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diff --git a/37812-h/37812-h.htm b/37812-h/37812-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac61530 --- /dev/null +++ b/37812-h/37812-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7050 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Gentlemen Rovers, by E. Alexander PowelL, F.R.G.S. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + + + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + + + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:30%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + +small { font-size:60%; } + +.venti {font-size: 1.5em; +text-align: center; +font-family: serif; +font-weight: 600;} + +.tall {text-align: center; +font-weight: bold;} + +.sig {text-align: right; + margin-right: 20%;} + +ul +{ + list-style-type: none; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Gentlemen Rovers, by E. Alexander Powell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Gentlemen Rovers + +Author: E. Alexander Powell + +Release Date: October 20, 2011 [EBook #37812] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GENTLEMEN ROVERS *** + + + + +Produced by paksenarrion, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/cover01.jpg" width="300" height="507" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h1>GENTLEMEN +ROVERS</h1> + +<p class="venti">BY<br /> +E. ALEXANDER POWELL, F.R.G.S.<br /> +<small>AUTHOR OF "THE LAST FRONTIER," ETC.</small></p> + +<p class="center">ILLUSTRATED</p> + +<p class="center">CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS<br /> +NEW YORK 1913</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 447px;"><a name="frontispiece" id="frontispiece"></a> +<img src="images/gs01leaped.jpg" width="447" height="504" alt="Commodore Truxtun leaped into the shrouds." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Commodore Truxtun leaped into the shrouds.</span> +</div> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1913, by</span><br /> +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</p> + +<p class="center">Published September, 1913</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100px;"> +<img src="images/005.png" width="100" height="115" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="tall">To<br /> + +THE FINEST GENTLEMAN I KNOW<br /> + +MY FATHER<br /></p> + +<p> </p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"There's a Legion that never was 'listed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That carries no colors or crest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, split in a thousand detachments,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is breaking the road for the rest.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The ends o' the Earth were our portion,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ocean at large was our share,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There was never a skirmish to windward<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the Leaderless Legion was there.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We preach in advance of the Army,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We skirmish ahead of the Church,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With never a gunboat to help us<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When we're scuppered and left in the lurch.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But we know as the cartridges finish<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And we're filed on our last little shelves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That the Legion that never was 'listed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will send us as good as ourselves.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then a health (we must drink it in whispers)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To our wholly unauthorized horde—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the line of our dusty foreloopers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the Gentlemen Rovers abroad!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="sig"> +—<i>The Lost Legion.</i><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>FOREWORD</h2> + + +<p>This book is written as a tribute to some men +who have been overlooked by History and forgotten +by Fame. Though they won for us more +than half the territory comprised within our +present-day borders, not only have no monuments +been erected to perpetuate their exploits in bronze +and marble, but they lie for the most part in forgotten +and neglected graves, some of them under +alien skies. Boyd, Truxtun, Eaton, Reed, +Lafitte, Smith, Ide, Ward, Walker—even their +names hold no significance for their countrymen +of the present generation, yet they played +great parts in our national drama. After two +decades of history-making in Hindustan, Boyd +came back to his own country and ably seconded +William Henry Harrison in breaking the +power of the great Indian confederation which +threatened to check the white man's westward +march. When both France and England were +our enemies, and the gloom of despondency hung +like a cloud over the land, it was Truxtun and his +bluejackets who put new heart into the nation +by their victories. Eaton and his motley army +marched across six hundred miles of African desert, +and by bringing the Barbary despots to their +knees accomplished that which had been unsuccessfully +attempted by every naval power in +Europe. Captain Reed, of the <i>General Armstrong</i>, +after holding off a British force twenty times the +strength of his own, sunk his vessel rather than +surrender. To a pirate and smuggler named +Jean Lafitte, more than any other person save +Andrew Jackson, we owe our thanks for saving +New Orleans from capture and Louisiana from +invasion. Jedediah Smith blazed the route of the +Overland Trail and showed us the way to California, +and a quarter of a century later Frémont, +Ide, Sloat, and Stockton made the land beyond +the Sierras ours. William Walker came within +an ace of changing the map of Middle America, +and made the name of American a synonym for +courage from the Rio Grande to Panama, while +on the other side of the world another American, +Frederick Townsend Ward, raised and led that +ever victorious army whose exploits were General +Gordon's chief claim to fame. There was not one +of these men of whom we have not reason to be +proud. But because they did their work unofficially, +in what might aptly be described as "shirt-sleeve +warfare," and because they went ahead +without waiting for the tardy sanction of those +who guided our ship of state, the deeds they performed +have never received befitting recognition +from those who follow by the trails they made, +who grow rich from the mines that they discovered, +who dwell upon the lands they won. And +that is why I am going to ask you, my friends, as +in the following pages I lead these forgotten heroes +before you in imaginary review, to raise your +hats in respect and admiration to this company +of brave soldiers and gallant gentlemen who so +stoutly upheld American prestige and American +traditions in many far corners of the world.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right"><b>PAGE</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">For Rent: An Army on Elephants</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">When We Fought Napoleon</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">When We Captured an African Kingdom</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Last Fight of the "General Armstrong"</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Pirate Who Turned Patriot</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Man Who Dared to Cross the Ranges</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_125">125</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Flag of the Bear</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_153">153</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The King of the Filibusters</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Cities Captured by Contract</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_217">217</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="List of Illustrations" width="60%"> +<tr><td align="left">Commodore Truxtun leaped into the shrouds</td><td align="right"><a href="#frontispiece"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="right"><b>FACING<br />PAGE </b></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The death of Tippo-Sahib at the storming of Seringapatam</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_12">12</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The battle of Tippecanoe</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_16">16</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The frigate <i>Philadelphia</i> ran aground in the harbor of Tripoli, the Tripolitans capturing Captain Bainbridge and his entire crew</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_54">54</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">But even in those days the fame of American gunners was as wide as the seas</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_86">86</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The battle of New Orleans</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_120">120</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Westward pressed the little troop of pioneers, across the sun-baked lava beds of southwestern Utah</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_136">136</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The Sacramento Valley in 1845</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_164">164</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">General William Walker and his men, after a long and stormy voyage, landing at Virgin Bay, en route to Costa Rica</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_196">196</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">General Walker reviewing troops on the Grand Plaza, Granada</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_200">200</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The programme was always the same: the sudden rush of the filibusters with their high, shrill yell; the taking of the barracks and the cathedral in the Plaza</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_206">206</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"Come on, boys!" shouted Ward. "We're going in!" and plunged through the narrow opening, a revolver in each hand</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_230">230</a> </td></tr> +</table></div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span><br /></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> +<h2>FOR RENT: AN ARMY ON ELEPHANTS</h2> + + +<p>The pitiless Indian sun had poured down +upon the Hyderabad <i>maidan</i> until its sandy +surface glowed like a stove at white heat. Drawn +up in motionless ranks, which stretched from end +to end of the great parade-ground, was a division +of cavalry: squadron after squadron of scarlet-coated +troopers on sleek and shining horses; row +after row of brown and bearded faces peering +stolidly from under the white turbans. The rays +of the sun danced and sparkled upon ten thousand +lance-points; the feeble breeze picked up +ten thousand pennons and fluttered them into a +white-and-scarlet cloud. Now and then the silence +would be broken by a clash of steel as a horse +tossed its head or a <i>sowar</i> stirred uneasily in his +saddle. Sitting a white Arab, a score of paces +in advance of the foremost rank, very stiff and +soldierly in his gorgeous uniform, was a tall young +man whose ruddy cheeks and pleasant eyes looked +strangely out of place in so Oriental a setting.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> + +<p>From somewhere within the city walls a bugle +spoke shrilly and was answered by another and +then another, each nearer than the one preceding. +The young man in the splendid uniform barked +an order, and men and horses stiffened into rigidity +as sharply as though an electric current had +gone through them. Through the twin-towered +gateway of the city advanced a procession, colorful +as a circus, dazzling as a durbar. The two +figures who rode at the head of the glittering cortege +formed an almost startling contrast. One of +them answered in every detail the popular conception +of an Asiatic potentate: haughty of manner, +portly of person, with a clear, dark skin and +wonderfully piercing eyes and a great black beard, +spreading fan-wise upon his breast. An aigret of +diamonds flashed and scintillated in his flame-colored +turban; rubies, large as robin's eggs, gleamed +in his ears, and hanging from his neck over his +pale blue surtout was a rope of pearls which would +have roused the envy of an empress. His companion, +to whom he paid marked attention, was +equally noticeable, though in quite a different +fashion: a lean, smooth-shaven, lantern-jawed +man, still in the middle thirties, very cold and +reserved of manner, with a great beak of a nose +and a jaw like a granite crag. It did not need<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +the cocked hat and gold epaulets of a British +general to mark him as a soldier.</p> + +<p>As the cortege cantered onto the <i>maidan</i> the +massed bands of the cavalry burst into a wild, +barbaric march, brass and kettle-drums crashing +together in stirring discord. The strains ceased +as abruptly as they began, and the youthful commander, +rising in his stirrups, shot his blade into +the air and called in a voice like a trumpet:</p> + +<p>"Cheers for his Highness!"</p> + +<p>And back came a guttural roar from ten thousand +throats:</p> + +<p>"Long live the Nizam!"</p> + +<p>Obviously gratified at the warmth of his greeting, +the ruler of the Deccan wheeled his horse and +came cantering up to the cavalryman, whose +sword flashed in salute.</p> + +<p>"Boyd Sahib," he said, "you are a veritable +magician. You turn ryots into soldiers as readily +as a fakir turns a stone into bread. Your men +are admirable. I congratulate you on their appearance."</p> + + +<p>Then, turning to his taciturn companion:</p> + +<p>"Sir Arthur Wellesley, permit me to present to +you Boyd Sahib, commander of my cavalry and +my trusted friend. General Boyd," he added, +glancing at the Englishman with a malicious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +smile, "is a very brilliant soldier—and an American."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Thus met, when the nineteenth century was +still in its swaddling-clothes, two extraordinary +men: Sir Arthur Wellesley, who in later years, +as the Duke of Wellington, was to gain undying +fame by conquering Napoleon; and General John +Parker Boyd, an American soldier of fortune, who +rendered most gallant service to his own people, +but whose very name has been forgotten by them.</p> + +<p>Jack Boyd, as his boyhood companions in Newburyport +used to call him, was born with the +spirit of adventure strong within him. Almost +before he had graduated from dresses to knee-trousers +he would linger about the wharfs of +the quaint old town, drinking in the stories of +strange places and stranger doings told him by +the seafarers who were wont to congregate along +the water-front, or staring wistfully at the big, +black merchantmen about to sail for foreign parts. +He was wont to say that it was a perverse and +unkind fate which caused him to be born in so +inauspicious a year as 1764, for, though there +was no more ardent youngster in all New England, +his youth caused the recruiting sergeants of +the Continental Army to whom he applied for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +enlistment to pat him on the shoulder and remark +encouragingly: "Come again, son, when +you're a few years older."</p> + +<p>Thus it was that he saw unroll before him that +marvellous moving-picture of the birth of a nation, +which began on the greensward at Lexington +and ended before the British lines at Yorktown, +without being able to play any greater part +in those stirring events than does a spectator in +the thrilling scenes which he pays his five cents +to see depicted on a screen. Indeed, a twelve-month +passed after the last British soldier left +our shores before young Boyd achieved the ambition +of his life by obtaining an ensign's commission +in the 2d Regiment of Foot and donned +the blue coat and buff breeches of an officer in +the American army. Although within a year he +had been promoted to lieutenant, his was not the +temperament which could long endure the monotony +of garrison life, with its unending round +of guard-mounting and small-arms practice and +company drill. It is scarcely to be wondered at, +therefore, that before the gold braid on his lieutenant's +uniform had time to tarnish he had +handed in his papers and had booked passage on +an East Indiaman sailing out of Boston for Madras. +The year 1788, then, saw this youngster of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +four-and-twenty landed on the coast of Coromandel, +poor in acquaintances and pocket but rich +in adventurousness and pluck.</p> + +<p>He could have taken his military talents to +no better market, for at this period of India's +troubled history a brilliant career awaited a man +whose wits were as sharp as his sword. The last +quarter of the eighteenth century found all India +ablaze with racial and religious hatred. Wars +were as frequent as strikes are in the United +States. Though the French were still supreme +in the south of the peninsula, the English power +was steadily rising in Bombay, Calcutta, and +Madras. There were really two distinct struggles +in progress: the English were fighting the +French and the Hindus were fighting the Mohammedans. +The most powerful of the native princes +at this time were the Nizam of Hyderabad, and +the Peishwa, as the ruler of the Mahratta tribes +was called—both of whom had, for reasons of policy, +espoused the English cause—and Tippoo Sahib, +the son of a Mohammedan military adventurer +who had made himself Sultan of Mysore, +who was an ally of the French. Ranged on the +one side, then, were the British, with their allies, +the Nizam and the Peishwa, while opposed to +them were the French and Tippoo of Mysore.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +All of the reigning princes of India maintained +extensive military establishments, and soldiers of +fortune found at their courts rapid promotion +and lavish pay. When Boyd landed in India he +was confronted with the problem which of the +rival causes he should make his own, and it speaks +well for his sagacity and foresight that he promptly +decided to offer his services to the allies of the +English, for at that time most students of politics, +in India and out of it, believed that the future of +the peninsula was to be Gallic rather than Anglo-Saxon.</p> + +<p>From Madras Boyd made his way on horseback +to the Mahratta country, where his attractive personality +and soldierly appearance so impressed the +Peishwa that he gave the young American the +command of a cavalry brigade of fifteen hundred +men. Boyd was now in possession of the raw +material for which he had hankered, and he forthwith +proceeded to show his extraordinary skill in +welding, tempering, and sharpening it. From +daybreak until dark his camp resounded to the +call of bugles, the words of command, and the +clatter of galloping hoofs. He hammered his men +into shape as a blacksmith hammers a bar of +iron, until they combined the inflexible discipline +of Prussian foot-guards with the mobility and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +endurance of Texas rangers. His chance to test +the quality of his handiwork came in 1790, when +Tippoo Sultan, failing in his attempt to bring on +a renewal of the war between England and France, +turned loose his hordes and overran the land. In +the three years' war which followed, the British, +under Lord Cornwallis, who was striving to regain +in India the reputation he had lost at Yorktown, +were aided by the Mahrattas and the Nizam, +who were induced by fear and jealousy to join +in the struggle against their powerful neighbor. +Thus Opportunity knocked sharply on Boyd's +door. Commanding a body of as fine horsemen +as ever threw leg across saddle, his name quickly +became a synonym for audacity and daring. Riding, +wholly without support, into the very heart +of Tippoo's dominions, he would strike a series +of paralyzing blows, burn a dozen towns, capture +or destroy immense stores of ammunition, exact +a huge indemnity, and be back in his own territory +again before any troops could be brought +up to oppose him. Boyd's flying columns played +no small part, indeed, in the campaign which +ended in 1792 with the defeat of Tippoo—a defeat +for which the Sultan had to pay by ceding +half his dominions, paying an indemnity of three +thousand lacs of rupees (one hundred million dollars),<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +and giving his two sons as hostages for his +future good behavior.</p> + +<p>Boyd, meanwhile, had never let slip an opportunity +for improving his knowledge of Hindustani +and its kindred dialects or familiarizing himself +with the complex conditions, racial, religious, +and political, which prevailed in Hindustan. +Realizing that the Mahratta power was on the +wane, he resigned from the service of the Peishwa, +and, bearing letters of the highest commendation +from that ruler to the British envoy at the court +of the Nizam, he turned his horse's head toward +Hyderabad. In a letter to his father, written at +this time, he says: "On my arrival I was presented +to his Highness in form by the English +consul. My reception was as favorable as my +most sanguine wishes had anticipated. After +the usual ceremony was over he presented me +with the command of two <i>kansolars</i> of infantry, +each of which consists of five hundred men." +Continuing, he described in detail the army of +the Nizam, which at that time consisted of one +hundred and fifty thousand infantry, sixty thousand +cavalry, and five hundred elephants, each +of which bore a "castle" containing a nabob and +his attendants. Can't you picture the scene when +that letter, with its strange foreign postmarks,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +reached the old brick house in the quaint New +England town; how the parents read and re-read +that message from the son who was adventuring +in foreign parts, and how the neighbors dropped in +of evenings to hear the latest news of the boy they +all knew, who was carving out a career with his +sword half the world away? Success is, after all, +a rather tasteless thing if there are no home folks +to rejoice in it.</p> + +<p>Fortuna, that capricious beauty whose favor so +many brave men have sought in vain, seemed to +have lost her heart to the stalwart American, for +in 1799, when Tippoo and his savage soldiery once +more broke loose and swept across the peninsula, +leaving a trail of corpses and burning villages behind +them, the Nizam, recalling the tales he had +heard of Boyd's exploits as a cavalry leader, gave +him the command of a division of ten thousand +turbaned troopers. Nor did the fair goddess desert +him even when he was captured by a body +of Mysore horsemen, taken before Tippoo Sahib +himself, and, upon his stoutly refusing to turn +traitor to the Nizam, condemned to death by +torture. And the torturers of the tyrant of Mysore +bore a most evil reputation. Overpowering +the sentries who were set to guard him, he +succeeded in making his way, thanks to his fluency in Hindustani, through the enemy's lines, +rejoining the Nizam's forces in time to take part +in the storming of the Sultan's capital of Seringapatam, +Tippoo being killed in a hand-to-hand +struggle after a last stand at the city gates. Thus +died, as he would have wished—with his boots +on—the most dangerous adversary with whom +Britain had to contend in the winning of her +Eastern empire.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/gs02death.jpg" width="450" height="500" alt="The death of Tippo-Sahib at the storming of Seringapatam. + +From a painting by R. de Moraine." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The death of Tippo-Sahib at the storming of Seringapatam.<br /> + +From a painting by R. de Moraine.</span> +</div> + +<p>Early in the nineteenth century Boyd, who, as +the result of the generous rewards he had received +from his royal employers, had by this time become +possessed of considerable means, left the service +of the Nizam, much against the wishes of that +monarch, and organized an army of his own. +Numerically, it wasn't much of an army, as armies +go, having at no time exceeded two thousand +men, but it was as businesslike a force as ever +responded to a bugle. Boyd, whose reputation +as a cavalry leader extended from Bengal to Malabar, +had the horsemen of all India to draw from, +and he recruited nothing but the best, the men +with whom he filled his ranks being as hard as +nails and as keen as razors. His second in command +was an Irish soldier of fortune named William +Tone, a brother of Wolf Tone, the famous +rebel patriot.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + +<p>As Boyd reckoned on counterbalancing the +smallness of his force by its extreme mobility, he +adopted the novel expedient of transporting his +artillery on the backs of elephants, thus making +it possible for the guns to keep pace with the +cavalry even on his whirlwind raids, for an elephant, +though burdened with a field-piece and +half a dozen soldiers, can put mile after mile behind +it at a swinging, ungainly gait which it will +tax any horse to maintain. Military history presents +no more fantastic picture than that of this +sun-tanned Yankee adventurer spurring across an +Indian countryside with a brigade of beturbaned +lancers and a score or so of lumbering elephants, +the muzzles of brass field-guns frowning from +their howdahs, tearing along behind him. What +a pity that the folk in Newburyport could not +have seen him!</p> + +<p>The entire outfit—elephants, horses, cannon, +and weapons—was Boyd's personal property, and +he rented it to those princes who had need of +and were able to pay for its service precisely as +a garage rents an automobile. The prices he obtained +for it were enormous, and ere long he +became a wealthy man. From one end of the +country to the other he led his scarlet-coated +mercenaries, selling their services in turn to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +former employers, the Nizam and the Peishwa, +and to the rulers of Gwalior and Indore. +When a force was needed for a particularly desperate +service or for a hopeless hope they sent +for Boyd. And he always delivered the goods. +Fighting was going on everywhere, and he never +lacked employment. But he was far too discerning +not to recognize the fact that the power of +England was steadily, if slowly, increasing, and +that her complete domination of India, which +could not much longer be delayed, must inevitably +put an end to independent soldiering as a +profitable profession. In 1808, therefore, he sold +his army, elephants and all, to Colonel Felose, +a Neapolitan who had seen service under many +flags, and with misted eyes and a choking throat +for the last time rode along the lines of his faithful +troopers. A few days later he set sail for +Paris, for, with the Corsican's star high in the +heavens, there seemed no better place for such a +man to seek adventure and advancement. Disappointed +in his hope of obtaining a commission +under the Napoleonic eagles, he turned his face +toward home, and in 1810, after an absence of +more than twenty years, he felt the cobblestones +of his native Newburyport beneath his feet once +more.</p> + +<p>Boyd's adventurous career under his own flag<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +and in the service of his own people forms quite +another though a scarcely less thrilling story. +Trained and experienced officers being in those +days few and far between, the government offered +him the colonelcy of the 4th Regiment of +Infantry, which he promptly accepted, displaying +such energy in drilling his men that when his +regiment marched through the streets of Boston +on its way to Pittsburg the local papers commented +editorially on the smartness of its appearance. +When William Henry Harrison, then governor +of the Territory of Indiana (which included +the present States of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, +and Wisconsin), realizing the imperative necessity +of smashing the great Indian confederation which +Tecumseh, the Shawnee warrior-statesman, was +so painstakingly building to oppose the white +man's further progress westward, called for troops +to do the business, Boyd put his men on flat-boats, +floated them down to the falls of the Ohio, +and marched them overland to Vincennes, his +dusty, footsore column tramping into Harrison's +stockaded headquarters almost before that veteran +frontiersman had realized that they had +started. Boyd was in direct command, under +Harrison, of the little expeditionary force of nine +hundred men throughout the whirlwind campaign +which culminated on a drizzling November<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +morning in 1811 on the banks of the Tippecanoe +River. Tippecanoe was, I suppose, the only battle +which our army ever fought in high hats, for +the absurd uniform of the American infantry, discarded +a few months later, consisted of blue, +brass-buttoned tail-coats, skin-tight pantaloons, +and "stovepipe" hats with red, white, and blue +cockades. Though taken by surprise and outnumbered +six to one, Boyd's soldiery showed the +result of their training by standing like a stone +wall against the onset of the whooping redskins, +pouring in a volley of buckshot at close range +which left the hordes of warriors wavering, undecided +whether to come on or to retreat. At +this psychological moment Boyd ordered up the +squadron of dragoons which he had been holding +in reserve for just such an opportunity. "Right +into line!" he roared in the voice which had resounded +over so many fields in far-off Hindustan. +"Trot! Gallop! <i>Charge!</i> Hip, hip, here we +go!" It was the charge of the cavalry, delivered +with all the smashing suddenness with which a +boxer delivers a solar-plexus blow, which did the +business. The Indians, panic-stricken at the sight +of the oncoming troopers in their brass helmets +and streaming plumes of horsehair, broke and ran. +Tippecanoe was won; Harrison was started on the +road which was to end in the White House; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +peril of Tecumseh's Indian confederation was +ended forever, and the civilization of the West +was advanced a quarter of a century.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/gs03battle.png" width="600" height="376" alt="The battle of Tippecanoe. +From a print in the New York Public Library." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The battle of Tippecanoe.<br /> + +From a print in the New York Public Library.</span> +</div> + +<p>In the following year, upon the outbreak of our +second war with England, Boyd, who had been +commissioned a brigadier-general, commanded a +division of Wilkinson's army in the abortive +American invasion of Upper Canada, and, on +November 11, 1813, fought the drawn battle of +Chrysler's Field. "Taps" were sounded to his +picturesque career on October 4, 1830. He died, +not as he would have wished, sword in hand at +the head of charging squadrons, but quite peacefully +in his bed, holding the prosaic position of +port officer of Boston, to which post he had been +appointed by that other gallant fighter, President +Andrew Jackson. As the end approached I doubt +not that in mind he was far away from the brick +and plaster of the New England city, and that +his thoughts harked back to those mad, glad days +when he and his lancers rode across the plains of +Hindustan and his elephants rocked and rolled +behind him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + + + + + +<h2>WHEN WE FOUGHT NAPOLEON</h2> + + +<p>This is the story of some forgotten fights and +fighters in a forgotten war. The governments +of the two nations which did the fighting—France +and the United States—refused, indeed, +to admit that there was any war at all, and, in a +sense, they were right, for there was never any +declaration of hostilities, and there was never +signed a treaty of peace. But it was a very real +war, nevertheless, with some of the fiercest battles +ever fought on deep water, and when it was over +we had laid the foundations of a navy, we had +won the respect of the European powers, and we +had humbled the pride of Napoleon as it had +been humbled only once before, when Nelson +annihilated the French fleet in the battle of the +Nile.</p> + +<p>At the time that this narrative opens Bonaparte +had just finished his wonderful campaign +in northern Italy, and the French nation, flushed +with confidence by his remarkable series of victories, +was swaggering about with a chip on its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +shoulder, and defying the nations of the world to +knock it off. In fact, the leaders of the Reign of +Terror, drunk with unaccustomed power, had lost +their heads as completely as the victims whom +they had guillotined on the Place de la Révolution. +Thoroughly typical of this insolent and arrogant +attitude was the French Directory's peremptory +demand that we instantly abrogate the treaty +which John Jay, our minister to England, had +just concluded with that country, basing its unwarrantable +interference with our affairs on the +ground that the terms of the treaty were injurious +to the commercial interests of France. Upon our +curt refusal to accede to this preposterous demand, +Charles C. Pinckney, our minister at Paris, +was notified by the French Government that it +would hold no further intercourse with him, and +the very next mail-packet brought the news that +he had been expelled from France. Not content +with this extraordinary and uncalled-for affront to +a friendly nation, French cruisers began seizing +our ships under a decree of their government authorizing +the capture of neutral vessels having on +board any of the products of Great Britain or her +colonies, for at this time, remember, France and +England were at war, as they were, indeed, +throughout nearly the whole of Napoleon's reign. +As the bulk of our trade at this period was with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +the British colonies in the West Indies, it was evident +that this decree was aimed directly at us. +Every packet that came from West Indian waters +brought news of American ships overhauled and +plundered, of sailors beaten and kidnapped, and +of cargoes seized and confiscated by the French, +the authenticated despatches to the State Department +naming nearly a thousand vessels which had +been captured. So bold did the French become +that one of their privateers actually had the +audacity to sail into Charleston Roads and, almost +under the guns of the batteries, to burn to +the water's edge a British vessel which was lying +in the harbor.</p> + +<p>Though it was evident that nothing short of a +miracle could avert war, President Adams, appreciating +the ill-preparedness of the United States, +which had only recently emerged from the Revolution +in a weakened and impoverished condition, +determined to make one more try for peace by +despatching to France a special mission composed +of Minister Pinckney, Elbridge Gerry, and John +Marshall, the last-named later Chief Justice of +the United States. Though in all our diplomatic +history we have sent abroad no more able or distinguished +embassy, the reception its members +received at the hands of the French Government +was as disgraceful as it was ludicrous. The French<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +Directory at this time was composed of low and +irresponsible politicians of the ward-heeler type +who had climbed to power during the French +Revolution, so that, incredible as such a state of +affairs may seem in these days, the negotiations +soon degenerated into an attempt to fleece the +American envoys, who were informed quite frankly +that their success depended entirely upon their +agreeing to bribe—or, as the French politely put +it, to give a <i>douceur</i> to—certain avaricious members +of the Directory. Not only this, but the +American diplomatists were told that, if the bribes +demanded were not forthcoming, orders would be +given to the war-ships on the French West Indian +station to ravage the coasts of the United States. +The chronicles of our foreign relations contain +nothing which, for sheer impudence and insult, +even approaches this attempt to levy blackmail +on the nation. Even the astute Talleyrand, at +that time French Foreign Minister, so far misjudged +the characters of the men with whom he +was dealing as to insinuate that a gift of money to +members of the government was a necessary preliminary +to the negotiations, and that a refusal +would bring on war. Then all the pent-up rage +and indignation of Pinckney burst forth. "War +be it, then!" he exclaimed. "Millions for defence, +sir, but not one cent for tribute!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<p>Upon learning of this crowning insult to his +representatives, President Adams, on March 19, +1798, informed Congress that the mission on +which he had built his hopes of peace had proved +a failure. Then the war-fever, which had temporarily +been held in abeyance, swept over the +country like fire in dry grass. Talleyrand's attempt +to whip America into a revocation of Jay's +treaty had ignominiously failed. He had made +the inexcusable mistake of underestimating the +spirit and resources of his opponents. Congress +promptly abrogated all our treaties with France, +prohibited American vessels from entering French +ports, and French vessels from coming into American +waters, and voted a large sum for national +defence. The land forces were increased, the +coastwise fortifications strengthened, ships of +war were hurriedly laid down, volunteers from +every walk of life besieged the recruiting stations, +Washington reassumed command of the army. +At Portland, Portsmouth, Salem, Chatham, Norwich, +Philadelphia, and Baltimore the shipyards +resounded to the clatter of tools, for those were +before the days of big guns and armor-plate, and +a man-of-war could, if necessary, be built and +equipped in ninety days.</p> + +<p>Out from behind this war-cloud rose the thrilling +strains of "Hail, Columbia." When the war-fever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +was at its height, a young actor and singer +named Fox—a vaudeville artist, we should call him +nowadays—who was appearing at a Philadelphia +theatre, called one morning on his friend Joseph +Hopkinson, a young and clever lawyer, and a son +of that Francis H. Hopkinson whose signature +may be seen at the bottom of the Declaration of +Independence.