to induce them to join the American refugees whom he had in his army, and offered to pay all their arrears, which were, in fact, but too justly due. The serjeant commanding the line exclaimed-" Comrades,-he takes us for traitors; we are only "brave soldiers who demand justice from our countrymen;"but we will never betray our country." He hanged the spies and continued his march. The assembly of Pennsylvania ap- pointed deputies to meet them, who, after a very arduous negociation, succeeded in reclaiming them to their duty.

The mutiny extended itself to the Jersey line; and General Washington found himself obliged to suppress, by an example of severity, a disorder, the spreading of which was so much the more dangerous, as all his army had the same just cause of complaint.

On our side, the French military chest was far from being in a situation to afford assistance to that of the Americans, since we subsisted only from day to day, on loans which were exceedingly onerous. At this period, bills of exchange on France were negociated at Boston and Philadelphia at a loss of forty per cent. The American paper money was not worth the one hundredth part of its nominal value, and was advancing rapidly to annihilation.

It was at the same period that Arnold embarked at New York with two thousand men, to seize a post at Portsmouth in Virginia, whence he could commit depredations on the shores of the Chesapeake without any resistance but from the militia of the country.

These misfortunes following each other rapidly, induced congress to dispatch for France, Colonel Laurens, aide-decamp to General Washington, and son of the famous Laurens, formerly president of congress, who was then confined in the tower of London. This officer was instructed to represent, in the strongest light to the court of France, the distressed situation of his country. ******

During the month of February we had news of the defeat of Tarlton by the division of Brigadier-general Morgan. But this check had only irritated Lord Cornwallis, who marched with his whole force in pursuit of Morgan, but could not overtake him before his junction with General Greene. The latter was obliged to fall back to meet his reinforcements on the Roanoke. Having assembled them, he took post at Guilford courthouse. Lord Cornwallis attacked him vigorously, and, after a bloody action, succeeded in dislodging him. But the American general yielded only the field of battle, and took up a new position some miles in the rear. Lord Cornwallis having suffered much from a long march, a fierce contest, and want of provisions, was also obliged to retire, towards cape Fear, to a settlement of Scotch royalists, where he hoped to find refreshments

and assistance for his wounded. The conduct of General Greene in this retreat, on the day of battle at Guildford, and after the action, did him great honour, and presaged the high talents which he afterwards displayed.

M. de la Peyrouse, who, with my son had sailed for France on the 28th of October, in order to explain to the French cabinet the state of things in America, and to solicit the necessary succours of men and money, returned to Boston about the end of February. It was by him that we received our first despatches since our departure from France. We learned that my son and he, on their arrival at Versailles, had found M. de Sartine withdrawn from the ministry of the marine; and replaced by M. de Castries; that the minister of war was on the point of sending in his resignation; that the empress-queen had finished her glorious career; that the English, having declared war against the Dutch, and taken them unawares in all their possessions which were unprovided with the means of defence, the councils of France was preparing forces by sea and land to support them; and that, in fine, from all these circumstances, it was impossible to give the proper attention and supply to the exigencies of America. The king, however, gave orders to M. de la Peyrouse to set off immediately in the fastest sailing frigate at Brest, charged with fifteen hundred thousand francs which had been deposited at Brest for six months, waiting the departure of the second division. Colonel Rochambeau was ordered to remain until it should be determined in council, what answer to make to the demands of America.

After the return of our squadron, Arnold was reinforced in Virginia by a detachment of three thousand men from New York, under the command of general Philips. The English squadron remained at New York to repair three ships which had received great injury, in a spirited action which has been fought in the Chesapeake between chevalier Destouches and admiral Graves; and the chevalier Destouches was engaged in refitting the Conquerant, which had lost her rudder. La Fayette, who had been detached with a thousand men, by general Washington, continued his march by land to join baron Steuben and the different bodies of militia which the state of Virginia had put in motion.

Our squadron being refitted, the chevalier Destouches was very anxious to undertake an expedition against Penobscot, a fortress in possession of the English, at the northern extremity of the United States. He was pressed to do so, by the merchants of Boston, who were greatly infested by privateers and pirates from that post. General Washington did not approve of this project, and convinced the chevalier Destouches that for an object of very little consequence he would be exposing his squadron in a gulph where, after an unsuccessful engagement, he would have no port of refuge; in fact, two years before, an

expedition from Boston which had attempted this conquest, had been destroyed in Penobscot river. We were also informed that the English squadron was repaired at New York, and reinforced by all the ships of fifty guns which had been cruising on the different stations; so that any enterprize by sea became impossible for the French squadron, on account of the superiority which these reinforcements gave to the enemy who seemed determined to bear with his whole strength upon the southern states. He weakened New York by various detachments, and as our squadron at Rhode Island might now be left in security with a smaller number of troops to protect it, I proposed to General Washington to march to the Hudson, and unite with him opposite to New York, which would enable him to reinforce La Fayette in Virginia, by a detachment from his army.

Two motives, however, dissuaded us from immediately executing this movement; the preparations necessary for our subsistence, and the expectation of whatever succour might arrive with my son, which it would be of importance to receive in the first place, if affairs in the south should not become too urgent. General Washington received these offers with many acknowledgments, but did not think the danger in the south so pressing as to require that they should be executed before these two objects were accomplised. He despatched, however, the Pennsylvania line, under General Wayne, to rejoin La Fayette.

