country, thereby not allowing the enemy to pront by their great superiority of numbers, discipline, and artillery, and constantly cutting them off by skirmishes and surprise.

The ministerial plan for 1777, was to reduce the Americans, by intercepting all communications between the northern and southern states! To effect this object General Howe, with 20 thousand men, was to go round from New York to the Head of Elk, and thence march on, due north, through Philadelphia; while General Burgoyne, with 10,000 men, setting out from Canada, was to pass down the lakes, and thence due south to meet his colleague Howe; the straight line, formed by the junction of these two gentlemen, was to possess such virtues, that it was supposed no American could be found hardy enough to set foot over it!!

Accordingly, July 23, General Howe left Sandy Hook; sailed up the Chesapeake; landed at the mouth of Elk River; and with but little interruption, except at Brandywine, marched on to Philadelphia. Into that elegant city, on the 26th of September, 1777, he entered in triumph; fondly supposing, that, in America, as in Europe, the capture of the city was equivalent to the reduction of the country. But instead of finding himself master of this great continent, whose rattle-snakes alone in the hand of heaven, could scourge his presumption; it was with no small difficulty he could keep possession of the little village of Germantown. For, on the morning of the 4th of October, Washington made an attack on him with such judgment and fury, that his troops gave way in every quarter. "The tumult, disorder and despair in the British army," says Washington, "were unparalleled." But in the very moment of the most decisive and glorious victory, when some of the provincial regiments had more prisoners than men, the Americans, through the mistake of an officer, who had drank too freely, began to retreat!!

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Washington's grief and mortification were inexpressible.

But while he was annoying the enemy by land, he did not lose sight of their fleet, which was now forcing its way up the Delaware, to keep open to the army a channel of supplies. They arrived, without molestation, within 8 miles of Philadelphia, at a marsh called Mud-Island. On this poor harmless spot, the fittest, however, that nature in this peaceful land of Friends could furnish, Washington ordered a fort to be thrown up, the command of which, with 230 men, he assigned to lieutenant-colonel Samuel Smith. On the eastern or Jersey side of the river, at a place called Red-Bank, he ordered a strong redoubt, the command of which, with 250 men, was given to Colonel Greene. These, with some chevaux-de-frise sunk in the river, and a few gallies, formed all the barrier that Washington could present against the British navy. The strength of this barrier was soon put to a fiery trial. Great preparations were made to attack the Americans, at the same instant, both by land and water. Count Donop, with a host of Hessians, was sent over to be in readiness to attack RedBank, while the flood-tide, groaning under the enormous weight, brought up the men of war. The morning was still, and the heavens overcast with sad clouds, as of nature sympathizing with her children, and ready to drop showers of celestial pity on their strifes. No sooner had the ships floated up within three cables length of the fort, than they began a most tremendous cannonade: while cannon-balls and firetailed bombs, like comets, fell upon it thick as hail. The gallant Smith and his myrmidons stood the shock to a miracle: and, like men fighting under the eye of their Washington, drove two-and-thirty pounders through them with such spirit and success, that in a little time, the Augusta, a heavy 64 gun ship, took fire, and blew up, the horrible balloon of many of the crew. Another ship called the Merlin, or Black-Bird,

soon got on the wing, blew up likewise, and went off in thunder to join the Augusta.

At the same moment Col. Donop, with his Hessians, made a gallant attack on the fort at Red-Bank After a few well-directed fires, Greene and his men artfully retired from the out-works. The enemy now supposing the day their own, rushed on in vast numbers along a large opening in the fort, and within twenty steps of a masked battery, of 18 pounders, loaded with grape-shot and spike-nails. All at once Erebus seemed to open before their affrighted view. But their pains and their terrors were but for a moment. Together down they sunk by hundreds, into the sweet slumbers of death, scarcely sensible of the fatal blow that reft their lives

Heaps on neaps the slaughter'd Hessians lie:
Brave Greene beholds them with a tearful eye.
Far now from home, and from their native shore,
They sleep in death, and hear of wars no more.