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Joe," said Fox, dropping into a +chair, "I need some help and you're the only man +I know who can give it to me. No, no, old man, +it's not money I'm after. To-morrow night I'm +to have a benefit at the theatre, but not a single +box has been sold; so, unless something can be +done to attract public attention, I'm afraid I shall +have a mighty thin house. Now it strikes me +that, with all this war-fever in the air, if I could +get some patriotic verses, something really fiery +and inspiriting, written to the tune of 'The President's +March,' I might draw a crowd. Several +of the people around the theatre have tried it, +but they have all given it up as a bad job, and say +that it can't be done. So you're my last hope, +Joe, and I think you could do it."</p> + +<p>Shutting himself up in his study, within an hour +Hopkinson had completed the first verse and +chorus of what was to prove one of the greatest +of our national songs, and had submitted them to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +his wife, who sang them to a harpsichord accompaniment. +The tune and the words harmonized. +A few hours later the song was completed and +was being memorized by Fox. The next morning +Philadelphia was placarded with announcements +that that evening Mr. Fox would sing, for the +first time on any stage, a new patriotic song. +The house was packed to the doors. As the orchestra +broke into the familiar opening bars of +"The President's March," and Fox, slender and +debonair, bowed from behind the footlights, the +audience grew hushed with expectancy. When +the now familiar words,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Immortal patriots, rise once more!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Defend your rights, defend your shore!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>went rolling through the theatre from pit to gallery, +the audience went wild. Eight times they +made him sing it through, and the ninth time they +rose and joined in the rousing chorus:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Firm, united let us be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rallying round our Liberty.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like a band of brothers joined,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Peace and safety we shall find."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Night after night the singing of "Hail, Columbia," +in the theatres was applauded by audiences delirious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +with enthusiasm, and within a few days it +was being sung by boys in the streets of every +city from Portland to Savannah. Never since +the days of Bunker Hill had the nation been so +stirred as it was in that summer of 1798.</p> + +<p>On July 6, with the red-white-and-blue ensign +streaming proudly from her main truck, the sloop +of war <i>Delaware</i>, twenty guns, of Baltimore, under +Stephen Decatur, Sr., put to sea to an accompaniment +of booming cannon. Cape Henry +had scarcely sunk below the horizon before she +was hailed by a merchantman which had been +boarded and plundered by a French privateer only +the day before. Upon hearing this news Decatur +set off in a pursuit as eager as that with which a +bloodhound follows the trail of a fugitive criminal. +A few hours later his lookouts reported four vessels +dead ahead. Being unable to determine +which was the privateer, he ran in his guns, closed +his ports, and keeping on his course until he was +sure that he had been seen, stood hurriedly off, +as though afraid of being captured. Just as he +had anticipated, the Frenchman fell into the trap, +and piling on his canvas, bore down upon him. +It was not until the privateersman drew close +enough to make out the gun-ports and the unusual +number of men on the American's decks, +that he discovered Decatur's ruse and attempted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +to escape. But it was too late. The <i>Delaware's</i> +superior speed enabled her easily to overhaul the +Frenchman, which proved to be <i>La Incroyable</i>, +fourteen guns and seventy men. So accurate and +deadly was the fire poured into her by the <i>Delaware's</i> +gunners (forerunners, remember, of those +bluejackets who handle the twelve-inch guns on +the dreadnaught <i>Delaware</i> to-day) that within +ten minutes after the action had commenced the +French tricolor came fluttering down. We had +struck our first blow against the power of France.</p> + +<p>The captured vessel was sent into port under a +prize crew, was refitted, added to the American +Navy as the <i>Retaliation</i>—fitting name!—went to +sea under command of William Bainbridge (the +same who a few years later was to lose the war-ship +<i>Philadelphia</i> to the Barbary pirates in the +harbor of Tripoli), and shortly afterward was recaptured +by the French frigate <i>l'Insurgente</i>, being +the only vessel of our little navy taken by the +French.</p> + +<p>By the beginning of 1799 the West Indian waters +were as effectually patrolled by American war-ships +as a great city is patrolled by policemen. +The newly built American frigates were objects +of great amusement and derision to the French +and British officers stationed in the West Indian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +colonies, for they were far too heavily armed, according +to European ideas, carrying almost double +the number of guns usual to vessels of their class. +It is interesting to recall the fact, however, that +sixty-odd years later European officers were +equally derisive and sceptical of another American +innovation in war-ships which was destined +to revolutionize naval warfare—the monitor. But +before long the sceptics were compelled to revise +their opinions of the fighting qualities of our infant +navy. Our fleet was at this time divided +into two squadrons, both of which made their +headquarters at St. Christopher, or, as it was +more commonly called, St. Kitts, on the island +of Antigua; one, under Commodore Barry, running +as far south as the Guianas, while the other, +under Commodore Truxtun, cruised northward +to Santo Domingo, thus effectually cutting off +from commercial intercourse with the mother +country the rich French colonies in the Caribbean.</p> + +<p>Truxtun was a most picturesque and romantic +figure. Short and stout, red-faced, gray-eyed, +loud-voiced, gallant with women and short-tempered +with men, he was as typical a sea fighter +as ever trod a quarter-deck with a brass telescope +tucked under his arm. From the time when, +as a boy of twelve, he ran away to sea, until,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +a national hero, he was laid to rest in Christ +Church graveyard in Philadelphia, his life was as +full of hair-breadth escapes and hair-raising adventures +as that of one of Mr. George A. Henty's +heroes. A sailor before the mast when scarcely +in his teens, he was impressed into the British +Navy, where his ability attracted such attention +that he was offered a midshipman's warrant, +which he refused. When only twenty years of +age he commanded his own ship, in which he succeeded, +though at great personal hazard, in smuggling +large quantities of much-needed powder into +the rebellious colonies. Eventually his ship was +captured and he was made a prisoner. Escaping +from the British prison in the West Indies where +he was confined, he made his way to the United +States, obtained letters of marque from the first +Continental Congress, and was the first to get to +sea of that long line of privateersmen who, first +in the Revolution, and afterward in the War of +1812, practically drove British commerce from +the Atlantic. At the close of the Revolution +Truxtun returned to the merchant service, in +which he rose to wealth and position. When the +American Navy was organized under the stimulus +of French aggression, he was offered and accepted +the command of the thirty-eight-gun frigate <i>Constellation</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +a new and very beautiful vessel, splendidly +officered and manned, and with heels as +fast as her gun-fire was heavy.</p> + +<p>While cruising off Antigua, on February 9, 1799, +the <i>Constellation's</i> lookout reported a French +war-ship, which, upon being overhauled, proved +to be <i>l'Insurgente</i>, forty guns, which had the reputation +of being one of the fastest ships in the +world, and was commanded by Captain Barreault, +an officer celebrated in the French Navy as +a desperate fighter and a resourceful sailor. As +the <i>Constellation</i>, with her crew at quarters and +her decks cleared for action, came booming down +upon him, Captain Barreault broke out the +French tricolor at his masthead and fired a gun +to windward, which signified, in the language of +the seas, that he was ready for a yard-arm to +yard-arm combat. Truxtun's reply was to range +alongside his adversary, a flag of stripes and stars +at every masthead, and pour in a broadside +which raked <i>l'Insurgente's</i> decks from stem to +stern. The first great naval action in which the +American Navy ever bore a part had begun.</p> + +<p>Waiting until the <i>Constellation</i> was well abreast +of her, at a distance of perhaps thirty feet (modern +war-ships seldom fight at a range of less than +three miles), <i>l'Insurgente</i> replied, firing high in an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +attempt to disable the American by bringing down +her rigging. Midshipman David Porter, a youngster +barely in his teens, was stationed in the foretop. +Seeing that the top-mast, which had been +seriously damaged by the French fire, was tottering +and about to fall, but being unable to make +himself heard on deck above the din of battle, +he himself assumed the responsibility of lowering +the foretopsail yard, thus relieving the strain on +the mast and preventing a mishap which would +probably have changed the result of the battle. +That midshipman rose, in after years, to be an +admiral and the commander-in-chief of the +American Navy.</p> + +<p>Barreault, who had a much larger crew than his +adversary, soon saw that his vessel was in danger +of being pounded to pieces by the American gunners +who were making every shot tell, and that his +only hope of victory lay in getting alongside and +boarding, depending upon his superior numbers to +take the American vessel with the cutlass. With +this in view, he ordered the boarding parties to +their stations, sent men into the rigging with grappling-irons +with which to hold the ships together +when they touched, directed the guns to be loaded +with small shot that they might cause greater execution +at close quarters, and then, putting his helm<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +hard down, attempted to run alongside the <i>Constellation</i>. +But Truxtun had anticipated this very +manœuvre, and was prepared for it. Seizing his opportunity—and +in sea-battles opportunities do not +last long or come often—he whirled his ship about +as a polo player whirls his pony, and ran squarely +across the enemy's bows, pouring in a rain of lead +as he passed, which all but annihilated the boarding +parties drawn up on the deck of <i>l'Insurgente</i>.</p> + +<p>Foiled in his attempt to get to hand-grips with +his enemy, the Frenchman sheered off and the +duel at short range continued, the <i>Constellation</i>, +magnificently handled, sailing first along <i>l'Insurgente's</i> +port side, firing as she went, and then, +crossing her bows, repeating the manœuvre on +her starboard quarter. Nothing is more typical +of the iron discipline enforced by the American +naval commanders in those early days than an +incident that occurred when this duel between the +two frigates was at its height. As a storm of +shot from the Frenchman's batteries came crashing +and smashing into the <i>Constellation</i>, a gunner, +seeing his mate decapitated by a solid shot, +became so demoralized that he retreated from +his gun, whereupon an officer drew his pistol and +shot the man dead.</p> + +<p>Time after time Truxtun repeated his evolution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +of literally sailing around <i>l'Insurgente</i>, until every +gun in her main batteries had been dismounted, +her crew being left only the small guns with which +to continue the action. It speaks volumes for +Barreault's bravery that, with half his crew dead +or wounded, and with a terribly battered and +almost defenceless ship, he did continue the action, +his weary, blood-stained, powder-blackened men +loading and firing their few remaining guns dauntlessly. +Seeing the weakened condition of his enemy, +Truxtun now prepared to end the battle. +Before the French had time to grasp the full significance +of his manœuvre, he had put his helm +hard down, and the <i>Constellation</i>, suddenly looming +out of the battle smoke, bore down upon <i>l'Insurgente</i> +with the evident intention of crossing her +stern and raking her with a broadside to which +she would be unable to reply. Though no braver +man than Barreault ever fought a ship, he instantly +appreciated that this would mean an unnecessary +slaughter of his men; so, with the tears +streaming down his cheeks, he ordered his colors +to be struck, and in token of surrender the flag of +France slipped slowly and mournfully down. The +young republic of the West had avenged the insult +of Talleyrand.</p> + +<p>It is a remarkable fact that, notwithstanding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +the desperate fighting which characterized this +battle, the <i>Constellation</i> had only two of her crew +killed and three wounded, while the French loss +was nearly twenty times that number. Lieutenant +Rodgers and Midshipman Porter were immediately +sent aboard the captured vessel with a +prize crew of only eleven men. After the dead +had been buried at sea, the wounded cared for +by the American surgeons, and about half of the +prisoners transferred to the <i>Constellation</i>, Rodgers +set such sails on <i>l'Insurgente</i> as the wrecked rigging +would permit, and laid his course for St. +Christopher, it being understood that Truxtun +would keep within hail in case his assistance was +needed. During the night a heavy gale set in, +however, and when day broke upon the heaving +ocean the <i>Constellation</i> was nowhere to be seen. +It was a ticklish situation in which the thirteen +Americans found themselves, for they had their +work cut out for them to navigate a leaking, shattered, +and dismasted ship, while below decks, +awaiting the first opportunity which offered to +rise and overpower their captors, were nearly +two hundred desperate and determined prisoners. +There were neither shackles nor handcuffs on +board, and the hatchcovers had been destroyed +in the action, so that the prisoners were perfectly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +aware that, could they once force their way on +deck by a sudden rush, the ship would again be +theirs. But they reckoned without Rodgers, for +the first men who put their heads above the hatchway +found themselves looking into the muzzles of +a pair of pistols held by the American lieutenant, +whose fingers were twitching on the triggers. +During the three days and two nights which the +voyage to St. Christopher lasted, a guard of American +bluejackets stood constantly around the open +hatchway, a pile of loaded small arms close at +hand, and a cannon loaded with grape-shot trained +menacingly into the prisoner-filled hold. On the +evening of the third day, after Truxtun had given +her up for lost, <i>l'Insurgente</i> limped into port with +the flag of the United States flaunting victoriously +above that of France.</p> + +<p>The 1st of February of the following year found +the <i>Constellation</i>, still under the command of +Commodore Truxtun, cruising off Guadaloupe in +the hope of picking up some of the French privateers +which were using that colony as a base from +which to prey on our West Indian commerce. +While loitering off the port of Basse Terre, and +praying that something would turn up to pay him +for his patience, Truxtun sighted a vessel coming +up from the southeast, which from her size and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +build was evidently a French frigate of the first +class. As she approached, the keen-eyed American +naval officers, scanning her through their +glasses, recognized her as the fifty-two-gun frigate +<i>La Vengeance</i>, one of the most formidable vessels +in the French Navy. It was evident from the +first, however, that she would much rather run +than fight, this anxiety to avoid an encounter +being due to the fact that she had on board a +large number of officials, high in the colonial +service, whom she was bringing out to the colonies +from the mother country. No sooner did she perceive +the character of the <i>Constellation</i>, therefore, +than she piled on every yard of canvas and headed +for Basse Terre and the protecting guns of its +forts. Never had the <i>Constellation</i> a better opportunity +to display her remarkable sailing qualities, +and never did she display them to better +advantage. It was well after nightfall, however, +before she was able to overhaul the flying Frenchman, +so that it was by the light of a full moon, +which illumined the scene almost as well as though +it were day, that the preparations were completed +for the combat. The sea, which was glasslike in +its smoothness, as is so often the case in Caribbean +waters, seemed to be covered with a veil of +shimmering silver, while the battle-lanterns which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +had been lighted on both vessels swung like giant +fireflies across the purple sky.</p> + +<p>Seeing that escape was hopeless, the French +commander hove to and prepared for a desperate +resistance. Now, Truxtun had made up his mind +that this was to be no long-range duel, in which +the Frenchman's heavier metal could not fail to +give him an advantage, but a fight at close quarters, +in which the smashing broadsides which the +<i>Constellation</i> was specially designed to deliver +could not fail to tell. Just before the beginning +of the battle the stout commodore, red-faced, +white-wigged, cock-hatted, clad in the blue tail-coat +and buff breeches of the American Navy, +descended to the gun-deck and walked slowly +through the batteries, acknowledging the cheers +of the gunners, but emphatically warning them +against firing a shot until he gave the word. No +one knew better than Truxtun the demoralizing +effect of a smashing broadside suddenly delivered +at close quarters, and it was this demoralization +which he intended to create aboard the enemy. +"Load with solid shot," he ordered, and added, +speaking to his officers so that the men could +hear: "If a man fires a gun before I give the +order, shoot him on the spot." Then with boarding-nettings +triced up, decks sanded, magazines<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +opened, and the tops filled with marines whose +duty it was to pick off the French gunners, the +<i>Constellation</i>, stripped to her fighting canvas, +swept grandly into action. As she came within +range the French commander opened with his +stern-chasers, and in an instant the ordered decks +of the American were turned into a shambles. +The wounded were carried groaning to the cockpit, +where the white-aproned surgeons, their arms +bared to the elbow, awaited their grim work, while +the dead were hastily ranged along the unengaged +side—rows of stark and staring figures beneath +the placid moon. Again and again the guns of +<i>La Vengeance</i> belched smoke and flame, and redder +and redder grew the sand with which the +<i>Constellation's</i> decks were spread, but she still +kept coming on. Not until she was squarely +abreast of the Frenchman did Truxtun, leaping +into the shrouds, bellow through his speaking-trumpet: +"Now, boys, give 'em hell!" The +American gunners answered with a broadside +which made <i>La Vengeance</i> reel. The effect was +terrible. On the decks of the Frenchman the +dead and dying lay in quivering, bleeding heaps. +But not for an instant did the French sailors flinch +from their guns. Broadside answered broadside, +cheer answered cheer, while the men, French and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +American alike, toiled and sweated at their work +of carnage. So rapidly were the American guns +fired that the men actually had to crawl out of the +ports, in the face of a withering fire, for buckets +of water with which to cool them off.</p> + +<p>The different tactics adopted by the two commanders +soon began to show results, for, whereas +Truxtun had given orders that his men were to +disregard the upper works and to concentrate +their fire on the main-deck batteries and the hull, +the French commander had from the first directed +his fire upon the American's rigging in the hope +of crippling her. Shortly after midnight the +French fire, which had grown weaker and weaker +under the terrible punishment of the <i>Constellation's</i> +successive broadsides, ceased altogether, +and an officer was seen waving a white flag in +token of surrender. Twice before, in fact, <i>La +Vengeance</i> had struck her colors, but owing to the +smoke and darkness the Americans had not perceived +it. And there was good reason for her +surrender, for she had lost one hundred and +sixty men out of her crew of three hundred and +thirty, while the <i>Constellation</i> had but thirty-nine +casualties out of a crew of three hundred and +ten. Though the French fire had done small damage +to the <i>Constellation's</i> hull, and had killed a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +comparatively small number of her crew, it had +worked terrible havoc in her rigging, it being discovered, +just as she was preparing to run alongside +her capture and take possession, that every +shroud and stay supporting her mainmast had +been shot away, and that the mast was tottering +and about to fall. The men in the top were under +the command of a little midshipman named +James Jarvis, who was only thirteen years old. +He had been warned by one of his men that the +mast was likely to fall at any moment, and +had been implored to leave the top while there +was still time, which he would have been entirely +justified in doing, particularly as the battle was +over. But that thirteen-year-old midshipman +had in him the stuff of which heroes are made, +and resolutely refused to leave his post without +orders. The orders never came, for before the +crew had time to secure it the great mast crashed +over the side, carrying with it to instant death +little Jarvis and all of his men save one. Though +his name and deed have long since been forgotten +by the nation for which he died, he was no whit +less a hero than that other boy-sailor, Casabianca, +whose self-sacrifice at the battle of the Nile has +been made familiar by song and story.</p> + +<p>The falling of the <i>Constellation's</i> mast reversed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +conditions in an instant, for the surrendered +frigate, taking prompt advantage of the victor's +temporary helplessness, crowded on all sail and +slowly disappeared into the night. By the time +the wreck had been chopped away any pursuit of +her was hopeless. A few days later she put into +the Dutch port of Curaçao in a sinking condition.</p> + +<p>Thus continued until February, 1801, an unbroken +series of American successes, French war-ships, +French privateers, and French merchantmen +alike being sunk, captured, or driven from +the seas. France's trade with her West Indian +colonies was paralyzed, and the prestige of her +navy was enormously diminished. Napoleon, as +First Consul, had abolished the Directory, and +was now the virtual ruler of France, having entire +command of all administrative affairs, both civil +and military. Forced to admit that from first to +last his ships had been out-sailed, out-fought, and +out-manœuvred by the despised Americans, and +that a continuance of the war could only result +in further disaster and loss of prestige, he began +negotiations which led, about the time that the +nineteenth century passed its first birthday, to a +suspension of hostilities.</p> + +<p>During the two and a half years of this unofficial +war with the most powerful military nation in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +world our infant navy had captured eighty-four +armed French vessels, mounting over five hundred +guns—a success all the more remarkable +when it is remembered that our entire naval establishment +at the outbreak of hostilities comprised +but twenty-two vessels, with four hundred and +fifty-six guns. In other words, we had captured +almost four times as many ships as we possessed. +Not only had we practically destroyed French +commerce on this side of the Atlantic, but our +own commerce had risen, under the protection of +our guns, from fifty-seven million dollars in 1797 +to more than seventy-eight million dollars in 1799. +Most important of all, however, we had shown to +France and to Europe that, when occasion demanded, +we both would and could, in the words +of our national song, defend our rights and defend +our shore.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> +<h2>WHEN WE CAPTURED AN AFRICAN KINGDOM</h2> + + + +<p>Did you ever, by any chance, leave the +Boston State House by the back door? +If so, you found yourself in a quiet and rather +shabby thoroughfare, cobble-paved and lined on +the farther side by old-fashioned red-brick houses, +with white, brass-knockered doors, and iron balconies, +and green blinds. That is Derne Street. +Though a man standing on Boston Common +could break one of its violet-glass windows with +a well thrown ball, it is, as it were, a placid backwater +of the busy streams of commerce which +flow so noisily a few rods away. I wonder how +many of the smug frock-coated politicians who +hurry through it as a short cut daily have any +idea how it got its name; I wonder if any of the +people who live upon it know. Though the exploit +which this Boston byway was named to +commemorate has been overlooked by nearly all +our historians, perhaps because its scene was laid +in a remote and barbarous country, yet it was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +feat which, for picturesqueness, daring, and indomitable +courage, is deserving of a more generous +share of the calcium light of public appreciation. +Though I am perfectly aware that history only +too often makes dull reading, this chronicle, I +promise you, is as bristling with romance and +adventure as a hedgehog is with quills.</p> + +<p>You must understand, in the first place, that +the declining years of the eighteenth century found +a perfectly astounding state of affairs prevailing +in the Mediterranean, where the four Barbary +states—Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli—which +stretched along its African shore, collected +tribute from every nation whose vessels sailed that +sea as methodically as a street-car conductor collects +fares. Asserting that they were no common, +vulgar buccaneers who plundered vessels indiscriminately, +the Barbary corsairs, claiming for +themselves the virtual ownership of the Mediterranean, +turned it into a sort of maritime toll-road, +and professed themselves at war with all who refused +to pay roundly for using it. Nor was their +boast that they were the masters of the Middle +Sea a vain one, scores of captured merchantmen +and thousands of European slaves laboring under +the African sun proving indubitably that they +were amply capable of enforcing their demands.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +As far as the question of economy was concerned, +it was about as cheap for a nation to be at war +with these bandits of the sea as at peace, for so +heavy was the tribute they demanded that their +friendship came almost as high as their enmity. +It cost Spain, at that time a rich and powerful +empire, upward of three million dollars to obtain +peace with the Dey of Algiers in 1786. Though +England boasted herself mistress of the seas, and +in token thereof English admirals carried brooms +at their mastheads, she nevertheless spent four +hundred thousand dollars annually in propitiating +these African despots. Previous to the Revolution +there were close on a hundred American +vessels, manned by more than twelve hundred +seamen, in the Mediterranean, but with the withdrawal +of British protection this commerce was +entirely abandoned. The ink was scarcely dry +on the treaty of peace, however, before we had +despatched diplomatic agents to the Barbary +coast to purchase the friendship of its rulers, and +had taken our place in the line of regular contributors. +We were in good company, too, for England, +France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Denmark, +and the Italian states had been paying +tribute so long that they had acquired the habit. +Think of it, my friends! Every great seafaring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +nation in the world meekly paying tribute to a +few thousand Arab cutthroats for the privilege +of using one of the seven seas, and humbly apologizing +if the payment happened to become overdue!</p> + +<p>Our friendly relations with the Dey of Algiers +were of short duration, however, and by 1793 his +swift-sailing, heavily armed cruisers had captured +thirteen American vessels, and sixscore American +slaves were at work on the fortifications of his +capital. In his prison-yard, indeed, one could +hear every American inflection, from the nasal +twang of Maine to the drawl of Carolina. After +two years of procrastination, Congress, spurred to +action by public indignation, purchased the liberty +of the captives and peace with Algiers for eight +hundred thousand dollars, though the Dey remarked +gloomily, as he scrawled his Arabic flourish +at the foot of the treaty: "If I keep on making +peace at this rate, there will soon be no one left +to fight. Then how shall I occupy my corsairs? +What shall I do with my fighting men? If they +have no one else to rob and slaughter, they will +rob and slaughter me!"</p> + +<p>The Bashaw of Tripoli at this time was a peculiarly +insolent and tyrannical Arab named Yussuf +Karamanli, who had gained the throne by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +effective method of winning over the body-guard, +quietly surrounding the palace one night, and deposing +his elder brother, Ahmet, whom he promptly +exiled. Despite the annual tribute of twenty-two +thousand dollars which we were paying to the +Bashaw, not to mention the seventeen thousand +dollars' worth of presents which we presented biennially +to the officers and officials of his court, he +complained most bitterly to the American consul +at Tripoli that he was not getting as much as his +neighboring rulers, and that unless the matter was +remedied immediately, he would have to get some +American slaves to teach him English. Now, +Yussuf was a bad man to have for an enemy, for +his cruisers were numerous and loaded to the gunwales +with pirates who would rather fight than +eat, and he had, in addition, the reputation of +being most inconsiderate to those sailors who fell +into his hands, sometimes going so far as to wall +a few of them up in the fortifications which he +was constantly building. To put it bluntly, he +was not popular outside of his own circle. As +Mr. Cathcart, the American consul, did not take +his demands for a larger tribute very seriously, +the Bashaw wrote to President Jefferson direct, +mincing no words in saying that the American +government had better grant his request, and be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +quick about it, or American seamen would find the +Mediterranean exceedingly unhealthy for them.</p> + +<p>Incredible as it may seem in this day and age, +the authorities at Washington ordered a vessel to +be loaded with the arms, ammunition, and naval +stores demanded by the Bashaw, their total value +being thirty-four thousand dollars, and hurriedly +despatched it to Tripoli, with profuse apologies +for the delay. A few months later the Bashaw, +who evidently knew a good thing when he saw it, +suggested that a token of our esteem for him in +the form of jewels would be highly acceptable, +whereupon the American minister in London was +instructed to purchase jewelry to the value of ten +thousand dollars and have it hurried to Tripoli +by special messenger. Emboldened by his undreamed-of +success in shaking the republican tree, +the Bashaw reached the very height of audacity +by again sending a peremptory note to President +Jefferson, demanding that the United States immediately +present him with a thirty-six-gun war-ship! +As no attention was paid to this modest +request (and in view of the other outrageous concessions +made by our government, it is somewhat +surprising that this demand was not granted also), +the Bashaw ordered the flagstaff of the American +consulate to be chopped down as a sign of war,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +and turned his corsairs loose on American commerce +in the Mediterranean. The war opened +most disastrously for the United States, for a few +months later the frigate <i>Philadelphia</i> ran aground +in the harbor of Tripoli, the Tripolitans capturing +Captain Bainbridge and his entire crew. No +wonder the Bashaw went to the mosque that day +to give thanks to Allah, for had he not received +an even larger war-ship than he had demanded, +and did he not have two hundred American slaves +to instruct him in the English tongue? "God is +great!" exclaimed the Bashaw devoutly, as he +knelt on his silken prayer-rug, and "God is +great!" echoed the rows of corsairs who knelt +behind him.</p> + +<p>It was shortly after this American misfortune +that William Eaton, soldier, diplomat, and Indian-fighter, +swaggered upon the scene, and things began +to happen with a rapidity that made the +Bashaw's turbaned head whirl. By birth and upbringing +Eaton was a Connecticut Yankee, and +he possessed all the shrewdness, hardihood, and +perseverance so characteristic of that race. The +son of a schoolmaster farmer, before he was sixteen +he had run away from home to join the Continental +Army, which he left at the close of the +Revolution with the chevrons of a sergeant on his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +coat-sleeve. Far-sighted enough to see the value +of a college education, he went from the camp +straight to the college classroom. Graduating +from Dartmouth in 1790, he re-entered the army +as a captain, served against the Indians in Georgia +and Ohio, and in 1798 received an appointment +as American consul at Tunis. Resolute, energetic, +and daring, impatient with any one who did not +agree with his views, no better man could have +been selected for the place. Thoroughly understanding +the Arab character, from the very outset +he took a high hand in his dealings with the Tunisian +ruler. He alternately quarrelled with and +patronized the Bey, bullyragged his ministers, and +actually horsewhipped an insolent official of the +court in the palace courtyard, for five years +keeping up an uninterrupted series of altercations, +provocations, and procrastinations over the payment +of tribute-money. He acted with such energy +and boldness, however, that he secured to +the commerce of his country complete immunity +from the attacks of Tunisian cruisers, and made +the name American respected on that part of the +Barbary coast at least. In 1801, as I have already +remarked, the American flagstaff in the +adjoining kingdom of Tripoli came crashing down +at the Bashaw's order, and war promptly began<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +between that country and the United States. Two +years later the Bey of Tunis, harried beyond +endurance by the half-insolent, half-patronizing +fashion in which Eaton treated him, ordered that +gentleman to leave the country.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/gs04frigate.png" width="450" height="661" alt="The frigate Philadelphia ran aground in the harbor of Tripoli, +the Tripolitans capturing Captain Bainbridge +and his entire crew." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The frigate Philadelphia ran aground in the harbor of Tripoli, +the Tripolitans capturing Captain Bainbridge +and his entire crew.</span> +</div> + +<p>Returning to the United States, Eaton went +immediately to Washington and laid before President +Jefferson and his Cabinet a scheme for bringing +the war with Tripoli to a successful conclusion, +and exchanging our humiliating position as a contributor +to a gang of pirates for one more consistent +with American ideals. The plan which he proposed +was, briefly, that the United States should +assist in restoring to the Tripolitan throne the +exiled Bashaw, Ahmet Karamanli, on the understanding +that, upon his restoration, the exaction +of tribute from the American government and +the depredations on American commerce should +cease. Eaton was outspoken in urging the desirability +of carrying out this plan, arguing that +the dethronement of one of the Barbary despots +would impress the people of all that region as +nothing else could do. I can see him standing +there beside the long table in the Cabinet room of +the White House, his lean Yankee face aglow with +enthusiasm, his every motion bespeaking confidence +in himself and his plan, while Jefferson and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +his sedate, conservative advisers lean far back in +their chairs and regard this visionary half curiously, +half amusedly, as he outlines his schemes +for overturning thrones and reapportioning kingdoms. +From the President and his Cabinet he +received the sort of treatment which timid governments +are apt to bestow on men of spirit and +action. He was given to understand that he was +at liberty to carry out his plans, but that, if he +was successful, the government would take all the +credit, and that, if he failed, he would have to +take all the blame. The only way to explain the +astounding apathy of the American government +to events in the Mediterranean is that a bitter +political struggle was then in progress in the United +States, and that the very remoteness of the theatre +of war probably lessened its importance in the +eyes of the administration. At any rate, President +Jefferson signed the appointment of Eaton +as American naval agent in the Mediterranean, +and, happy as a schoolboy at the beginning of the +long vacation, at the wide latitude of action conferred +upon him by this purposely vague commission, +he sailed a few days later with the American +fleet for Egypt. His great adventure had begun.