impossible for the people to struggle much longer under their present difficulties. There appears a foolish pride in the representation of things from this quarter ; the strength and resources of the Country are far overrated, and those who are engaged in this business, to indulge their pride, will sacrifice their Country. The inhabitants are beginning to move off in great bodies, and unless a firmer barrier can be formed, this quarter will be all depopulated. We are living upon chanty, and subsist by daily collections. Indian meal and beef is our common diet, and not a drop of spirits have we had with us since I came to the army. An army naked and subsisted in this manner, and not more than one-third equal to the enemy in numbers, will make but a poor fight, especially as one has been accustomed to victory and the other to flight. It is difficult to give spirits to troops that have nothing to animate them.
I have been obliged to take an entire new position with the army. General Morgan is upon Broad River with a little flying army, and Colonel Washington since his arrival there has defeated a party of Tories, the particulars of which I beg leave to refer you to the President of Congress for. This Camp I mean as a Camp of repose, for the purpose of repairing our wagons, recruiting our horses, and disciplining the troops.
Colonel Lee has just arrived, and his corps is in good order, and I am told Colonel Greene from Virginia is at hand.
General Lesly with his detachment has arrived at Camden, and we have reports that another is coming.
William B. Reed, Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed (Philadelphia, 1847), II,344-346.
213. Exploits of De Grasse in the West Indies (1781)
ANONYMOUS
(Anonymous Translation)
This account, written by an officer who made the cruise described, relates to the one period in the war between France and England when the English lost control of the West Indian waters. The capture of Cornwallis (No. 214) was thus made possible. — Bibliography: Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, VI, 499-502; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 140.
THE thirteen United States of North America had declared themselves sovereign and independent in 1776. So far were they from being so in 1781, that those in the south were on the point of being
