this year the sloop America sailed from Baltimore Harbor carrying three thousand bushels of corn, twenty barrels of rye flour, two barrels of pork and twenty-one barrels of bread, "for the relief of our brethren, the distressed inhabitants of your town."
Though never the scene of actual hostilities, Baltimore lacked neither employment nor excitement. Early in 1776, a demonstration was made against the town, which had hitherto been entirely defenceless, by a British sloop-of-war and some smaller vessels. Fortifications were hastily erected upon Whetstone Point, where Fort McHenry later was to check the entrance of another British fleet; vessels were sunk in the channel, and the ship Defense was hurriedly fitted out and put under the command of Captain James Nicholson. The British commander did not risk an action, but stood off down Chesapeake Bay, leaving behind a valuable prize that he had shortly before captured. "Such was the ardor of the militia," wrote Samuel Purviance, Secretary of the Committee of Safety of Baltimore town, "that not a man w^d stay in Comm^{ee} room with me but Mr. Harrison." Captain Nicholson was complimented as having "first
