ful work.

[634:A] Lee Papers, S. Lit. Messr., 1858, p. 254.

[635:A] An account of his visit to Yorktown shortly after the battle,
and his courtship, by John Eston Cooke, is to be found in Historical
Magazine for June, 1859.

[636:A] Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry, 171.

[637:A] Journal of the Convention of 1775.

[637:B] Wirt's Henry, 178.

[638:A] And perhaps as unduly familiar with the men under his command.
As an instance of this it is said that he was seen among them with his
coat off--a grave charge indeed!

CHAPTER LXXXVI.

1775.

Manufacture of Gunpowder--Norfolk burnt--Dunmore's conduct--
Henry resigns--Indignation of troops--Troops at Williamsburg--
General Orders.

ON Christmas day, 1775, Benjamin Harrison, Jr., having leave of absence
from the convention for three days, at the Lower Ferry, on Chickahominy
River, was conferring with Jacob Rubsamen, in his broken English, in
regard to the manufacture of saltpetre; he having been sent on by the
Virginia delegates in congress to superintend the manufacture of
gunpowder. Mr. Harrison's father and himself were disposed to "be
dabbling in the saltpetre way." Rubsamen afterwards manufactured much
saltpetre and powder in Virginia, and was involved in no little trouble
in the work, and in getting paid for it.

On the twenty-eighth of December Edmund Pendleton writes to Richard
Henry Lee: "If the house of Bourbon mean to join us it will be soon,
lest the progress of the enemy should make our connection less valuable
by the destruction of our commercial cities."

Dunmore's fleet being distressed for provisions, upon the arrival of the
Liverpool man-of-war from England, a flag was sent on shore to enquire
whether the inhabitants would supply his majesty's ship? It was answered
in the negative; and the ships in the harbor being continually annoyed
by a fire from the quarter of the town lying next the water, Dunmore
determined to dislodge the assailants. Previous notice having been given
to the inhabitants, January the 1st, 1776, a party of sailors and
marines landed, and set fire to the nearest houses. The party was
covered by a cannonade from the Liverpool frigate, two sloops-of-war,
and the governor's armed ship, the Dunmore. A few were killed and
wounded on both sides.

A printer's press had been removed from Norfolk some time before this on
board the governor's ship, and according to his bulletin published
after this affair, it