fell in with a fquadron from Admiral Parker in fearch of fome register fhips richly laden; but which retreating into the harbour of Omoa, were too ftrongly protected by the fort to be attacked with fafety. A project was then formed, in conjunction with the people of Honduras, to reduce this fort. The defign was to furprise it; but the Spaniards having difcovered them, they were obliged to fight. Victory quickly declared for the British; but the fortifications were fo ftrong, that the artillery they had brought along with them were found too light to make any impreffion. It was then determined to try the fuccefs of an efcalade; and this was executed with fo much fpirit, that the Spaniards. ftood aftonished without making any refiftance, and, in fpite of all the efforts of the officers, threw down their arms and furrendered. The fpoil was immenfe, being valued at three millions of dollars. The Spaniards chiefly lamented the lofs of two hundred and fifty quintals of quickfilver; a. commodity indifpenfably neceffary in the working of their gold and filver mines, fo that they offered to ransom it at any price; but this was refufed, as well as the ransom of the fort, though the governor offered three hundred thousand dollars for it. A small garrison was left for the defence of the place; but it was quickly attacked by a fuperior force, and obliged to evacuate it, though not without deftroying every thing that could be of ufe to the enemy; fpiking the gnns, and even locking the gates of the fort and carrying off the keys. All this was done in the fight of the befiegers; after which the garrifon embarked without the lofs of a man. As no operations of any confequence took place this year in the province of New York, the congrefs made ufe of the opportunity to difpatch General Sullivan with a confiderable force, in order to take vengeance on the Indians for their ravages and depredations: and the object of the expedition was, not merely the reduction of them, but if poffible their utter extirpation. Of this the Indians were apprised; and collecting all their strength, refolved to come to a decifive engagement. Accordingly they took a ftrong poft in the moft woody and mountainous part of the country; erecting a breast-work in their front of large logs of wood extending half a mile in length, while their right flank was covered by a river, and the left by a hill of difficult accefs. This advantageous pofition they had taken by the advice of the refugees who were among them, and of whom two or three hundred were prefent in the battle. Thus pofted, the Indians waited the approach of the American army: but the latter having brought fome artillery along with them, played it against the breast work of the enemy with fuch fuccefs, that in two hours it VOL. I. 4 A was was almost destroyed; and at the fame time a party having reached the top of the hill, they became apprehenfive of being furrounded, on which they inftantly fled with precipitation, leaving a great number of killed and wounded behind them. The Americans after this battle met with no further refiftance of any confequence. They were fuffered to proceed without interruption, and to execute in the most ample manner the vengeance they had projected. On entering the country of the Indians, it appeared that they had been acquainted with agriculture and the arts of peace far beyond what had been fuppofed. From General Sullivan's account it was learned, that the Indian houses were large, convenient, and even elegant; their grounds were excellently cultivated, and their gardens abounded in fruit-trees and vegetables of all kinds fit for food. The whole of this fine country was now by the American general converted into a defart. Forty towns and fettlements, befides fcattered habitations, were demolished; the fields of corn, the orchards, the plantations, were utterly laid wafte; all the fruit-trees were cut down; and fo great had been the industry of the Indians, that in one orchard one thousand five hundred of these were destroyed. The quantity of corn wafted on this occafion was fuppofed to amount to one hundred and fixty thousand bufhels. In short, fuch was the defolation, that on the American army's leaving the country, not a house, not a field of corn, nor a fruit-tree, was left upon the ground, nor was an Indian to be feen throughout the whole track. We must now take a view of the tranfactions in the fouthern colonies; to which the war was, in the year 1780, fo effectually transferred, that the operations there became at laft decifive. The fuccefs of General Prevoft in advancing to the very capital of South Carolina has been already related, together with the obstacles which prevented him from becoming mafter of it at that time. Towards the end of the year 1779, however, Sir Henry Clinton fet fail from New York with a confiderable body of troops, intended for the attack of Charlestown, South Carolina, in a fleet of fhips of war and tranfports under the command of Vice-admiral Arbuthnot. They had a very tedious voyage; the weather was uncommonly bad; feveral of the transports were loft, as were alfo the greatest part of the horfes which they carried with them intended for cavalry or other public ufes; and an ordnance-fhip likewise foundered at fea. Having arrived at Savannah, where they endea voured to repair the damages fuftained on their voyage, they proceeded from thence on the 10th of February 1780 to North Edifto, the place of debarkation which had been previously appointed. They had a favourable and speedy paffage thither: and though it required time to have the bar explored and the channel marked, the tranfports all entered the harbour the next day; and the army took poffeffion of John's island without oppofition. Preparations were then made for paffing the fquadron over Charleflown bar, where the high-water fpring-tides were only nineteen feet deep: but no opportunity offered of going into the harbour till the 20th of March, when it was effected without any accident, though the American galleys continually attempted to prevent the English boats from founding the channel. The British troops had previously removed from John's to James's ifland; and on the 29th of the fame month they effected their landing on Charlestown Neck. On the 1ft of April they broke ground within eight hundred yards of the American works; and by the 8th the befiegers guns were mounted in battery. As foon as the army began to erect their batteries against the town, Admiral Arbuthnot embraced the firft favourable opportunity of paffing Sullivan's Ifland, upon which there was a strong fort of batteries, the chief defence of the harbour. He weighed on the 9th, with the Roebuck, Richmond, and Romulus, Blonde, Virginia, Raleigh, and Sandwich armed fhip, the Renown bringing up the rear; and, paffing through a fevere fire, anchored in about two hours under James's Ifland, with the lofs of twenty-feven feamen