7. One of those killed on board the Macedonian was the carpente As he was known to be in destitute circumstances, and to have left a family of helpless children with a worthless mother, his brave companions immediately held a contribution, and raised eight hundred dollars, to be put in safe hands, for the education of the unhappy orphans. 8. Sailors are apt to be generous. It is not always, however, that they make so wise an application of their charities as in this case.

9. Another victory was achieved by our brave tars before the year closed. Captain Hull had retired from the service, and had been succeeded in the command of the Constitution by Commodore Bainbridge. On the 29th of December, while off the coast of Brazil, the British frigate Java, of forty-nine guns, came in sight, and a battle ensued.

10. The engagement was severe from the first. It had continued nearly two hours, and nearly two hundred men had been killed or wounded on board the Java, when she was compelled to strike her colors. She was so much injured that it was concluded, a few days afterward, to burn her. The loss of the Constitution was hardly onesixth as great as that of the Java.

11. On board the Java, during the battle, was an American prisoner, in confinement. Anxious to know the issue, he often asked a Chinese, who was stationed near him, how the battle was going on. "Oh, a glorious victory," was the reply always. Not satisfied with this, especially as he saw so many wounded men brought below, he asked which side was about to gain the victory. "Why," said the Chinese, one or t'other."

66

CHAPTER CLXIII.

MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION, CONTINUED.--Louisiana admitted to the Union.- Mediation of Russia between the United States and Great Britain offered.-Madison re elected. Various Events of 1812 and 1813.

1. SEVERAL other interesting events in our national history took place during the years 1812 and 1813. One of these was the admission, in the course of the former year, of Louisiana to the federal union. She was the eighteenth pillar of the great national fabric, and a most

7. What was done for the family of the carpenter on board the Macedonian? 8. Charracter of sailors? 9. Who succeeded Captain Hull? What of the Java? 10. Describe the engagement. What was the loss of the two ships? 11. What passed between the American prisoner and the Chinese?

CHAP. CLXIII.-1. What of Lou'siana?

RE-ELECTION OF MADISON.

333

important one, as she holds the keys of entrance, through the mouth of the mighty river Mississippi, to the richest, if not the most extensive valley in the world.

2. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was also incorporated in 1812; and five missionaries were ordained at Salem to preach the gospel at Bom-bay', in Asia. They were the first foreign missionaries ever ordained here. Yet the same board, in 1842, thirty years later, sustained no less than one hundred and thirty-four of these foreign missionaries.

3. Very early in the year 1813, the Emperor of Russia kindly offered to try to make peace between Great Britain and the United States; and Albert Gallatin, James A. Bayard, and John Quincy Adams, were appointed as commissioners, and sent to Russia to meet such commissioners as the British might appoint, and, if practicable, to make a treaty between the two countries.

4. The terin for which Mr. Madison had been elected president expired on the 4th of March, 1813, and a strong effort was made, by the party opposed to the war, to elect De Witt Clinton in his stead; but they did not succeed. Mr. Madison was re-elected, and George Clinton was also re-elected vice-president; the latter died soon after, and was succeeded by Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts.

5. Cotton manufactories began to flourish this year, 1813. In the neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island, one hundred and twenty thousand spindles were in operation, consuming six million pounds of cotton yearly. About the end of the year, twenty thousand or thirty thousand spindles were running at Baltimore. Yet, in 1809, not a thread of cotton was spun by machinery in this country. At present the manufacture of cotton in the United States, is one of the leading industrial interests of the nation.

6. This year, 1813, moreover, was remarkable for two more events, the birth of the Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance, which has led the way to so much good in the United States, and the death of him who may be justly considered as the father of our temperance societies, Dr. Benjamin Rush.

2. When was the American Board of Commissioners first incorporated? What of foreign missionaries? What of the board in 1842? 8. What of the Emperor of Russia? Who were sent as commissioners? 4. Who now were re-elected president and vice-presi dent? What of Elbridge Gerry? 5. What of cotton manufactories at Providence? At Baltimore? 6. What two events of importance occurred in 1813?

CHAPTER CLXIV.

MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION, CONTINUED.-The Massacre at

Frenchtown.

1. WE have seen that the north-western division of the United States army was stationed in the neighborhood of Detroit, and was under the command of General Harrison. There, too, they wintered 1812-13. General Harrison's plan was to collect a sufficient force ir that region, and, as soon as he could, retake Detroit, and the other forts and places which General Hull had so unwisely surrendered.

2. Early in January, news came from the Americans at Frenchtown, a place twenty-six miles from Detroit, that the British and Indians were coming against them; praying, at the same time, for assistance. General Winchester, with eight hundred men, marched thither, and succeeded in driving away the British and Indians, who had already arrived, but was, in his turn, driven away by the British, on the 23d inst., and himself and five hundred men taken prisoners.

