forgotten. Here the assault was made on the man of grey hairs, the defenceless female, and the cradled infant. It edged, therefore, a resentment, already keen-a breach, which before was wide, it rendered immeasurable.

4. In Europe, where events of this nature have received a dreadful kind of justification from immemorial custom, towns and cities perish, and their inhabitants are consigned to ruin, without resentment or surprise. Scarcely a sigh is breathed, or a tear falls, at the recital of the melancholy tale. But America was in her youth; and the scene was here a novelty. The genuine emotions of nature, approved by reason, and founded in truth, sprang up, therefore, instinctively in every bosom. On the soundest principles, every man, when he heard the story, determined that no plea could be alleged for this piece of cruelty. The sufferings of the inhabitants he regarded with intense pity, and the authors of them with loathing and horror.

5. But unjust and unworthy, as the burning of Charlestown was, its flames wonderfully enhanced the dreadful magnificence of the day. To the vollies of musketry, and the roar of cannon; to the shouts of the fighting, and the groans of the dying; to the dark and awful atmosphere of smoke, enveloping the whole peninsula, and illumined in every quarter by the streams of fire from the various instruments of death, the conflagration of six hundred buildings added a gloomy and amazing grandeur. In the midst of this waving lake of flame, the lofty steeple, converted into a blazing pyramid of fire, towered, and trembled over the vast pyre; and finished the scene of desolation.

QUESTIONS.

1. By whose orders was Charlestown burnt?-2. How many buildings did it contain?-3. What was the alleged reason for burning it?-4. Was the burning of Charlestown favourable to the British?

GENERAL LYMAN.

1. FEW Americans have a better claim to the remembrance of posterity, than major-general Phinehas Lyman, of Suffield, Connecticut; and the history of few men, who have been natives of it, can be more interesting. He graduated at Yale College, in 1738, aged twenty-two years. When a senior sophister, he was chosen one of the Berkleian scholars, and in 1739 was appointed a tutor. In this office he continued three years, with much reputation. He then devoted himself to the profession of the law, in which he soon became eminent. In 1755, he was appointed majorgeneral and commander-in-chief of the Connecticut forces; and he held this office until the Canadian war was ended. He then went as commander-in-chief of the American troops in the expedition to the Havanna, in the year 1762. In all these employments he rendered important services to his country; and acquired a high reputation for wisdom, integrity, bravery, military skill, and every honourable characteristic of a soldier.

2. During the whole course of the war, besides the high testimony given to his worth by the state, he received many others; particularly from the British officers who were his companions in service; by several of whom he was holden in peculiar esteem. By these gentlemen, he was so advantageously spoken of in Great Britain, that an invitation was given him by some persons in high office to visit that country.-A company had been formed, by his exertions, under the name of Military Adventurers; composed chiefly of such as had been officers, during the preceding war. Their object was to obtain from the British government a considerable tract of land, bordering on the rivers Mississippi and Yazoo-on this tract they proposed to plant themselves, and as large a colony of their countrymen as they could induce to join them. General Lyman went to England as agent for this company; and entertained not a doubt, that his application would be immediately successful.

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3. Soon after his arrival, his own friends in the ministry were removed. Those who succeeded them, had other friends to provide for; and found it convenient to forget his services. For a while, his open heart admitted the encouragements given to him in London; and charitably construed the specious reasons, alleged for successive delays, in the most favourable manner. ter dragging several tedious years in the melancholy employment of listening to court promises, he found, in spite of all his preconceptions, that the men, with whom his business lay, trifled alike with his interests and their own integrity. Shocked at the degradation which he must sustain, by returning to his own country without accomplishing his design, and of appearing as a dupe of court hypocrisy, where he had never appeared but with dignity and honour, he probably, though not without many struggles, resolved to lay his bones in Britain. But, after eleven of the best years of his life being frittered away in this manner, the tract of land in question was granted to the petitioners, and he was induced to revisit his native country. Many of the petitioners, however, were in the grave; others were already hoary with age; and all of them were removed beyond that period of life, at which men are willing to plant themselves in a wilderness, lying under a new climate, and a thousand miles from their homes.