</p> + +<p>Aware that the dethroned Bashaw had fled to +Cairo, Eaton landed at Alexandria, and, hastening<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +to the Egyptian capital by camel, succeeded in +locating the exiled Ahmet, whom he found in +the depths of poverty and despair. Seated cross-legged +beside him in a native coffee-house, Eaton +outlined his plan and proposition. He told Ahmet +that the United States would undertake to restore +him to the Tripolitan throne upon his agreeing to +repay the expenses of the expedition immediately +upon his restoration, and upon the condition that +Eaton should be commander-in-chief of the land +forces throughout the campaign, Ahmet and his +followers to promise him implicit obedience. Ahmet +snapped at the chance, slim though it was, +to regain his kingdom, as a starving dog snaps at +a proffered bone. Eaton's plan of campaign was +as simple as it was reckless. He proposed to +recruit a force of Greek and Arab mercenaries, +officered by Americans, in Alexandria, and, following +the North African coast-line westward across +the Libyan Desert, to surprise and capture Derna +(or, as it was spelled in those days, Derne), the +capital of the easternmost and richest province of +Tripoli. With Derna as a base of operations, and +with the co-operation of the American fleet, he +held that it would be a comparatively simple +matter to push on along the coast, taking in turn +Benghazi, Tobruk, and the city of Tripoli itself.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +The chief merit of the scheme lay in its sheer +audacity, for of all the leaders who have invaded +Africa, this unknown American was the only one +who had the courage to face the perils of a march +across a waterless, trackless, sun-scorched, and +uninhabited desert. But there was in Eaton the +stuff of which great conquerors are made, and +instead of letting his mind dwell on the dangers +which the desert had to offer, he dreamed of the +triumphs which awaited him beyond it.</p> + +<p>To raise the men for so hazardous an expedition, +Eaton had need of all the energy and magnetism +at his command, alternately employing the +specious promises of a recruiting sergeant and the +persuasive arguments of a campaign orator. On +March 3, 1805, Eaton and the man to whom he had +promised a kingdom reviewed their forlorn hope—and +it was very forlorn indeed—at a spot called +the Arab's Tower, some forty miles southwest of +Alexandria. I doubt if so strangely assorted a +force ever marched and fought under the shadow +of our flag. The army, if army it could be called, +consisted of eight Americans besides Eaton: Lieutenant +O'Barron, Sergeant Peck, and six marines +borrowed from the American fleet; thirty-four +Greeks, who went along professedly because they +wanted to fight the Moslem, but really because<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +they needed the money; twenty-five Egyptian +Copts, Christians at least in name, who claimed +to be trained artillerymen, and to lend color to +their assertion brought with them a small brass +field-gun; those of Ahmet's personal adherents who +had fled with him into exile, numbering about +ninety men; and a squadron of Arab mercenaries, +whose services had been obtained by the promise +of unlimited opportunities for loot—these with the +drivers of the baggage-camels bringing the total +strength of the "Army of North Africa" to less +than four hundred men. With this motley and ill-disciplined +force behind him, and six hundred miles +of yellow sand in front, Eaton turned his horse's +nose Tripoliward, so that at about the time President +Jefferson was delivering his second inaugural +address the adventurous American was leading his +little army across the desert, with the courage of +an Alexander the Great, to conquer an African +kingdom.</p> + +<p>The task which lay before him was one which +great military leaders, all down the ages, had declared +impossible. For a distance equal to that +from Philadelphia to Chicago stretched an unbroken +expanse of pitiless, sun-scorched desert, boasting +no single living thing save an occasional +band of nomad Arabs or a herd of gazelles. Midway<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +between Alexandria and Derna was the insignificant +port of Bomba, where, according to a +prearranged plan, the <i>Argus</i>, under Captain Isaac +Hull—the same who became famous a few years +later for his victories over the British in the War +of 1812—was to meet the expedition with supplies. +Unless you have seen the desert it will be difficult +for you to appreciate how hazardous this adventure +really was. Imagine a sea of yellow sand +with billow after billow stretching in every direction +as far as the eye can see; without a tree, a +shrub, a plant, a blade of grass; without a river, +a brook, a drop of water except, at long intervals, +a stagnant, green-scummed pool; the air like a +blast from an open furnace-door and overhead a +sky pitiless as molten brass! During the seven +weeks of the march the thermometer never dropped +during the day below 120 degrees.</p> + +<p>The arrangements for the transport had been +left to Ahmet Pasha, and it was not until the +expedition was two hundred miles into the desert, +and the camel-drivers abruptly halted and announced +that they were going back to Egypt, that +Eaton learned that they had been engaged only to +that point. As the desertion of the camel-drivers +and the consequent inability to transport the tents, +ammunition, and supplies would wreck the expedition,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +Eaton pleaded with the men to stick by +him two or three days longer, until he could reach +an encampment of Arabs with whom he could +make another contract. This they consented to +do on condition that they were paid in advance. +By borrowing every piaster which his Americans +and Greeks had to lend, Eaton succeeded in raising +six hundred and seventy-three dollars, and +with this the camel-drivers were apparently content. +Nothing shows more strikingly the shoe-string +on which the enterprise was being run than +the fact that this unexpected disbursement reduced +Eaton's war-chest to three Venetian sequins—equivalent +to six dollars and fifty-four cents! +Despite this payment, all but four of the camel-drivers +deserted the very next night, and the four +that remained sullenly refused to go any farther. +In the darkness of the following night they, +too, quietly untethered their camels and slipped +silently away. Here, then, were three hundred +and fifty men, with a rapidly diminishing supply +of food and water and absolutely no means of +transport, as completely marooned as though they +were on a desert island.</p> + +<p>To make matters worse, if such a thing were +possible, Eaton learned that Ahmet had induced +his Tripolitans and the Arabs to refuse to advance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +until they had news of the arrival of the <i>Argus</i> at +Bomba. Eaton, striding across to Ahmet's tent, +shook his fist menacingly in the face of the cringing +Tripolitan. "I know you're a coward," said +he, "and I suspect that you're a traitor and I've +a damned good mind to have you shot." The +Pasha, now thoroughly frightened, replied that +his men were too tired to march any farther. +"You can take your choice between marching and +starving," Eaton retorted, turning on his heel, +and placing a guard of American marines around +the tent containing the provisions, he ordered +them to shoot the first Arab who approached it. +This resolute action had an immediate effect, +for the Pasha and his men lost their tired feeling +with amazing quickness, fifty of the camel-drivers +returned, and the desperate march was resumed. +It was but a day or two, however, before the +Arabs became as turbulent and unruly as ever. +Then another mutiny broke out, Ahmet and +his people announcing that they preferred to be +well-fed cowards rather than starved heroes, and +that they were going back to the flesh-pots of +Egypt forthwith. Just as they were on the point +of departure, however, a messenger who had been +despatched to Bomba reached camp with the +news that the <i>Argus</i> was awaiting them in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +harbor. These unexpected delays had wholly exhausted +the supplies, which were slim enough, +goodness knows, in the beginning, so that during +the remainder of the march to Bomba they were +compelled to kill some of the camels for food, +living upon them and upon such roots as they +could gather on the way.</p> + +<p>It was a half-starved and utterly exhausted +expedition that plodded up the sand dunes which +overlook the little port of Bomba, so what must +their despair have been when they found no vessel +awaiting them in the harbor, and that the town +itself had been deserted. Captain Hull, apparently +having given them up as lost, had departed. +This time a more serious mutiny occurred, the +Arabs, desperate with hunger and furious from +disappointment, preparing to attack Eaton and +his handful of Europeans. Appreciating the peril +of his position, Eaton hastily formed his men +into a hollow square. Just as the Arabs were preparing +to charge down upon them the musket of +one of the marines was prematurely discharged, +the bullet whistling in uncomfortable proximity +to the Pasha's ear. So terror-stricken was that +worthy that he called off his men and attempted +to parley with Eaton, who, standing alone well in +front of his command, relieved his mind by telling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +Ahmet his opinion of him in what, according to +the accounts of those who heard it, must have +been an epic in objurgation. While the two factions +were growling at each other like angry bull-dogs +one of the Americans, happening to glance +seaward, suddenly broke the dangerous tension +by shouting: "A sail! A sail!" Hull, true to +his promise, was returning, and the expedition +was saved. Supplies were quickly landed from +the <i>Argus</i> for the starving men; with full stomachs +the courage of the Arabs returned, and Eaton and +his little band once more turned their faces toward +the setting sun.</p> + +<p>On the evening of April 25 the vanguard sighted +the walls of Derna. A feat that veteran soldiers +had jeered at as impossible had been accomplished, +and Eaton, without the loss of a man, had brought +his army across six hundred miles of desert, in the +heat of an African spring, and in the remarkable +time, when the scantiness of the rations and the +many delays are considered, of fifty-two days. +With their goal actually in sight, still another +mutiny took place, the craven Arabs claiming +that they were too few in number to attempt the +capture of a walled and heavily garrisoned city, +and it was not until Eaton promised them a bonus +of two thousand dollars if they succeeded in taking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +it that they could be induced to advance. The +more one learns of this man the more one must +admire his unfailing resource, his tenacity of purpose, +and his bull-dog courage; for, in addition to +the appalling natural obstacles which he overcame, +he was constantly harried by intrigue, treachery, +and cowardice.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the 26th a message was +sent to the governor of Derna, under a flag of +truce, offering him full amnesty if he would surrender +and declare his allegiance to his rightful +sovereign, Ahmet. The answer that came back +was as curt as it was conclusive: "My head or +yours," it read. Just as the sun was rising above +the sand-dunes the following morning the <i>Argus</i>, +the <i>Nautilus</i>, and the <i>Hornet</i> swept grandly into +the harbor, their crews at quarters, their decks +cleared for action, and the red-white-and-blue +ensign of the oversea republic floating defiantly +from their main trucks. Under cover of a terrific +bombardment by the war-ships, Eaton's force +advanced upon the city, planning, with their +single field-piece, to effect a breach in the walls +and carry the place by storm. So murderous was +the fire that the Tripolitan riflemen poured into +them from the walls and housetops, however, +that they were thrown into confusion, their single<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +piece of artillery was put out of action by a well-directed +cannon-shot, and Eaton himself was +severely wounded. Seeing that his raw troops +were on the verge of panic, and knowing that his +only chance of holding them together lay in a +charge, Eaton ordered his buglers to sound the +advance, and with a cheer like the roar of a storm +his whole line—Americans, Greeks, and Arabs—swept +forward on a run. "Come on, boys!" +shouted Eaton, as he raced ahead, sword in one +hand, pistol in the other. "At the double! Follow +me! Follow me!" And follow him they did. +Cheering like madmen they crossed a field swept +by a withering rifle-fire. They clambered over the +ramparts, and by the very fury of their assault +drove back the defenders, who outnumbered them +twenty to one. They fought with them hand +to hand, sabre against cimiter, bayonet against +clubbed matchlock. Swarming into the batteries, +they cut down the gunners and turned their guns +upon the town. The defences of the city once in +his possession, Eaton directed an assault upon the +palace, where the governor had taken refuge, +utilizing his Arab cavalry meanwhile to cut off +the retreat of the flying garrison. Before the sun +had disappeared into the Mediterranean, Eaton, at +a cost of only fourteen killed and wounded (all of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +whom, by the way, were Americans and Greeks), +had made himself master of Derna. His moment +of triumph came when, still begrimed with dirt +and powder, his arm in a blood-stained sling, he +stood with drawn sword before the line formed by +his ragged soldiers and the trim bluejackets from +the fleet, and, watching a ball of bunting creep up +that palace flagstaff from which so recently had +flaunted the banner of Tripoli, saw it suddenly +break out into the Stars and Stripes. Our flag, +for the first and only time, flew above a fortification +on that side of the Atlantic.</p> + +<p>Reinforced by a party of bluejackets from the +fleet, Eaton wasted not a moment in preparing +the city for defence. He was none too soon, either, +for the Bashaw, learning of the loss of his richest +province, despatched an overwhelming force for +its recapture. This army arrived before the walls +of Derna on May 13, and immediately made an +assault, which Eaton repulsed, as he did a second +one a few weeks later. By this time the news of +Eaton's victory had spread across North Africa +as fire spreads in dry grass, and thousands of natives, +many of them deserters from the Bashaw's +forces, hastened to assert their undying loyalty +and to offer their services to Ahmet, for your +Arab is far-seeing and takes good care to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +found on the side which he believes to be the +winning one. With his army thus largely augmented, +with ample supplies, with Derna as a +base of operations, and with his own prestige +equivalent to an additional regiment, Eaton had +completed the preparations for continuing his +victorious advance along the African coast-line. +There is little doubt, indeed, that with the co-operation +of the fleet he could have marched on +to Benghazi, taken that city as easily as he did +Derna, and in due time planted the American +flag on the castle of Tripoli itself.</p> + +<p>So it was with undisguised amazement and indignation +that on June 12 he received orders from +Commodore Rodgers to evacuate Derna and to +withdraw his forces from Tripoli, Colonel Tobias +Lear, the American consul at Algiers, having, in +the face of Eaton's successes, signed an inglorious +treaty of peace with the Bashaw of Tripoli. No +more degrading terms were ever assented to by a +civilized power. The Bashaw at first demanded +two hundred thousand dollars for the release of +Bainbridge and the <i>Philadelphia's</i> crew, but as +Eaton had captured a large number of Tripolitans +in the storming of Derna, an exchange was eventually +arranged, the United States agreeing to pay +the pirate ruler sixty thousand dollars to boot.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +The city of Derna and the great province of which +it was the capital were surrendered without so +much as the mention of an equivalent, not even +the relinquishment of the ransom of the American +prisoners. The unfortunate Ahmet Pasha, who +had been decoyed from his refuge in Egypt on the +promise of American assistance in effecting his +restoration, was deserted at a moment when success +was actually ours, and had to fly for his life +to Sicily, his wife and children being held as hostages +by his brother and the heads of his adherents +being exposed on the walls of the Tripolitan capital. +Thus shamefully ended one of the most +gallant and romantic exploits in the history of +American arms; thus terminated an episode which, +more than any other agency, compelled the rulers +of the Barbary coast to respect the citizens and +fear the wrath of the United States. Though an +expedition of scarcely four hundred men may +sound insignificant, the humbling of a Barbary +power was an achievement which every European +nation had attempted and which none of them +had accomplished.</p> + +<p>Disappointed and disgusted, Eaton returned to +the United States in November, 1805, to find +himself a national hero. From the moment he +set his foot on American soil he was greeted with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +cheers wherever he appeared; it was "roses, roses +all the way." The cities of Washington and +Richmond honored him with public dinners; +Massachusetts, "desirous to perpetuate the remembrance +of an heroic enterprise," granted him +ten thousand acres of land in Maine; Boston +named a street after the city which he had captured +against such fearful odds; President Jefferson +lauded him in his annual message; and in +recognition of his services in effecting the release +of some Danish captives in Tripoli, he was presented +by the King of Denmark with a jewelled +snuff-box. He was complimented everywhere except +at the seat of government, and received every +honor except that which he most deserved—a vote +of thanks from Congress. Though his expedition +had involved an expense of twenty-three thousand +dollars, for which he had given his personal +notes and the repayment of which exhausted all +his means, Congress never reimbursed him. Notwithstanding +the astounding indifference and ingratitude +of the nation on whose flag he had shed +such lustre, he indignantly rejected the advances +of Aaron Burr, who tried ineffectually to enlist +him in his conspiracy to establish an empire beyond +the Mississippi, and died, poverty-stricken +and broken-hearted, on June 1, 1811. Though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +the most modest of monuments marks his resting-place +in Brimfield churchyard, and though not +one in a hundred thousand of his countrymen +have so much as heard his name, his fame still +lives in that wild and far-off region where it took +an Italian army of forty thousand men to repeat +the exploit which he accomplished with four +hundred.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE LAST FIGHT OF THE "GENERAL ARMSTRONG"</h2> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> + + + +<p>We leaned over the rail of the <i>Hamburg</i>, +Colonel Roosevelt and I, and watched the +olive hills of Fayal rise from the turquoise sea. +Houses white as chalk began to peep from among +the orange groves; what looked at first sight to +be a yellow snake turned into a winding road; +then we rounded a headland, and the U-shaped +harbor, edged by a sleepy town and commanded +by a crumbling fortress, lay before us. +"In there," said the ex-President, pointing eagerly +as our anchor rumbled down, "was waged one of +the most desperate sea-fights ever fought, and one +of the least known; in there lies the wreck of the +<i>General Armstrong</i>, the privateer that stood off +twenty times her strength in British men and guns, +and thereby saved Louisiana from invasion. It is +a story that should make the thrills of patriotism +run up and down the back of every right-thinking +American."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Everything about her, from the carved and +gilded figure-head, past the rakish, slanting masts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +to the slender stern, indicated the privateer. As +she stood into the roadstead of Fayal late in +the afternoon of September 26, 1814, black-hulled +and white-sparred, carrying an amazing spread of +snowy canvas, she made a picture that brought a +grunt of approval even from the surly Azorian +pilot. Hardly had the red-white-and-blue ensign +showing her nationality fluttered to her peak before +a harbor skiff bearing the American consul, +Dabney, shot out from shore; for these were +troublous times on the Atlantic, and letters from +the States were few and far between. Rounding +her stern, he read, with a thrill of pride, "<i>General +Armstrong, New York</i>."</p> + +<p>The very name stood for romance, valor, hair-breadth +escape. For of all the two-hundred-odd +privateers that put out from American ports at +the outbreak of the War of 1812 to prey on British +commerce, none had won so high a place in +the popular imagination as this trim-built, black-hulled +schooner. Built for speed, and carrying a +spread of canvas at which most skippers would +have stood aghast, she was the fastest and best-handled +privateer afloat, and had always been able +to show her heels to the enemy on the rare occasions +when the superior range of her seven guns +had failed to pound him into submission. Her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +list of captures had made rich men of her owners, +and had caused Lloyd's to raise the insurance on +a vessel merely crossing the English Channel to +thirteen guineas in the hundred.</p> + +<p>The story of her desperate encounter off the +mouth of the Surinam River with the British sloop +of war <i>Coquette</i>, with four times her weight in guns, +had fired the popular imagination as had few other +events of the war. Although her commander, +Samuel Chester Reid, was not long past his thirtieth +birthday, no more skilful navigator or daring +fighter ever trod a quarter-deck, and his crew of +ninety men—Down-East fishermen, old man-o'-war's +men, Creole privateersmen who had fought +under Lafitte, reckless adventurers of every sort +and kind—would have warmed the heart of bluff +old John Paul Jones himself.</p> + +<p>Just as dusk was falling the officer on watch +reported a sail in the offing, and Reid and the consul, +hurrying on deck, made out the British brig +<i>Carnation</i>, of eighteen guns, with two other war-vessels +in her wake: the thirty-eight-gun frigate +<i>Rota</i>, and the <i>Plantagenet</i>, of seventy-four. Now, +as the privateer lay in the innermost harbor, +where a dead calm prevailed, while the three +British ships were fast approaching before the +brisk breeze which was blowing outside, Reid, +who knew the line which marks foolhardiness from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +courage, appreciating that the chances of his being +able to hoist anchor, make sail, and get out of +the harbor before the British squadron arrived to +block the entrance were almost infinitesimal, decided +to stay where he was and trust to the +neutrality of the port, a decision that was confirmed +by the assurances of Consul Dabney that +the British would not dare to attack a vessel lying +in a friendly harbor. But therein the consul was +mistaken, for throughout the entire duration of +the war the British as cynically disregarded the +observance of international law and the rights of +neutrals as though they did not exist.</p> + +<p>The <i>Carnation</i>, learning the identity of the +American vessel from the pilot, hauled close into +the harbor, not letting go her anchor until she was +within pistol-shot of the <i>General Armstrong</i>. Instantly +a string of signal-flags fluttered from her +mast, and the message was promptly acknowledged +by her approaching consorts, which thereupon +proceeded to stand off and on across the mouth +of the harbor, thus barring any chance of the +privateer making her escape. So great was the +commotion which ensued on the <i>Carnation's</i> deck +that Reid, becoming suspicious of the Englishman's +good faith, warped his ship under the very +guns of the Portuguese fort.</p> + +<p>About eight o'clock, just as dark had fallen,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +Captain Reid saw four boats slip silently from the +shadow of the <i>Carnation</i> and pull toward him +with muffled oars. If anything more were needed +to convince him of their hostile intentions, the +moon at that moment appeared from behind a +cloud and was reflected by the scores of cutlasses +and musket-barrels in all four of the approaching +boats. As they came within hailing distance +Reid swung himself into the shrouds.</p> + +<p>"Boats there!" he shouted, making a trumpet +of his hands. "Come no nearer! For your own +safety I warn you!"</p> + +<p>At his hail the boats halted, as though in indecision, +and their commanders held a whispered +consultation. Then, apparently deciding to take +the risk, and hoping, no doubt, to catch the privateer +unprepared, they gave the order: "Give way +all!" The oars caught the water together, and the +four boats, loaded to the gunwales with sailors +and marines, came racing on.</p> + +<p>"Let 'em have it, boys!" roared Reid, and at +the word a stream of flame leaped from the dark +side of the privateer and a torrent of grape swept +the crowded boats, almost annihilating one of the +crews and sending the others, crippled and bleeding, +back to the shelter of their ship.</p> + +<p>By this time the moon had fully risen, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +showed the heights overlooking the harbor to be +black with spectators, among whom were the +Portuguese governor and his staff; but the castle, +either from weakness or fear, showed no signs of +resenting the outrageous breach of neutrality to +which the port had been subjected. Angered and +chagrined at their repulse, the British now threw +all caution aside. The long-boats and gigs of all +three ships were lowered, and into them were +crowded nearly four hundred men, armed with +muskets, pistols, and cutlasses. Reid, seeing that +an attack was to be made in force, proceeded to +warp his vessel still closer inshore, mooring her +stem and stern within a few rods of the castle. +Moving two of the nine-pounders across the deck, +and cutting ports for them in the bulwarks, he +brought five guns, in addition to his famous +"long tom," to bear on the enemy. With cannon +double-shotted, boarding-nets triced up, and decks +cleared for action, the crew of the <i>General Armstrong</i> +lay down beside their guns to await the +British attack.</p> + +<p>It was not long in coming. Just as the bells of +the old Portuguese cathedral boomed twelve, a +dozen boats, loaded to the water's edge with +sailors and marines, whose burnished weapons +were like so many mirrors under the rays of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +moon, swung around a promontory behind which +they had been forming and, with measured stroke +of oars, came sweeping down upon the lone privateer. +The decks of the <i>General Armstrong</i> were +black and silent, but round each gun clustered its +crew of half-naked gunners, and behind the bulwarks +knelt a line of cool, grim riflemen, eyes +sighting down their barrels, cheeks pressed close +against the butts. Up and down behind his men +paced Reid, the skipper, cool as a winter's morning.</p> + +<p>"Hold your fire until I give the word, boys," he +cautioned quietly. "Wait till they get within +range, and then teach 'em better manners."</p> + +<p>Nearer and nearer came the shadowy line of +boats, the oars rising and falling with the faultless +rhythm which marks the veteran man-o'-war's +man. On they came, and now the waiting Americans +could make out the gilt-lettered hat-bands +of the bluejackets and the white cross-belts and +the brass buttons on the tunics of the marines. +A moment more and those on the <i>Armstrong's</i> +deck could see, beneath the shadow of the leather +shakoes, the tense, white faces of the British +boarders.</p> + +<p>"Now, boys!" roared Captain Reid; "let 'em +have it for the honor of the flag!" and from the +side of the privateer leaped a blast of flame and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +lead, cannon and musketry crashing in chorus. +Never were men taken more completely by surprise +than were those British sailors, for they had +expected that Reid, relying on the neutrality of +the port, would be quite unprepared to resist them. +But, though the American fire had caused terrible +havoc in the crowded boats, with the bull-dog +courage for which the British sailors were justly +famous, they kept indomitably on. "Give way! +Give way all!" screamed the boy-coxswains, and +in the face of a withering rifle-fire the sailors, recovering +from their momentary panic, bent grimly +to their oars. Through a perfect hail-storm of lead, +right up to the side of the privateer, they swept. +Six boats made fast to her quarter and six more +to her bow. "Boarders up and away!" bellowed +the officers, hacking desperately at the nettings +with their swords, and firing their pistols point-blank +into the faces they saw above them. The +<i>Armstrong's</i> gunners, unable to depress the muzzles +of their guns enough so that they could +be brought to bear, lifted the solid shot and +dropped them from the rail into the British +boats, mangling their crews and crashing through +their bottoms. From the shelter of the bulwarks +the American riflemen fired and loaded and fired +again, while the negro cook and his assistant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +played their part in the defence by pouring kettles +of boiling water over the British who were attempting +to scramble up the sides, sending them back +into their boats again scalded and groaning with +pain.</p> + +<p>There has been no fiercer struggle in all the annals +of the sea. The Yankee gunners, some of +them gray-haired men who had seen service with +John Paul Jones in the <i>Bon Homme Richard</i>, +changed from cannon-balls to grape, and from +grape to bags of bullets, so that by the time the +British boats drew alongside they were little more +than floating shambles. The dark waters of the +harbor were lighted up by spurts of flame from +muskets and cannon; the high, shrill yell of +the Yankee privateersmen rose above the deep-throated +hurrahs of the English sailors; the air +was filled with the shouts and oaths of the combatants, +the shrieks and groans of the wounded, +the incessant trampling of struggling men upon the +decks, the splash of dead and injured falling overboard, +the clash and clang of steel on steel, and +all the savage, overwhelming turmoil of a struggle +to the death. Urged on by their officers' cries of +"No quarter! Give the Yankees no quarter!" +the British division which had attacked the bow +hacked its way through the nettings, and succeeded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> +by sheer weight of numbers in getting a footing +on the deck, all three of the American lieutenants +being killed or disabled in the terrific hand-to-hand +struggle that ensued.</p> + +<p>At this critical juncture, when the Americans +on the forecastle, their officers fallen and their +guns dismounted, were being pressed slowly back +by overwhelming numbers, Captain Reid, having +repulsed the attack on the <i>Armstrong's</i> quarter, +led the after division forward at a run, the privateersmen, +though outnumbered five to one, driving +the English overboard with the resistless fury +of their onset. As the British boats, now laden +with dead and dying, attempted to withdraw into +safety, they were raked again and again with +showers of lead; two of them sank, two of them +were captured by the Americans. Finally, with +nearly three hundred of their men—three-quarters +of the cutting-out force—dead or wounded, the +British, now cowed and discouraged, pulled slowly +and painfully out of range. Some of the most +brilliant victories the British navy has ever gained +were far less dearly purchased.</p> + +<p>At three in the morning Reid received a note +from Consul Dabney asking him to come ashore. +He then learned that the governor had sent a +letter to the British commander asking him to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +desist from further hostilities, as several buildings +in the town had been injured by the British fire +and a number of the inhabitants wounded. To +this request Captain Lloyd had rudely replied that +he would have the Yankee privateer if he had to +knock the town into a heap of ruins. Returning +on board, Reid ordered the dead and wounded +taken ashore, and told the crew to save their personal +belongings.</p> + +<p>At daybreak the <i>Carnation</i>, being of lighter +draught than the other vessels, stood close in for +a third attack, opening on the privateer with every +gun she could bring to bear. But even in those +days the fame of American gunners was as wide +as the seas, and so well did the crew of the <i>General +Armstrong</i> uphold their reputation that the <i>Carnation</i> +was compelled to beat a demoralized retreat, +with her rigging cut away, her foremast +about to fall, and with several gaping holes between +wind and water. But Reid, appreciating +that there was absolutely no chance of escape, +and recognizing that further resistance would entail +an unnecessary sacrifice of his men's lives, by +which nothing could be gained, ordered the crew +to throw the nine-pounders which had rendered +such valiant service overboard and to leave the +ship. The veteran gunners, who were as much attached<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +to their great black guns as a cavalryman +is to his horse, obeyed the order with tears ploughing +furrows down their powder-begrimed cheeks. +Then Reid with his own hand trained the long-tom +down his vessel's hatchway, and pulling the +lanyard sent a charge of grape crashing through +her bottom, from which she at once began to sink. +Ten minutes later, before a British crew could +reach her side, the <i>General Armstrong</i> went to the +bottom with her flag still defiantly flying.</p> + +<p>Few battles have been fought in which the odds +were so unequal, and in few battles have the relative +losses been so astounding. The three British +war-ships carried two thousand men and one +hundred and thirty guns, and of the four hundred +men who composed the boarding party they lost, +according to their own accounts, nearly three hundred +killed and wounded. Of the American crew +of ninety men, two were killed and seven wounded. +This little crew of privateersmen had, in other +words, put out of action more than three times +their own number of British, and had added one +more laurel to our chaplet of triumphs on the sea.</p> + +<p>The Americans had scarcely gained the shore +before Captain Lloyd—who, by the way, had been +so severely wounded in the leg that amputation +was necessary—sent a peremptory message to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +governor demanding their surrender. But the +men who could not be taken at sea were not the +men to be captured on land, and the Americans, +retreating to the mountainous centre of the island, +took possession of a thick-walled convent, over +which they hoisted the stars and stripes, and from +which they defied British and Portuguese alike to +come and take them. No one tried.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/gs05gunners.png" width="600" height="359" alt="But even in those days the fame of American gunners was as wide as the seas." title="" /> +<span class="caption">But even in those days the fame of American gunners was as wide as the seas.</span> +</div> + +<p>All of the following day was spent by the British +in burying their one hundred and twenty dead—you +can see the white gravestones to-day if you +will take the trouble to climb the hill behind the +little town—but it took them a week to repair the +damage caused by the battle. And so deep was +their chagrin and mortification that when two +British ships put into Fayal a few days later, and +were ordered to take home the wounded, they +were forbidden to carry any news of the disaster +back to England.</p> + +<p>To Captain Reid and his little band of fighters +is due in no small measure the credit of saving +New Orleans from capture and Louisiana from +invasion. Lloyd's squadron was a part of the +expedition then gathering at Pensacola for the invasion +of the South, but it was so badly crippled +in its encounter with the privateer that it did not +reach the Gulf of Mexico until ten days later than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +the expedition had planned to sail. The expedition +waited for Lloyd and his reinforcements, so +that when it finally approached New Orleans, +Jackson and his frontiersmen, who had hastened +down by forced marches from the North, had made +preparations to give the English a warm reception. +Had the expedition arrived ten days earlier +it would have found the Americans unprepared, +and New Orleans would have fallen.</p> + +<p>Captain Reid and his men, landing on their native +soil at Savannah, found their journey northward +turned into a triumphal progress. The whole +country went wild with enthusiasm. There was +not a town or village on the way but did them +honor. The city of Richmond gave Captain Reid +a great banquet, and the State of New York presented +him with a sword of honor. But of all the +tributes which were paid to the little band of +heroes, none had the flavor of the concluding line +of a letter written by one of the British officers engaged +in the action to a relative in England. "If +this is the way the Americans fight," he wrote, +"we may well say, 'God deliver us from our +enemies.'"