with a log of wood, as he made his entrance. The party then plundered the house of cash, and Buchanan, Brooks and the American, departed to divide and spend their booty in safety. The body however was discovered thrown down in a deep draw-well, and Mrs. Spooner, on examination, confessed the abominable deed which originated in her own wickedness. The party who fled were followed, secured, and, together with Mrs. Spooner, soon after brought to trial, and deservedly sentenced to suffer death. Buchanan was deeply impressed with the justice of the capital atonement they were doomed to make, and by his means chiefly, his guilty partners became truly penitent. Buchman addressed letters to his officers, full of religious contrition, and the Author of this Memoir by desire of his officers visited them, and was present at the hour of their being executed. The awfulness of it was great indeed, and the truly contrite feelings of the culprits were calculated to turn vicious spectators to virtuous and pious ways. Mrs. Spooner, however, indulged hopes to the last of escaping condign punishment, pleaded pregnancy as an argument for being respited, and seemed impenitent a good deal. One thing respecting Brooks, was somewhat astonishing. Before the perpetration of the horrid plot for which he suffered, he was notoriously prophane, and almost illiterate. But during his confinement, and the interval of preparation for death allowed after trial, he attended so much to a devout perusal of the Holy Scriptures, that he could read the Sacred Volume with facility, explain it to his unhappy companions in an edifying manner, and even select the chapters most appropriate to their sad condition. The time of execution appeared marked with 'horror suited to the awful scene. The malefactors had to pass two miles to the gallows, and, although the former part of the day was serene and fine, of a sudden, as they approached the place, the sky was covered with clouds, and a storm of thunder followed with copious rain, attached additional terrors to their ignominious catastrophe. The case of these unhappy individuals, no doubt, looks extraordinary, in deep-laid blood-guiltiness. The shooking depravity of Mrs. Spooner, was truly surprising, and it must be estimated that her hostility to her husband was fostered in hatred greater than could be owing to mere political difference of opinion. Her odium of him must be truly desperate, and a reflection arises of the mischief frequently produced by jealousies, and jarring strifes between the parties in the wedded state. The blessing of connubial unanimity is great indeed, but the misfortune of discord in the married condition, cannot be described. As in the case of the Spooners, it generates vengeful distractions, and death itself in all his terrors! This discord by degrees begets deadly feuds, and our great Poet has depicted it as one of the immediate prominent effects of the fall of our first Parents from angel-like innocence, when the arch-enemy having succeeded in perverting Eve's mind -Back to the thicket slunk The guilty serpent, and well might, for Eve The rupture of brotherly-affection, which ought to make mankind in general kindly-affectioned cach to the other, pursuant to the obligations of the bond of peace, was the next mark of human degeneracy noted by the sublime bard before-mentioned, in the beautiful colouring of his encil, whereby he sketches for Adam a melancholy prospect of the miserable and murderous animosities of his psterity, as the immediate consequences owing to his own ilfated disobedience. So violence Proceeded, and opposition, and sword-law Through all the plain, and refuge none was found. Adam was all in tears, and to his guide Lamenting turn'd full sad; O what are these, Death's Ministers, not men, who thus deal death Inhumanly to men, and multiply Ten thousand-fold the sin of him who slew Make they but of their brethren, men of men? CHAP. XI. Author after escaping from Confinement, joins the British Army at New York. Account of New York. Hellgate. General Calvert. Sir Henry Clinton. Charlestown. South Carolina. Treatment of Negro Slaves in the States. General Gates. British Army arrives at Yorktown. Capitulation of Lord Cornwallis. HAVING in my American Journal, given a detailed account of my escape from Rutland into New York, and my entering to serve in the Regiment of Royal Welch Fusileers, I shall decline at present, to relate the particulars of it. It was, no doubt, truly pleasing to regain my liberty, and join my friends and fellow-soldiers in New York, after the hardships and sufferings we endured since our becoming prisoners at Saratoga. New York city, at that time, although much inferior to its present advanced condition, was very respectable in point of commercial improvements. It is said at present to extend more than two miles on East River, but is short of that length on the banks of the Hudson, at the confluence of which rivers this capital town is built, on the South East part of York Island. New York probably then was by the half below its present magnitude and importance. The plan of the streets is not done altogether on the regular scale of the New N. American cities, vis. forming in the aggregate a square, and crossing each the other at right angles. There is a want of this regularity in the old streets, but those are made since the peace in 1782, on the then unoccupied grounds, are nearly parallel, and intersect though not at right angles, from river to river. The pleasantest part of the town is Broadway, occupying the height between the aforesaid rivers, and having, where the fort formerly stood, an elegant brick edifice for the residence of the Governor of the State. New York suffered much in demolition during hostilities, but since the war, the ruined parts have been rebuilt upon a better scale. The houses are mostly of brick with tiled roofs. Originally the architecture was done in the Dutch fashion, but for many years back the English stile of building has been adopted with good effect. The grandest edifice of New York is Federal Hall, if for nothing else, rendered famous for having a beautiful gallery 12 feet deep, guarded by an iron railing, in which General Washington, at the head of the Senate and Representative Body, took his oath of Office as President, at the commencement of the Federal Constitution, April 30th, 1789. The public buildings, are in general good, among which the College deserves particular notice. It was founded before the Revolution, with liberty to confer the usual degrees granted in the British Universities. Its Charter provides, that the President shall always be a Protestant, but the professors take no test in the matter of religious persuasion, and the advantages of the institution are opened to students of all religious descriptions. It was called at first King's College, but since N. America became independent Columbia College, and it consists of two faculties, one of Arts and the other of Physic. New York being surrounded by water, is pleasant and healthy, compared to other American towns, being refreshed with cooling sea breezes in Summer, and furnished with a comparatively better and more temperate air in winter. Its situation is favourable to trade in times of peace, but in war, it stands in need of a protecting marine force. One of the greatest inconveniences of the inhabitants is a want of good water, there being but few wells. The city is supplied for the most part from a curious spring almost & |