For some days the "Dolphin" rode at anchor in Bar Harbour, Mount
Desert, while its passengers found great enjoyment in trips here and
there about the island, visiting the Ovens, Otter Cliffs, Schooner
Head, and other points of interest.
But the time was drawing near when Max must show himself to the
examiners of applicants for cadetship in Annapolis, and early one
bright morning, a favourable land breeze springing up, the yacht
weighed anchor and started southward.
They were to touch at Newport on their way and take on board any of
their party left there who might care to visit Annapolis with them.
As usual all gathered upon deck shortly after breakfast, and again the
young people besieged the Captain with requests for something more
about the doings of Revolutionary days.
"You know, Papa," said Lulu, "we've been so busy visiting all those
lovely places on Mount Desert that we haven't had time for anything
about the wars since you told us how Arnold fought the British on Lake
Champlain."
"Yes, I remember," he said. "How would you like now to hear of some of
the doings and happenings of those times in and about Newport?"
"Oh, please do tell of them! We'd like it ever so much," answered
several young voices, and the Captain good-naturedly complied.
"I will begin," he said, "with a bold and brave exploit of Major Silas
Talbot, in the fall of 1778. The British had converted a strong vessel
into a galley, named it the 'Pigot,' in honour of their general of that
name, and anchored it in the channel between the eastern side of the
island bearing the same name as the State, and the main land. It was
armed with twelve eight-pounders and ten swivels, making a formidable
floating battery, the object of which was to close up the channel
against the French fleet which lay off Newport.
"It also effectually broke up the local trade of that section;
therefore its destruction was very desirable, and Major Talbot proposed
to head an expedition to accomplish that, or its capture. General
Sullivan thought the thing could not be done, but finally gave consent
that the effort should be made.
"Sixty resolute patriots were drafted for the purpose and on the 10th
of October they set sail in a coasting-sloop called the 'Hawk,' armed
with only three three-pounders, beside the small arms carried by the
men.
"They passed the British forts at Bristol Ferry and anchored within a
few miles of the 'Pigot.' Major Talbot then procured a horse, rode down
the east bank and reconnoitred. He saw that the 'Pigot' presented a
formidable appearance, but he was not too much alarmed thereby to make
the proposed attempt to capture her.
"At nine o'clock that same evening he hoisted his anchor, and favoured
by a fair wind, started on his perilous errand. He had with him
Lieutenant Helm, of Rhode Island, with a small reinforcement. He had
also a kedge-anchor, lashed to his jib-boom, with which to tear the
nettings of the 'Pigot.' The darkness of the night enabled him to drift
past Fogland Ferry Fort under bare poles, without being discovered; he
then hoisted sail and ran partly under the stern of the 'Pigot.'
"The sentinels hailed him, but no answer was returned; and they fired a
volley of musketry at the 'Hawk,' which fortunately hit no one, while
her kedge-anchor tore the 'Pigot's' nettings and grappled her, and so
gave the Americans a free passage to her deck. They poured on it from
the 'Hawk,' with loud shouts, and drove every man from the deck except
the captain. He, in shirt and drawers, fought desperately till he found
that resistance was useless, when he surrendered his vessel with the
officers and crew.
"The Americans secured the prisoners below by coiling the cables
over the hatchways, weighed anchor, and started for the harbour of
Stonington, which they entered the next day with their prize."
"Good!" cried Max. "I'd have liked to be one of those brave fellows,
and I hope Congress rewarded them for their gallant deed."
"It did," said the Captain; "presented Talbot with a commission of
lieutenant-colonel in the army of the United States, and complimented
both him and his men."
"I suppose they'd have given them some money if they'd had it to
spare," remarked Lulu; "but of course they hadn't, because the country
was so dreadfully poor then."
"Yes," said her father, "it was poor, and Newport, Rhode Island,
was suffering greatly from the long-continued occupation of the
British. The people of that colony had from the first taken a bold and
determined stand in opposition to the usurpations of King George and
his ministers, and the oppressions of their tools in this country.
"In the summer of 1769 a British armed sloop, sent there by the
commissioners of customs, lay in Narragansett Bay, she was called
'Liberty,' certainly a most inappropriate name. Her errand was similar
to that of the 'Gaspee' about the destruction of which I have already
told you,--though that occurred some three years later. The commander
of the 'Liberty,' was a Captain Reid. A schooner and brig belonging to
Connecticut had been seized and brought into Newport; also the clothing
and the sword of the captain, Packwood, commander of the brig, had been
taken, and carried aboard the 'Liberty.' He went there to recover them,
was badly maltreated, and as he left the sloop in his boat, was fired
upon with a musket and a brace of pistols.
"This occurrence greatly exasperated the people of Newport, who
demanded of Reid that the man who had fired upon Captain Packwood
should be sent ashore.
"Reid again and again sent the wrong man, which of course exasperated
the people, and they determined to show him that they were not to be
trifled with. Accordingly, a number of them boarded the 'Liberty,' cut
her cables, and set her adrift. The tide carried her down the bay and
drifted her to Goat Island, where the people, after throwing her stores
and ammunition into the water, scuttled her, and set her on fire. Her
boats were dragged to the common, and burned there."
