ure. To this machine, called the American Turtle, was attached a magazine of powder, which it was intended to be fastened under

Nor dreamt of harm, as he lay warm
In bed with Mrs. L*r*ng.

Now in a fright, he starts upright,
Awak'd by such a clatter:
He rubs both eyes, and boldly cries,
"For God's sake, what's the matter?"

At his bed-side he then espied
Sir Erskine at command, Sir;
Upon one foot he had one boot,
And t'other in his hand, Sir.

"Arise! arise!" Sir Erskine cries;
"The rebels--more's the pity--
"Without a boat, are all on float,
"And rang'd before the city.

"The motley crew, in vessels new,
"With Satan for their guide, Sir,
"Pack'd up in bags, or wooden kegs,
"Come driving down the tide, Sir:
"Therefore prepare for bloody war;
"These kegs must all be routed,
"Or surely we despis'd shall be,
"And British courage doubted."

The Royal band now ready stand,
All rang'd in dread array, Sir,
With stomachs stout, to see it out,
And make a bloody day, Sir.

The cannons roar from shore to shore,
The small arms make a rattle:
Since wars began, I'm sure no man
E'er saw so strange a battle.

The rebelt vales, the rebel dales,

With rebel trees surrounded,

The distant woods, the hills and floods,

With rebel echoes sounded.

* Sir William Erskine.

The British officers were so fond of the word rebel, that they

often applied it most absurdly.

the bottom of a ship, with a driving screw, in such sort, that the same stroke which disengaged it from the machine, should put the internal clock-work in motion. This being done, the ordinary operation of a gun-lock at the distance of half an hour, an hour, or any determinate time, would cause the powder to explode, and leave the effects to the common laws of nature. The simplicity, yet

combination discovered in the mechanism of this wonderful machine, were acknowledged by those skilled in physics, and particularly hydraulics, to be not less ingenious than novel.

The fish below swam to and fro,
Attack'd from ev'ry quarter;

"Why sure," thought they, "the Devil's to pay
Mong'st folks above the water."

66

The kegs, 'tis said, though strongly made
Of rebel staves and hoops, Sir,
Could not oppose their pow'rful foes,
The conqu❜ring British troops, Sir.

From morn to night those men of might
Display'd amazing courage;

And when the sun was fairly down,
Retir'd to sup their porridge.

An hundred men, with each a pen,
Or more, upon my word, Sir,
It is most true, would be too few
Their valour to record, Sir.

Such feats did they perform that day,
Upon those wicked kegs, Sir,

That years to come, if they get home,

They'll make their boasts and brags, Sir.

Mr. Bushnell, having been highly recommended for his talents by President Stiles, General Parsons, and some other gentlemen of science, was appointed a Captain in the corps of sappers and miners; in which capacity he continued to serve with that corps until the conclusion of the war.

The inventor, whose constitution was too feeble to permit him to perform the labour of rowing the Turtle, had taught his brother to manage it with perfect dexterity; but unfortunately his brother fell sick of a fever just before the arrival of the fleet. Recourse was therefore had to a sergeant in the Connecticut troops; who, having received whatever instructions could be communicated to him in a short time, went, too late in the night, with all the apparatus, under the bottom of the Eagle, a sixty-four gun ship, on board of which the British Admiral, Lord Howe, commanded. In coming up, the screw that had been calculated to perforate the copper sheathing, unluckily struck against some iron plates where the rudder is connected with the stern. This accident, added to the strength of the tide which prevailed, and the want of adequate skill in the sergeant, occasioned such delay, that the dawn began to appear, whereupon he abandoned the magazine to chance, and after gaining a proper distance, for the sake of expedition, rowed on the surface towards the town. General Putnam, who had been on the wharf anxiously expecting the result, from the first glimmering of light, beheld the machine near Governor's-Island, and sent a whale-boat to bring it on shore. In about twenty minutes afterwards the magazine exploded, and blew a vast column of water to an amazing height in the air. As the

1

whole business had been kept an inviolable secret, he was not a little diverted with the various conjectures, whether this stupendous noise was produced by a bomb, a meteor, a water-spout, or an earthquake. Other operations of a most serious nature rapidly succeeded, and prevented a repetition of the experiment.

On the twenty-second day of August, the van of the British landed on Long Island, and was soon followed by the whole army, except one brigade of Hessians, a small body of British, and some convalescents, left on StatenIsland. Our troops on Long Island had been commanded during the summer by General Greene who was now sick; and General Putnam took the command but two days before the battle of Flatbush. The instructions to him, pointing in the first place to decisive expedients for suppressing the scattering, unmeaning, and wasteful fire of our men, contained regulations for the service of the guards, the Brigadiers and the Field-officers of the day; for the appointment and encouragement of proper scouts, as well as for keeping the men constantly at their posts; for preventing the burning of buildings, except it should be necessary for military purposes, and for preserving private property from pillage and destruction. To these regulations were added, in a more diffuse, though not less spirited and professional style, reflections on the distinction

of an army from a mob; with exhortations for the soldiers to conduct themselves manfully in such a cause, and for their Commander to oppose the enemy's approach with detachments of his best troops; while he should endeavour to render their advance more difficult by constructing abbatis, and to entrap their parties by forming ambuscades. General Putnam was within the lines, when an engagement took place on the 27th, between the British army and our advanced corps, in which we lost about a thousand men in killed and missing, with the Generals Sullivan and Lord Stirling made prisoners. But our men, though attacked on all sides, fought with great bravery; and the enemy's loss was not light.

The unfortunate battle of Long-Island, the masterly retreat from thence, and the actual passage of part of the hostile fleet in the EastRiver, above the town, preceded the evacuation of New York. A promotion of four Major-Generals, and six Brigadiers, had previously been made by Congress. After the retreat from Long-Island, the main army, consisting, for the moment, of sixty battalions, of which twenty were Continental, the residue levies and militia, was, conformably to the exigencies of the service, rather than to the rules of war, formed into fourteen brigades. MajorGeneral Putnam commanded the right grand division of five brigades, the Majors-General Spencer and Greene the centre of six brigades,