killed and wounded. The Richmond's fore-top-maft was fhot away, and the fhips in general fuftained damage in their mafts and rigging, though not materially in their hulls. But the Acetus tranfport, having on board fome naval ftores, grounded within gun-fhot of Sullivan's Island, and received fo much damage that fhe was obliged to be abandoned and burnt. On the 10th, Sir Henry Clinton and Admiral Arbuthnot fummoned the town to surrender to his Majesty's arms: but Major-General Lincoln, who commanded in Charlestown, returned them an answer, declaring it to be his intention to defend the place. The batteries were now opened against the town; and from their effect the fire of the American advanced works confiderably abated. It appears that the number of troops under the command of Lincoln were by far too few for defending works of fuch extent as those of Charlestown; and that many of these were men little accustomed to military fervice, and very ill provided with cloaths. and other neceffaries, General Lincoln had been for fome time expecting reinforcements and fupplies from Virginia and other places: but they came in very flowly. Earl Cornwallis and Lieutenant-colonel Tarleton under him, were alfo extremely active in intercepting fuch reinforcements and supplies as were fent to the American general. They totally defeated a confiderable body of cavalry and militia which was proceed ing to the relief of the town; and alfo made themselves mafters of fome pofts, which gave them in a great degree the command of the country, by which means great fupplies of provifions fell into their hands. Such was the ftate of things, and Fort Sullivan had alfo been taken by the king's troops, when on the 18th of May General Clinton again fummoned the town to furrender; an offer being made, as had been done before, that if they furrendered, the lives and property of the inhabitants should be preferved to them. Articles of capitulation were then propofed by General Lincoln; but the terms were not agreed to by General Clinton. At length, however, the town being closely invefted on all fides, and the preparations to ftorm it in every part being in great forwardnefs, and the fhips ready to move to the affault, General Lincoln, who had been applied to for that purpose by the inhabitants, furrendered it on fuch articles of capitulation as General Clinton had before agreed to. This was on the 4th of May, which was one month and two days after the town had been firft fummoned to furrender. A large quantity of ordnance, arms, and ammunition, were found in Charlestown; and, according to Sir Henry Clinton's account, the num. ber of prisoners taken in Charlestown amounted to five thousand fix hundred and eighteen men, exclufive of near a thoufand failors in arms but according to General Lincoln's account tranfmitted to the congress, the whole number of continental troops taken prifoners amounted to no more than two thoufand four hundred and eighty feven. The remainder, therefore, included in General Clinton's account, must have confifted of militia and inhabitants of the town. Several American frigates were alfo taken or destroyed in the harbour of Charlestown. : The lofs of Charlestown evidently excited a confiderable alarm in America and their popular writers, particularly the author of the celebrated performance intitled Common Senfe, in fome other pieces made ufe of it as a powerful argument to lead them to more vigorous exertions against Great Britain, that they might the more effectually and certainly fecure their independence. While Sir Henry Clinton was employed in his voyage to Charlestown, and in the fiege of that place, the garrifon at New York feem not to have been wholly free from apprehenfions for their own fafety. An intenfe froft, accompanied with great falls of fnow, began about the middle of December 1779, and shut up the navigation of the port of New York from the fea, within a few days after the departure of Admiral Arbuthnot and General Clinton. The feverity of the weather increased to fo great a degree, that towards the middle of January all communications with New York by water were entirely cut off, and as many new ones opened opened by the ice. The inhabitants could fcarcely be faid to be in an infular ftate, Horfes with heavy carriages could go over the ice into the Jerseys from one ifland to another. The paffage in the North River, even in the widest part from New York to Paulus Hook, which was two thousand yards, was about the 19th of January practicable for the heaviest cannon: an event which had been unknown in the memory of man. Provifions were foon after transported upon fledges, and a detachment of cavalry marched upon the ice from New York to Staten Inland, which was a diftance of eleven miles. The city of New York being thus circumftanced, was confidered as much exposed to the attacks from the continental troops and it was ftrongly reported that General Washington was meditating a great ftroke upon New York with his whole force, by different attacks. Some time before this, Major-general Pattifon, commandant at New York, having received an addrefs from many of the inhabitants, offering to put themfelves in military array, he thought the prefent a favourable opportunity of trying the fincerity of their profeffions. Accordingly he iffued a proclamation, calling upon all the male inhabitants from fixteen, to fixty to take up arms. The requifition was fo readily complied with, that in a few days, forty companies from the fix wards of the city were inrolled, officered, and under arms, to the number of two thousand fix hundred, many fubftantial citizens ferving in the ranks of each company.. Other volunteer companies were formed; and the city was put into a very strong pofture of defence. No attack, however, was made upon New York, whatever defign might originally have been meditated: but an attempt was made upon Staten Island, where there were about eighteen hundred men, under the command of Brigadier-general Sterling, who were well intrenched. General Washington, whofe army was hutted at Morris-Town, fent a detachment of two thousand seven hundred men, with fix pieces of cannon, two mortars, and some horses, commanded by Lord Sterling, who arrived at Staten Island early in the morning of the 15th of January. The advanced pofts of the British troops retired upon the approach of. the Americans, who formed the line, and made fome movements in the courfe of the day; but they withdrew in the night, after having burnt one house, pillaged fome others, and carried off with them about two hundred head of cattle. Immediately on the arrival of the Americans on Staten Island, Lieutenant-general Knyphaufen had embarked fix hundred men to attempt a paffage, and to fupport General Sterling: but the floating ice compelled them to return. It is, however, imagined, that the appearance of thefe tranfports, with the British troops on board |