the United States in their operations along the American coast and upon the woodsy waters of the highway from the north during the year of the nation's birth, the American sailors had really only just begun to fight, and it was not until they carried the fight into the very harbors of Great Britain that they taught the British merchants, who had been supporting the British ministry in its oppression of the colonies, a lesson they were slow to learn. For the British merchants had looked upon the war in America as a blessing upon their

business interests. It would be somewhat expensive in the way of taxation, but it would ruin their competitors, the enterprising colonists. It is in the spirit of trade and tradesmen of all classes to view with complacency the little expenses that ruin competitors. But some of the British merchants who rubbed their hands and smiled with satisfaction as they heard of the retreat of Washington across New Jersey in 1776, were to wring them in distress because of wounds in their pockets before the end of 1777-because of ships that were snatched away from under the very crags of what they were pleased to term their “tight little isle."

"In the meantime the irruption of the Phonix and the Rose into the waters of the Hudson had roused a belligerent spirit along its borders." These were the first British warships to sail up the Hudson in the Revolutionary war, and their advent was in July, 1776. The Americans had no ships to send against them, and they commonly remained at anchor out of reach of shore batteries. It was because of their presence that it was proposed to stretch an iron chain across the river at

Anthony's Nose. Other obstructions were prepared, but the only thing done in the way of going afloat to attack them was when some rafts were brought down the river chained

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