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diff --git a/37812.txt b/37812.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..82902da --- /dev/null +++ b/37812.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5009 @@ +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: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GENTLEMEN ROVERS *** + + + + +Produced by paksenarrion, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + + GENTLEMEN ROVERS + [Illustration: Commodore Truxtun leaped into the shrouds.] + + + GENTLEMEN ROVERS + + BY E. ALEXANDER POWELL, F.R.G.S. + AUTHOR OF "THE LAST FRONTIER," ETC. + + ILLUSTRATED + + CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + NEW YORK 1913 + + COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY + CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + + Published September, 1913 + + [Illustration] + + To + THE FINEST GENTLEMAN I KNOW + MY FATHER + + + "There's a Legion that never was 'listed, + That carries no colors or crest, + But, split in a thousand detachments, + Is breaking the road for the rest. + + * * * * * + + The ends o' the Earth were our portion, + The ocean at large was our share, + There was never a skirmish to windward + But the Leaderless Legion was there. + + * * * * * + + We preach in advance of the Army, + We skirmish ahead of the Church, + With never a gunboat to help us + When we're scuppered and left in the lurch. + But we know as the cartridges finish + And we're filed on our last little shelves, + That the Legion that never was 'listed + Will send us as good as ourselves. + + * * * * * + + Then a health (we must drink it in whispers) + To our wholly unauthorized horde-- + To the line of our dusty foreloopers, + To the Gentlemen Rovers abroad!" + + --_The Lost Legion._ + + + + +FOREWORD + + +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 _General Armstrong_, 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 Fremont, 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. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + FOR RENT: AN ARMY ON ELEPHANTS 1 + WHEN WE FOUGHT NAPOLEON 19 + WHEN WE CAPTURED AN AFRICAN KINGDOM 45 + THE LAST FIGHT OF THE "GENERAL ARMSTRONG" 73 + THE PIRATE WHO TURNED PATRIOT 89 + THE MAN WHO DARED TO CROSS THE RANGES 125 + THE FLAG OF THE BEAR 153 + THE KING OF THE FILIBUSTERS 179 + CITIES CAPTURED BY CONTRACT 217 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Commodore Truxtun leaped into the shrouds _Frontispiece_ + + FACING + PAGE + The death of Tippo-Sahib at the storming of Seringapatam 12 + + The battle of Tippecanoe 16 + + The frigate _Philadelphia_ ran aground in the harbor of + Tripoli, the Tripolitans capturing Captain Bainbridge + and his entire crew 54 + + But even in those days the fame of American gunners + was as wide as the seas 86 + + The battle of New Orleans 120 + + Westward pressed the little troop of pioneers, across the + sun-baked lava beds of southwestern Utah 136 + + The Sacramento Valley in 1845 164 + + General William Walker and his men, after a long and stormy + voyage, landing at Virgin Bay, en route to Costa Rica 196 + + General Walker reviewing troops on the Grand Plaza, Granada 200 + + 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 206 + + "Come on, boys!" shouted Ward. "We're going in!" and plunged + through the narrow opening, a revolver in each hand 230 + + + + +FOR RENT: AN ARMY ON ELEPHANTS + + +The pitiless Indian sun had poured down upon the Hyderabad _maidan_ +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 _sowar_ 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. + +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 the cocked hat and gold epaulets of a +British general to mark him as a soldier. + +As the cortege cantered onto the _maidan_ 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: + +"Cheers for his Highness!" + +And back came a guttural roar from ten thousand throats: + +"Long live the Nizam!" + +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. + +"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." + +Then, turning to his taciturn companion: + +"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 smile, "is a very brilliant +soldier--and an American." + + * * * * * + +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. + +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 enlistment to pat him on +the shoulder and remark encouragingly: "Come again, son, when you're a +few years older." + +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 +four-and-twenty landed on the coast of Coromandel, poor in acquaintances +and pocket but rich in adventurousness and pluck. + +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. 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. + +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 +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), and giving his two sons as hostages for his +future good behavior. + +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 _kansolars_ 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, 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. + +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. + +[Illustration: The death of Tippo-Sahib at the storming of Seringapatam. + +From a painting by R. de Moraine.] + +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. + +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! + +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 +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. + +Boyd's adventurous career under his own flag 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 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! _Charge!_ 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 peril of Tecumseh's Indian confederation +was ended forever, and the civilization of the West was advanced a +quarter of a century. + +[Illustration: The battle of Tippecanoe. + +From a print in the New York Public Library.] + +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. + + + + +WHEN WE FOUGHT NAPOLEON + + +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. + +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 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 Revolution. 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 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. + +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 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 _douceur_ +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!" + +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. + +Out from behind this war-cloud rose the thrilling strains of "Hail, +Columbia." When the war-fever 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. + +"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." + +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 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, + + "Immortal patriots, rise once more! + Defend your rights, defend your shore!" + +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: + + "Firm, united let us be, + Rallying round our Liberty. + Like a band of brothers joined, + Peace and safety we shall find." + +Night after night the singing of "Hail, Columbia," in the theatres was +applauded by audiences delirious 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. + +On July 6, with the red-white-and-blue ensign streaming proudly from her +main truck, the sloop of war _Delaware_, 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 to escape. But it was too late. The +_Delaware's_ superior speed enabled her easily to overhaul the +Frenchman, which proved to be _La Incroyable_, fourteen guns and seventy +men. So accurate and deadly was the fire poured into her by the +_Delaware's_ gunners (forerunners, remember, of those bluejackets who +handle the twelve-inch guns on the dreadnaught _Delaware_ 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. + +The captured vessel was sent into port under a prize crew, was refitted, +added to the American Navy as the _Retaliation_--fitting name!