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE PIRATE WHO TURNED PATRIOT</h2> + +<p>How many well-informed people are aware, +I wonder, that the fact that the American +flag, and not the British, flies to-day over the +Mississippi valley is largely due to the eleventh-hour +patriotism of a pirate? Of the many kinds +of men of many nationalities who have played +parts of greater or less importance in the making +of our national history, none is more completely +cloaked in mystery, romance, and adventure than +Jean Lafitte. The last of that long line of buccaneers +who for more than two centuries terrorized +the waters and ravaged the coasts of the +Gulf of Mexico, his exploits make the wildest +fiction appear commonplace and tame. Although +he was as thorough-going a pirate as ever plundered +an honest merchant-man, I do not mean to +imply that he was a leering, low-browed scoundrel, +with a red bandanna twisted about his head and +an armory of assorted weapons at his waist, for +he was nothing of the sort. On the contrary, from +all I can learn about him, he appears to have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +a very gentlemanly sort of person indeed, tall +and graceful and soft-voiced, and having the most +charming manners. Though he regarded the law +with unconcealed contempt, there came a crisis +in our national history when he placed patriotism +above all other considerations, and rendered an +inestimable service to the country whose laws he +had flouted and to the State which had set a +price on his head. Indeed, we are indebted to +Jean Lafitte in scarcely less measure than we are +to Andrew Jackson for frustrating the British invasion +and conquest of Louisiana.</p> + +<p>Though the palmy days of piracy in the Gulf +of Mexico really ended with the seventeenth century, +by which time the rich cities of Middle +America had been impoverished by repeated sackings +and the gold-freighted caravels had taken to +travelling under convoy, even at the beginning of +the nineteenth century these storied waters still +offered many opportunities to lawless and enterprising +sea-folk. But the pirates of the nineteenth +century, unlike their forerunners of the seventeenth, +preyed on slave-ships rather than on +treasure-galleons. Consider the facts. On January +1, 1808, Congress passed an act prohibiting +the further importation of slaves into the United +States. By this act the recently acquired territory<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +of Louisiana, over which prosperity was advancing +in three-league boots, was deprived of +its supply of labor. With crops rotting in the +fields for lack of laborers, the price of slaves rose +until a negro fresh from the coast of Africa would +readily bring a thousand dollars at auction in +New Orleans. At the same time, remember, shiploads +of slaves were being brought to Cuba, where +no such restrictions existed, and sold for three +hundred dollars a head. Under such conditions +smuggling was inevitable. At first the smugglers +bought their slaves in the Cuban market, and running +them across the Gulf of Mexico, landed them +at obscure harbors on the Louisiana coast, whence +they were marched overland to New Orleans and +Baton Rouge. The smugglers soon saw, however, +that the slavers carried small crews, poorly armed, +and quickly made up their minds that it was a +shameful waste of money to buy slaves when they +could get them for nothing by the menace of their +guns. In short, the smugglers became buccaneers, +and as such drove a thriving business in captured +cargoes of "black ivory," as the slaves were +euphemistically called.</p> + +<p>As the demand was greatest on the rich new +lands along the Mississippi, it was at New Orleans +that the buccaneers found the most profitable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +market for their human wares, for they could +easily sail up the river to the city, dispose of their +cargoes, and be off again with the quick despatch +of regular liners to resume their depredations. +But the buccaneers did not confine their attention +to slave-ships, so that in a short time, despite +the efforts of British, French, and American +war-ships, the waters of the Gulf became as unsafe +for all kinds of merchant-vessels as they were +in the days of Morgan and Kidd.</p> + +<p>As a base for their piratical and smuggling operations, +as well as for supplies and repairs, the buccaneers +chose Barataria Bay, a place which met +their requirements as though made to order. +The name is applied to all of the Gulf coast of +Louisiana between the mouth of the Mississippi +and the mouth of another considerable stream +known as the Bayou La Fourche, the latter a +waterway to a rich and populous region. The +Bay of Barataria is screened from the Gulf, with +which it is connected by a deep-water pass, by +the island of Grande Terre, the trees on which +were high enough to effectually hide the masts of +the buccaneers' vessels from the view of inquisitive +war-ships cruising outside. Between the +Mississippi and the La Fourche there is a perfect +network of small but navigable waterways which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +extend almost to New Orleans, so that the buccaneers +thus had a back-stairs route, as it were, to +the city, which brought their rendezvous at +Grande Terre within safe and easy reach of the +great mart of the Mississippi valley.</p> + +<p>Such supplies as the buccaneers did not get +from the ships they captured, they obtained by +purchase in New Orleans. For the chains which +were used in making up the caufles of slaves for +transportation into the interior, they were accustomed +to patronize the blacksmith-shop of the +Brothers Lafitte, which stood—and still stands—on +the northeast corner of Bourbon and St. +Philippe Streets. Of the history of these brothers +prior to their arrival in New Orleans nothing +is definitely known. From their names, and because +they spoke with the accent peculiar to the +Garonne, they are credited with having been +natives of the south of France, though whence +they came and where they went are questions +which have never been satisfactorily answered. +They were quite evidently men of means, and +might have been described as gentlemen blacksmiths, +for they owned the slaves who pounded +the iron. Being men of exceptional business +shrewdness, it is not to be wondered at that from +doing the buccaneers' blacksmithing they gradually<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +became their agents and bankers, the smithy +in St. Philippe Street coming in time to be a sort of +clearing-house for many questionable transactions. +Now Jean Lafitte was an extremely able man, combining +a remarkable executive ability with a genius +for organization, and had he lived a century later +these traits, together with his predatory instincts +and his utter contempt for the law, would undoubtedly +have made him the president of a +trust. Through success in managing their affairs, +he gradually increased his usefulness to the buccaneers +until he obtained complete control over +them, and ruled them as despotically as a tribal +chieftain. This was when his genius for organization +had succeeded in uniting their different, +and often rival, efforts and interests into a sort of +pirates' corporation, composed of all the buccaneers, +privateers, and freebooters doing business in +the Gulf, this combination of outlaws, incredible as +it may seem, as effectually controlling the price +of slaves and many other things in the Mississippi +valley as the Standard Oil Company controls the +price of petroleum to-day.</p> + +<p>The influence of this new element in the buccaneer +business soon made itself felt. At that +time New Orleans was a sort of cross between an +American frontier town and a West Indian port,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +its streets and barrooms being filled with swaggering +adventurers, gamblers, and soldiers of fortune +from every corner of the three Americas, the presence +of most of whom was due to the activity of +the sheriffs in their former homes. It was from +these men, cool, reckless, resourceful, that Lafitte +recruited his forces. Leaving his brother Pierre +in charge of the New Orleans branch of the enterprise, +Jean Lafitte took up his residence on Grande +Terre, where, under his directions, a fort was +built, around which there soon sprang up a veritable +city of thatched huts for the shelter of the +buccaneers, and for the accommodation of the +merchants who came to supply their wants or to +purchase their captured cargoes. Within a year +upward of a dozen armed vessels rendezvoused +in Barataria Bay, and their crews addressed Jean +Lafitte as "<i>bosse</i>." One of the Baratarians, a +buccaneer of the walk-the-plank-and-scuttle-the-ship +school named Grambo, who boldly called +himself a pirate, and jeered at Lafitte's polite +euphemism of privateer, was one day unwise +enough to dispute the new authority. Without +an instant's hesitation Lafitte drew a pistol and +shot him through the heart in the presence of the +whole band. After that episode there was no +more insubordination.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> + +<p>By 1813 the Baratarians, who had long since +extended their operations to include all kinds of +merchandise, were driving such a roaring trade +that the commerce and shipping of New Orleans +was seriously diminished (for why go to New +Orleans for their supplies, the sea-captains and +the plantation-owners argued, when they could +get what they wanted at Barataria for a fraction +of the price), the business of the banks decreased +alarmingly under the continual lessening of their +deposits, while even the National Government +began to feel its loss of revenue. The waters of +Barataria, on the contrary, were alive with the +sails of incoming and outgoing vessels; the wharfs +which had been constructed at Grande Terre resounded +to the creak of winches and the shouts of +stevedores unloading contraband cargoes, and the +long, low warehouses were filled with merchandise +and the log stockades with slaves waiting to be +sold and transported to the up-country plantations. +So defiant of the law did Lafitte become +that the streets of New Orleans were placarded +with handbills announcing the auction sales at +Barataria of captured cargoes, and to them flocked +bargain-hunters from all that part of the South. +An idea of the business done by the buccaneers at +this time may be gained from an official statement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +that four hundred slaves were sold by auction in +the Grande Terre market in a single day.</p> + +<p>Of course the authorities took action in the +matter, but their efforts to enforce the law proved +both dangerous and ineffective. In October, 1811, +a customs-inspector succeeded in surprising a band +of Baratarians and seizing some merchandise they +had with them, but before he could convey the +prisoners and the captured contraband to New +Orleans Lafitte and a party of his men overtook +him, rescued the prisoners, recovered the property, +and in the fight which ensued wounded several of +the posse. Some months later Lafitte killed an +inspector named Stout, who attempted to interfere +with him, and wounded two of his deputies. +Then Governor Claiborne issued a proclamation +offering a reward for the capture of Lafitte dead +or alive, at the same time appealing to the legislature +for permission to raise an armed force to +break up the buccaneering business for good and +all. The cautious legislators declined to take any +action, however, because they were unwilling to +interfere with an enterprise that, however illegal +it might be, was unquestionably developing the +resources of lower Louisiana, and incidentally adding +immensely to the fortunes of their constituents. +As for the Baratarians, they paid as scant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +attention to the governor's proclamation as though +it had never been written. Surrounded by groups +of admiring friends, Lafitte and his lieutenants +continued to swagger through the streets of New +Orleans; his men openly boasted of their exploits +in every barroom of the city, and in places of +public resort announcements of auctions at Barataria +continued to be displayed.</p> + +<p>Then Governor Claiborne played his last card, +and secured indictments of the Lafittes on the +charge of piracy. Pierre Lafitte was arrested in +his blacksmith-shop and confined without bail +in the calaboose. Jean Lafitte promptly trumped +the governor's card by retaining the services of +Edward Livingston and John R. Grymes, the two +most distinguished members of the Louisiana bar, +at the enormous fee of twenty thousand dollars +apiece. Grymes was then the district attorney, +but he resigned his office for the fee. When his +successor accused him in open court of having +bartered his honor for pirate gold Grymes challenged +him to a duel, and crippled him for life +with a pistol bullet through the hip. When the +two eminent lawyers had cleared their poor, innocent, +persecuted clients of the unfounded and outrageous +charges brought against them, and had +taught them certain legal tricks whereby they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +could continue doing business at the old stand +and still keep on the right side of the bars, Pierre +Lafitte sent them an invitation to visit Barataria +and collect their fees in person. Livingston, a +cautious gentleman who had no desire to risk himself +among the pirates whose virtues he had just +extolled so highly to a jury, declined the invitation +with thanks, offering his colleague a commission of +ten per cent to collect his fee for him. Grymes, +who was a hard-drinking, high-living Virginian, +and afraid of nothing on two feet or four, accepted +the invitation with alacrity, and until the end of +his life was wont to convulse his friends with lurid +descriptions of the magnificent entertainment +which Lafitte provided for him. After a carouse +which lasted for a week, and which, from Grymes's +accounts, was a combination of the feasts of Lucullus +with the orgies of Nero, Lafitte sent his legal +adviser back to New Orleans in a sailing vessel, +together with several huge chests containing his +fee in Spanish gold pieces. It is an interesting +commentary on the customs which prevailed in +those days that by the time Grymes reached New +Orleans, after having visited the various plantations +along the lower Mississippi and tried his +luck at their card-tables, not a dollar of his fee +remained.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now, it should be understood that the feebleness +which characterized all the attempts of the +Federal Government to break the power of the +buccaneers was not due to any reluctance to +prosecute them, but to the fact that it already +had its attention taken up with far more pressing +matters, for we were then in the midst of our +second war with Great Britain. The long series +of injuries which England had inflicted on the +United States, such as the plundering and confiscation +of our ships, the impressment into the +British Navy of our seamen, and the interruption +of our commerce with other nations, had culminated +on June 18, 1812, by Congress declaring war. +So unexpected was this action that it found the +country totally unprepared. Our military establishment +was barely large enough to provide garrisons +for the most exposed points on our far-flung +borders; the numerous ports on our seaboard +were left unprotected and unfortified; and our +navy consisted of but a handful of war-ships. +The history of the first two years of the struggle, +which was marked by brilliant American victories +at sea, but by a disastrous attempt to invade +Canada, has no place in this narrative. Early in +the summer of 1814, however, the British Government, +exasperated by its failure to inflict any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +vital damage in the northern States, determined +to bring the war to a quick conclusion by the invasion +and conquest of Louisiana. The preparations +made for this expedition were in themselves +startling. Indeed, few Americans have even a +faint conception of the strength of the blow which +England prepared to deal us, for with Napoleon's +abdication and exile to Elba, and the ending +of the war with France, she was enabled to bring +her whole military and naval power against us. +The British armada consisted of fifty war-ships, +mounting more than a thousand guns. It was +commanded by Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, +under whom was Sir Thomas Hardy, the +friend of Nelson, Rear-Admiral Malcolm, and +Rear-Admiral Codrington, and was manned by +the same sailors who had fought so valorously at +the Nile and at Trafalgar. This great fleet acted +as convoy for an almost equal number of transports, +having on board eight thousand soldiers, +which were the very flower of the British Army, +nearly all of them being veterans of the Napoleonic +campaigns. Such importance did the British Government +attach to the success of this expedition +that it seriously considered giving the command +of it to no less a personage than the Duke of Wellington. +So certain were the British that the venture<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +would be successful that they brought with +them a complete set of civil officials to conduct +the government of this new country which was +about to be annexed to his Majesty's dominions, +judges, customs-inspectors, revenue-collectors, +court-criers, printers, and clerks, together with +printing-presses and office paraphernalia, being +embarked on board the transports. A large number +of ladies, wives and relatives of the officers, +also accompanied the expedition, to take part in +the festivities which were planned to celebrate the +capture of New Orleans. And, as though to cap +this exhibition of audacity, a number of ships were +chartered by British speculators to bring home the +booty, the value of which was estimated beforehand +at fourteen millions of dollars. Whether the +British Government expected to be able to permanently +hold Louisiana is extremely doubtful, +for it must have been fully aware that the Western +States were capable of pouring down a hundred +thousand men, if necessary, to repel an invasion. +It is probable, therefore, that they counted only +on a temporary occupation, which they expected +to prolong sufficiently, however, to give them time +to pillage and lay waste the country, a course +which they felt confident would quickly bring the +government at Washington to terms.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + +<p>This formidable armada set sail from England +early in the summer of 1814 and, reaching the +Gulf of Mexico, established its base of operations, +regardless of all the laws of neutrality, at the +Spanish port of Pensacola. One morning in the +following September a British brig hove to off +Grande Terre, and called attention to her presence +by firing a cannon. Lafitte, darting through the +pass in his four-oared barge to reconnoitre, met +the ship's gig with three scarlet-coated officers in +the stern, who introduced themselves as bearers +of important despatches for Mr. Lafitte. The +pirate chief, introducing himself in turn, invited +his unexpected guests ashore, and led the way +to his quarters with that extraordinary charm +of manner for which he was noted even among +the punctilious Creoles of New Orleans. After a +dinner of Southern delicacies, which elicited exclamations +even from the blasé British officers, +Lafitte opened the despatches. They were addressed +to Jean Lafitte, Esquire, commandant at +Barataria, from the commander-in-chief of the +British forces at Pensacola, and bluntly offered +him thirty thousand dollars, payable in Pensacola +or New Orleans, a commission as captain in the +British Navy, and the enlistment of his men in +the naval or military forces of Great Britain if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +he would assist the British in their impending invasion +of Louisiana. Though it was a generous +offer, no one knew better than the British commander +that Lafitte's co-operation was well worth +the price, for, familiar with the network of +streams and navigable swamps lying between +Barataria Bay and New Orleans, he was capable +of guiding a British expedition through these secret +waterways to the very gates of the city before +the Americans would have a hint of its approach. +It is not too much to assert that at this +juncture the future of New Orleans, and indeed +of the whole Mississippi Valley, hung upon the +decision of Jean Lafitte, a pirate and a fugitive +from justice with a price upon his head.</p> + +<p>Whether Lafitte seriously considered accepting +the offer there is, of course, no way of knowing. +That it must have sorely tempted him it seems +but reasonable to suppose, for he was not an +American, either by birth or naturalization, and +the prospect of exchanging his hazardous outlaw's +life, with a vision of the gallows ever looming before +him for a captain's commission in the royal +navy, with all that that implied, could hardly +have failed to appeal to him strongly. That he +promptly decided to reject the offer speaks volumes +for the man's strength of character and for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +his faith in American institutions. Appreciating +that at such a crisis every hour gained was of +value to the Americans, he asked time to consider +the proposal, requesting the British officers to +await him while he consulted an old friend and +associate whose vessel, he said, was then lying in +the bay. Scarcely was he out of sight, however, +before a band of buccaneers, acting, of course, +under his orders, seized the officers and hustled +them into the interior of the island, where they +were politely but forcibly detained. Here they +were found some days later by Lafitte, who pretended +to be highly indignant at such unwarrantable +treatment of his guests. Releasing them with +profuse apologies, he saw them safely aboard their +brig, and assured them that he would shortly communicate +his decision to the British commander. +But that officer's letter was already in the hands +of a friend of Lafitte's in New Orleans, who was +a member of the legislature, and accompanying +it was a communication from the pirate chief +himself, couched in those altruistic and patriotic +phrases for which the rascal was famous. In it he +asserted that, though he admitted being guilty +of having evaded the payment of certain customs +duties, he had never lost his loyalty and affection +for the United States, and that, notwithstanding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +the fact that there was a price on his head, he +would never miss an opportunity of serving his +adopted country. A few days later Lafitte forwarded +through the same channels much valuable +information which his agents had gathered +as to the strength, resources, and plans of the +British expedition, enclosing with it a letter +addressed to Governor Claiborne in which he +offered the services of himself and his men in +defence of the State and city on condition that +they were granted a pardon for past offences.</p> + +<p>Receiving no reply to this communication, +Lafitte sailed up the river to New Orleans in his +lugger and made his way to the residence of the +governor. Governor Claiborne was seated at his +desk, immersed in the business of his office, when +the door was softly opened, and Lafitte, stepping +inside, closed it behind him. Clad in the full-skirted, +bottle-green coat, the skin-tight breeches +of white leather, and the polished Hessian boots +which he affected, he presented a most graceful +and gallant figure. As he entered he drew two +pistols from his pockets, cocked them, and covered +the startled governor, after which ominous preliminaries +he bowed with the grace for which he +was noted.</p> + +<p>"Sir," he remarked pleasantly, "you may possibly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +have heard of me. My name is Jean Lafitte."</p> + +<p>"What the devil do you mean, sir," exploded +the governor, "by showing yourself here? Don't +you know that I shall call the sentry and have +you arrested?"</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, your Excellency," interrupted +Lafitte, moving his weapons significantly, "but +you will do nothing of the sort. If you move +your hand any nearer that bell I shall be compelled +to shoot you through the shoulder, a +necessity, believe me, which I should deeply +regret. I have called on you because I have +something important to say to you, and I intend +that you shall hear it. To begin with, you have +seen fit to put a price upon my head?"</p> + +<p>"Upon the head of a pirate, yes," thundered +the governor, now almost apoplectic with rage.</p> + +<p>"In spite of that fact," continued Lafitte, "I +have rejected a most flattering offer from the +British government, and have come here, at some +small peril to myself, to renew in person the offer +of my services in repelling the coming invasion. +I have at my command a body of brave, well-armed, +and highly disciplined men who have +been trained to fight. Does the State care to +accept their services or does it not?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> + +<p>The governor, folding his arms, looked long at +Lafitte before he answered. Then he held out +his hand. "It is a generous offer that you make, +sir. I accept it with pleasure."</p> + +<p>"At daybreak to-morrow, then," said Lafitte, +replacing his pistols, "my men will be awaiting +your Excellency's orders across the river." Then, +with another sweeping bow, he left the room as +silently as he had entered it.</p> + +<p>Governor Claiborne immediately communicated +Lafitte's offer to General Andrew Jackson, then +at Mobile, who had been designated by the War +Department to conduct the defence of Louisiana. +Jackson, who had already issued a proclamation +denouncing the British for their overtures to "robbers, +pirates, and hellish bandits," as he termed +the Baratarians, promptly replied that the only +thing he would have to do with Lafitte was to +hang him. Nevertheless, when the general arrived +in New Orleans a few days later, Lafitte +called at his headquarters and requested an interview. +By this time Jackson was conscious of the +feebleness of the resources at his disposal for the +defence of the city and of the strength of the armament +directed against it, which accounts, perhaps, +for his consenting to receive the "hellish bandit." +Lafitte, looking the grim old soldier squarely in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +the eye, repeated his offer, and so impressed was +Jackson with the pirate's cool and fearless bearing +that he accepted his services.</p> + +<p>On the 10th of December, 1814, ten days after +Jackson's arrival in New Orleans, the British +armada reached the mouth of the Mississippi. +Small wonder that the news almost created a +panic in the city, for the very names of the ships +and regiments composing the expedition had become +famous through their exploits in the Napoleonic +wars. It was a nondescript and motley +force which Jackson had hastily gathered to repel +this imposing army of invasion. Every man +capable of bearing arms in New Orleans and its +vicinity—planters, merchants, bankers, lawyers—had +volunteered for service. To the local company +of colored freedmen was added another one +composed of colored refugees from Santo Domingo, +men who had sided with the whites in the revolution +there and had had to leave the island in +consequence. Even the prisoners in the calaboose +had been released and provided with arms. +From the parishes round about came Creole +volunteers by the hundred, clad in all manner +of clothing and bearing all kinds of weapons. +From Mississippi came a troop of cavalry under +Hinds, which was followed a few hours later by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +Coffee's famous brigade of "Dirty Shirts," composed +of frontiersmen from the forests of Kentucky +and Tennessee, who after a journey of eight +hundred miles through the wilderness answered +Jackson's message to hurry by covering the one +hundred and fifty miles between Baton Rouge +and New Orleans in two days. Added to these +were a thousand raw militiamen, who had been +brought down on barges and flat-boats from the +towns along the upper river, four companies of +regulars, Beale's brigade of riflemen, a hundred +Choctaw Indians in war-paint and feathers, and +last, but in many respects the most efficient of +all, the corps of buccaneers from Barataria, under +the command of the Lafittes. The men, dragging +with them cannon taken from their vessels, were +divided into two companies, one under Captain +Beluche (who rose in after years to be admiral-in-chief +of Venezuela) and the other under a +veteran privateersman named Dominique You. +These men were fighters by profession, hardy, +seasoned, and cool-headed, and as they swung +through the streets of New Orleans to take up the +position which Jackson had assigned them, even +that taciturn old soldier gave a grunt of approbation.</p> + +<p>Jackson had chosen as his line of defence an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +artificial waterway known as the Rodriguez Canal, +which lay some five miles to the east of the +city, and along its embankments, which in themselves +formed pretty good fortifications, he distributed +his men. On the night of December 23 +a force of two thousand British succeeded, by +means of boats, in making their way, through +the chain of bayous which surrounds the city, to +within a mile or two of Jackson's lines, where +they camped for the night. Being informed of +their approach (for the British, remember, had +the whole countryside against them), Jackson, +knowing the demoralizing effect of a night attack, +directed Coffee and his Tennesseans to throw +themselves upon the British right, while at the +same moment Beale's Kentuckians attacked on +the left. Trained in all the wiles of Indian warfare, +the frontiersmen succeeded in reaching the +outskirts of the British camp before they were +challenged by the sentries. Their reply was a +volley at close quarters and a charge with the +tomahawk—for they had no bayonets—which +drove the British force back in something closely +akin to a rout.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Jackson had set his other troops at +work strengthening their line of fortifications, so +that when the sun rose on the morning of the day<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +before Christmas it found them strongly intrenched +behind earthworks, helped out with timber, sand-bags, +fence-rails, and cotton-bales—whence arose +the myth that the Americans fought behind bales +of cotton. The British troops were far from being +in Christmas spirits, for the truth had already +begun to dawn upon them that men can fight as +well in buckskin shirts as in scarlet tunics, and +that these raw-boned wilderness hunters, with +their powder-horns and abnormally long rifles, +were likely to prove more formidable enemies than +the imposing grenadiers of Napoleon's Old Guard, +whom they had been fighting in Spain and France. +On that same day before Christmas, strangely +enough, a treaty of peace was being signed by the +envoys of the two nations in a little Belgian town, +four thousand miles away.</p> + +<p>On Christmas Day, however, the wonted confidence +of the British soldiery was somewhat restored +by the arrival of Sir Edward Pakenham, +the new commander-in-chief, for even in that hard-fighting +day there were few European soldiers who +bore more brilliant reputations. A brother-in-law +of the Duke of Wellington, he had fought side +by side with him through the Peninsular War; +he had headed the storming party at Badajoz; +and at Salamanca had led the charge which won<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +the day for England and a knighthood for himself. +An earldom and the governorship of Louisiana, +it was said, had been promised him as his +reward for the American expedition.</p> + +<p>Pakenham's practised eye quickly appreciated +the strength of the American position, which, +after a council of war, it was decided to carry +by storm. During the night of the 26th the +storming columns, eight thousand strong, took up +their positions within half a mile of the American +lines. As the sun rose next morning over fields +sparkling with frost, the bugles sounded the advance, +and the British army, ablaze with color, +and in as perfect alignment as though on parade, +moved forward to the attack. As they came +within range of the American guns, a group +of plantation buildings which masked Jackson's +front were blown up, and the British were startled +to find themselves confronted by a row of ship's +cannon, manned as guns are seldom manned on +land. Around each gun was clustered a crew of +lean, fierce-faced, red-shirted ruffians, caked with +sweat and mud: they were Lafitte's buccaneers, +who had responded to Jackson's orders by running +in all the way from their station on the Bayou +St. John that morning. Not until he could make +out the brass buttons on the tunics of the advancing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +British did Lafitte give the command to fire. +Then the great guns of the pirate-patriots flashed +and thundered. Before that deadly fire the scarlet +columns crumbled as plaster crumbles beneath a +hammer, the men dropping, first by twos and +threes, then by dozens and scores. In five minutes +the attacking columns, composed of regiments +which were the boast of the British army, +had been compelled to sullenly retreat.</p> + +<p>The British commander, appreciating that the +repulse of his forces was largely due to the fire of +the Baratarian artillery, gave orders that guns be +brought from the fleet and mounted in a position +where they could silence the fire of the buccaneers. +Three days were consumed in the herculean task +of moving the heavy pieces of ordnance into position, +but when the sun rose on New Year's morning +it showed a skilfully constructed line of intrenchments, +running parallel to the American +front and armed with thirty heavy guns. While +the British were thus occupied, the Americans had +not been idle, for Jackson had likewise busied +himself in constructing additional batteries, while +Commodore Patterson, the American naval commander, +had gone through the sailors' boarding-houses +of New Orleans with a fine-tooth comb, impressing +every nautical-looking character on which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +he could lay his hands, regardless of nationality, +color, or excuses, to serve the guns. With +their storming columns sheltered behind the +breastworks, awaiting the moment when they +would burst through the breach which they confidently +expected would shortly be made in the +American defences, the British batteries opened +fire with a crash which seemed to split the heavens. +Throughout the artillery duel which ensued splendid +service was rendered by the men under Lafitte, +who trained their guns as carefully and served +them as coolly as though they were back again +on the decks of their privateers. The storming +parties, which were waiting for a breach to be +made, waited in vain, for within an hour and +thirty minutes after the action opened the British +batteries were silenced, their guns dismounted, +and their parapets levelled with the plain. The +veterans of Wellington and Nelson had been out-fought +from first to last by a band of buccaneers, +reinforced by a few-score American bluejackets +and a handful of nondescript seamen.</p> + +<p>Pakenham had one more plan for the capture +of the city. This was a general assault by his +entire army on the American lines. His plan of +attack was simple, and would very probably have +proved successful against troops less accustomed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +to frontier warfare than the Americans. Colonel +Thornton, with fourteen hundred men, was directed +to cross the river during the night of January 7, +and, creeping up to the American lines under cover +of the darkness, to carry them by assault. His +attack was to be the signal for a column under +General Gibbs to storm Jackson's right, and for +another, under General Keane, to throw itself +against the American left, General Lambert, who +had just arrived with two fresh regiments, being +held in reserve. So carefully had the British +commanders perfected their plans that the battle +was already won—in theory.</p> + +<p>No one knew better than Jackson that this was +to be the deciding round of the contest, and he +accordingly made his preparations to win it with +a solar-plexus blow. He also had received a reinforcement, +for the long-expected militia from Kentucky, +two thousand two hundred strong, had just +arrived, after a forced march of fifteen hundred +miles, though in a half-naked and starving condition. +Our history contains nothing finer, to my +way of thinking, than the story of how these mountaineers +of the Blue Ridge, foot-sore, ragged, and +hungry, came pouring down from the north to +repel the threatened invasion. The Americans, +who numbered, all told, barely four thousand men,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +were scattered along a front of nearly three miles, +one end of the line extending so far into a swamp +that the soldiers stood in water to their waists +during the day, and at night slept on floating logs +made fast to trees.</p> + +<p>Long before daybreak on the morning of the +8th of January the divisions of Gibbs and Keane +were in position, and waiting impatiently for the +outburst of musketry which would be the signal +that Thornton had begun his attack. Thornton +had troubles of his own, however, for the swift +current of the Mississippi, as though wishing to +do its share in the nation's defence, had carried +his boats a mile and a half down-stream, so that +it was daylight before he was able to effect a +landing, when a surprise was, of course, out of +the question. But Pakenham, naturally obstinate +and now made wholly reckless by the miscarriage +of his plans, refused to recall his orders; so, as the +gray mists of the early morning slowly lifted, his +columns were seen advancing across the fields.</p> + +<p>"Steady now, boys! Steady!" called Jackson, +as he rode up and down behind his lines. +"Don't waste your ammunition, for we've none +to spare. Pick your man, wait until he gets +within range, and then let him have it! Let's get +this business over with to-day!" His orders were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +obeyed to the letter, for not a shot was fired until +the scarlet columns were within certain range. +Then the order "Commence firing" was repeated +down the line. Neither hurriedly, nor excitedly, +nor confusedly was it obeyed, but with the utmost +calmness and deliberation, the frontiersmen, +trained to use the rifle from boyhood, choosing +their targets, and calculating their ranges as unconcernedly +as though they were hunting in their +native forests. Still the British columns pressed +indomitably on, and still the lean and lantern-jawed +Jackson rode up and down his lines, cheering, +cautioning, exhorting, directing. Suddenly he +reined up his horse at the Baratarian battery +commanded by Dominique You.</p> + +<p>"What's this? What's this?" he exclaimed. +"You have stopped firing? What the devil does +this mean, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Of course we've stopped firing, general," said +the buccaneer, touching his forelock man-o'-war +fashion. "The powder's good for nothing. It +might do to shoot blackbirds with, but not redcoats."