4. His return to Connecticut was in 1774, where he remained a short time, and then with his eldest son, and few companions, embarked for the Mississippi to make some preparation for the reception of his family, who were soon to follow. Accordingly the family, together with a small number of their friends, in the following year, was planted in the neighbourhood of Natches; a town originally built by the French on the eastern side of the Mississippi, one hundred and eighty miles north of New Orleans by land, and twice that distance by water. The little colony remained in this place till the breaking out of the Spanish war in 1781, when hearing that an armed force was ascending the river, they resolved to seek their flight through an immense wilderness, inhabited by savages, to Savannah

in Georgia, the nearest post in the possession of the English. From the Spaniards they had every thing to fear. A flight through the wilderness involved distresses without number; but presented a possibility of safety. These unfortunate people determined, therefore, to attempt it without hesitation. But they wandered before reaching Savannah one hundred and forty-nine days, and according to their reckoning, more than one thousand three hundred and fifty miles.

5. The dangers and hardships, which they encountered in their progress, resembled more the adventures of knight-errantry, than the occurrences of real life. The caravan was numerous; including women and children, as well as men-some of the children infants at the breast They were all mounted on horseback; but the ruggedness of the ground obliged such as were able to walk, to make a great part of their way on foot. The country through which they passed was intersected by numerous, and those often broad and deep, rivers. Steep and lofty mountains, equally difficult to climb, and to descend, obstructed their path. Marshes impassable forced them to take long tedious circuits. The rivers they were obliged to swim on horseback; and in attempting to cross one of them, several of their number had well nigh perished. Their sufferings from the dread of wild beasts and savages were incessant. The Choctaws, through whose territory, and along whose borders, their journey lay for a great extent, had espoused the Spanish interest; and of course become their enemies and from Indian enemies no concealment, no speed, no distance, can furnish safety. The most quiet, the most secure moments, are, like the silence before a stroke of lightning, a mere prelude to danger and death.

6. Famine, also, threatened them in their best circumstances; and frequently stared them in the face. Once they were reduced to their last morsel. Often they suffered intensely from thirst. In one instance, when both they and their horses were nearly famished, a lady who was of their company, wandered in search of water some distance from their encampment; and

found a small spot, which exhibited on its surface a degree of moisture. She scraped away the earth with her hands; and, having hollowed out a basin of considerable size, saw it soon partially filled with about a quart of perfectly pure and sweet water. Having assuaged her own thirst, she called the rest of the company; who, together with their horses, all drank at this little spot, until they were satisfied; the water returning regularly to the same height, as soon as it was exhausted. It ought not to be forgotten, that disease attacked them in various instances; and obliged those who were well, to halt for the recovery of the sick.

7. One instance of the perilous situation in which they were placed deserves particular notice. About two days before they reached the first village of the Creeks, which was on their way, their provisions were exhausted. As they had lived for some time on a scanty allowance, many of them had lost both their strength and spirits. How long it would be before a new supply could be obtained, it was impossible to determine. In this situation, those who suffered most severely, gave themselves up to despair; and, pronouncing all further efforts fruitless, concluded to die on the spot. It was with no small difficulty, that their more robust and resolute companions persuaded them to renew their exertions for a short time, and to proceed with a slow and heavy progress on their journey. At the moment when every hope was vanishing, they discovered that they were in the neighbourhood of this village.

8. Three of their company were then deputed to go forward, make known their wants, and if possible, obtain relief from the savages. Colonel McGillivray, who for several years exercised an entire controul over the Creek nations, had for some time resided in this place; but unfortunately was now absent. As they approached the village, the Indians observed, that their saddles were such as were used by the Virginians, and enemies. In vain they asserted, that they were subjects of the king of Great Britain, and friends of the