Poor Donop was mortally wounded, and taken prisoner. The attentions of the American officers, and particularly the kind condolence of the godlike Washington, quite overcame him; and his last moments were steeped in tears of regret, for having left his native land to fight a distant people who had never injured him.

On hearing of his misfortune, Washington sent an officer to condole with him. The officer was conducted to his apartment; and delivered the message. The wounded count appeared much affected-a tear swelled in his eye: and he said to the officer, "Present to General Washington the thanks of an unfor tunate brother soldier: tell him I expect to rise no more, but if I should, the first exertion of my strength shall be, to return to him my thanks in person." The officer sent was Colonel Daniel Clymer, of Berks, Pennsylvania. "See here, Colonel," said the dying count, "see in me the vanity of all human pride! I

have shone in all the courts of Europe; and now I am dying here, on the banks of the Delaware, in the house of an obscure Quaker!"

After six weeks of infinite fatigue, with great loss of men and money, the British forced a passage large enough for their provision ships to Philadelphia, where General Howe and his officers held their balls this winter; while 16 miles distant, the great Washington, well pleased with his campaign, retired to winter quarters at Valley Forge.

While such ill success attended this part of the ministerial plan, viz. to choke the colonies by a military noose, so tightly drawn from Chesapeake to Champlain, as to stop all circulation between the northern and southern states; a worse fate frowned on their attempt in the north. General Burgoyne, with 10,000 veteráns, besides a host of Canadians and Indians, issuing forth from Canada in June 1777, came pouring along down the lakes like the thundering Niagara, with an impetuosity that swept every thing before it. The hatchets of the Indians were drunk with American blood. No age, no sex, could soften them. "The widow's wail, the virgin's shriek, and trembling infant's cry," were music in their ears. In cold blood they struck their cruel tomahawks into the defenceless heart of a Miss M'Rea, a beautiful girl, who was that very day to have been married! Such acts of inhumanity called forth the fiercest indignation of the Americans, and inspired that desperate resolution of which the human heart is capable, but which no human force can conquer. The New Englanders, who were nearest to these infernal scenes, turned out en masse. Washington hurried on Gates and Arnold with their furious legions; and to these he joined the immortal Morgan with his dreadful phalanx, 1000 riflemen, whose triggers were never touched in vain, but could throw a ball a hundred yards at a squirrel's head, and never miss.

The first check given to Burgoyne's career, was at

Bennington. Hearing that the Americans had laid up large provisions in that town, he detached a Colonel Baum, with 600 Germans, to surprise it: and, at the same time, posted Colonel Breyman in the neighbourhood, with an equal number to support him if necessary. Finding the place too well guarded either for surprise or storm, Baum fortified himself at a little distance, and sent back for Breyman. The American commander, the brave General Starke, sallied out, and with great fury attacked Baum's intrenchments without giving him time to receive his reinforcements. At the first onset, the Canadians and British marksmen took to their heels, and left the poor Germans in the lurch. After a gallant resistance, Baum was mortally wounded, and his brave countrymen killed or taken to a man. In the meantime Breyman, totally ignorant of their catastrophe, arrived at the place of action, where, instead of the cheering huzzas of joyful friends, he was saluted, on all hands, with the deadly whizzing of rifle bullets. After receiving a few close and scorching fires, the Germans hastily betook themselves to flight. The neighbouring woods, with night's sable curtains, enabled the fugitives to save themselves for that time at least. The enemy lost in these two engagements, not less than 1000 men, killed, wounded, and prisoners.

About the same time all their forts on the lakes were surprised. Colonel St. Leger was defeated at Fort-Stanwix; the Indians began to desert; Arnold and Morgan were coming up like mountain-storms: and the militia from all quarters were pouring in. Burgoyne began to be alarmed, and wrote to New York for aid; but finding that Clinton could give him none, and that the salvation of his army depended on themselves, he gallantly determined, on the 7th of October, 1777, to stake his all on the issue of a general battle.

His army, in high spirits, was formed within a mile of the American camp. Burgoyne, with the flower