</p> + +<p>Jackson beckoned to one of his aides-de-camp.</p> + +<p>"Tell the ordnance officer that I will have him +shot in five minutes as a traitor if Dominique +complains again of his powder," and he galloped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +off. When he passed that way a few minutes later +the rattle of the musketry was being punctuated +at half-minute intervals with the crash of the +Baratarian guns. "Ha, friend Dominique," called +Jackson, "I'm glad to see you're at work again."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/gs06orleans.png" width="600" height="361" alt="The battle of New Orleans. +From a painting by D.M. Carter." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The battle of New Orleans.<br /> +From a painting by D.M. Carter.</span> +</div> + +<p>"Pretty good work, too, general," responded the +buccaneer. "It looks to me as if the British have +discovered that there has been a change of powder +in this battery." He was right. Before the combined +rifle and artillery fire of the Americans the +British columns were melting like snow under a +spring rain. Still their officers led them on, cheering, +pleading, threatening, imploring. Pakenham's +arm was pierced by a bullet; at the same instant +another killed his horse, but, mounting the pony +of his aide-de-camp, he continued to encourage +his disheartened and wavering men. Keane was +borne bleeding from the field, and a moment +later Gibbs, mortally wounded, was carried after +him. The panic which was just beginning to seize +the British soldiery was completed at this critical +instant by a shot from one of the Baratarians' +big guns which burst squarely in the middle of +the advancing column, causing terrible destruction +in the solid ranks. Pakenham's horse fell +dead, and the general reeled into the arms of an +officer who sprang forward to catch him. Terribly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +wounded, he was carried to the shelter of a +spreading oak, beneath which, five minutes later, +he breathed his last. Then the ebb-tide began. +The shattered regiments, demoralized by the +death of their commander, and themselves fearfully +depleted by the American fire, broke and ran. +Ten minutes later, save for the crawling, agonized +wounded, not a living foe was to be seen. But +the field, which had been green with grass half an +hour before, was carpeted with scarlet now, and +the carpet was made of British dead. Of the six +thousand men who took part in the attack, it is +estimated that two thousand six hundred were +killed or wounded. Of the Ninety-third Regiment, +which had gone into action nine hundred +strong, only one hundred and thirty-nine men +answered to the roll-call. The Americans had +eight men killed and thirteen wounded. The +battle had lasted exactly twenty-five minutes. +At eight o'clock the American bugles sounded +"Cease firing," and Jackson—whom this victory +was to make President of the United States—followed +by his staff, rode slowly down the lines, +stopping at each command to make a short address. +As he passed, the regimental fifes and +drums burst into "Hail, Columbia," and the rows +of weary, powder-grimed men, putting their caps<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +on the ends of their long rifles, swung them in the +air and cheered madly the victor of New Orleans.</p> + +<p>There is little more to tell. On March 17 the +British expedition, accompanied by the judges and +customs-inspectors and revenue-collectors, and by +the officers' wives who had come out to take part +in the festivities which were to mark the conquest, +set sail from the mouth of the Mississippi, reaching +Europe just in time to participate in the Waterloo +campaign. In the general orders issued by +Jackson after the battle the highest praise was +given to the Lafittes and their followers from Barataria, +while the official despatches to Washington +strongly urged that some recognition be made of +the extraordinary services rendered by the erstwhile +pirates. A few weeks later the President +granted a full pardon to the inhabitants of Barataria, +his message concluding: "Offenders who +have refused to become the associates of the enemy +in war upon the most seducing terms of invitation, +and who have aided to repel his hostile invasion +of the territory of the United States, can no longer +be considered as objects of punishment, but as +objects of generous forgiveness." Taking advantage +of this amnesty, the ex-pirates settled down +to the peaceable lives of fishermen and market-gardeners, +and their descendants dwell upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +shores of Barataria Bay to this day. As to the +future movements of the brothers Lafitte, beyond +the fact that they established themselves for a +time at Galveston, whence they harassed Spanish +commerce in the Gulf of Mexico, nothing definite +is known. Leaving New Orleans soon after the +battle, they sailed out of the Mississippi, and out +of this story.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE MAN WHO DARED TO CROSS THE RANGES</h2><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> + +<p>About the word frontiersman there is a +pretty air of romance. The very mention +of it conjures up a vision of lean, sinewy, brown-faced +men, in fur caps and moccasins and +fringed buckskin, slipping through virgin forests +or pushing across sun-scorched prairies—advance-guards +of civilization. Hardy, resolute, taciturn +figures, they have passed silently across the pages +of our history and we shall see their like no more. +To them we owe a debt that we can never repay—nor, +indeed, have we even publicly acknowledged +it. We followed by the trails which they had +blazed for us; we built our towns in those rich +valleys and pastured our herds on those fertile +hillsides which theirs were the first white men's +eyes to see. The American frontiersman was +never a self-seeker. His discoveries he left as a +heritage to those who followed him. In almost +every case he died poor and, more often than not, +with his boots on. David Livingstone and Henry<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +M. Stanley, the two Englishmen who did more +than any other men for the opening up of Africa, +lie in Westminster Abbey, and thousands of their +countrymen each year stand reverently beside +their tombs. To Cecil Rhodes, another Anglo-African +pioneer, a great national memorial has +been erected on the slopes of Table Mountain. +Far, far greater parts in the conquest of a wilderness, +the winning of a continent, were played by +Daniel Boone, William Bowie, Kit Carson, Davy +Crockett; yet how many of those who to-day +enjoy the fruits of the perils they faced, the hardships +they endured, know much more of them than +as characters in dime novels, can tell where they +are buried, can point to any statues or monuments +which have been erected to their memories?</p> + +<p>There are two million four hundred thousand +people in the State of California, and most of them +boast of it as "God's own country." They have +more State pride than any people that I know, +yet I would be willing to wager almost anything +you please that you can pick a hundred native +sons of California, and put to each of them the +question, "Who was Jedediah Smith?" and not +one of them would be able to answer it correctly. +The public parks of San Francisco and Los +Angeles and San Diego and Sacramento have innumerable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +statues of one kind and another, but +you will find none of this man with the stern old +Puritan name; they are starting a hall of fame +in California, but no one has proposed Jedediah +Smith as deserving a place in it. Yet to him, perhaps +more than to any other man, is due the fact +that California is American: he was the greatest +of the pathfinders; he was the real founder of the +Overland Trail; he was the man who led the way +across the ranges. Had it not been for the trail +he blazed and the thousands who followed in his +footsteps the Sierra Nevadas, instead of the Rio +Grande, might still mark the line of our frontier.</p> + +<p>The westward advance of population which took +place during the first quarter of the nineteenth +century far exceeded the limits of any of the great +migrations of mankind upon the older continents. +The story of the American onset to the beckoning +West is one of the wonder-tales of history. Over +the natural waterway of the great northern lakes, +down the road to Pittsburg, along the trail which +skirted the Potomac, and then down the Ohio, +over the passes of the Cumberland into Tennessee, +round the end of the Alleghanies into the Gulf +States, up the Missouri, and so across the Rockies +to the head waters of the Columbia, or south-westward +from St. Louis to the Spanish settlements<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> +of Santa Fé, the hardy pioneers poured in +an ever-increasing stream, carrying with them +little but axe, spade, and rifle, some scanty household +effects, a small store of provisions, a liberal +supply of ammunition, and unlimited faith, courage, +and enterprise.</p> + +<p>During that brief period the people of the United +States extended their occupation over the whole +of that vast region lying between the Alleghanies +and the Rockies—a territory larger than all of +Europe, without Russia—annexed it from the +wilderness, conquered, subdued, improved, cultivated, +civilized it, and all without one jot of +governmental assistance. Throughout these years, +as the frontiersmen pressed into the West, they +continued to fret and strain against the Spanish +boundaries. The Spanish authorities, and after +them the Mexican, soon became seriously alarmed +at this silent but resistless American advance, and +from the City of Mexico orders went out to the +provincial governors that Americans venturing +within their jurisdiction should be treated, whenever +an excuse offered, with the utmost severity. +But, notwithstanding the menace of Mexican +prisons, of Indian tortures, of savage animals, of +thirst and starvation in the wilderness, the pioneers +pushed westward and ever westward, until at last<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +their further progress was abruptly halted by the +great range of the Sierra Nevada, snow-crested, +and presumably impassable, which rose like a +titanic wall before them, barring their further +march.</p> + +<p>It was at about the time of this halt in our +westward progress that Captain Jedediah Smith +came riding onto the scene. You must picture +him as a gaunt-faced, lean-flanked, wiry man, +with nerves of iron, sinews of rawhide, a skin +like oak-tanned leather, and quick on his feet as +a catamount. He was bearded to the ears, of +course, for razors formed no part of the scanty +equipment of the frontiersman, and above the +beard shone a pair of very keen, bright eyes, with +the concentrated wrinkles about their corners that +come of staring across the prairies under a blazing +sun. He was sparing of his words, as are most +men who dwell in the great solitudes, and, like +them, he was, in an unorthodox way, devout, his +stern and rugged features as well as his uncompromising +scriptural name betraying the grim +old Puritan stock from which he sprang. His hair +was long and black, and would have covered his +shoulders had it not been tied at the back +of the neck by a leather thong. His dress was +that of the Indian adapted to meet the requirements<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +of the adventuring white man: a hunting-shirt +and trousers of fringed buckskin, embroidered +moccasins of elkhide, and a cap made from the +glossy skin of a beaver, with the tail hanging down +behind. On hot desert marches, and in camp, he +took off the beaver-skin cap and twisted about his +head a bright bandanna, which, when taken with +his gaunt, unshaven face, made him look uncommonly +like a pirate. These garments were by no +means fresh and gaudy, like those affected by the +near-frontiersmen who take part in the production +of Wild West shows; instead they were very +soiled and much worn and greasy, and gave evidence +of having done twenty-four hours' duty a +day for many months at a stretch. Hanging on +his chest was a capacious powder-horn, and in his +belt was a long, straight knife, very broad and +heavy in the blade—a first cousin of that deadly +weapon to which William Bowie was in after years +to give his name; in addition he carried a rifle, +with an altogether extraordinary length of barrel, +which brought death to any living thing within a +thousand yards on which its foresight rested. His +mount was a plains-bred pony, as wiry and unkempt +and enduring as himself. Everything considered, +Smith could have been no gentle-looking figure, +and I rather imagine that, if he were alive and ventured<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +into a Western town to-day, he would probably +be arrested by the local constable as an undesirable +character. I have now sketched for you, +in brief, bold outline, as good a likeness of Smith +as I am able with the somewhat scanty materials +at hand, for he lived and did his pioneering in the +days when frontiersmen were as common as traffic +policemen are now, added to which the men who +were familiar with his exploits were of a sort more +ready with their pistols than with their pens.</p> + +<p>The dates of Smith's birth and death are not +vital to this story, and perhaps it is just as well +that they are not, for I can find no record of when +he came into the world, and only the Indian warrior +who wore his scalp-lock at his waist could have +told the exact date on which he went out of it. +It is enough to know that, just as the nineteenth +century was passing the quarter mark, Smith was +the head of a firm of fur-traders, Smith, Jackson +& Soublette, which had obtained from President +John Quincy Adams permission to hunt and trade +to their hearts' content in the region lying beyond +the Rocky Mountains. It would have been much +more to the point to have obtained the permission +of the Mexican governor-general of the Californias, +or of the great chief of the Comanches, for they +held practically all of the territory in question<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +between them. Those were the days whose like we +shall never know again, when the streams were +alive with beaver, when there were more elk and +antelope on the prairies than there are cattle now, +and when the noise made by the moving buffalo +herds sounded like the roll of distant thunder. +They were the days when a fortune, as fortunes +were then reckoned, awaited the man with unlimited +ammunition, a sure eye, and a body inured +to hardships. What the founder of the Astor +fortune was doing in the Puget Sound country, +Smith and his companions purposed to do in the +Rockies; and, with this end in view, established +their base camp on the eastern shores of the +Great Salt Lake, not far from where Ogden now +stands. This little band of pioneers formed the +westernmost outpost of American civilization, for +between them and the nearest settlement, at the +junction of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, +stretched thirteen hundred miles of savage wilderness. +Livingstone, on his greatest journey, did +not penetrate half as far into unknown Africa +as Smith did into unknown America, and while +the English explorer was at the head of a large +and well-equipped expedition, the American was +accompanied by a mere handful of men.</p> + +<p>In August, 1826, Smith and a small party of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +hunters found themselves in the terrible Painted +Desert, that God-forsaken expanse of sand and +lava where the present States of Arizona, Utah, +and Nevada meet. Water there was none, for +the streams had run dry, and the horses and pack-mules +were dying of thirst and exhaustion; the +game had entirely disappeared; the supplies were +all but finished—and five hundred miles of the +most inhospitable country in the world lay between +them and their camp on Great Salt Lake. +The situation was perilous, indeed, and a decision +had to be made quickly if any of them were to get +out alive.</p> + +<p>"What few supplies we have left will be used +up before we get a quarter way back to the camp," +said Smith. "Our only chance—and I might as +well tell you it's a mighty slim one, boys—is in +pushing on to California."</p> + +<p>"But California's a good four hundred miles +away," expostulated his companions, "and the +Sierras lie between, and no one has ever crossed +them."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll be the first man to do it," said Smith. +"Besides, I've always had a hankering to learn +what lies on the other side of those ranges. Now's +my chance to find out."</p> + +<p>"I reckon there ain't much chance of our ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +seeing Salt Lake or California either," grumbled +one of the hunters, "and even if we do reach the +coast the Mexicans 'll clap us into prison."</p> + +<p>"Well, so fur's I'm concerned," said Smith decisively, +"I'd rather be alive and in a Greaser +prison than to be dead in the desert. I'm going +to California or die on the way."</p> + +<p>History chronicles few such marches. Westward +pressed the little troop of pioneers, across +the sun-baked lava beds of southwestern Utah, +over the arid deserts and the barren ranges of +southern Nevada, and so to the foot-hills of that +great Sierran range which rears itself ten thousand +feet skyward, forming a barrier which had theretofore +separated the fertile lands of the Pacific +slope from the rest of the continent more effectually +than an ocean. The lava beds gave way to +sand wastes dotted with clumps of sage-brush and +cactus, and the cactus changed to stunted pines, +and the pines ran out in rocks, and the rocks became +covered with snow, and still Smith and his +hunters struggled on, emaciated, tattered, almost +barefooted, lamed by the cactus spines on the +desert, and the stones on the mountain slopes, until +at last they stood upon the very summit of the +range and, like that other band of pioneers in an +earlier age, looked down on the promised land after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +their wanderings in the wilderness. No explorer +in the history of the world, not Columbus, nor +Pizarro, nor Champlain, nor De Soto, ever gazed +upon a land so fertile and so full of beauty. The +mysterious, the jealously guarded, the storied land +of California lay spread before them like a map +in bas-relief. Then the descent of the western +slope began, the transition from snow-clad mountain +peaks to hillsides clothed with subtropical +vegetation amazing the Americans by its suddenness. +Imagine how like a dream come true it +must have been to these men, whose lives had been +spent in the less kindly climate and amid the +comparatively scanty vegetation of the Middle +West, to suddenly find themselves in this fairyland +of fruit and flowers!</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/gs07westward.png" width="600" height="379" alt="Westward pressed the little troop of pioneers, across the sun-baked lava beds of southwestern Utah. Copyright, 1906, by P.F. Collier & Son." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Westward pressed the little troop of pioneers, across the sun-baked lava beds of southwestern Utah.<br /> +Copyright, 1906, by P.F. Collier & Son.</span> +</div> + +<p>"It is, indeed, a white man's country," said +Smith prophetically, as, leaning on his long rifle, +he gazed upon the wonderful panorama which unrolled +itself before him. "Though it is Mexican +just now, sooner or later it must and shall be ours."</p> + +<p>Heartened by the sight of this wonderful new +country, and by the knowledge that they must +be approaching some of the Mexican settlements, +but with bodies sadly weakened from exposure, +hunger, and exhaustion, the Americans slowly +made their way down the slope, crossed those fertile<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +lowlands which are now covered with groves +of orange and lemon, and so, guided by some +friendly Indians whom they met, came at last to +the mission station of San Gabriel, one of that remarkable +chain of outposts of the church founded +by the indefatigable Franciscan, Father Junipero +Serra. The little company of worn and weary men +sighted the red-tiled roof of the mission just at +sunset, and though Smith and his followers came +from stern New England stock which prided itself +on having no truck with Papists, I rather +imagine that as the sweet, clear mission bells +chimed out the angelus they lifted their hats and +stood with bowed heads in silent thanksgiving for +their preservation.</p> + +<p>I doubt if there was a more astonished community +between the oceans than was the monastic +one of San Gabriel when this band of ragged +strangers suddenly appeared from nowhere and +asked for food and shelter.</p> + +<p>"You come from the South—from Mexico?" +queried the father superior, staring, half-awed, at +these gaunt, fierce-faced, bearded men who spoke +in a strange tongue.</p> + +<p>"No, padre," answered Smith, calling to his aid +the broken Spanish he had picked up in his trading +expeditions to Santa Fé, "we come from the East,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +from the country beyond the great mountains, +from the United States. We are Americans," he +added a little proudly.</p> + +<p>"They say they come from the East," the +brown-robed monks whispered to each other. +"It is impossible. No one has ever come from +that direction. Have not the Indians told us +many times that there is no food, no water in that +direction, and that, moreover, there is no way to +cross the mountains? It is, indeed, a strange and +incredible tale that these men tell. But we will +offer them our hospitality in the name of the +blessed St. Francis, for that we withhold from +no man; but it is the part of wisdom to despatch +a messenger to San Diego to acquaint the governor +of their coming, for it may well be that they mean +no good to the people of this land."</p> + +<p>Had the good monks been able to look forward +a few-score years, perhaps they would not have +been so ready to offer Smith and his companions +the shelter of the mission roof. But how were +they to know that these ragged strangers, begging +for food at their mission door, were the skirmishers +for a mighty host which would one day pour over +those mountain ranges to the eastward as the +water pours over the falls at Niagara; that within +rifle-shot of where their mission stood a city of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +half a million souls would spread itself across +the hills; that down the dusty Camino Real, +which the founder of their mission had trudged +so often in his sandals and woollen robe, would +whirl strange horseless, panting vehicles, putting +a mile a minute behind their flying wheels; that +twin lines of steel would bring their southernmost +station at San Diego within twenty hours, instead +of twenty days, of their northernmost outpost at +Sonoma; and that over this new land would fly, +not the red-white-and-green standard of Mexico, +but an alien banner of stripes and stars?</p> + +<p>The four years which intervened between the +collapse of Spanish rule in Mexico and the arrival +of Jedediah Smith at San Gabriel were marked by +political chaos in the Californias. When a governor +of Alta California rose in the morning he +did not know whether he was the representative +of an emperor, a king, a president, or a dictator. +As a result of these perennial disorders, the Mexican +officials ascribed sinister motives to the most +innocent episodes. No sooner, therefore, did Governor +Echeandia learn of the arrival in his province +of a mysterious party of Americans than +he ordered them brought under escort to San +Diego for examination. Though those present +probably did not appreciate it, the meeting of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> +Smith and Echeandia in the palace at San Diego +was a peculiarly significant one. There sat at his +ease in his great chair of state the saturnine Mexican +governor, arrogant and haughty, beruffled +and gold-laced, his high-crowned sombrero and +his velvet jacket heavy with bullion, while in front +of him stood the American frontiersman, gaunt, +unshaven, and ragged, but as cool and self-possessed +as though he was at the head of a conquering +army instead of a forlorn hope. The one was +as truly the representative of a passing as the other +was of a coming race. Small wonder that Echeandia, +as he observed the hardy figures and determined +faces of the Americans, thought to himself +how small would be Mexico's chance of holding +California if others of their countrymen began to +follow in their footsteps. He and his officials +cross-examined Smith as closely as though the +frontiersman was a prisoner on trial for his life, +as, in a sense, he was, for almost any fate might +befall him and his companions in that remote +corner of the continent without any one being +called to account for it. Smith described the +series of misfortunes which had led him to cross +the ranges; he asserted that he desired nothing so +much as to get back into American territory again, +and he earnestly begged the governor to provide<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> +him with the necessary provisions and permit him +to depart. His story was so frank and plausible +that Echeandia, with characteristic Spanish suspicion, +promptly disbelieved every word of it, for +why, he argued, should any sane man make so +hazardous a journey unless he were a spy and well +paid to risk his life? For even in those early days, +remember, the Mexicans had begun to fear the +ambitions of the young republic to the eastward. +So, despite their protests, he ordered the Americans +to be imprisoned—and no one knew better than +they did that, once within the walls of a Mexican +prison, there was small chance of their seeing +the outside world again. Fortunately for the explorers, +however, it so happened that there were +three American trading-schooners lying in San +Diego harbor at the time, and their captains, determined +to see the rights of their fellow countrymen +respected, joined in a vigorous and energetic +protest to the governor against this high-handed +and unjustified action. This seems to have frightened +Echeandia, for he reluctantly gave orders for +the release of Smith and his companions, but ordered +them to leave the country at once, and by +the same route by which they had come.</p> + +<p>When the year 1827 was but a few days old, +therefore, the Americans turned their faces northward,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +but instead of retracing their steps in accordance +with Echeandia's orders, they crossed +the coast range, probably through the Tejon Pass, +and kept on through the fertile region now known +as the San Joaquin Valley, in the hope that by +crossing the Sierra farther to the northward they +would escape the terrible rigors of the Colorado +desert. When some three hundred miles north of +San Gabriel they attempted to recross the ranges, +but a feat that had been hazardous in midsummer +was impossible in midwinter, and the entire +expedition nearly perished in the attempt. Several +of the men and all the horses died of cold and +hunger, and it was only by incredible exertions that +Smith and his few remaining companions, terribly +frozen and totally exhausted, managed to reach the +Santa Clara Valley and Mission San José. So +slow was their progress that the news of their +approach preceded them and caused considerable +disquietude to the monks. Learning from the +Indians that he and his tatterdemalion followers +were objects of suspicion, Smith sent a letter to +the father superior, in which he gave an account +of his arrival at San Gabriel, of his interview with +the governor, of his disaster in the Sierras, and +of his present pitiable condition. "I am a long +way from home," this pathetic missive concludes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +"and am anxious to get there as soon as the nature +of the case will permit. Our situation is quite unpleasant, +being destitute of clothing and most of +the necessaries of life, wild meat being our principal +subsistence. I am, reverend father, your +strange but real friend and Christian brother, +Jedediah Smith." As a result of this appeal, the +hospitality of the mission was somewhat grudgingly +extended to the Americans, who were by +this time in the most desperate condition.</p> + +<p>Hardships that would kill ordinary men were but +unpleasant incidents in the lives of the pioneers, +however, and in a few weeks they were as fit as +ever to resume their journey. But, upon thinking +the matter over, Smith decided that he would +never be content if he went back without having +found out what lay still farther to the northward, +for in him was the insatiable curiosity and the indomitable +spirit of the born explorer. But as his +force, as well as his resources, had become sadly +depleted, he felt it imperative that he should first +return to Salt Lake and bring on the men, horses, +and provisions he had left there. Accordingly, +leaving most of his party in camp at San José, he +set out with only two companions, recrossed the +Sierra at one of its highest points (the place he +crossed is where the railway comes through to-day)<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +and after several uncomfortably narrow escapes +from landslides and from Indians, eventually +reached the camp on Great Salt Lake, where he +found that his people had long since given him +and his companions up for dead.</p> + +<p>Breaking camp on a July morning, in 1827, +Smith, with eighteen men and two women, turned +his face once more toward California. To avoid +the snows of the high Sierras, he chose the route +he had taken on his first journey, reaching the +desert country to the north of the Colorado River +in early August. It was not until the party had +penetrated too far into the desert to retreat that +they found that the whole country was burnt +up. For several days they pushed on in the hope +of finding water. Across the yellow sand wastes +they would sight the sparkle of a crystal lake, and +would hasten toward it as fast as their jaded +animals could carry them, only to find that it was +a mirage. Then the horrors preliminary to death +by thirst began: the animals, their blackened +tongues protruding from their mouths, staggered +and fell, and rose no more; the women grew delirious +and babbled incoherent nothings; even the +hardiest of the men stumbled as they marched, or +tried to frighten away by shouts and gestures the +fantastic shapes which danced before them. At<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +last there came a morning when they could go no +farther. Such of them as still retained their faculties +felt that it was the end—that is, all but Jedediah +Smith. He was of the breed which does not +know the meaning of defeat, because they are +never defeated until they are dead. Loading himself +with the empty water-bottles, he set out alone +into the desert, determined to follow one of the +numerous buffalo trails, for he knew that sooner +or later it must lead him to water of some sort, +even if to nothing more than a buffalo-wallow. +Racked with the fever of thirst, his legs shaking +from exhaustion, he plodded on, under the pitiless +sun, mile after mile, hour after hour, until, struggling +to the summit of a low divide, he saw the +channel of a stream in the valley beneath him. +The expedition was saved. Stumbling and sliding +down the slope in his haste to quench his +intolerable thirst, he came to a sudden halt on +the river-bank. It was nothing but an empty +watercourse into which he was staring—the +river had run dry! The shock of such a disappointment +would have driven most men stark, +staring mad. Only for a moment, however, +was the veteran frontiersman staggered; he knew +the character of many streams in the West—that +often their waters run underground a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +few feet below the surface, and in a moment he +was on his knees digging frantically in the soft +sand. Soon the sand began to grow moist, and +then the coveted water slowly began to filter upward +into the little excavation he had hollowed. +Throwing himself flat on the ground, he buried +his burning face in the muddy water—and as he +did so a shower of arrows whistled about him. A +war-party of Comanches, unobserved, had followed +and surrounded him. He had but exchanged the +danger of death by thirst for the far more dreadful +fate of death by torture. Though struck +by several of the arrows, he held the Indians +off until he had filled his water-bottles; then, +retreating slowly, taking advantage of every particle +of cover, as only a veteran plainsman can, +blazing away with his unerring rifle whenever +an Indian was incautious enough to show a portion +of his figure, Smith succeeded in getting back +to his companions with the precious water. With +their dead animals for breastworks, the pioneers +succeeded in holding the Indians at bay for six-and-thirty +hours, but on the second night the +redskins, heavily reinforced, rushed them in the +night, ten of the men and the two women being +killed in the hand-to-hand fight which ensued, +and the few horses which remained alive being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +stampeded. I rather imagine that the women +were shot by their own husbands, for the women +of the frontier always preferred death to capture +by these fiends in paint and feathers.</p> + +<p>How Smith, calling all his craft and experience +as a plainsman to his assistance, managed to lead +his eight surviving companions through the encircling +Indians by night, and how, wounded, +horseless, and provisionless as they were, he succeeded +in guiding them across the ranges to San +Bernardino, is but another example of this forgotten +hero's courage and resource. Having lost +everything that he possessed, for the whole of his +scanty savings had been invested in the ill-fated +expedition, Smith, with such of his men as were +strong enough to accompany him, set out to rejoin +the party he had left some months previously at +Mission San José. Scarcely had he set foot within +that settlement, however, before he was arrested +and taken under escort to Monterey, where he was +taken before the governor, who, he found to his +surprise and dismay, was no other than his old enemy +of San Diego, Don José Echeandia. This time +nothing would convince Echeandia that Smith +was not the leader of an expedition which had +territorial designs on California, and he promptly +ordered him to be taken to prison and kept in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +solitary confinement as a dangerous conspirator. +Thereupon Smith resorted to the same expedient +he had used so successfully, and begged the captains +of the American vessels in the harbor of +Monterey for protection. So forcible were their +representations that Echeandia finally agreed to +release Smith on his swearing to leave California +for good and all. To this proposal Smith +willingly agreed and took the oath required +of him, but, upon being released from prison, +was astounded to learn that the governor had +given orders that he must set out alone—that his +hunters would not be permitted to accompany him. +His and their protestations were disregarded. +Smith must start at once and unaccompanied. +He was given a horse and saddle, provisions, +blankets, a rifle—and nothing more. It was a +sentence of death which Echeandia had had pronounced +on this American frontiersman, and both +he and Smith knew it. Without having committed +any crime—unless it was a crime to be an +American—Jedediah Smith was driven out of the +territory of a supposedly friendly nation, and told +that he was at perfect liberty to make his way +across two thousand miles of wilderness to the +nearest American outpost—if he could.</p> + +<p>Striking back into that range of the Sierras<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +which lies southeast of Fresno, Smith succeeded +in crossing them for a fourth time, evidently +intending to make his way back to his old +stamping-ground on the Great Salt Lake. Our +knowledge of what occurred after he had crossed +the ranges for the last time is confined to tales +told to the settlers in later years by the Indians. +While emerging from the terrible Death Valley, +where hundreds of emigrants were to lose their +lives during the rush to the gold-fields a quarter +of a century later, he was attacked at a water-hole +by a band of Indians. For many years +afterward the Comanches were wont to tell with +admiration how this lone pale-face, coming from +out of the setting sun, had knelt behind his dead +horse and held them off with his deadly rifle all +through one scorching summer's day. But when +nightfall came they crept up very silently under +cover of the darkness and rushed him. His scalp +was very highly valued, for it had cost the lives +of twelve Comanche braves.</p> + +<p>But Jedediah Smith did not die in vain. Tales +of the rich and virgin country which he had found +beyond the ranges flew as though with wings +across the land; soon other pioneers made their +way over the mountains by the trails which he +had blazed; long wagon-trains crawled westward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +by the routes which he had taken; strange bands +of horsemen pitched their tents in the valleys +where he had camped. The mission bells grew +silent; the monk in his woollen robe and the +<i>caballero</i> in his gold-laced jacket passed away; +settlements of hardy, energetic, nasal-voiced folk +from beyond the Sierras sprang up everywhere. +Then one day a new flag floated over the presidio +in Monterey—a flag that was not to be pulled +down. The American republic had reached the +western ocean, and thus was fulfilled the dream +of Jedediah Smith, the man who showed the way.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE FLAG OF THE BEAR</h2> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p> + + + +<p>Because the battles which marked its establishment +were really only skirmishes, in +which but an insignificant number of lives were +lost, and because it boasted less than a thousand +citizens all told, certain of our historians have +been so undiscerning as to assert that the Bear +Flag Republic was nothing but a travesty and a +farce. Therein they are wrong. Though it is +doubtless true that the handful of frontiersmen +who raised their home-made flag, with its emblem +of a grizzly bear, over the Californian presidio of +Sonoma on that July morning in 1846 took themselves +much more seriously than the circumstances +warranted, it is equally true that their action +averted the seizure of California by England, and +by forcing the hand of the administration at +Washington was primarily responsible for adding +what is now California, Nevada, Arizona, New +Mexico, Utah, and more than half of Wyoming +and Colorado to the Union. The series of intrigues +and affrays and insurrections which resulted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +in the Pacific coast becoming American +instead of European form a picturesque, exciting, +and virtually unwritten chapter in our national +history, a chapter in which furtive secret agents +and haughty <i>caballeros</i>, pioneers in fringed buckskin, +and naval officers in gold-laced uniforms all +played their greater or their lesser parts.