--went to +sea under command of William Bainbridge (the same who a few years later +was to lose the war-ship _Philadelphia_ to the Barbary pirates in the +harbor of Tripoli), and shortly afterward was recaptured by the French +frigate _l'Insurgente_, being the only vessel of our little navy taken +by the French. + +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 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. + +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, 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 +_Constellation_, a new and very beautiful vessel, splendidly officered +and manned, and with heels as fast as her gun-fire was heavy. + +While cruising off Antigua, on February 9, 1799, the _Constellation's_ +lookout reported a French war-ship, which, upon being overhauled, proved +to be _l'Insurgente_, 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 _Constellation_, 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 _l'Insurgente's_ decks +from stem to stern. The first great naval action in which the American +Navy ever bore a part had begun. + +Waiting until the _Constellation_ 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), _l'Insurgente_ replied, firing high in an 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. + +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 hard down, attempted to run alongside the +_Constellation_. But Truxtun had anticipated this very manoeuvre, 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 _l'Insurgente_. + +Foiled in his attempt to get to hand-grips with his enemy, the Frenchman +sheered off and the duel at short range continued, the _Constellation_, +magnificently handled, sailing first along _l'Insurgente's_ port side, +firing as she went, and then, crossing her bows, repeating the manoeuvre +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 _Constellation_, 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. + +Time after time Truxtun repeated his evolution of literally sailing +around _l'Insurgente_, 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 manoeuvre, he had put his helm hard +down, and the _Constellation_, suddenly looming out of the battle smoke, +bore down upon _l'Insurgente_ 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. + +It is a remarkable fact that, notwithstanding the desperate fighting +which characterized this battle, the _Constellation_ 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 _Constellation_, Rodgers set such sails on _l'Insurgente_ 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 _Constellation_ 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 +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, +_l'Insurgente_ limped into port with the flag of the United States +flaunting victoriously above that of France. + +The 1st of February of the following year found the _Constellation_, +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 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 _La Vengeance_, 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 _Constellation_, therefore, than she piled +on every yard of canvas and headed for Basse Terre and the protecting +guns of its forts. Never had the _Constellation_ 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 had been lighted on both vessels swung +like giant fireflies across the purple sky. + +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 _Constellation_ 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 opened, +and the tops filled with marines whose duty it was to pick off the +French gunners, the _Constellation_, 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 _La Vengeance_ +belched smoke and flame, and redder and redder grew the sand with which +the _Constellation's_ 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 _La +Vengeance_ 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 +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. + +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 _Constellation's_ successive +broadsides, ceased altogether, and an officer was seen waving a white +flag in token of surrender. Twice before, in fact, _La Vengeance_ 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 _Constellation_ had but thirty-nine casualties out of +a crew of three hundred and ten. Though the French fire had done small +damage to the _Constellation's_ hull, and had killed a 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. + +The falling of the _Constellation's_ mast reversed 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 Curacao in a sinking condition. + +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-manoeuvred 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. + +During the two and a half years of this unofficial war with the most +powerful military nation in the 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. + + + + +WHEN WE CAPTURED AN AFRICAN KINGDOM + + +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 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. + +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. 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 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! + +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!" + +The Bashaw of Tripoli at this time was a peculiarly insolent and +tyrannical Arab named Yussuf Karamanli, who had gained the throne by +the 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 quick about it, or +American seamen would find the Mediterranean exceedingly unhealthy for +them. + +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, 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 _Philadelphia_ 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. + +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 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 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. + +[Illustration: The frigate _Philadelphia_ ran aground in the harbor of +Tripoli, the Tripolitans capturing Captain Bainbridge and his entire +crew.] + +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 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. + +Aware that the dethroned Bashaw had fled to Cairo, Eaton landed at +Alexandria, and, hastening 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. 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. + +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 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. + +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 between Alexandria +and Derna was the insignificant port of Bomba, where, according to a +prearranged plan, the _Argus_, 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. + +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, 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. + +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 +until they had news of the arrival of the _Argus_ 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 _Argus_ was +awaiting them in the 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. + +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 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 _Argus_ 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. + +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 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. + +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 _Argus_, the _Nautilus_, and the _Hornet_ 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 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 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. + +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 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. + +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 +_Philadelphia's_ 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. 