3. Their surrender was followed by a scene almost too shocking to describe. General Proctor, the British commander, had pledged his honor that the lives and private property of the American soldiers should be respected after the surrender. But, instead of this, the dead were stripped and scalped, by the Indian allies of the British-the wounded, such as were unable to rise, butchered, and the living stripped and plundered, and many of them tomahawked, or only reserved to be roasted at the stake. Few of them lived to be exchanged. 4. It is maintained by some that General Proctor could not have prevented these barbarities. It is difficult, however, to believe this. The bare thought of such a massacre is shocking, whether it could have been avoided or not. It exhibits, in a most striking manner, horrors of war, especially of Indian warfare.

the

5. What rendered this massacre at Frenchtown more afflicting was the fact that most of the troops were of the very flower of Kentucky. They were, many of them, young men who had a large circle of respectable relatives. Their bodies lay in the fields till autumn, wher their friends ventured to collect their bleaching bones and bury them. 6. The news of General Winchester's defeat reached General Harrison while on his march to Frenchtown with reinforcements.

Find

CHAP. CLXIV.-1. What was General Harrison's plan? What portion of the army did he command? 2. What news came from the Americans at Frenchtown? What of General Winchester? 3. Describe the scene after the surrender. 4. What opinion is held of General Proctor? 5. What of the American troops that fell at Frenchtown? 6. What did General Harrison now do?

CAPTURE OF YORK.

335

ing himself too late, he stopped at the rapids of the river Mau-mee' and built a fort, which, in honor of the governor of Ohio, he called Fort Meigs. This he made, for the present, the head-quarters of his army,

CHAPTER CLXV.

MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION, CONTINUED.-Capture of York, and Death of General Pike.

1. LITTLE, if any thing, was done, during the year 1812, to increase

GENERAL PIKE.

the naval force of the United States, either on the ocean or the lakes. Commodore Chauncey had indeed been sent to Lake Ontario, about the 1st of September, to fill up the Oneida, a vessel of sixteen guns, and to arm half a dozen schooners, and thus form a little squadron. There had also been some skirmishing upon the lake.

2. The next spring, General Dearborn laid a plan to attack York, in Upper Canada, the great depository of the British military stores. His troops, amounting to seventeen hundred men, embarked, about the middle of April, on board Commodore Chauncey's vessels, and, on the 25th, they set sail for York.

3. The army was directed by General Pike, a young man of great promise, who had requested the command as a favor. They landed at York on the 27th. As they were moving toward the garrison, a magazine exploded, which the British had prepared for the purpose, and which mortally wounded General Pike and killed about a hundred of his men.

4. General Pike did not die, however, though his head was literally crushed by the heavy stone which fell on it, till he had seen the town and all the barracks, and fortifications, and stores, and seven hundred and fifty of the enemy, in the possession of his victorious troops. The loss, in killed and wounded, was great on both sides, but greatest on the side of the Americans.

CHAP. CLXV.-1. What of Commodore Chauncey? 1. What plan was laid by Gen. eral Dearborn? 3. How was the army directed? What was the fate of General Pika and a part of his troops? 4. What did he, however, live to see? Loss on both sides'

5. Zebulon M. Pike, who lost his life in this engagement, was a native of New Jersey, and was not only well instructed, but rendered healthy and robust by active exercise. As his father had been an officer in the Revolutionary army, the son was trained to military life, and was early made a lieutenant on the western frontiers.

6. About the time when Lewis and Clarke were sent on an exploring tour up the Missouri, Lieutenant Pike, with twenty men, and provisions for four months, was sent up the Mississippi. The company set out August 5th, 1805. Instead of four months, however, they were absent nine months, exposed to almost every danger and hardship.

7. Sometimes they were wholly without food for several days together. At other times, they slept, without any covering, upon the bare ground, or upon the snow; for they were out all winter, and the season was unusually severe. Sometimes they were obliged to leave their boat and build canoes; and sometimes they carried their canoes, from place to place, on their backs.

8. Though sent to acquire information, they had no surveyor or clerk with them but Pike. He was, as he justly says of himself, at once the commanding officer, clerk, astronomer, surveyor, spy, guide, and hunter of the party. He kept his journal and drew all his sketches by the fire at night in the open air.

9. In two months after his return, he was sent out by General Wilkinson to obtain geographical and other information on the borders of New Mexico. Again he was out the whole winter, unprotected. All the horses belonging to the party died, and all the men, except Pike himself, were more or less frozen.

10. But these were not all the trials to which he was exposed. Unexpectedly, they found themselves upon the banks of the Rio del Norte, within the Spanish territory. Here they were seized by a band of Spanish cavalry, and, what was worst of all, Pike's instruments and papers, except his private journal, were taken from him. The party were, however, at length all liberated, and in July, 1807, reached Natchitoches.

11. Such was the education, properly so called, of this most interesting young man, who, at the age of thirty-three, became a brigadiergeneral in the American army, and, at thirty-four, begged the favor of leading the American troops in an attack on York,* to die, like Wolfe, before Quebec, in the moment of victory.

5. What of General Pike's early life? 6. What of his expedition up the Mississippi? 7. Describe the sufferings of the men. 8. What stations were held by Pike? 9. What other expedition did he undertake? 10. What happened to the party? 11. What was Pike's age at the time of his death?

* York, sometimes called Little York, and now bearing its original Indian name of Toronto, is situated on the north-west shore of Lake Ontario, about thirty miles north of Niagara.