</p> + +<p>To fully understand the conditions which led +up to the "Bear Flag War," as it has been called, +it is necessary to go back for a moment to the first +quarter of the last century, when the territory of +the United States ended at the Rocky Mountains +and the red-white-and-green flag of Mexico floated +over the whole of that vast, rich region which lay +beyond. Under the Mexican régime the territory +lying west of the Sierra Nevadas was divided into +the provinces of Alta (or Upper) and Baja (or +Lower) California, the population of the two +provinces about 1845 totalling not more than +fifteen thousand souls, nine-tenths of whom were +Mexicans, Spaniards, and Indians, the rest American +and European settlers. The foreigners, among +whom Americans greatly predominated, soon became +influential out of all proportion to their +numbers. This was particularly true of the +Americans, who, solidified by common interests, +common dangers, and common ambitions, obtained<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> +large grants of land, built houses which in +certain cases were little short of forts, frequently +married into the most aristocratic of the Californian +families, and before long practically controlled +the commerce of the entire territory.</p> + +<p>It was only to be expected, therefore, that the +Mexicans should become more and more apprehensive +of American ambitions. Nor did President +Jackson's offer, in 1835, to buy Southern +California—an offer which was promptly refused—serve +to do other than strengthen these apprehensions. +And to make matters worse, if such a +thing were possible, Commodore T. ApCatesby +Jones, having heard a rumor that war had broken +out between the United States and Mexico, and +having reason to believe that a British force was +preparing to seize California, landed a force of +bluejackets and marines, and on October 21, 1842, +raised the American flag over the presidio at Monterey. +Although Commodore Jones, finding he +had acted upon misinformation, lowered the flag +next day and tendered an apology to the provincial +officials, the incident did not tend to relieve +the tension which existed between the Mexicans +and the Americans, for it emphasized the ease +with which the country could be seized, and hinted +with unmistakable plainness at the ultimate intentions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +of the United States. That our government +intended to annex the Californias at the first +opportunity that offered the Mexicans were perfectly +aware, for, aroused by the descriptions of +the unbelievable beauty and fertility of the country +as sent back by those daring souls who had +made their way across the ranges, the hearts of +our people were set upon its acquisition. The +great Bay of San Francisco, large enough to shelter +the navies of the world and the gateway to +the Orient, the fruitful, sun-kissed land beyond +the Sierras, the political domination of America, +and the commercial domination of the Pacific—such +were the visions which inspired our people +and the motives which animated our leaders, and +which were intensified by the fear of England's +designs upon this western land.</p> + +<p>As the numbers of the American settlers gradually +increased, the jealousy and suspicion of the +Mexican officials became more pronounced. As +early as 1826 they had driven Captain Jedediah +Smith, the first American to make his way to +California by the overland route, back into the +mountains, in the midst of winter, without companions +and without provisions, to be killed by +the Indians. In 1840 more than one hundred +American settlers were suddenly arrested by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +Mexican authorities on a trumped-up charge of +having plotted against the government, marched +under military guard to Monterey, and confined +in the prison there under circumstances of the +most barbarous cruelty, some fifty of them being +eventually deported to Mexico in chains. Thomas +O. Larkin, the American consul at Monterey, upon +visiting the prisoners in the local jail where they +were confined, found that the cells had no floors, +and that the poor fellows stood in mud and water +to their ankles. Sixty of the prisoners he found +crowded into a single room, twenty feet long and +eighteen wide, in which they were so tightly packed +that they could not all sit at the same time, much +less lie down. The room being without windows +or other means of ventilation, the air quickly became +so fetid that they were able to live only by +dividing themselves into platoons which took turns +in standing at the door and getting a few breaths +of air through the bars. These men, whose only +crime was that they were Americans, were confined +in this hell-hole, without food except such +as their friends were able to smuggle in to them +by bribing the sentries, for eight days. And this +treatment was accorded them, remember, not because +they were conspirators—for no one knew +better than the Mexican authorities that they were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +not—but because it seemed the easiest means of +driving them out of the country. Throughout the +half-dozen years that ensued American settlers +were subjected to a systematic campaign of annoyance, +persecution, and imprisonment on innumerable +frivolous pretexts, being released only +on their promise to leave California immediately. +By 1845, therefore, the harassed Americans, in +sheer desperation, were ready to grasp the first +opportunity which presented itself to end this +intolerable tyranny for good and all.</p> + +<p>It was not only the outrageous treatment to +which they were subjected, however, nor the weakness +and instability of the government under +which they were living, nor even the insecurity of +their lives and property and the discouragements +to industry, which led the American settlers to +decide to end Mexican rule in the Californias. +Texas had recently been annexed by the United +States against the protests of Mexico, an American +army of invasion was massed along the Rio Grande, +and war was certain. It required no extraordinary +degree of intelligence, then, to foresee that +the coming hostilities would almost inevitably result +in Mexico losing her Californian provinces. +Now it was a matter of common knowledge that +the Mexican Government was seriously considering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +the advisability of ceding the Californias to +Great Britain, and thus accomplishing the threefold +purpose of wiping out the large Mexican debt +due to British bankers, of winning the friendship +and possibly the active assistance of England in +the approaching war with the United States, and +of preventing the Californias from falling into +American hands. The danger was, therefore, that +England would step in before us. Nor was the +danger any imaginary one. Her ships were +watching our ships on the Mexican coast, and her +secret agents who infested the country were keeping +their fingers constantly on the pulse of public +opinion. Though it remains to this day a matter +of conjecture as to just how far England was prepared +to go to obtain this territory, there is little +doubt that she had laid her plans for its acquisition +in one way or another. If California was to +be added to the Union, therefore, it must be by a +sudden and daring stroke.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the authorities at Washington had +not been idle. Though Larkin was ostensibly the +American consul at Monterey and nothing more, +in reality he was clothed with far greater powers, +having been hurried from Washington to California +for the express purpose of secretly encouraging an +insurrectionary movement among the American<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +settlers, and of keeping our government informed +of the plans of the Mexicans and British. Receiving +information that a powerful British fleet—the +largest, in fact, which had ever been seen +in Pacific waters—was about to sail for the coast +of California, the administration promptly issued +orders for a squadron of war-ships under Commodore +John Drake Sloat to proceed at full speed to +the Pacific coast, the commander being given +secret instructions to back up Consul Larkin in +any action which he might take, and upon receiving +word that the United States had declared war +against Mexico to immediately occupy the Californian +ports. Then ensued one of the most +momentous races in history, over a course extending +half-way round the world, the contestants +being the war-fleets of the two most powerful +maritime nations, and the prize seven hundred +thousand square miles of immensely rich territory +and the mastery of the Pacific. Commodore Sloat +laid his course around the Horn, while the English +commander, Admiral Trowbridge, chose the +route through the Indian Ocean. The first thing +he saw as he entered the Bay of Monterey was the +American squadron lying at anchor in the harbor.</p> + +<p>Never was there a better example of that form +of territorial expansion which has come to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +known as "pacific penetration" than the American +conquest of California; never were the real designs +of a nation and the schemes of its secret +agents more successfully hidden. Consul Larkin, +as I have already said, was quietly working, under +confidential instructions from the State Department, +to bring about a revolution in California +without overt aid from the United States; the +Californian coast towns lay under the guns of +American war-ships, whose commanders likewise +had secret instructions to land marines and take +possession of the country at the first opportunity +that presented itself; and, as though to complete +the chain of American emissaries, early in 1846 +there came riding down from the Sierran passes, +at the head of what pretended to be an exploring +and scientific expedition, the man who was to set +the machinery of conquest actually in motion.</p> + +<p>The commander of the expedition was a young +captain of engineers, named John Charles Frémont, +who, as the result of two former journeys +of exploration into the wilderness beyond the +Rockies, had already won the sobriquet of "The +Pathfinder." Born in Savannah, of a French +father and a Virginian mother, he was a strange +combination of aristocrat and frontiersman. Dashing, +debonair, fearless, reckless, a magnificent +horseman, a dead-shot, a hardy and intrepid explorer,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +equally at home at a White House ball +or at an Indian powwow, he was probably the +most picturesque and romantic figure in the +United States. These characteristics, combined +with extreme good looks, a gallant manner, and +the great public reputation he had won by the +vivid and interesting accounts he had published +of his two earlier journeys, had completely captured +the popular imagination, so that the young +explorer had become a national idol. In the spring +of 1845 he was despatched by the National Government +on a third expedition, which had as its ostensible +object the discovery of a practicable route +from the Rocky Mountains to the mouth of the +Columbia River, but which was really to lend +encouragement to the American settlers in California +in any secession movement which they +might be planning and to afford them active assistance +should war be declared. Just how far +the government had instructed Frémont to go in +fomenting a revolution will probably never be +known, but there is every reason to believe that +his father-in-law, United States Senator Benton, +had advised him to seize California if an opportunity +presented itself, and to trust to luck (and +the senator's influence) that the government would +approve rather than repudiate his action.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/gs08sacramento.png" width="600" height="379" alt="The Sacramento Valley in 1845. + +From a steel engraving of the period." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Sacramento Valley in 1845.<br /> + +From a steel engraving of the period.</span> +</div> + +<p>All told, Frémont's expedition numbered barely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +threescore men—no great force, surely, with +which to overthrow a government and win an +empire. In advance of the little column rode the +four Delaware braves whom Frémont had brought +with him from the East to act as scouts and +trackers, and whose cunning and woodcraft he was +willing to match against that of the Indians of +the plains. Close on their heels rode the Pathfinder +himself, clad from neck to heel in fringed +buckskin, at his belt a heavy army revolver and +one of those vicious, double-bladed knives to +which Colonel Bowie, of Texas, had already given +his name, and on his head a jaunty, broad-brimmed +hat, from beneath which his long, yellow hair fell +down upon his shoulders. At his bridle arm rode +Kit Carson, the most famous of the plainsmen, +whose exploits against the Indians were even then +familiar stories in every American household. +Behind these two stretched out the rank and file +of the expedition—bronze-faced, bearded, resolute +men, well mounted, heavily armed, and all +wearing the serviceable dress of the frontier.</p> + +<p>Frémont found the American settlers scattered +through the interior in a state of considerable +alarm, for rumors had reached them that the Mexican +Government had decided to drive them out +of the country, and that orders had been issued<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> +to the provincial authorities to incite the Indians +against them. As they dwelt for the most part +in small, isolated communities, scattered over a +great extent of country, it was obvious that, if +these rumors were true, their lives were in imminent +peril. They had every reason to expect, +moreover, that the news of war between Mexico +and the United States would bring down on them +those forms of punishment and retaliation for +which the Mexicans were notorious. They were +confronted, therefore, with the alternative of abandoning +the homes they had built and the fields +they had tilled and seeking refuge in flight across +the mountains, or of remaining to face those perils +inseparable from border warfare. Nor did it take +them long to decide upon resistance, for they were +not of the breed which runs away.</p> + +<p>Leaving most of his men encamped in the foot-hills, +Frémont pushed on to Monterey, then the +most important settlement in Upper California, +and the seat of the provincial government, where +he called upon Don José Castro, the Mexican commandant, +explained the purposes of his expedition, +and requested permission for his party to proceed +northward to the Columbia through the San Joaquin +valley. This permission Castro grudgingly +gave, but scarcely had Frémont broken camp before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +the Mexican, who had hastily gathered an +overwhelming force of soldiers and vaqueros, set +out upon the trail of the Americans with the +avowed purpose of surprising and exterminating +them. Fortunately for the Americans, Consul +Larkin, getting wind of Castro's intended treachery, +succeeded in warning Frémont, who instead +of taking his chances in a battle on the plains +against a greatly superior force, suddenly occupied +the precipitous hill lying back of and +commanding Monterey, known as the Hawk's +Peak, intrenched himself there, and then sent +word to Castro to come and take him. Although +the Mexican commander made a military demonstration +before the American intrenchments, he +was wise enough to refrain from attempting to +carry a position of such great natural strength +and defended by such unerring shots as were +Frémont's frontiersmen. Four days later Frémont, +feeling that there was nothing to be gained +by holding the position longer, and confident +that the Mexicans would be only too glad to see +his back, quietly broke camp one night and resumed +his march toward Oregon.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had he crossed the Oregon line, however, +before he was overtaken by a messenger on +a reeking horse, who had been despatched by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +Consul Larkin to inform him that an officer with +urgent despatches from Washington had arrived +at Monterey and was hastening northward to +overtake him. Frémont immediately turned back, +and on the shores of the Greater Klamath Lake +met Lieutenant Archibald Gillespie, who had +travelled from New York to Vera Cruz by steamer, +had crossed Mexico to Mazatlán on horseback, +and had been brought up the Pacific coast to +Monterey in an American war-ship. The exact +contents of the despatches with which Gillespie +had been intrusted will probably never be known, +for having reason to believe that his mission was +suspected by the Mexicans, and being fearful of +arrest, he had destroyed the despatches after +committing their contents to memory. These +contents he communicated to Frémont, and the +fact that the latter immediately turned his horse's +head Californiawards is the best proof that they +contained definite instructions for him to stir up +the American settlers to revolt and so gain California +for the Union by what some one has aptly +described as "neutral conquest."</p> + +<p>The news of Frémont's return spread among the +scattered settlers as though by wireless, and from +all parts of the country hardy, determined men +came pouring into camp to offer him their services.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +But his hands were tied. His instructions +from Washington, while ordering him to +lend his encouragement to an insurrectionary +movement, expressly forbade him to take the initiative +in any hostilities until he received word +that war with Mexico had been declared—and +that word had not yet come. These facts he +communicated to the settlers. Frémont's assurance +that the American Government sympathized +with their aspirations for independence, and could +be counted upon to back up any action they might +take to secure it, was all that the settlers needed. +On the evening of June 13, 1846, some fifty Americans +living along the Sacramento River met at +the ranch of an old Indian-fighter and bear-hunter +named Captain Meredith, and under his leadership +rode across the country in a northwesterly +direction through the night. Dawn found them +close to the presidio of Sonoma, which was the +residence of the Mexican general Vallejo and the +most important military post north of San Francisco. +Leaving their horses in the shelter of the +forest, the Americans stole silently forward in the +dimness of the early morning, overpowered the +sentries, burst in the gates, and had taken possession +of the town and surrounded the barracks before +the garrison was fairly awake. General Vallejo +and his officers were captured in their beds,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +and were sent under guard to a fortified ranch +known as Sutter's fort, which was situated some +distance in the interior. In addition to the prisoners, +nine field-guns, several hundred stands of +arms, and a considerable supply of ammunition +fell into the hands of the Americans. The first +blow had been struck in the conquest of California.</p> + +<p>The question now arose as to what they should +do with the town they had captured, for Frémont +had no authority to take it over for the United +States, or to muster the men who took it into the +American service. The embattled settlers found +themselves, in fact, to be in the embarrassing position +of being men without a country. After a +council of war they decided to organize a <i>pro-tem</i>. +government of their own to administer the territory +until such time as it should be formally annexed +to the United States. I doubt if a government +was ever established so quickly and under +such rough-and-ready circumstances. After an +informal ballot it was announced that William B. +Ide, a leading spirit among the settlers, had been +unanimously elected governor and commander-in-chief +"of the independent forces"; John H. Nash, +who had been a justice of the peace in the East +before he had emigrated to California, being named +chief justice of the new republic.</p> + +<p>For a full-fledged nation not to have a flag of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +its own was, of course, unthinkable; so, as most of +its citizens were hunters and adventurers, when +some one suggested that the grizzly bear, because +of its indomitable courage and tenacity and its +ferocity when aroused, would make a peculiarly +appropriate emblem for the new banner, the +suggestion was adopted with enthusiasm and a +committee of two was appointed to put it into +immediate execution. A young settler named +William Ford, who had been imprisoned by the +Mexicans in the jail at Sonoma, and who had +been released when his countrymen captured the +place; and William Todd, an emigrant from Illinois, +were the makers of the flag. On a piece of +unbleached cotton cloth, a yard wide and a yard +and a half long, they painted the rude figure of a +grizzly bear ready to give battle. This strange +banner they raised, at noon on June 14, amid a +storm of cheers and a salute from the captured +cannon, on the staff where so recently had floated +the flag of Mexico, and from it the Bear Flag +Republic took its name.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had Frémont received the news of the +capture of Sonoma and the proclamation of the +Bear Flag Republic than word reached him that +a large force of Mexicans was on its way to retake +the town. Disregarding his instructions +from Washington, and throwing all caution to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> +the winds, Frémont instantly decided to stake +everything on giving his support to his imperilled +countrymen. His own men reinforced by a number +of volunteers, he arrived at Sonoma after a +forced march of thirty-six hours, only to find the +Bear Flag men still in possession. The number +of the enemy, as well as their intentions, had, it +seems, been greatly exaggerated, the force in question +being but a small party of troopers which +Castro had despatched to the Mission of San +Rafael, on the north shore of San Francisco Bay, +to prevent several hundred cavalry remounts +which were stabled there from falling into the +hands of the Americans. Realizing the value of +these horses to the settlers in the guerilla campaign, +which seemed likely to ensue, Frémont succeeded +in capturing them after a sharp skirmish with the +Mexicans. Hurrying back to Sonoma, he learned +that during his absence Ide and his men had repulsed +an attack by a body of Mexican regulars, +under General de la Torre, reinforced by a band +of ruffians and desperadoes led by an outlaw +named Padilla, inflicting so sharp a defeat that +the only enemies left in that part of the country +were the scattered fugitives from this force; these +being hunted down and summarily dealt with by +the frontiersmen. Having now irrevocably committed +himself to the insurgent cause, and feeling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +that, if he were to be hanged, it might as well be +for a sheep as for a lamb, Frémont decided on the +capture of San Francisco. The San Francisco of +1846 had little in common with the San Francisco +of to-day, remember, for on the site where the +great Western metropolis now stands there was +nothing but a village consisting of a few-score +adobe houses and the Mexican presidio, or fort, +the latter containing a considerable supply of arms +and ammunition. Accompanied by Kit Carson, +Lieutenant Gillespie, and a small detachment of +his men, Frémont crossed the Bay of San Francisco +in a sailing-boat by night, and took the Mexican +garrison so completely by surprise that they +surrendered without firing a shot. The gateway +to the Orient was ours.</p> + +<p>Frémont now prepared to take the offensive +against Castro, who was retreating on Los Angeles, +but just as he was about to start on his march +southward a messenger brought the great news +that Admiral Sloat, having received word that +hostilities had commenced along the Rio Grande, +had landed his marines at Monterey, and on July 7, +to the thunder of saluting war-ships, had raised +the American flag over the presidio, and had +proclaimed the annexation of California to the +Union. When the Bear Flag men learned the +great news they went into a frenzy of enthusiasm;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +whooping, shouting, singing snatches of patriotic +songs, and firing their pistols in the air. Quickly +the standard of the fighting grizzly was lowered +and the flag of stripes and stars hoisted in its +place, while the rough-clad, bearded settlers, who +had waited so long and risked so much that this +very thing might come to pass, sang the Doxology +with tears running down their faces. As the folds +of the familiar banner caught the breeze and +floated out over the flat-roofed houses of the little +town, Ide, the late chief of the three-weeks republic, +jumping on a powder barrel, swung his +sombrero in the air and shouted: "Now, boys, all +together, three cheers for the Union!" The moist +eyes and the lumps in the throats brought by the +sight of the old flag did not prevent the little +band of frontiersmen from responding with a roar +which made the windows of Sonoma rattle.</p> + +<p>Now, as a matter of fact, Admiral Sloat had +placed himself in a very embarrassing position, +for he had based his somewhat precipitate action +in seizing California on what he had every reason +to believe was authentic news that war between +the United States and Mexico had actually begun, +but which proved next day to be merely an unconfirmed +rumor. If a state of war really did +exist, then both Sloat and Frémont were justified +in their aggressions; but if it did not, then they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +might have considerable difficulty in explaining +their action in commencing hostilities against a +nation with which we were at peace. So Sloat began +"to get cold feet," asserting that he was forced +to act as he had because he had received reliable +information that the British, whose fleet was lying +off Monterey, were on the point of seizing California +themselves. Frémont, on his part, claimed +to have acted in defence of the American settlers +in the interior, who without his assistance would +have been massacred by the Mexicans. At this +juncture Commodore Stockton arrived at Monterey +in the frigate <i>Congress</i>, and as Sloat was now +thoroughly frightened and only too glad to transfer +the responsibility he had assumed to other +shoulders, Stockton, who was the junior officer, +asked for and readily obtained permission to assume +command of the operations. Frémont, +who had reached Monterey with several hundred +riflemen, was appointed commander-in-chief of +the land forces by Stockton, and was ordered to +embark his men on one of the war-ships and proceed +at once to capture San Diego, at that time +by far the most important place in California. +Stockton himself, after raising the American flag +over San Francisco and Santa Barbara, sailed +down the coast to San Pedro, the port of Los +Angeles, where he disembarked a force of bluejackets<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +and marines for the taking of the latter +city, within which the Mexican commander, General +Castro, had shut himself up with a considerable +number of troops, and where he promised to +make a desperate resistance.</p> + +<p>As Stockton came marching up from San Pedro +at the head of his column he was met by a Mexican +carrying a flag of truce and bearing a message +from Castro warning the American commander in +the most solemn terms that if his forces dared to +set foot within Los Angeles they would be going +to their own funerals. "Present my compliments +to General Castro," Stockton told the messenger, +"and ask him to have the kindness to have the +church bells tolled for our funerals at eight o'clock +to-morrow morning, for at that hour I shall enter +the city." Upon receipt of this disconcerting +message Castro slipped out of Los Angeles that +night, without firing a shot in its defence, and at +eight o'clock on the following morning, Stockton, +just as he had promised, came riding in at the +head of his men.</p> + +<p>After garrisoning the surrounding towns and +ridding the countryside of prowling bands of +Mexican guerillas, Stockton officially proclaimed +California a Territory of the United States, instituted +a civil government along American lines, +and appointed Frémont as the first Territorial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +governor. Before the year 1846 had drawn to a +close these two Americans, the one a rough-and-ready +sailor, the other a youthful and impetuous +soldier, assisted by a few hundred marines and +frontiersmen, had completed the conquest and +pacification of a territory having a greater area +and greater natural resources than those of all +the countries conquered by Napoleon put together. +Thus ended the happy, lazy, luxury-loving society +of Spanish California. Another society, less luxurious, +less light-hearted, less contented, but more +energetic, more progressive, and better fitted for +the upbuilding of a nation, took its place. There +are still to be found in California a few men, +white-haired and stoop-shouldered now, who +were themselves actors in this drama I have described, +and who delight to tell of those stirring +days when Frémont and his frontiersmen came +riding down from the passes, and the embattled +settlers of Sonoma founded their short-lived +Republic of the Bear.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE KING OF THE FILIBUSTERS</h2> + + +<p>In one of the public squares of San José, which +is the capital of Costa Rica, there is a marble +statue of a stern-faced young woman, with her +foot planted firmly on a gentleman's neck. The +young woman is symbolic of the Republic of Costa +Rica, and the gentleman ground beneath her heel +is supposed to represent the American filibuster +and soldier of fortune, William Walker. Now, +before going any farther, justice requires me to +explain that Walker's downfall was not due to +Costa Rica, as the citizens of that little republic +would like the world to believe, and as the bombastic +statue in the plaza of its capital would lead +one to suppose, but to a far greater and richer +power, whose victories were won with dollars instead +of bayonets, whose capital was New York +City, and whose name was Cornelius Vanderbilt.</p> + +<p>To the younger generation the name of William +Walker carries no significance, but to the gray-heads +whose recollections antedate the Civil War +the mention of it brings back a flood of thrilling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +memories, while throughout the length and breadth +of that wild region lying between the Isthmus of +Tehuantepec and the Isthmus of Panama it is +still a synonym for unfaltering courage. His +weakness was ambition; his fault was failure. +Had he succeeded in realizing his ambitions—and +he failed only by the narrowest of margins—he +would have been lauded as another Cortez, and +would have received stars and crosses instead of +bullets. Had his life not been cut short by a +Honduran firing-party, it is possible, indeed +probable, that, instead of there being six states in +Central America there would be but one, and in +that one the institution of slavery might still +exist. Though I have scant sympathy with the +motives which animated Walker, and though I +believe that his death was for the best good of the +Central American peoples, he was the very antithesis +of the cutthroat and blackguard and outlaw +which he has been painted, being, on the contrary, +a very brave and honest gentleman, of whom +his countrymen have no reason to feel ashamed, +and that is why I am going to tell his story.</p> + +<p>The eldest son of a Scotch banker, Walker was +born in 1824 in Nashville, Tennessee. His father, +a stiff-necked Presbyterian who held morning and +evening prayers, asked an interminable grace before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +every meal, and took his family to church +three times on Sunday, had set his heart on his +son entering the ministry, and it was with a pulpit +and parish in view that young Walker was educated. +By the time that he was ready to enter the +theological school, however, he decided that he +preferred M.D. instead of D.D. after his name, +whereupon, much to his father's disappointment, +he insisted on taking the medical course at the +University of Tennessee, following it up by two +years at the University of Edinburgh. Thoroughly +equipped to practise his chosen profession, +he opened an office in Philadelphia, but in a few +months the routine of a doctor's life palled upon +him, so, taking down his brass door-plate, he went +to New Orleans, where, after two years of study, he +was admitted to the bar. But he soon found that +briefs and summonses were scarcely more to his +liking than prescriptions and pills, so, with the +prompt decision which was one of his most marked +characteristics, he closed his law-office and obtained +a position as editorial writer on a New +Orleans newspaper. Within a year the restlessness +which had led him to abandon the church, +medicine, and the bar caused him to give up +journalism in its turn. At this time, 1852, the +Californian gold fever was at its mad height, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +to the Pacific coast were pouring streams of fortune-seekers +and adventure-lovers from every +quarter of the globe. One of the latter was +Walker, and it was while editor of the San Francisco +<i>Herald</i>, when only twenty-eight years old, +that his amazing career really began.</p> + +<p>Walker was not of the sort who could content +himself for any length of time within the stuffy +walls of an editorial sanctum. His fingers were +made to grasp something more virile than the +pen. Nor did he make any attempt to win a fortune +with pick and shovel in the gold fields. His +ambitions were neither intellectual nor mercenary, +but political, for from his boyhood days in Nashville +he had dreamed, as all boys worth their salt +do dream, of some day founding a state, with +himself as its ruler, in that wild and savage region +below the Rio Grande. Enlisting half a hundred +kindred souls from the hordes of the reckless, the +adventurous, and the needy which were pouring +into California by boat and wagon-train, Walker +chartered a small vessel and set sail from San +Francisco for the coast of Mexico. His avowed +object was a purely humanitarian one: to protect +the women and children living along the Mexican +frontier from massacre by the Indians, the state +of Sonora being at that time more under the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> +dominion of the Apaches than it was under that +of Mexico. But it was not the protection of the +women and children—though they needed protection +badly enough, goodness knows—which led +Walker to embark on this hare-brained expedition. +He was lured southward by a dream of empire, +an empire of which he should be the ruler, and +which should be founded on slavery. By this +time, remember, the slavery question in the +United States had become exceedingly acute, the +future of the institution on this continent largely +depending upon whether the next States admitted +to the Union should be slave or free. Walker was +a sincere, even fanatical, believer in slavery. +Born and reared in an atmosphere of slavery, to +Walker it was as sacred, as God-given an institution +as the Fast of Ramadan is to the Moslem or +the Feast of the Passover to the Jew. Convinced +that friction over this question would sooner or +later force the slave-holding States to secede from +the Union, he determined to extend the area of +slavery by conquering that portion of northern +Mexico immediately adjacent to the United States, +to establish an independent government there, and +eventually to annex his country to the South, thus +counteracting the growing movement for abolition, +which, with the admission of new Northern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> +territories, already hinted at the overthrow of +slavery.</p> + +<p>Financed by Southern friends whose motives +were probably considerably less altruistic than his +own, Walker landed at Cape San Lucas, the extreme +southern point of the Mexican territory of +Southern California, in October, 1852, with an +"army of invasion" of forty-five men. Instead +of hastening to protect the women and children +of whom he had talked so feelingly, he sailed +up the coast to the territorial capital of La Paz, +which he seized, where he issued a proclamation +announcing the annexation of the neighboring +state of Sonora, in which he had not yet set +foot, giving to the two states the name of the +"Republic of Sonora," and proclaiming himself +its first president. As soon as the news of this +initial success reached San Francisco, Walker's +sympathizers there busied themselves in recruiting +reinforcements, three hundred desperadoes who +boasted that they were afraid of nothing "on two +feet or four" being shipped to him at La Paz a +few weeks later. These men were looked upon +as hard cases even in the San Francisco of the +early fifties, and, if they had not consented to +leave the country to assist Walker, many of them +would probably have left it sooner or later at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +end of a rope in the hands of the local vigilance +committee. When this force of scoundrels arrived +at La Paz and found themselves under the +command of a quiet, mild-mannered, beardless +youth of twenty-eight, instead of the brawny, +foul-mouthed, swashbuckling leader whom they +had expected, they promptly hatched a scheme to +blow up the magazine, seize the ship and the stores +of the expedition in the ensuing confusion, and +make their way back to the United States, leaving +Walker to shift for himself. Warning of the conspiracy +reaching him, however, Walker displayed +for the first time those traits which were later to +make his name a word of terror in the ears of men +who bragged that they feared neither God nor +man. Arresting the ringleaders, he had two of +them tried by court-martial and shot within an +hour; two of the others he ordered flogged and +drummed out of camp, to take their chances among +the hostile Mexicans and Indians. But, though +this act gained Walker the fear and respect of his +followers, the newcomers among them had no +stomach for a leader who could punish, so when +he called for volunteers to accompany him in the +conquest of Sonora less than a hundred men +offered to follow him.