er in passing safely hundreds of heavy cannon, and
showers of bombs, may one day become not only the _terror of France_,
but of _England_ also. Great effects flow from trifling causes. It was
a woman's[H] love of finery that peopled New England.

It was, to be sure, an extraordinary sight, mixed with something of
the ludicrous, to see three white Americans, and one Indian, with a
disarmed British red coat under their feet, in the jolly-boat, not
daring to raise his head, while about thirty boats, with above 250
seamen, and nearly as many marines, were rowing, and puffing and
blowing, and firing and loading, and loading and firing at a small
boat, containing three American seamen and one Indian, without any
weapon or instrument, except the oars they rowed with! While the
British marines were ruffling the water around the flying boat with
their bullets, we, on board the prison ships, sensible of their
danger, felt as much interest, and probably more apprehension, than
the fugitives themselves.--It was an anxious period of hope, fear and
animating pride, which sometimes petrified us into silence, and then
caused us to rend the air with acclamations, and clapping of hands.
The Indian was, however, the hero of the piece. We saw, and admired
his energetic mind, his abhorrence of captivity, and his
_irresistible_ love of freedom. This fellow was not, probably, at all
below some of the Grecian captains, who went to the siege of Troy; and
he only wanted the advantages of education, and of modern discipline,
to have become a distinguished commander. The inspiring love of
liberty was all the theme, after the daring exploit of our countrymen;
and it made us uneasy, and stimulated us to contemplate similar acts
of hardihood. We had now become pretty nearly tired of cutting holes
through the ship's bottom and sides; for it was always detected, and
we were made to pay for repairing the damage out of our provisions.
After seeing what _four_ men could effect, our thoughts turned more
upon a general insurrection, than upon the partial escapes of a few.
We perceived, clearly enough, that our keepers dreaded our
enterprizing spirit; and we could discover that they knew we despised
them, and ridiculed them. Some of our saucy boys, studying arithmetic,
with their slates and pencils in their hands, would say out loud, as
if stating a sum, "_if it took 350 British seamen and marines to catch
four yankees, how many British sailors and marines w