Lord Cornwallis put his troops into quarters, for refreshment, during the months of April and part of May, in the neighbourhood of Cape Fear. General Greene, in the meantime, advanced by Hillsborough towards Camden, in South Carolina, to attack Lord Rawdon, who had remained with a small division to cover that country. He hoped by this movement to oblige Lord Cornwallis to retire. But as by this same manœuvre he left Virginia uncovered, Lord Cornwallis took advantage of it, broke up his quarters; by a rapid march passed the Roanoke at Halifax, and joined Generals Philips and Arnold, at Petersburg, in Virginia.

My son arrived at Boston on the 8th of May, in the frigate Concord, with M. de Barras, who came to succeed the chevalier de Ternay, whom we had lost by sickness. They informed us that they had seen a powerful fleet set sail from Brest, under M. de Grasse; that upon arriving in the latitude of Madrid, part of it was to separate, and proceed under the Bailli de Suf fren, to relieve the Cape of Good Hope, and reinforce our squadron in the East Indies; that the count de Grasse, after passing to the south of the Azores, was to detach a small convoy, escorted by the Sagittary, of six hundred men; the only succour destined at present for North America: the money intended for the navy and the troops, was divided on board the Sagittary, and the frigate which brought out M. de Barras. My despatches

informed me, and a declaration to the same effect was made to congress by his majesty's minister, that various obstacles, among others, an English fleet of superior force which had been cruizing off Brest, had prevented the second division from setting out the year before; but that, not to deprive America of a succour which had been destined for her, and which the French government did not wish to withhold, the council had determined to supply the deficiency in money, and that the sum of six millions was assigned in consequence, which General Washington might appropriate to the wants of the American army. It was mentioned to me confidentially, that the count de Grasse had orders to repair to the American coast in July or August, to extricate the squadron of M. de Barras; and that the latter, in case I should advance into the continent to unite with General Washington, was ordered to proceed to Boston. The port of Rhode Island was considered as unsafe without the co-operation of a land force to protect the anchorage of the squadron. Expeditions too were proposed to me against Penobscot, Newfoundland or Halifax. It was, however, left to my discretion to concert with General Washington, any other operation proportioned to our strength, which could be covered by M. de Grasse, during the very short stay which he was ordered to make in those seas.

The oldest despatches which M. de Barras brought me were from M. de Montbarrey; some more recent were from M. de Ségur, who had succeeded him in the ministry of war; and the last, from M. de Castries, who was at Brest, at the time of the sailing of the expedition. I was informed, in my private letters, that if I had been in France, the king would have appointed me minister of war. I was never ambitious of that place; but I confess that, considering the distressed state in which I was left, and the penury of the means which were furnished to me, this was the only moment of my life in which I coveted it. It was, however, necessary for me to leave my present situation, and do as well as I could for the advantage of both nations.

As soon as I had decyphered my despatches, I proposed a conference with General Washington, which was appointed at Wethersfield, near Hartford, for the 20th of May; the count de Barras could not be present, because at the moment fixed for his departure, the English fleet began to stretch themselves in line before his squadron.

General Washington was accompanied by General Knox, and Brigadier-General Duportail: I had already arrived there with the chevalier de Chatelus. At this meeting, General Washington's favourite project was an enterprize against New York, which he considered the best suited to give a finishing stroke to the English dominion in his country. He knew that the enemy's force in that place was diminished by the different detachVOL. II. Y

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ments to the south which had been made from it, and he thought, from the information of pilots, that the bar might be passed without lightening. He considered an expedition to the Chesapeake against Lord Cornwallis as a secondary object, to which we should only have recourse when convinced of our inability to execute the first. After some discussion it was at length agreed, that upon the arrival of the recruits and the small convoy of the Sagittary, the French army should put itself in motion to join that of the Americans opposite to New York, which we were to approach as near as possible, and then wait for news from M. de Grasse, to whom a frigate was to be despatched.

Immediately after this conference, General Washington wrote to General Sullivan, a member of congress, to inform him of the result. His letters were intercepted. It is thought, and all the gazettes have repeated it, that he spoke of an attack on New York only to deceive the enemy, and intended that this letter should fall into their hands. This great man does not need the help of such fictions to transmit his illustrious name to posterity. He did, in fact, at that time, entertain a desire to attack New York; and we should have executed it, if the enemy had continued to weaken that post, and the French fleet had been in a condition to assist us.

But what served completely to mislead the English general, was a confidential letter written by the chevalier de Chatelus, to the French minister, in which he boasted of his success in inducing me to adopt General Washington's opinion: The siege of the island of New York, he said, was at length determined upon; the two armies were to meet before that place; and we should engage the count de Grasse, to force the pass of Sandyhook, and the entrance to New York. He complained with bitterness, and in coarse terms, of the little influence which a man of abilities could exercise over the imperious character of a general, who chose always to command. The English officer charged with the procuring of intelligence, sent me a copy of this intercepted letter, certainly not with a view of promoting peace in my household. I summoned the chevalier de Chatelus, showed him the letter, threw it into the fire, and left him to remorse. It will be readily supposed, I did not seek to undeceive him as to the military project; and it will be seen in the sequel of these memoirs, how far that general officer was acquainted with the real scheme which I proposed to the count de Grasse.

I immediately set about my despatches to the count de Grasse, which were to be sent as soon as the Concord should be ready for sea. I painted to him the distressed condition of the southern states, and especially Virginia, which had, to oppose to Lord Cornwallis, only the small body of troops under M. de La Fayette, whose chief reliance was his own management, and the nature of the country intersected by rivers. I informed M. de