RUN UP LITTLE EGG RIVER.--MEET THE MILITIA LIEUTENANT WHOSE LIFE I
SAVED.--"ONE GOOD TURN DESERVES ANOTHER."--SET OUT FOR WASHINGTON'S
CAMP.--FALL INTO THE HANDS OF THE HESSIANS.--THE LADIES IN DANGER.--
DEVASTATING MARCH OF MERCENARIES.--ESCAPE.--HOUSE IN WHICH WE ARE LODGED
ATTACKED.--PLACE THE LADIES FOR SAFETY IN A ROOT HOUSE.
We were saved. The gale blew as hard as ever outside; the sea broke
furiously on the sandy shore, the foam reaching across the bank even to
where we lay, while the wind whistled through the rigging with a shrill
and mournful sound. No sooner did I see that the anchor held than as I
was hurrying below to quell the alarm of my passengers, I met them
coming on deck, unable to comprehend the cause of the sudden change from
the wildest tossing to the perfect calm in which we lay. They looked
about them with an expression of astonishment on their features,
evidently puzzled to know how we could have got where we were; then they
clasped their hands and raised their voices together in prayer and
heartfelt gratitude for their safety. The sudden and simultaneous
movement touched my heart, and while I admired their simple piety it
made me sensible of the hardness of my own heart in religious matters.
"Where are we, Mr Hurry?" asked Mrs Tarleton. "We owe much, I feel
sure, under God's providence, to your excellent seamanship."
I thanked her for her good opinion of me, and told her that we were, I
believed, at the mouth of Little Egg Harbour, on the coast of New
Jersey, and that I hoped to run up the river and to land her at some
spot at which conveyances might be obtained, as I would not risk her
safety by continuing the voyage. Her niece looked far more than her
aunt expressed, so I was perfectly satisfied, though she said but
little. They knew that I should be in no hurry to part from them;
indeed, I had received orders from Sir Peter not to do so till I had
conducted them to their friends or seen them in a place of safety.
While I was still talking to the ladies. Grampus called me aside and
hurriedly told me that, if the hands were not sent to the pumps, in a
very short time the schooner would go down. I accordingly set all hands
to work, and when they had lessened the water in the hold I once more
made sail, and, with the lead going on either side, I stood through a
passage to the southward, and then to the west again up Little Egg
River. I hoisted a flag of truce as I stood on. After some time I came
in sight of a gentleman's house--a long low building with a verandah
round it--the usual style of building in that part of the country. Near
the house was a village. I dropped my anchor and lowered a boat to go
on shore.
"We will accompany you, Mr Hurry," said Mrs Tarleton, who at that
moment with her niece followed me on deck after I had announced my
intention. "Should the country be in possession of the troops of George
of Brunswick, you are safe; but if in that of our patriot troops, you
may be liable to molestation."
To this proposal I could raise no objection, so, ordering Grampus to
keep the people at the pumps to prevent the vessel from sinking, I
handed the ladies into the boat, and steered for a rough little wooden
stage near the large house I had observed on shore. I had a white flag
at the end of a boat-hook in the bows of the boat, that I might be
prepared for friends or foes. Not a person was to be seen moving. I
ran the boat alongside the stage, and with my passengers stepped on
shore, leaving Rockets with the flag and two other hands in the boat.
There was, for a short distance, a piece of uncultivated open ground,
and then a wood of somewhat scrubby trees through which a path led. We
had walked along it but a short distance, when, turning an angle, we
were confronted by a body of militia, mustering some dozen or twenty
men.
"Halt!" cried the sergeant at the head of the party. "Strangers! who
are you?"