st than they began
plotting mutiny, and the uprising reached such a stage that they
assembled on the gun-deck, and gave three cheers. But the firm and
determined stand of the captain and his officers overawed the
mutineers, and they returned to their places after the ringleaders had
been made to suffer at the gratings. But the spirit of disaffection
rife amid his crew, and the crippled condition of his ship, determined
Biddle to proceed forthwith to Charleston to refit.

But a few days were spent in port. Getting to sea again, the
"Randolph" fell in with the "True Briton," a twenty-gun ship, flying
the British colors. Though the captain of the "True Briton" had often
boasted of what he would do should he encounter the "Randolph," his
courage then failed him, and he fled. The "Randolph" gave chase, and,
proving to be a speedy ship, soon overhauled the prize, which struck
without waiting for a volley. Three other vessels that had been
cruising with the "True Briton" were also captured, and with her rich
prizes the "Randolph" returned proudly to Charleston. Here her
usefulness ceased for a time; for a superior force of British
men-of-war appeared off the harbor, and by them the "Randolph" was
blockaded for the remainder of the season.

Early in 1778 Biddle again took the sea with the "Randolph," supported
this time by four small vessels, fitted out by the South Carolina
authorities. They were the "Gen. Moultrie," eighteen guns; the
"Polly," sixteen; the "Notre Dame," sixteen; and the "Fair American,"
sixteen. With this force Capt. Biddle set out in search of a British
squadron known to be cruising thereabouts, and probably the same
vessels that had kept him a prisoner during so much of the previous
year.

On the 7th of March, 1778, the lookouts on the smaller vessels saw a
signal thrown out from the masthead of the "Randolph," which announced
a sail in sight. Chase was at once given; and by four o'clock she was
near enough for the Americans to see that she was a large ship, and
apparently a man-of-war. About eight o'clock the stranger was near
enough the squadron for them to make out that she was a heavy frigate.

The Englishman was not slow to suspect the character of the vessels
with which he had fallen in, and firing a shot across the bows of the
"Moultrie," demanded her name.

"The 'Polly' of New York," was the response.

Leaving the "Moultrie" unmolested, the stranger ranged up alongside
the "Randolph," and or