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'Father,

Attend to what I am now going to say; it is a matter of much weight. The great King's enemies are many, and they grow fast in number. They were formerly like young panthers; they could neither bite nor scratch; we could play with them safely; we feared nothing they could do to us. But now their bodies are become big as the elk, and strong as the buffalo; they have also got great and sharp claws. They have driven us out of our country for taking part in your quarrel. We expect the great King will give us another country, that our children may live after us, and be his friends and children, as we are. Say this for us to the

great King. To enforce it, we give this belt.

'Father,

'A great white Belt with blue Tassels.'

'We have only to say farther, that your traders exact more than ever for their goods; and our hunting is lessened by the war, so that we have fewer skins to give for them. This ruins us. Think of some remedy. We are poor; and you have plenty of every thing. We know you will send us powder and guns, and knives and hatchets; but we also want shirts and blankets.

"A little white Belt.'

"I do not doubt but that your Excellency will think it proper to give some farther encouragement to those honest people. The high prices they complain of are the necessary effect of the war. Whatever presents may be sent for them, through my hands, shall be distributed with prudence and fidelity. I have the honor of being your Excellency's most obedient

"And most humble servant,
"JAMES CRAUFURD."

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It was at first proposed to bury these scalps; but Lieutenant Fitzgerald, who, you know, has got leave of absence to go to Ireland on his private affairs, said he thought it better they should proceed to their destination; and, if they were given to him, he would undertake to carry them to England, and hang them all up in some dark night on the trees in St. James's Park, where they could be seen from the King and Queen's palaces in the morning; for that the sight of them might perhaps strike Muley Ishmael (as he called him) with some compunction of conscience. They were accordingly delivered to Fitz, and he has brought them safe hither. To-morrow they go with his baggage in a wagon for Boston, and will probably be there in a few days after this letter.

I am, &c.

SAMUEL GERRISH.

Boston, March 20th.

Monday last arrived here Lieutenant Fitzgerald above mentioned, and yesterday the wagon with the scalps. Thousands of people are flocking to see them this morning, and all mouths are full of execrations. Fixing them to the trees is not approved. It is now proposed to make them up in decent little packets, seal and direct them; one to the King, containing a sample of every sort for his museum; one to the Queen, with some of women and little children; the rest to be distributed among both Houses of Parliament; a double quantity to the bishops.

MR. WILLIS,

Please to insert in your useful paper the following copy of a letter from Commodore Jones, directed

"SIR,

TO SIR J. Y, &c. &c.

"Ipswich, New England, March 7th, 1781.

"I have lately seen a memorial, said to have been presented by your Excellency to their High Mightinesses the States-General, in which you are pleased to qualify me with the title of 'pirate.'

"A pirate is defined to be hostis humani generis [an enemy to all mankind]. It happens, Sir, that I am an enemy to no part of mankind, except your nation, the English; which nation, at the same time, comes much more within the definition, being actually an enemy to, and at war with, one whole quarter of the world, America, considerable part of Asia and Africa, a great part of Europe, and in a fair way of being at war with. the rest.

"A pirate makes war for the sake of rapine. This is not the kind of war I am engaged in against England. Ours is a war in defence of liberty, the most just of all wars; and of our properties, which your nation would have taken from us, without our consent, in violation of our rights, and by an armed force. Yours, therefore is a war of rapine; of course, a piratical war; and those who approve of it, and are engaged in it, more justly deserve the name of pirates, which you bestow on me. It is indeed a war that coincides with the general spirit of your nation. Your common people in their ale-houses sing the twenty-four songs of Robin Hood, and applaud his deer-stealing and his robberies on the highway; those, who have just

learning enough to read, are delighted with your histories of the pirates and of the buccaniers; and even your scholars in the universities study Quintus Curtius, and are taught to admire Alexander for what they call 'his conquests in the Indies.' Severe laws and the hangman keep down the effects of this spirit somewhat among yourselves (though in your little Island you have nevertheless more highway robberies than there are in all the rest of Europe put together); but a foreign war gives it full scope. It is then that, with infinite pleasure, it lets itself loose to strip of their property honest merchants, employed in the innocent and useful occupation of supplying the mutual wants of mankind. Hence, having lately no war with your ancient enemies, rather than be without a war, you chose to make one upon your friends. In this your piratical war with America, the mariners of your fleets and the owners of your privateers were animated against us by the act of your Parliament, which repealed the law of God, Thou shalt not steal,' by declaring it lawful for them to rob us of all our property that they could meet with on the ocean. This act, too, had a retrospect, and, going beyond bulls of pardon, declared that all the robberies you had committed previous to the act should be deemed just and lawful. Your soldiers, too, were promised the plunder of our cities; and your officers were flattered with the division of our lands. You had even the baseness to corrupt our servants, the sailors employed by us, and encourage them to rob their masters, and bring to you the ships and goods they were intrusted with. Is there any society of pirates on the sea or land, who, in declaring wrong to be right, and right wrong, have less authority than your Parliament? Do any of them more justly than your Parliament deserve the title you bestow on me?

"You will tell me that we forfeited all our estates by our refusal to pay the taxes your nation would have imposed on us without the consent of our colony Parliaments. Have you then forgotten the incontestable principle, which was the foundation of Hampden's glorious lawsuit with Charles the First, that 'what an English king has no right to demand, an English subject has a right to refuse'? But you cannot so soon have forgotten the instructions of your late honorable father, who, being himself a sound Whig, taught you certainly the principles of the revolution, and that, if subjects might in some cases forfeit their property, kings also might forfeit their title, and all claim to the allegiance of their subjects.' I must then suppose you well acquainted with those Whig principles; on which permit me, Sir, to ask a few questions.

"Is not protection as justly due from a king to his people, as obedience from the people to their king? "If then a king declares his people to be out of his protection;

"If he violates and deprives them of their constitutional rights;

"If he wages war against them;

"If he plunders their merchants, ravages their coasts, burns their towns, and destroys their lives;

"If he hires foreign mercenaries to help him in their destruction;

"If he engages savages to murder their defenceless farmers, women, and children;

"If he cruelly forces such of his subjects as fall into his hands, to bear arms against their country, and become executioners of their friends and brethren;

"If he sells others of them into bondage, in Africa and the East Indies;

VOL. V.

L

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