"Was she entirely burned, Papa?" asked Gracie.
"Almost, after burning for several days."
"And that was nearly six years before the battle of Lexington," Evelyn
remarked in a half musing tone. "How wonderfully patient and forbearing
the Americans were, putting up for years with so much of British
insolence and oppression!"
"I think they were," responded the Captain. "Nor was it from cowardice,
as they plainly showed when once war with Great Britain was fairly
inaugurated.
"And the little State of Rhode Island had her full share in the
struggle and the suffering it brought. Let us see what Bancroft says in
regard to the action of her citizens at the beginning of the conflict,
immediately after the battles of Lexington and Concord," he added,
taking up and opening a book lying near at hand. All waited in silence
as he turned over the leaves and began to read,--
"The nearest towns of Rhode Island were in motion before the British
had finished their retreat. At the instance of Hopkins and others,
Wanton, the governor, though himself inclined to the royal side,
called an assembly. Its members were all of one mind; and when Wanton,
with several of the council, showed hesitation, they resolved, if
necessary, to proceed alone. The council yielded and confirmed the
unanimous vote of the assembly for raising an army of fifteen hundred
men. 'The colony of Rhode Island,' wrote Bowler, the speaker, to
the Massachusetts congress, 'is firm and determined; and a greater
unanimity in the lower house scarce ever prevailed.' Companies of the
men of Rhode Island preceded this early message."
"The little State took a noble stand," remarked Violet, as her husband
finished reading and closed the book.
"Yes," he said, "and their consequent sufferings from British
aggressions promptly began. Admiral Wallace, an inhuman wretch, that
summer commanded a small British fleet lying in Newport harbour. It was
he who promised to hang Abraham Whipple, but never caught him. It was
discovered by the Americans that he (Wallace) was planning to carry off
the livestock from the lower end of the island to supply the British
army at Boston."
"Going to steal them, Papa?" asked Gracie.
"Yes; but the people were too quick for him. Some of them went down
one dark night in September and brought off a thousand sheep and fifty
head of cattle; and three hundred minute-men drove a good many more to
Newport, so saving them from being taken by Wallace and his men.
"Wallace was very angry, ordered the people to make contributions to
supply his fleet with provisions, and to force them to do so took
care to prevent them from getting their usual supplies of fuel and
provisions from the mainland.
"The people were much alarmed, and about half of them left the town.
Shortly afterward a treaty was made by which they engaged to supply the
fleet with provisions and beer, and Wallace allowed them to move about
as they pleased. But soon, however, he demanded three hundred sheep
of the people of Bristol, and upon their refusal to comply, bombarded
their town.
"He began the bombardment about eight o'clock in the evening. The rain
was pouring in torrents; and the poor women and children fled through
the darkness and storm, out to the open fields to escape from the
flying shot and shell of the invaders."
"Oh, how dreadful for the poor things!" exclaimed Gracie.
"Yes, there was great suffering among them," replied her father. "The
house of Governor Bradford was burned, as also were many others.
Wallace played the pirate in Narragansett Bay for a month, wantonly
destroying the people's property, seizing every American vessel that
entered Newport harbour and sending it to Boston,--which, as you will
remember, was then occupied by the British general, Gage, and his
troops,--plundering and burning all the dwellings on the beautiful
island of Providence, and all the buildings near the ferry at Canonicut.
"He kept possession of the harbour till the spring of 1776; but in
April of that year some American troops came to try to drive him
away. Captain Grimes brought two row-galleys, each carrying two
eighteen-pounders, from Providence. Provincial troops brought two more
eighteen-pounders and planted them on shore where the British, who were
anchored about a mile above Newport, could see them.
"Wallace evidently thought the danger too great and immediate, for he
weighed anchor, and with his whole squadron sailed out of the harbour
without firing a shot."
"He must have been a coward like most men who revel in such cruelty,"
remarked Max sagely. "Not much like the Wallace of Scotland who fought
the English so bravely in early times."
"I quite agree with you in that thought, Max," his father said with
a slight smile. "This Wallace was the same who, later in the war,
plundered and destroyed the property of the Americans on the Hudson,
desolating the farms of innocent men because they preferred freedom to
the tyrannical rule of the English government, and laying the town of
Kingston in ashes.
"Soon after he sailed out of Narragansett Bay another British vessel
called the 'Glasgow,' carrying twenty-nine guns, came into the harbour
and anchored near Fort Island. She had just come out of a severe
fight with some American vessels, held the same day that Wallace left
Newport. Probably her officers thought he was still there so that
their vessel would be safe in that harbour, but they soon discovered
their mistake. The Americans threw up a breast-work on Brenton's Point,
placed some pieces of heavy artillery there, and the next morning
opened upon her and another vessel so vigorous a fire from their
battery that they soon cut their cables and went out to sea again."