</p> + +<p>From the very first the shadow of failure hung<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +over the enterprise. To begin with, there is no +more savage and desolate region on the American +continent than the peninsula of Lower California, +it being so barren and destitute that even the lizards +have to scramble for an existence. Mexicans +and Indians hung upon the flanks of the little column +night and day, as buzzards follow a dying +steer. There was neither medicine nor medical +instruments with the expedition, and the wounded +died from lack of the most elementary care. +Their shoes gave out and the men marched bare-foot +over sun-scorched rocks and needle cactus, +leaving a trail of crimson behind them in the sand. +Their provisions were soon exhausted, and their +only food was beef which they killed on the march. +For years afterward the route of that ill-fated +expedition could be traced from La Paz to the +Colorado River by the bleaching skeletons of the +men who fell by the way. By the time the head +of the Gulf of California was reached the expedition +had dwindled to barely twoscore men. It +was no longer a question of conquering Sonora; +it was a question of getting back to the States +alive.</p> + +<p>With sinking heart, but imperturbable face, +Walker led his little band of starving, fever-racked, +exhausted men toward the Californian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> +line. Three miles of road led through a mountain +pass into the United States and safety. But +the pass was held by a force of Mexican soldiery +under Colonel Melendrez, and his Indian +allies were scattered over the plain below. And, +as though to give a final touch of irony to the +situation in which Walker and his men found +themselves, from their position on the Mexican +hillside they could look across into American territory, +could see the American flag, their flag, +fluttering over the military post south of San +Diego, could even see the sun glinting upon the +bits and sabres of the troop of American cavalry +drawn up along the border. Four Indians bearing +a flag of truce approached. They bore a message +from the Mexican commander to the filibusters. +If they would surrender their leader and give up +their arms, Melendrez sent word, they would be +permitted to leave the country unmolested. But +after you have fought and bled and marched and +starved with a man for a year, you are not likely +to abandon him, particularly when the end is in +sight, so they sent back word to Melendrez that +if he wanted their arms he would have to come +and take them. Meanwhile the American commander, +Major McKinstry, had drawn up his +troopers along the boundary-line and awaited the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +result of the unequal struggle like an umpire at a +foot-ball game. Walker, who knew perfectly well +that he deserved no aid from the United States, +and that he would get none, appreciated that if +he was to get out of this predicament alive it +must be by his own wits. Concealing a dozen of +his men among the rocks and sage-brush which +lined the road on either side, with the remainder +of his force he pretended to beat a panic-stricken +retreat. Melendrez, confident that it was now +all over but the shouting, swept down the road in +pursuit. But as the Mexicans rode into the ambush +which Walker had prepared for them the +hidden filibusters emptied a dozen saddles at a +single volley, and the soldiers, terrified and demoralized, +wheeled and fled for their lives. Thirty +minutes later the President, the Cabinet, and all +that remained of the standing army of the late +Republic of Sonora stumbled across the American +boundary and surrendered to Major McKinstry. +It was May 8, 1854, and in such fashion Walker +celebrated his thirtieth birthday.</p> + +<p>Sent to San Francisco as a political prisoner, +Walker was tried for violating the neutrality laws +of the United States, was acquitted—for the members +of a Californian jury could not but sympathize +with such a man—and once again found himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +writing editorials for the San Francisco <i>Herald</i>. +His narrow escape from death in Mexico had only +served to whet his appetite for adventure, however, +so when he was not doing his newspaper work he +was poring over an atlas in search of some other +land where a determined man might carve out a +career for himself with his sword. Staring at the +map of Middle America, his finger again and again +paused, as though by instinct, on Nicaragua. +Here was indeed a fertile field for the filibuster. +Not only was the country enormously rich in +every form of natural resources, but it had a +kindly and moderately healthy climate, and, what +was the most important of all, owing to its peculiar +geographical position, it commanded what was at +that time one of the great trade-routes of the +world. At this time there were three routes to +the Californian gold-fields: one, the long and weary +voyage around the Horn; another, by the dangerous +and costly Overland Trail; and the third, +which was the shortest, cheapest, and most popular, +across Nicaragua. If you will glance at the +map, you will see that, barring the Isthmus of +Panama, which is several hundred miles farther +south, Nicaragua is the narrowest neck of land +between the two great oceans, and that in the +middle of this neck is the great Lake Nicaragua,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +which is upward of fifty miles in width. An American +corporation known as the Accessory Transit +Company, of which the first Cornelius Vanderbilt +was president, had obtained a concession from +the Nicaraguan Government to transport passengers +across Central America by this route. Passengers +<i>en route</i> from New York or New Orleans +to the gold-fields were landed by the company's +steamers at Greytown, on the Atlantic coast +of Nicaragua, and transported thence by light-draught +steamers up the San Juan River to Lake +Nicaragua. Here they were transferred to larger +steamers and taken across the lake to Virgin Bay, +the twelve-mile journey from there to the port of +San Juan del Sur, on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, +being performed in carriages or on the backs of +mules. During a single year twenty-five thousand +passengers crossed Nicaragua by this route. +It did not take Walker long to appreciate, therefore, +that the man who succeeded in making himself +master of this, the shortest route to California, +would be in a position of considerable strength. +Not only this, but Nicaragua was torn by internal +dissensions; the army was divided into a dozen +factions; the peasantry were down-trodden and +poverty-stricken; the government was inconceivably +corrupt; and the usual revolution was, of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +course, in progress, in which the sister republics +of Honduras and Costa Rica were preparing to +take a hand. Everything considered, Nicaragua's +only hope of salvation from anarchy lay in finding +for a ruler a man with an inflexible sense of +justice and an iron hand. Walker determined to +be that man.</p> + +<p>In view of what I have already told of his exploits, +you have doubtless pictured Walker as a +tall, broad-shouldered man of commanding presence. +As a matter of fact, he was nothing of the +sort. In height he was but five feet five inches, +and correspondingly slender. A remarkably square +jaw and a long chin lent strength and determination +to features which were plain almost to the +point of coarseness. His eyes, which were of a +singularly light gray, are universally spoken of as +having been his most noticeable feature, for they +were so large and fixed that the eyelids scarcely +showed, and so penetrating that they seemed to +bore holes into the person at whom they were +looking. He was extremely taciturn, and when he +did speak it was briefly and to the point. He had +an unusual command of English, however, and +his words were always carefully chosen. A +stranger to fear, men who followed him on his +campaigns assert that even under the most trying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +and perilous circumstances they had never seen +him change countenance or betray emotion by so +much as the contraction of a muscle. He was +wholly lacking in personal vanity, and when in +the field wore his trousers tucked into his boots, a +flannel shirt open at the neck, and a faded black +campaign hat. In a land where all three habits +were universal, he neither drank, smoked, nor +swore; he never looked at women; his word, once +given, was never broken; the justice he meted +out to disobedient followers, though stern to the +point of brutality, was absolutely impartial. +Highly ambitious, it is paying but the barest justice +to his memory to say that his aspirations, +however little we may sympathize with them, +were wholly political and never mercenary, his +whole career showing him to be utterly careless +of wealth. Taking everything into consideration, +we have good reason to be proud that William +Walker was an American.</p> + +<p>In 1854, as I have already remarked, Nicaragua +was split asunder by civil war. The opposing +parties were the Legitimists and the Democrats. +What they were fighting about is of no consequence; +perhaps they did not know themselves. +In any event, in August of that year an American +named Byron Cole, acting as an agent for Walker,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +arrived at the headquarters of the Democratic +forces with a novel offer. Briefly, he agreed to +contract to supply the Democratic party with +three hundred American "colonists liable to military +duty," these settlers to receive a grant of +fifty-two thousand acres of land, and to have the +privilege of becoming citizens of Nicaragua. This +contract was approved and signed by General +Castillon, the Democratic leader, and with it in +his pocket Cole hastened to San Francisco and +Walker. After taking the precaution of submitting +the contract to the civil and military authorities +in San Francisco, and receiving their assurances +that it did not violate the neutrality laws of +the United States, Walker immediately set about +recruiting his "colonists," and in May, 1855, just +a year after his escape from Mexico, he was ready +to sail. Although, as I have said, the Federal +authorities had passed upon the legality of the +contract, it was a noticeable fact that the peaceable +settlers took with them Winchester rifles instead +of spades, and Colt's revolvers instead of +hoes, and that the hold of the brig <i>Vesta</i>, on which +they sailed from San Francisco, was filled with +ammunition and machine guns instead of agricultural +implements and machinery.</p> + +<p>After a long and stormy voyage down the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> +Pacific coast Walker and his men landed, on +June 16, at the port of Realejo, in Nicaragua, +where he was met by Castillon. Walker was at +once commissioned a colonel; Achilles Kewen, who +had just come from Cuba, where he had been +fighting under the patriot Lopez, a lieutenant-colonel; +and Timothy Crocker, a fighting Irishman, +who was a veteran of Walker's Sonora expedition, +a major; the corps being organized as an +independent command under the name of <i>La +Falange Americana</i>—the American Phalanx. At +this time the Transit route from the Atlantic to +the Pacific was held by the Legitimist forces, and +these Walker was ordered to dislodge, it being +essential to the success of the Democrats that +they gain possession of this interoceanic highway. +Accordingly, a week after setting foot in Nicaragua, +Walker, at the head of fifty-seven of his +Americans and one hundred and fifty native soldiers, +set out for Rivas, a town on the western +shore of Lake Nicaragua held by twelve hundred +of the enemy. The first battle of his Nicaraguan +campaign ended in the most complete disaster. +At the first volley his native allies bolted, leaving +the Americans surrounded by ten times their +number of Legitimists. The enemy instantly +perceived this defection, and pressed the Phalanx<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +so hard that its members were driven to take +shelter behind a row of adobe huts. No one knew +better than Walker that if the enemy charged he +and his men were done for, so he decided to do the +charging himself. Out from behind the huts +dashed the red-shirted filibusters, firing as they +came, and so ferocious was their onslaught that +they succeeded in cutting their way through the +encircling army and escaping into the jungle. +Though six of the Americans were killed, including +Walker's two lieutenants, Kewen and Crocker, +and twice as many wounded, the battle of Rivas +established the reputation of Americans in Central +America for years to come, for a hundred and +fifty of the enemy fell before their deadly fire.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/gs09wwalker.png" width="600" height="353" alt="General William Walker and his men, after a long and stormy voyage, landing at Virgin Bay, +en route to Costa Rica. + +From a print in the New York Public Library." title="" /> +<span class="caption">General William Walker and his men, after a long and stormy voyage, landing at Virgin Bay, +en route to Costa Rica.<br /> + +From a print in the New York Public Library.</span> +</div> + +<p>Bleeding and exhausted from battle and travel, +Walker and his men, after an all-night march +through the jungle, limped into the port of San +Juan del Sur, and, finding a Costa Rican vessel in +the harbor, they seized it for their own use. Still +bearing in mind the necessity of getting control +of the Transit route, Walker gave his men only a +few days in which to recover from their wounds +and weariness, and then was off again, this time +for Virgin Bay, the halting-place for passengers +going east or west. Though in the fight which +ensued Walker was outnumbered five to one, his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +losses were only three natives killed and a few +Americans wounded, while one hundred and fifty +of the enemy fell before the rifles of the filibusters. +This disparity of losses emphasizes, as does nothing +else, the deadliness of the American fire.</p> + +<p>After the fight at Virgin Bay Walker received +from California fifty recruits, thus bringing the +force under his command up to some four hundred +men, about a third of whom were Americans. +The Legitimists, learning that he was planning to +again attack Rivas, hastened to reinforce the garrison +of that town by hurrying troops there from +their headquarters at Granada, which was farther +up the lake, planning to give Walker a warm and +unexpected reception. But it was Walker who did +the surprising, for, having his own channels of +secret information, he no sooner learned of the +weakened condition of Granada than he determined +to direct his efforts against that place, +instead of Rivas, and by capturing it to give the +Legitimist cause a solar-plexus blow. Embarking +his men on a small steamer with the announced +intention of attacking Rivas, as soon as night +fell he turned in the opposite direction and, with +lights out and fires banked, steamed silently up the +lake. Dawn found him off Granada, the garrison +and inhabitants of which were sleeping off a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +drunken debauch with which they had celebrated +a recent victory. Even the sentries drowsed at +their posts. Unobserved, the Americans landed +in the semi-darkness of the early dawn, and it +was not until they had reached the very outskirts +of the town that a sentry suddenly awakened to +their presence and gave the alarm by letting off +his rifle, the shot being instantly answered by a +crackle of musketry as the Americans opened fire. +"Charge!" shouted Walker, "Get at 'em! Get at +'em!" and dashed forward at a run, a revolver in +each hand, with his followers, cheering like madmen, +close at his heels. "Los Filibusteros! Los Filibusteros!" +screamed the terror-stricken inhabitants, +catching sight of the red shirts and scarlet hat-bands +of the Americans. "Run for your lives!" The demoralized +garrison made a brief and ineffective +stand in the Plaza, and then threw down their arms. +Walker was master of Granada. He at once instituted +a military government, released over a +hundred political prisoners confined in the local +jail, policed the town as effectually as though it +were a New England village, and when he caught +one of his native soldiers in the act of looting, ran +him through with his sword.</p> + +<p>Walker was now in a position to dictate his own +terms of peace, and, four months after he and his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> +fifty-seven followers landed in Nicaragua, an +armistice was arranged and the side to which the +Americans had lent their aid was in power. A +native named Rivas was made provisional president, +and Walker was appointed commander-in-chief +of the army, which at that time numbered +about twelve hundred men. Though insignificant +in numbers when judged by European standards, +this was really a remarkable force, and perhaps +the most effective for its size known to military +history. The officers had all seen service under +many flags and in many lands—in Cuba, Mexico, +Brazil, Spain, Algeria, Italy, Egypt, Russia, India, +China—and the men, nearly all of whom had been +recruited in San Francisco, boasted that "California +was the pick of the world, and they were +the pick of California." There was scarcely a +man among them who could not flick the ashes +from a cigar with his revolver at a hundred feet, +or with his rifle hit a dollar held between a man's +thumb and forefinger at a hundred yards. All +the strange, wild natures for whom even the mining-camps +of California had grown too tame +were drawn to Walker's flag as iron filings are +drawn to a magnet. Frederick Townsend Ward, +the New England youth who raised, trained, and +led the Ever-Victorious Army, who rose to be an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +admiral-general of China, and who performed the +astounding exploits for which General Charles +Gordon received the credit, gained much of his +military training under Walker; Joaquin Miller, +"the poet of the Sierras," was another of his devoted +followers, while scores of the other men who +fought under the blue-and-white banner with the +scarlet star in later years achieved name and fame +in many different lands.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/gs10reviewing.jpg" width="600" height="454" alt="General Walker reviewing troops on the Grand Plaza, Granada. + +From a print in the New York Public Library." title="" /> +<span class="caption">General Walker reviewing troops on the Grand Plaza, Granada.<br /> + +From a print in the New York Public Library.</span> +</div> + +<p>Says General Charles Frederic Henningsen, +the famous English soldier of fortune who was +Walker's second in command: "I have heard two +greasy privates disputing over the correct reading +and comparative merits of Ćschylus and Euripides. +I have seen a soldier on guard incessantly scribbling +strips of paper, which turned out to be a +finely versified translation of his dog's-eared copy +of the <i>Divina Commedia</i>." The same officer, who +had fought with distinction under Don Carlos in +Spain, under Schamyl in the Caucasus, and +under Kossuth in Hungary, who had introduced +the Minié rifle into the American service, and +was a recognized authority on the use of artillery, +and therefore knew whereof he spoke, also +testifies to the heroism and astounding fortitude +of Walker's men. "I have often seen them marching +with a broken or a compound-fractured arm in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +splints, and using the other to fire the rifle or revolver. +Those with a fractured thigh, or with +wounds which rendered them incapable of removal, +often (or rather, in early times, always) +shot themselves, sooner than fall into the hands +of the enemy. Such men do not turn up in the +average of every-day life, nor do I ever expect to +see their like again. I was on the Confederate +side in many of the bloodiest battles of the late +war, but I aver that if, at the end of that war I +had been allowed to pick five thousand of the +bravest Confederate or Federal soldiers I ever saw, +and could resurrect and pit against them one thousand +of such men as lie beneath the orange-trees +of Nicaragua, I feel certain that the thousand +would have scattered and utterly routed the five +thousand within an hour. All military science +failed, on a suddenly given field, before assailants +who came on at a run, to close with their revolvers, +and who thought little of charging a battery, +pistol in hand." As a matter of fact, at the first +battle of Rivas, ten Americans, all officers of the +Phalanx, armed only with bowie-knives and revolvers, +actually did charge and capture a battery +manned by more than a hundred Costa Ricans, +half of the little band being killed in that astounding +exploit. Some estimate of the deeds of these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +unsung heroes, so many of whom lie in unmarked +graves beneath an alien sky, may be gathered +from the surgical reports, which showed that the +proportion of wounds treated was <i>one hundred and +thirty-seven to every hundred men</i>.</p> + +<p>For several months after the taking of Granada +and the establishment of a provisional government, +the dove of peace hovered over Nicaragua +as though desirous of alighting, but in February, +1856, it was driven away, at least for a time, by +a fresh splutter of musketry along the southern +frontier, where Costa Rica, alarmed by Walker's +reputed ambition to make himself master of all +Middle America, had begun an invasion with the +expressed purpose of driving the <i>gringos</i> from +Central American soil. After a few months of +desperate fighting, in which the Americans fully +maintained their reputation for reckless bravery, +the Costa Ricans were driven across the border, +and for a brief time the harassed Nicaraguans +were able to exchange their rifles for their hoes. +The country now being for the moment at peace, +Rivas called a presidential election, announcing +himself as the candidate of the Democrats. The +Legitimists, recognizing in Walker the one strong +man of the country, had the political shrewdness +to choose him, their former enemy, to head their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +ticket. Two other candidates, Ferrer and Salazar, +were also in the field. The election was regular +in every respect, the voting being entirely free +from the usual disturbances. According to the +Nicaraguan constitution, every male inhabitant +over eighteen years of age, criminals excepted, is +entitled to the suffrage. When the votes were +counted it was found that Rivas had received 867 +votes; Salazar, 2,087; Ferrer, 4,447; and Walker, +15,835. By such an overwhelming majority, and +in an absolutely fair election, was William Walker +made President of Nicaragua—the first and only +time an American has ever been chosen ruler of a +foreign and independent state.</p> + +<p>In all its troubled history Nicaragua has never +been governed so justly and so wisely as it was by +the American soldier of fortune. Had he been +free from foreign interference there is little doubt +that he would have made Nicaragua a progressive, +prosperous, and contented country, and that he +would in time have brought under one government +and one flag all the states lying between +Yucatan and Panama. But that was precisely +what the peoples of those states were fearful of, +so that, a few weeks after Walker was inaugurated, +Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, and San +Salvador declared war. This time Walker took<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> +the field with three thousand trained and seasoned +veterans, while opposed to him were twenty-one +thousand of the allies. To describe the campaign +that ensued would be as profitless as it would be +tedious. The programme was always the same: +the march by night through the silent, steaming +jungle, and the stealthy surrounding of the threatened +town in the early dawn; the warning crack +of a startled sentry's rifle; the sudden rush of the +filibusters with their high, shrill yell; the taking +of the barracks and the cathedral in the Plaza, +nearly always at the pistol's point; and the panic-stricken +retreat of the little brown men in their +uniforms of soiled white linen. Everywhere the +arms of Walker were triumphant, and had he not +at this time deliberately crossed the path of a +soldier of fortune of quite another kind, in a few +months more he would have realized his life-dream +and have made himself the ruler of a Central +American empire.</p> + +<p>Upon investigating national affairs after his +election, Walker found that the Accessory Transit +Company had not lived up to the terms of its concession +from the government of Nicaragua. By +the terms of its charter it had agreed to pay to the +Nicaraguan Government ten thousand dollars annually, +and ten per cent of its net profits. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> +company claimed, and the government as stoutly +denied, that the ten thousand dollars had been +regularly paid, though the concessionaires admitted +that the ten per cent on the profits had +not been paid, giving as their excuse that there +had been no profits. Upon an examination of the +books it was quickly discovered that the company +had so juggled with the accounts as to make it appear +that there were no profits, when, as a matter +of fact, the enterprise was an enormously profitable +one. Upon discovering the fraud which had been +perpetrated upon the government and people of +Nicaragua, Walker demanded back payments to +the amount of two hundred and fifty thousand +dollars, and upon the company insolently refusing +to pay them, he promptly revoked its charter, +and seized its steamboats, wharves, and warehouses +as security for the debt. Though this +action was perfectly justifiable under the circumstances, +it was, in view of the instability of Walker's +position, an unwise move, for it made an +implacable enemy of one of the most powerful +and perhaps the most unscrupulous of the financiers +of the time.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/gs11programme.jpg" width="600" height="392" alt="The programme was always the same: the sudden rush of the filibusters with their high, +shrill yell; the taking of the barracks and the cathedral in the Plaza. + +From a print in the New York Public Library." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The programme was always the same: the sudden rush of the filibusters with their high, +shrill yell; the taking of the barracks and the cathedral in the Plaza.<br /> + +From a print in the New York Public Library.</span> +</div> + +<p>Cornelius Vanderbilt was not a person who +could be bluffed or frightened. Infuriated at the +action of the filibuster President, he immediately<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +withdrew from service the ships of the Transit +Company in both oceans, thus cutting off communication +between Nicaragua and the United States, +and thereby Walker's source of supplies. But the +grim old financier was not content with that. Recruiting +a force of foreign adventurers on his own +account, he despatched them to Central America +with orders to assist the Costa Ricans, whom he +liberally supplied with money, arms, and ammunition, +in their war against Walker. Turning then +to Washington, he had little difficulty in inducing +Secretary of State Marcy, who was known to be +one of his creatures, to use the government forces +in driving Walker out of Nicaragua. To Commodore +Mervin, who was his personal friend, +Secretary Marcy communicated his wishes, or +rather Vanderbilt's wishes, and these Mervin in +turn transmitted to Captain Davis, commanding +the man-of-war <i>St. Mary's</i>, who was ordered to +proceed at full speed to San Juan del Sur, on the +Pacific coast of Nicaragua, and to force Walker +out of that country. Never has the government +of the United States lent itself to the designs of +predatory wealth so disgracefully and so flagrantly +as it did when, at the dictation of Cornelius Vanderbilt, +and without a shadow of right or excuse, +it used the American navy to oust William Walker<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> +from the presidency to which he had been legally +elected by a sovereign people. Its unjustified +persecution of Walker to serve the spite of a +money-lord forms one of the darkest stains on +our national history.</p> + +<p>When Davis arrived in Nicaragua he found +Walker, his forces terribly reduced by death, fever, +and desertion (for his means of supply had, as I +have said, been stopped), besieged by the allies in +the town of Rivas. Food was running short, the +hospital was filled with wounded, and many of +his men were helpless from fever. Captain Davis +demanded that Walker surrender to him upon the +ground of humanity, but the indomitable filibuster +replied that when he did not have enough men +left to man the guns he intended to take refuge +on board his little schooner, the <i>Granada</i>, which +lay in the harbor, and seek his fortune elsewhere. +"You will not do that," answered Davis, "for +I am going to seize your vessel." With his +only hope of escape thus cut off, there was +nothing for Walker to do but capitulate. Therefore, +on May 1, 1857, William Walker, President +of Nicaragua, whose title was as legally sound as +that of any ruler in the world, surrendered to the +forces his own country had sent against him, and +one more argument was given to those who claimed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> +that it was not liberty which we upheld and worshipped, +but the almighty dollar. When Walker +arrived in New York a few weeks later he found +the city bedecked with flags and bunting in his +honor. On but two other occasions has the +American metropolis given such a reception to a +visitor: once when Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, +rode up Broadway, and years later, when +Dewey returned, fresh from his victory at Manila. +Walker's drive from the Battery to Madison Square +was like a triumphal progress, for his gallantry in +action and his successes against overwhelming +odds had aroused the admiration of his countrymen, +just as his outrageous treatment by the government +had excited their indignation. Though +legally he had serious grounds for complaint, he +received scant consideration when he placed his +demands for reparation before the Department +of State at Washington. But the cold shoulder +turned toward him by official Washington was +more than made up for by the welcome he received +in the South, where he was acclaimed as a +hero and a martyr. He was banqueted in every +town and city from Baltimore to New Orleans, +and when he entered a box in the opera-house of +the latter place, the audience, forgetting the play, +rose as one man to cheer him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p> + +<p>Within a month Walker had raised enough +money and recruits in the South to enable him to +try his fortunes once more in Nicaragua. Sailing +from New Orleans with one hundred and fifty +men, he landed at San Juan del Norte, on the Caribbean +side, marched upon and captured the +town of Castillo Viejo together with four of the +Transit Company's steamers, and was, indeed, in +a fair way to again make himself master of Nicaragua +when the United States once more interfered, +the frigate <i>Wabash</i>, under command of +Commodore Hiram Pawlding, dropping anchor in +a position where her guns commanded the filibusters' +camp, her commander demanding Walker's +immediate surrender. The flag-officer who +presented Walker with Pawlding's demand tactlessly +remarked: "General, I'm sorry to see you +here. A man like you deserves to command better +men." "If I had even a third of the force you +have brought against me," Walker responded +grimly, "I'd soon show you who commands the +better men." For the third time in his career +Walker was forced to surrender to his own countrymen, +and was sent north under parole as a +prisoner of war. But, although Pawlding had +acted precisely as Davis had done, President +Buchanan, instead of thanking him, not only publicly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +reprimanded him, but retired him from +active service, and when Walker presented himself +at the White House as a prisoner, refused to +receive his surrender, or to recognize him as being +in the custody of the United States. All of which, +however, was scant consolation for Walker.</p> + +<p>To regain the presidency of which he had been +unjustly deprived had now become an obsession +with Walker. In spite of a proclamation issued +by President Buchanan forbidding him to take +further part in Central American affairs, he +sailed from Mobile, on December 1, 1858, with a +hundred and fifty of his veterans. His voyage +was brought to a sudden and wholly unlooked-for +termination, however, for he was wrecked in a +gale off the coast of Honduras, whence he was +rescued by a British war-ship which happened to +be in the vicinity and brought back to the United +States. By this time Walker had become almost +as much of a nightmare to the governments of the +United States and Great Britain (for the latter, +both because of the proximity of her colony of +British Honduras and of her large financial interests +in the other Central American countries, had +no desire to see that region again plunged into +war) as Napoleon was to the Holy Alliance, and +as a result both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +of Nicaragua were patrolled by the war-ships of +the two nations to prevent Walker's return. Appreciating +that, under the circumstances, it was +about as easy for him to land on Nicaraguan soil +as it was to land on the moon, Walker, with +a hundred of his devoted followers, slipped silently +out of Mobile harbor on an August night in 1860, +and landed, a few days later, on a little island off +the coast of Honduras known as Ruatan.</p> + +<p>And so we come to the last chapter in this extraordinary +man's extraordinary career. Within +a day after his landing at Ruatan, Walker had +crossed to the mainland and captured the important +seaport of Trujillo. But the ill-fortune +which from the beginning had dogged him like +a shadow was not to desert him now, for scarcely +had the flag of Honduras which fluttered above the +barracks been replaced by the blue-and-white +banner of the filibusters when a British frigate +dropped anchor off the town. Twenty minutes +later a boat's crew of British bluejackets tossed +their oars as they ran alongside Trujillo wharf, +and a naval officer immaculate in white and +gold, stepping ashore, inquired for General Walker, +and presented him with a message. It was +from Captain Salmon, commanding the British +man-of-war <i>Icarus</i>, which lay outside, and demanded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +the immediate evacuation of the city by +the filibusters, as the British Government held a +mortgage on the revenues of the port and intended +to protect them, by force if necessary. Walker +answered that as he had made Trujillo a free port, +the British claims were no longer valid. "Captain +Salmon instructs me to inform you, sir," +replied the British officer, as he prepared to re-enter +his gig, "that he will give you until to-morrow +morning to make your decision. If you +do not then surrender he will be compelled to +bombard the town." As a strong force of Hondurans +had in the mean time appeared on the land +side of the city and were preparing to attack, +Walker realized that his position had become untenable, +so that night he and his men slipped +silently out of the sleeping city and started down +the coast with the intention of making their way +overland to Nicaragua. When the British landed +the next morning they were only just in time to +prevent the sick and wounded whom Walker had +been forced to leave behind him in his retreat from +falling into the hands of the ferocious Hondurans. +Learning of Walker's flight, Salmon immediately +started down the coast on the <i>Icarus</i> in pursuit.</p> + +<p>They overtook Walker at a little fishing village<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +near the mouth of the Rio Negro, several boat-loads +of sailors and marines being sent up the +river to take him. But the coast of Honduras is +a good second to the Gold Coast in the deadliness +of its climate, so that when the landing party +reached the little cluster of wretched hovels where +Walker and his men had taken refuge, they found +the filibusters too far gone with fever to oppose +them. To Captain Salmon's demand for an unconditional +surrender, Walker, who was so weak that +he could scarcely stand, inquired if he was surrendering +to the English or to the Hondurans. +Captain Salmon twice assured him distinctly that +it was to the English, whereupon the filibusters, +at Walker's orders, laid down their arms and were +taken aboard the <i>Icarus</i>. No sooner had he arrived +back at Trujillo, however, than Captain +Salmon, breaking the word he had given as an +officer and a gentleman, and in defiance of every +law of humanity, turned his prisoners over to the +Honduran authorities. Salmon, who was young +and pompous and had a life-size opinion of himself +and his position, interceded for all of the +prisoners except Walker, and obtained their release, +but he informed the filibuster chieftain that +he would plead for him only on condition that +he would ask his intercession as an American<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +citizen. But Walker, imbittered by the treatment +he had received at the hands of his own +government and disdaining to turn to it for assistance +in his adversity, answered proudly: "The +President of Nicaragua is a citizen of Nicaragua," +and turned his back upon the Englishman who +had betrayed him.