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. + +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 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 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. + + + + +THE LAST FIGHT OF THE "GENERAL ARMSTRONG" + + +We leaned over the rail of the _Hamburg_, 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 _General Armstrong_, 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." + + * * * * * + +Everything about her, from the carved and gilded figure-head, past the +rakish, slanting masts 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, "_General Armstrong, New York_." + +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 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. + +The story of her desperate encounter off the mouth of the Surinam River +with the British sloop of war _Coquette_, 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. + +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 _Carnation_, of eighteen guns, with two other war-vessels in her +wake: the thirty-eight-gun frigate _Rota_, and the _Plantagenet_, 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 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. + +The _Carnation_, 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 _General Armstrong_. 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 _Carnation's_ deck that Reid, becoming suspicious of the +Englishman's good faith, warped his ship under the very guns of the +Portuguese fort. + +About eight o'clock, just as dark had fallen, Captain Reid saw four +boats slip silently from the shadow of the _Carnation_ 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. + +"Boats there!" he shouted, making a trumpet of his hands. "Come no +nearer! For your own safety I warn you!" + +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. + +"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. + +By this time the moon had fully risen, and 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 _General Armstrong_ lay down beside their +guns to await the British attack. + +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 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 _General Armstrong_ 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. + +"Hold your fire until I give the word, boys," he cautioned quietly. +"Wait till they get within range, and then teach 'em better manners." + +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 _Armstrong's_ deck could see, beneath the shadow of the leather +shakoes, the tense, white faces of the British boarders. + +"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 +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 _Armstrong's_ 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 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. + +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 _Bon Homme Richard_, 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 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. + +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 _Armstrong's_ 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. + +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 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. + +At daybreak the _Carnation_, 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 _General Armstrong_ uphold their reputation that the _Carnation_ 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 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 _General Armstrong_ went to the bottom with her flag still +defiantly flying. + +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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: But even in those days the fame of American gunners was +as wide as the seas.] + +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. + +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 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. + +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.'" + + + + +THE PIRATE WHO TURNED PATRIOT + + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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, 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 "_bosse_." 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. + +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 that four hundred slaves +were sold by auction in the Grande Terre market in a single day. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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 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. + +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 blase 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 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. + +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 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 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. + +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. + +"Sir," he remarked pleasantly, "you may possibly have heard of me. My +name is Jean Lafitte." + +"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?" + +"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?" + +"Upon the head of a pirate, yes," thundered the governor, now almost +apoplectic with rage. + +"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?" + +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." + +"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. + +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 the eye, repeated his offer, and so +impressed was Jackson with the pirate's cool and fearless bearing that +he accepted his services. + +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 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. + +Jackson had chosen as his line of defence an 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +"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 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. + +"What's this? What's this?" he exclaimed. "You have stopped firing? What +the devil does this mean, sir?" + +"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." + +Jackson beckoned to one of his aides-de-camp. + +"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 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." + +[Illustration: The battle of New Orleans. + +From a painting by D.M. Carter.] + +"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 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 on the ends of their long rifles, +swung them in the air and cheered madly the victor of New Orleans. + +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 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. + + + + +THE MAN WHO DARED TO CROSS THE RANGES + + +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 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? + +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 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. + +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 of Santa Fe, 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. + +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 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. + +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 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 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. + +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 +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. + +In August, 1826, Smith and a small party of his 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. + +"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." + +"But California's a good four hundred miles away," expostulated his +companions, "and the Sierras lie between, and no one has ever crossed +them." + +"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." + +"I reckon there ain't much chance of our ever 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." + +"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." + +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 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! + +[Illustration: _Copyright, 1906, by P.F. Collier & Son._ + +Westward pressed the little troop of pioneers, across the sun-baked lava +beds of southwestern Utah.] + +"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." + +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 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. + +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. + +"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. + +"No, padre," answered Smith, calling to his aid the broken Spanish he +had picked up in his trading expeditions to Santa Fe, "we come from the +East, from the country beyond the great mountains, from the United +States. We are Americans," he added a little proudly. + +"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." + +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 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? + +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 +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 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. + +When the year 1827 was but a few days old, therefore, the Americans +turned their faces northward, 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 Jose. +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, "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. + +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 Jose, 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) +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. + +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 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 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 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. + +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 Jose. 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 +Jose 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 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. + +Striking back into that range of the Sierras 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. + +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 +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 _caballero_ 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. + + + + +THE FLAG OF THE BEAR + + +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 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 +_caballeros_, pioneers in fringed buckskin, and naval officers in +gold-laced uniforms all played their greater or their lesser parts. + +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 regime 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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +Never was there a better example of that form of territorial expansion +which has come to be 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. + +The commander of the expedition was a young captain of engineers, named +John Charles Fremont, 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, 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 Fremont 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. + +[Illustration: The Sacramento Valley in 1845. + +From a steel engraving of the period.] + +All told, Fremont's expedition numbered barely 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 Fremont 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. + +Fremont 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 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. + +Leaving most of his men encamped in the foot-hills, Fremont pushed on to +Monterey, then the most important settlement in Upper California, and +the seat of the provincial government, where he called upon Don Jose +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 Fremont broken camp before 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 Fremont, 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 Fremont's +frontiersmen. Four days later Fremont, 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. + +Scarcely had he crossed the Oregon line, however, before he was +overtaken by a messenger on a reeking horse, who had been despatched by +Consul Larkin to inform him that an officer with urgent despatches from +Washington had arrived at Monterey and was hastening northward to +overtake him. Fremont 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 +Mazatlan 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 Fremont, 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." + +The news of Fremont'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. 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. Fremont'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, 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. + +The question now arose as to what they should do with the town they had +captured, for Fremont 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 _pro-tem_. 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. + +For a full-fledged nation not to have a flag of 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. + +Scarcely had Fremont 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 the +winds, Fremont 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, Fremont 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 +that, if he were to be hanged, it might as well be for a sheep as for a +lamb, Fremont 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, Fremont 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. + +Fremont 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; 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. + +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 Fremont +were justified in their aggressions; but if it did not, then they 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. Fremont, 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 _Congress_, 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. Fremont, 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 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. + +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. + +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 Fremont as the first +Territorial 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 +Fremont and his frontiersmen came riding down from the passes, and the +embattled settlers of Sonoma founded their short-lived Republic of the +Bear. + + + + +THE KING OF THE FILIBUSTERS + + +In one of the public squares of San Jose, 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. + +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 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. + +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 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 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 _Herald_, when only twenty-eight years old, that his amazing +career really began. + +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 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 territories, already hinted at the overthrow +of slavery. + +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 +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. + +From the very first the shadow of failure hung 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. + +With sinking heart, but imperturbable face, Walker led his little band +of starving, fever-racked, exhausted men toward the Californian 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 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. + +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 writing editorials for the San +Francisco _Herald_. 