messengers to Governor Sir Nathaniel Johnson, who was at his plantation, Silk Hope, on Cooper River, and to the militia companies in the neighboring parishes, calling them to the relief of the town.
On Tuesday morning the allied fleet crossed the bar, and the next day Le Feboure sent Governor Johnson a demand for the surrender of the town within an hour. The Governor replied that "it needed not a quarter of an hour or a minute's time to give an answer to the demand . . . that he valued not any force Le Feboure had; and bid him go about his business." In addition to the fortifications ashore Governor Johnson relied for defence upon three ships, a brigantine, two sloops and a fire-ship, which he had manned and equipped with Colonel Rhett as vice-admiral. The Governor's spirited reply to Le Feboure's demand probably unnerved the Spaniards and French, who did not attempt to attack the town, but ravaged a part of the mainland and one of the islands of the land-locked harbor, where they met stout resistance from the militia. On Saturday, Rhett with his improvised fleet drove the four invading war-ships from the harbor to the open sea, and would have destroyed them,