</p> + +<p>He was tried by court martial on September 11, +1860, and after the barest formalities was sentenced +to be shot at daybreak the next morning. +The place selected for his execution was a strip +of sandy beach, and to it the condemned man +walked as coolly as though taking a morning +stroll. Before him tramped a detachment of +slovenly Honduran infantry, who, with their +brown, wizened faces, their ill-fitting uniforms, +and their jaunty caps, looked more like monkeys +than men; behind him marched the firing-party, +with weapons at the charge; beside him was a +priest bearing a crucifix and murmuring the prayers +for the dying. As the little procession came to a +halt within the hollow square of soldiery, Walker +waved away the handkerchief with which they +would have blindfolded him, and, cool and straight +and soldierly as though in command of his +Phalanx, took his stand before the firing-party.</p> + +<p>"I die a Roman Catholic," he said in Spanish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> +in a voice clear and unafraid. "The war which I +made upon you was wrong and I take this opportunity +of asking your pardon. I die with resignation, +though it would be a consolation for me to feel +that my death is for the good of society." As he +ceased speaking, the officer in command of the +troops dropped the point of his sword, the levelled +rifles of the firing-party spoke as one, and Walker +fell. But, though every bullet entered his body, +he still lived. So a sergeant stepped forward with +a cocked revolver and blew out his brains. With +that shot there passed the soul of a very brave +and gallant gentleman who deserved from his +country better treatment than he received.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p> +<h2>CITIES CAPTURED BY CONTRACT</h2> + + + +<p>I have known men who, from need of money +or from love of adventure, have contracted to +do all sorts of seemingly impossible things. Some +conquered apparently unconquerable chasms by +means of daring bridges; others built railways +across waterless, yellow deserts, where experts had +asserted that no railway could go; one contracted +to find and raise a treasure galleon sunk three +hundred years ago; another agreed to compose +an opera in a week; while still another engaged +to find a man who for two years had been lost in +equatorial Africa. It took a New Englander, +however, to sign a contract to capture walled and +hostile cities, at a stipulated price per city, just +as a Chicago meat-packer would contract to supply +a government with beef at so much a pound.</p> + +<p>The man who entered into this amazing agreement +was baptized Frederick Townsend Ward, +but bore at his death the adopted name of +Hwa. Though born within biscuit-throw of Salem +wharves he was by residence a citizen of the world,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +and by profession a soldier of fortune. Now the +trouble with most soldiers of fortune is that they +don't make good in the end. They are generally entertaining +fellows, with vast stores of information +on an amazing variety of subjects, wide acquaintanceships +with personages whose names you see +in the daily papers, and an intimate knowledge +of the little-known places, but they rarely save +any money, they seldom rise to high positions, +and they usually end their checkered careers by +being ingloriously arrested for breaking the neutrality +laws, or by dying, picturesquely but quite +uselessly, between a stone wall and a firing-party.</p> + +<p>That Frederick Ward was a striking exception +merely proves the soundness of my remarks. +Though he was a soldier of fortune (he fought +under at least six flags) he did make money, for +he capitalized his remarkable military genius by +signing a contract to capture rebellious cities, at +seventy-five thousand dollars a city, and took a +dozen of them, one after another; he rose to be +an admiral-general of China, and a Mandarin of +the Red Button, which was equivalent to being a +Dewey, a Kitchener, and a Cromer rolled into +one; and though he died when scarcely thirty, it +was on the walls of a captured city, directing a +victorious charge. Though the Manchu dynasty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> +of China, to which he gave an additional half-century +of existence, has fallen, the soldiers of the +new republic continue to invoke his spirit as that +of a god of battles, and the priests of Confucius +still burn incense before his tomb.</p> + +<p>The story of how this adventurous American +youth recognized the splendid fighting material +into which the Chinese were capable of being +transformed; how he took that material and +heated and hammered and tempered it into a +serviceable weapon, and gave that weapon a keen +cutting edge; how, with a force which never numbered +more than six thousand men, he broke the +backbone of a rebellion which turned China into +a shambles; and how his battalions came to be +known, in the annals of time, as the "Ever-Victorious +Army," forms a chronicle of courage and +thrilling incident the like of which can not be +found in history. If the almost incredible exploits +of Ward have escaped the notice of our historians, +it is because, at the time they took place, +Americans were too intent on the business of their +own great slaughter-house to be interested in a +similar performance going on, in much less workmanlike +fashion, half the world away. Though +British writers slightingly allude to Ward as "an +obscure Yankee adventurer," the officer who succeeded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +him, General Charles George Gordon, +merely completed the work which his predecessor +had begun, and built his military reputation on +the foundations which the American had laid. +Though the name of Frederick Townsend Ward +holds but little meaning for the vast majority of +his countrymen, it is still a name to conjure with +in that country which he saved from anarchy.</p> + +<p>Though a youth in appearance and in years, +Ward was a seasoned veteran long before he set +out on his last campaign. Before he was five-and-twenty +he had had enough experiences to satisfy +a dozen ordinary men. Coming from New England +seafaring stock, it was only to be expected +that a passion for adventure should course through +his veins. From the time he donned short trousers +he dreamed of a cadetship at West Point, and a +commission under his own flag. But it was destined +that his military genius should profit another +country than his own, and that he should fight +and die under an alien banner. His father, a stern +old merchant captain, held that there was no +training for a boy like that to be had in the school +of the sea, and so, when young Ward was scarce +half-way through his teens, he was packed off +aboard a sailing-vessel bound for the China seas. +By the time he was twenty he held a first mate's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> +warrant, and had paid for it with three long voyages. +Joining Garibaldi's famous Foreign Legion, +he saw service under that great soldier in the war +between the Republic of the Rio Grande and +Brazil. Afterward he helped the young Republic +of Uruguay to defeat Manuel Rosas, the Argentine +dictator. At the outbreak of the Crimean +War he obtained a lieutenant's commission in a +regiment of French zouaves, and followed the tricolor +until the Treaty of Paris brought that bloody +campaign to an end. Turning his steps toward +Latin America again, he joined William Walker +in his ill-fated Nicaraguan adventure, and after +that leader's execution in Honduras he offered +his sword and services to Juarez, and helped to +win for him the presidency of Mexico. With the +triumph of Juarez, peace settled for a time upon +the western hemisphere, and Ward, finding no +market for his military talents, was driven by +financial necessities to take up the occupation of +a ship-broker in New York City. But the shackles +of trade soon proved intolerable to this man of +action. He was like a race-horse harnessed to a +milk-wagon. Though his talk was of cargoes and +bottomry and tonnage, his thoughts were far +away, on those distant seaboards of the world +where history was in the making. At the beginning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +of 1859, the only country in the world where +fighting on a large scale was going on was China, +which was being devastated by the great Taiping +Rebellion. In the spring of that year Ward, unable +to longer resist the call to action which was +forever sounding in his ears, turned the key in +the door of his New York office, saddled his horse, +and, unaccompanied, rode across the continent to +San Francisco, where he booked a passage for +Shanghai. It was no random adventure which he +had undertaken. He had laid his plans carefully +and knew exactly what he intended doing. Nor +did the magnitude of his project dishearten him. +He had set out to save an empire, and he intended +to win fame and fortune in doing it.</p> + +<p>The conditions which prevailed in China between +1850 and 1863 can be compared only to the +French Reign of Terror, or to the rule of the Mahdi +in the Sudan. About the time that the nineteenth +century was approaching the half-way mark, a +Chinese schoolmaster named Hung-siu-Tseuen, +inflamed by the partially comprehended teachings +of Christian missionaries, had inaugurated a propaganda +to overthrow the Confucian religion, and +incidentally the reigning dynasty. There speedily +rallied to his banners all the floating scoundrelism +of China. In 1852 the rebel hordes had moved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +into the province of Hunan, murdering, pillaging, +and burning as they went; advanced down the Kiang +River to the Yang-tse, down which they sailed, +capturing and sacking the cities on its banks. +Making Nanking his capital, the rebel leader assumed +the title of Tien Wang, or "Heavenly King," +and proclaimed the rule of the Ping Chao, or "Peace +Dynasty," which, with the prefix Tai ("great") +gave the rebellion its name, Taiping. Wang's +great hordes of tatterdemalions, flushed with their +unbroken series of successes, gradually overran +the silk and tea districts, the richest in the empire, +threatened Peking, and advanced almost to the +gates of Shanghai, carrying death and destruction +over fifteen of the eighteen provinces of China. +Perhaps it will give a better idea of the magnitude +of this rebellion when I add that reliable authorities +estimate that it cost China <i>two billion five hundred +million dollars, and twenty million human lives</i>. +By the autumn of 1859 such of the imperial forces +as remained loyal had been whipped to a stand-still, +and the European powers having interests +in China had their work cut out to defend the +treaty ports; the rebels were undisputed masters +of all Central China; the rivers were literally +choked with corpses, and the smoke of burning +cities overhung the land. The atrocities committed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> +by order of the Taiping leader shocked +even the dulled sensibilities of China. On one +occasion, six thousand people, suspected of an +intention to desert, were gathered in the public +square of Nanking. A hundred executioners +stood among the prisoners with bared swords, and, +at a signal from the Wang, slashed off heads until +their arms were weary, and blood stood inches +deep in the gutters. Ward had indeed chosen a +good market in which to sell his services.</p> + +<p>Through an English friend in the Chinese service, +Ward obtained an introduction to Wu, the +Taotoi of Shanghai, and to a millionaire merchant +and mandarin named Tah Kee. The plan he +proposed was as simple as it was daring. He +offered to recruit a foreign legion, with which he +would defend Shanghai, and at the same time +attack such of the Taiping strongholds as were +within striking distance, stipulating that for every +city captured he was to receive seventy-five thousand +dollars in gold, that his men were to have +the first day's looting, and that each place taken +should immediately be garrisoned by imperial +troops, leaving his own force free for further operations. +Wu on behalf of the government, and Tah +Kee as the representative of the Shanghai merchants, +promptly agreed to this proposal, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> +signed the contract. They had, indeed, everything +to gain and nothing to lose. It was also +arranged that Tah Kee should at the outset furnish +the arms, ammunition, clothing, and commissary +supplies necessary to equip the legion. +These preliminaries once settled, Ward wasted no +time in recruiting his force, for every day was +bringing the Taipings nearer. A number of brave +and experienced officers, for the most part soldiers +of fortune like himself, hastened to offer him their +services, General Edward Forester, an American, +being appointed second in command. The rank +and file of the legion was recruited from the scum +and offscourings of the East, Malay pirates, Burmese +dacoits, Tartar brigands, and desperadoes, +adventurers, and fugitives from justice from every +corner of the farther East being attracted by the +high rate of pay, which in view of the hazardous +nature of the service, was fixed at one hundred +dollars a month for enlisted men, and proportionately +more for officers. The non-commissioned +officers, who were counted upon to stiffen the ranks +of the Orientals, were for the most part veterans +of continental armies, and could be relied upon to +fight as long as stock and barrel held together. +The officers carried swords and Colt's revolvers, +the latter proving terribly effective in the hand-to-hand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> +fighting which Ward made the rule; while +the men were armed with Sharp's repeating carbines +and the vicious Malay <i>kris</i>. Everything considered, +I doubt if a more formidable aggregation +of ruffians ever took the field. Ward placed his +men under a discipline which made that of the +German army appear like a kindergarten; taught +them the tactics he had learned under Garibaldi, +Walker, and Juarez; and finally, when they were +as keen as razors and as tough as rawhide, he entered +them in battle on a most astonished foe.</p> + +<p>The first city Ward selected for capture was +Sunkiang, on the banks of the Wusung River, +some twenty-five miles above Shanghai. In +choosing this particular place as his first point of +attack, Ward showed himself a diplomatist as +well as a soldier, for it was one of the seven sacred +cities of China, and to it had been wont to come +thousands of pilgrims from the most distant provinces, +to prostrate themselves in the temple of +Confucius, the oldest and most revered shrine in +the empire. Its capture by the Taipings and their +desecration of its altars had sent a thrill of horror +through the imperialists, such as was not even +caused by the loss of the great metropolis of +Nanking.</p> + +<p>Ward, who appreciated the necessity of winning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> +the recognition and confidence of the higher authorities, +well knew that the regaining of this +sacred city would endear him to the religious heart +of China as nothing else could do. But Sunkiang, +with its walls twenty feet high and five miles in +circumference, and with a garrison of five thousand +fanatics to defend those walls, was no easy nut +to crack even for a powerful force well supplied +with artillery. The idea of its being taken by +Ward and his five hundred desperadoes was preposterous, +unthinkable, absurd. He first tried the +weapon he had so painstakingly forged on a July +morning, in 1860. Just as his European critics in +Shanghai had prophesied, the attack on Sunkiang +proved the most dismal of failures. His stealthy +approach being discovered by the Taipings, he +was greeted with such a withering fire upon reaching +the walls that, being without supports, and +perceiving the hopelessness of the situation, he +ordered his buglers to sound the retreat.</p> + +<p>But Ward was one of those rare men to whom +discouragements and disasters are but incidents, +annoying but not disheartening, in the day's +work. He spent a fortnight in strengthening the +weakened <i>morale</i> of his force, and then he tried +again, making his onset with the suddenness and +fury of a tiger's spring just at break of day.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> +Slipping like ghosts through the grayness of the +dawn, Ward and his men stole across the surrounding +rice-fields, and were almost under the city +walls before the Taiping sentries discovered their +approach. As the first rifle cracked, Ward and +one of his lieutenants raced ahead with bags of +powder, placed them beneath the main gate of +the city, and lighted the fuse. Like an echo of +the ensuing explosion rose the shrill yell of the +legionaries, who dashed forward like sprinters in +a race. Instead of the gates being blown to pieces +as they had expected, they found that they had +been forced apart only enough for one man to +pass at a time—and on the other side of that door +of death five thousand rebels waited eagerly for +the first of the attackers to appear. "Come on, +boys!" roared Ward, his voice rising above the +crash of the musketry, "We're going in!" and +plunged through the narrow opening, a revolver +in each hand. Hard on his heels crowded his +legionaries. Though they were going to what was +almost certain death, such was the magnetism of +their leader that not a man hung back, not a man +faltered. Before half a dozen men were through +they were attacked by hundreds, but, so deadly +was the fire they poured in with their repeaters, +they were able to hold off the defenders until the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> +whole attacking force was within the gate. Then +began one of the most desperate and unequal fights +in history. The key to the city was the howitzer +battery, which was stationed on the top of the +massive main gate, forty feet above. Up the +narrow ramps the legionaries fought their way, +five hundred against five thousand, hacking, stabbing, +firing, at such close range that their rifles +set fire to their opponents' clothing, driving their +bayonets into the human wall before them as a +field-hand pitchforks hay. Wherever there was +space for a man to plant his feet or swing +his sword, there a Taiping was to be found. +The passageway was choked with them, but +they sullenly gave way before the frenzy of +Ward's attack as a hillside slowly disintegrates +before the stream from a hydraulic nozzle. Ward +was wounded, and his men were falling about him +by dozens, but those that were left, mad with the +lust of battle, fought on, until with a final surge +and cheer they reached the top, and the position +which commanded the city was in their hands. +Then the Taipings broke and fled, some to be +overtaken and slaughtered by the legionaries, +others throwing themselves into the streets below. +Bayoneting the rebel gunners, the howitzers +were turned upon the city, raking the streets,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> +sweeping the crowded walls and house-tops, and +leaving heaps of dead and dying where Taiping +regiments had stood before.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/gs12comeboys.png" width="600" height="407" alt=""Come on, boys!" shouted Ward. "We're going in!" and plunged through the narrow +opening, a revolver in each hand." title="" /> +<span class="caption">"Come on, boys!" shouted Ward. "We're going in!" and plunged through the narrow +opening, a revolver in each hand.</span> +</div> + +<p>For four-and-twenty hours Ward and the exhausted +survivors of his legion, without food and +without water, held the gate in the face of the +most desperate efforts to retake it. Then the +Chinese reinforcements for which he had asked +tardily arrived, and Sunkiang was an Imperial +city again. The American had taken the first +trick in the great game he was playing. It was at +fearful cost, however, for of the five hundred men +who followed him into action, but one hundred +and twenty-eight remained alive, and of these +only twenty-seven were without wounds. In +other words, the casualties amounted to <i>more than +ninety-four per cent of the entire force</i>. Ward had +ridden out of Shanghai a despised adventurer to +whom the foreign officers refused to speak. He +returned to that city a hero and a power in China. +The priesthood acclaimed him as the saviour of the +sacred city; the emperor made him a Mandarin of +the Red Button; the merchants of Shanghai voiced +their relief by adding a splendid estate to the +promised reward of seventy-five thousand dollars. +His reputation would have been secure if he had +never fought another battle.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p> + +<p>Leaving Sunkiang heavily garrisoned by imperial +troops, Ward withdrew to Shanghai for the +purpose of recruiting his shattered forces. Such +a glamour of romance now surrounded the legion +that Ward was fairly besieged by European as +well as Oriental volunteers. Shortly after the +capture of Sunkiang, Ward had occasion to visit +Shanghai with reference to the care of his wounded. +While riding through the streets of the city he +was arrested by a British patrol, and despite his +protestations that he was an officer in the imperial +service, was hustled aboard the flag-ship of Admiral +Sir James Hope, which lay in the harbor, and was +placed in close confinement. In reply to his inquiries +he was told that he was to be tried for +recruiting British man-o'-war's-men for service in +his legion. Though the arrest was high-handed +and unjustified, there seemed no immediate prospect +of release, for the American consul-general +refused to interfere on the ground that Ward, by +taking service under the Chinese government, +had forfeited his right to American protection; +the imperial authorities were powerless to take +any action; while the British were notoriously +fearful of the dangerous ascendancy which this +American might gain if his successful career was +permitted to continue. The only hope for Ward—and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> +for China—lay in his escape. A friend +perfected a plan of flight. While visiting Ward, +who was confined in an outside cabin of the flag-ship, +with a marine constantly on guard at the +door, he synchronized his watch with that of the +cabin clock, and whispered to the prisoner that he +would be in a sampan under his cabin window at +precisely two o'clock in the morning. Taking off +his coat and shoes that he might be unhampered +in the water, Ward sat on the edge of his berth +with his eyes on the face of the clock. Just as +the minute-hand touched the figure II, Ward +made a dash for the window and sprang head-foremost +through the sash, for the windows of the +old fashioned men-of-war were much larger than +the ports of modern battle-ships. He had hardly +touched the water before he was pulled aboard a +sampan, which disappeared in the darkness long +before the flag-ship's boats could be manned and +lowered. This daring exploit enormously increased +Ward's prestige among both Chinese and +Europeans, with whom the British, as a result of +their insolent and overbearing attitude, were intensely +unpopular. Some days later Admiral +Hope sent a message to Ward requesting an interview, +and, upon Ward assuring him that he would +no longer recruit his ranks from the British navy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> +the old sea fighter became his strong partisan and +friend.</p> + +<p>With his ranks once more repleted, Ward made +preparations for a second venture. This time it +was the city of Sing-po toward which he turned; +but the Taipings, getting wind of his intentions, +secretly threw an overwhelming force into the +place under a renegade Englishman named Savage. +Ward was without artillery with which to breach +the walls, and, after several desperate assaults, in +leading which he was severely wounded, he was +forced to retire. Ten days later, regardless of his +wounds, he tried again, but this time he was taken +in the rear by a Taiping army of twenty thousand +men, his little force being completely surrounded. +So certain was the rebel leader that the famous +general was within his grasp, that he consulted +with his officers as to what methods of torture +they should use upon him. But he was a trifle +premature, for Ward struck the Taiping cordon +at its weakest point, fought his way through, and +reached Shanghai with a loss of only one hundred +men. His secret agents bringing him word that +the powerful force from which he had just escaped +was to be used in the recapture of Sunkiang, +Ward, by making night marches, slipped unperceived +into that city. When the Taipings attempted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> +to carry it by storm a few days later, +instead of meeting with the half-hearted resistance +which they had grown to expect from Chinese +garrisons, they were astounded to see the helmeted +figure of the dreaded American upon the +walls, and were greeted with a blast of rifle fire +which swept away their leading columns and +crumpled up their army as effectually as though it +had encountered an earthquake.</p> + +<p>Dangerously weakened by half a dozen wounds, +Ward was reluctantly compelled to go to Paris in +the fall of 1860 for surgical attention. Back at +Shanghai again at the beginning of the following +summer, he found that the Taipings, emboldened +by his absence, were flaunting their banner within +sight of the city walls. From end to end of the +empire there existed an unparalleled reign of +terror, the rebels now having grown so strong +that they demanded the recognition of the European +powers. Ward, meanwhile, had become +convinced that the true solution of the problem +lay in raising an army of natives, rather than foreigners, +for not only was the supply of Chinese +unlimited, but his experience had shown him that +there was splendid fighting material in them if +they were properly drilled and led. When he +asked permission of the imperial government to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> +raise and drill a Chinese force, therefore, it was +gladly granted.</p> + +<p>An opportunity to put his theories regarding the +fighting capabilities of the Chinese to a test soon +came. Learning that a force of rebels, ten thousand +strong, was advancing in the direction of +Shanghai, Ward sallied forth from his headquarters +at Sunkiang with two thousand five hundred +men, struck the Taiping army, curled it up +like a withered leaf, and drove it a dozen miles +into the interior. Pressing on, he captured the +city of Quan-fu-ling, which the rebels had garrisoned +and fortified, and with it several hundred +junks loaded with supplies. Throughout these +actions his Chinese displayed all the steadiness +and courage of European veterans. That he +showed sound judgment in pinning his faith to +natives is best proved by the fact that from that +time on he never met with a reverse. His motto +was "Cold steel," and his tactics would have delighted +the old-time sea fighters, for, appreciating +the fact that few Oriental troops are capable of +remaining steady under a galling long-range fire, +he invariably threw his men against the enemy in +an overwhelming charge, and finished the business +at close quarters with the bayonet.</p> + +<p>Moving up from Sunkiang with a thousand of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> +his men, Ward joined a combined force of French +and British bluejackets, who had with them a +light howitzer battery, in an attack on Kaschiaou, +just opposite Shanghai, which was the city's main +source of supplies, and which the rebels had seized +and fortified. Using the contingent from the war-ships +as a reserve, Ward and his Chinamen did the +work alone, carrying the stockades by storm and +capturing two thousand rebels, as a result of which +the enemy fell back from the neighborhood of +Shanghai. So strongly impressed were the British +officers with the behavior of Ward's soldiery that +Sir James Mitchel, the commander-in-chief on the +China station, strongly urged that the task of suppressing +the rebellion be placed in the American's +hands, and that he be empowered to raise his force +to ten thousand men. A few weeks later Ward +received an imperial rescript acknowledging his +great services to China, and appointing him an +admiral-general of the empire, the highest rank +that the emperor could bestow. With this came +the authority to recruit his force to six thousand +men, and its baptism, by imperial order, with the +sonorous and thrilling title of <i>Chun Chen Chun</i>, +or the Ever-Victorious Army.</p> + +<p>As the barometer of Ward's fortunes steadily +rose, that of his native country began to fall,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +the dark cloud of secession hanging threateningly +over the land. It has been said of Ward that he +denationalized himself by marrying a Chinese +wife and adopting a Chinese name, but there is +no doubt that it was only his stern sense of duty +which kept him at the task he had undertaken in +China when the guns of Sumter boomed out the +beginning of the Civil War. He immediately +sent a contribution of ten thousand dollars to the +Union war fund, however, with a message that his +services were at the disposal of the North whenever +they were required. At the time of the <i>Trent</i> +affair, when war between England and the United +States was momentarily expected, and the British +in China had laid plans to seize American shipping +and other property in the treaty ports, Ward +effected a secret organization of American sympathizers +and prepared to surprise and capture +every British war-ship and merchant vessel in +Chinese waters. In view of his success in equally +daring exploits, there is good reason to believe +that he would have accomplished even so startling +a <i>coup</i> as this.</p> + +<p>While recruiting his army to its newly authorized +strength, Ward did not give the Taipings a +moment's rest. He kept several flying columns +constantly in the field, attacking the rebels at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> +every opportunity, cutting up their outposts, harrying +their pickets, breaking their lines of communication, +and demoralizing them generally. +One day Ward would be reported as operating in +the south, and the Wang would draw a momentary +breath of relief, but the next night, without the +slightest warning, he would suddenly fall upon a +city a hundred miles to the northward and carry +it by storm. By such aggressive tactics as these +Ward struck fear to the heart of the Taiping +leader, who saw the despotism he had built up +crumbling about him before the American's +smashing blows. It was said, indeed, that the +mere sight of Ward's white helmet in the van of +a storming party was more effective than a brigade +of infantry. With a thousand men of his own +corps and six hundred royal marines he attacked +and captured Tsee-dong, a walled city of considerable +strength, and cleared the rebels from the surrounding +region as though with a fine-tooth comb. +The town of Wong-kadza was in the possession +of the Taipings, and Ward decided to capture it. +General Staveley, who had succeeded Sir James +Mitchel in command of the British forces, offered +to co-operate with him. It was agreed that they +should rendezvous outside the town. Ward +reached there first with six hundred of his men.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +Without waiting for the British to come up, he +ordered his bugles to sound the charge, and after +a quarter of an hour of desperate fighting he carried +the stockade, and the rebels broke and ran, +Ward's men killing more of them in the pursuit +than they themselves numbered. When General +Staveley arrived a few hours later he was chagrined +to see the imperial standard flying over the city +and to find that the impetuous American had +done the work and reaped the glory. The allied +forces now pressed on to the Taiping stronghold +of Tai-poo, which was held by a strong and well-armed +garrison. While the British engaged the +attention of the rebels in front with a fierce artillery +fire, Ward and his Chinamen made a détour +to the rear of the city, and were at and over the +walls almost before the garrison realized what had +happened.</p> + +<p>The Ever-Victorious Army now numbered +nearly six thousand men. It was well drilled and +under an iron discipline; it was fairly well armed; +it was magnificently officered; it was emboldened +with repeated successes. The man who was the +maker and master of such a force might well go a +long way. That Ward dreamed of eventually +making himself dictator of China there can be +but little doubt. Louis Napoleon, remember,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> +climbed to a throne on the bayonets of his soldiers. +By this time the American soldier of fortune had +become by long odds the most popular figure in +the empire; the army was with him to a man; +he possessed the confidence of the great mandarins +and merchant princes; and he had to his +credit an almost unparalleled succession of victories. +Dictator of the East! What American +ever had a more ambitious dream and was within +such measurable distance of realizing it? It is +no exaggeration to say that, had Ward lived, the +whole history of the Orient would have been +changed, and China, rather than Japan, would +doubtless have held the balance of power in the +Farther East.</p> + +<p>In April, 1862, Ward, the Viceroy Lieh, and the +French and British commanders held a council of +war in Shanghai. Ward suggested a plan of campaign +designed to break the Taiping power in +that part of China for good and all. Briefly put, +his scheme was to capture a semicircle of cities +within a radius of fifty miles of Shanghai and the +coast. This would result in the rebels being held +within their own lines by a cordon of bayonets, +and, as they had utterly devastated the regions +they had overrun, would mean starvation for +them. Thus cut off from the seaboard, Ward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> +argued, they would be unable to obtain ammunition +and supplies, and the rebellion would soon +wither. The series of operations was carried out +as planned, Ward's corps being reinforced by +three thousand French and British. It ended in +the capture, in rapid succession, of the cities of +Kah-ding, Sing-po, Najaor, and Tsaolin. In every +case Ward insisted on being given the post of +honor; he and his Chinamen, who fought with an +appalling disregard for life, carrying the defences +at the bayonet's point, while his European allies +covered his advance with artillery fire and supported +his whirlwind attacks. Leaving garrisons +barely large enough to hold the captured cities, +he pushed on by forced marches to Ning-po, which +was a large and strongly fortified city. Twice his +storming parties were driven back. The third +time the men, exhausted by the continuous fighting +in which they had been engaged and the long +marches they had been called upon to perform, +momentarily faltered in the face of the terrible +fire which greeted them. Instantly Ward ordered +the recall sounded, formed them into line within +easy rifle-range of the city walls, and calmly put +them through the manual of arms with as much +precision as though they were on parade, while a +storm of bullets whistled round them, and men<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> +were momentarily dropping in the ranks. Then, +his men once more in hand, the bugles screamed +the charge and the yellow line roared on to victory.</p> + +<p>Ward gave his last order to advance—he had +forgotten how to give any other—on September +21, 1862. With a regiment of his men he was +about to attack Tse-Ki, a small fortified coast +town a few miles from Ning-po. With his habitual +contempt for danger he was standing with General +Forester, his chief of staff, well in advance of his +men, inspecting the position through his field-glasses. +Suddenly he clapped his hand to his +breast. "I've been hit, Ed!" he exclaimed, and +fell forward into the arms of his friend. Very +tenderly his devoted yellow men carried him +aboard the British war-ship <i>Hardy</i>, which was +lying in the harbor, but the naval surgeons shook +their heads when an examination showed that the +bullet had passed through his lungs. "Don't +mind me," whispered Ward. "Take the city." +So Forester, heavy at heart, ordered forward the +storming parties. That night the great captain +died. The last sound he heard was his Chinamen's +shrill yell of triumph.</p> + +<p>With extraordinary solemnity the dead soldier +was laid to rest in the temple of Confucius in Sunkiang, +the most sacred shrine in China and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> +very spot where he had established his headquarters +after his first great victory. His body, +which was followed to the grave by imperial viceroys, +European admirals, generals, and consuls, +and Chinese mandarins, was borne between the +silent lines of his Ever-Victorious Army. By +order of the emperor his name was placed in the +pantheon of the gods. Temples to commemorate +his victories were built at Sing-po and Ning-po, +and a magnificent mausoleum was erected in his +honor in Sunkiang. In it the yellow priests of +Confucius still burn incense before his tomb. In +all his history there can be found no hint of dishonor, +no trace of shame. He was a great soldier +and a very gallant gentleman, but he has been +forgotten by his own people. To paraphrase the +lines of Matthew Arnold:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Far hence he lies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Near some lone Chinese town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on his grave, with shining eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Eastern stars look down."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 75%;" /> +<p><b> +Transcriber's Notes:</b></p> +<ul> +<li>Punctuation normalized.</li> +<li>Page 66: "cimiter" retained as printed.</li> +<li>Various: retained as printed "Tippo-Sahib" and "Tippoo Sahib".</li> +<li>Page 104: "govenment" replaced with "government" in "government of this new country which was about to be annexed".</li> +<li>Page 115: "alignement" changed to "alignment".</li> +<li>Page 116: "caufles" retained as printed.</li> +<li>Page 157: "lowered the flag next day" and "Commodore T. ApCatesby Jones" retained as printed.</li> +<li>Duplicate chapter headings removed.</li> +</ul> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Gentlemen Rovers, by E. Alexander Powell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GENTLEMEN ROVERS *** + +***** This file should be named 37812-h.htm or 37812-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/8/1/37812/ + +Produced by paksenarrion, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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