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, 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 _en route_ 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 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. + +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 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. + +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, 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 _Vesta_, on which they sailed from San Francisco, +was filled with ammunition and machine guns instead of agricultural +implements and machinery. + +After a long and stormy voyage down the 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 _La Falange Americana_--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 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. + +[Illustration: 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.] + +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 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. + +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 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. + +Walker was now in a position to dictate his own terms of peace, and, +four months after he and his 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 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. + +[Illustration: General Walker reviewing troops on the Grand Plaza, +Granada. + +From a print in the New York Public Library.] + +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 +AEschylus 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 _Divina Commedia_." 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 Minie 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 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 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 _one hundred and thirty-seven to +every hundred men_. + +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 _gringos_ 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 +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: 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.] + +Cornelius Vanderbilt was not a person who could be bluffed or +frightened. Infuriated at the action of the filibuster President, he +immediately 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 _St. Mary's_, 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 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. + +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 +_Granada_, 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 +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. + +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 _Wabash_, 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 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. + +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 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. + +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 _Icarus_, which lay +outside, and demanded 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 +_Icarus_ in pursuit. + +They overtook Walker at a little fishing village 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 _Icarus_. 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 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. + +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. + +"I die a Roman Catholic," he said in Spanish 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. + + + + +CITIES CAPTURED BY CONTRACT + + +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. + +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, 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. + +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 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. + +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 +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. + +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 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 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. + +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 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 _two billion five hundred +million dollars, and twenty million human lives_. 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 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. + +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 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 fighting which Ward made the +rule; while the men were armed with Sharp's repeating carbines and the +vicious Malay _kris_. 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. + +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. + +Ward, who appreciated the necessity of winning 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. + +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 _morale_ 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. 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 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, sweeping the crowded walls and house-tops, and +leaving heaps of dead and dying where Taiping regiments had stood +before. + +[Illustration: "Come on, boys!" shouted Ward. "We're going in!" and +plunged through the narrow opening, a revolver in each hand.] + +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 _more than ninety-four per cent of the +entire force_. 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. + +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 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, the +old sea fighter became his strong partisan and friend. + +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 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. + +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 raise and drill a Chinese force, therefore, it was gladly +granted. + +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. + +Moving up from Sunkiang with a thousand of 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 _Chun Chen Chun_, or the Ever-Victorious Army. + +As the barometer of Ward's fortunes steadily rose, that of his native +country began to fall, 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 _Trent_ 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 _coup_ as this. + +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 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. 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 detour to the +rear of the city, and were at and over the walls almost before the +garrison realized what had happened. + +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, 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. + +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 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 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. + +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 _Hardy_, 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. + +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 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: + + "Far hence he lies, + Near some lone Chinese town, + And on his grave, with shining eyes, + The Eastern stars look down." + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + Punctuation normalized. + + Page 66: "cimiter" retained as printed. + + Various: retained as printed "Tippo-Sahib" and "Tippoo Sahib". + + Page 104: "govenment" replaced with "government" in "government + of this new country which was about to be annexed". + + Page 115: "alignement" changed to "alignment". + + Page 116: "caufles" retained as printed. + + Page 157: "lowered the flag next day" and "Commodore T. ApCatesby + Jones" retained as printed. + + Duplicate chapter headings removed. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Gentlemen Rovers, by E. 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