headquarters.
This plantation was laid waste by the enemy. Wherever his lordship's
army went, plantations were despoiled, and private houses plundered.
During the six months of his stay in Virginia she lost thirty thousand
slaves, of whom the greater part died of small-pox and camp fever; and
the rest were shipped to the West Indies, Nova Scotia, etc. The
devastations committed during these six months were estimated at upwards
of thirteen millions of dollars.[733:A]

Peter Francisco, a soldier of the Revolution, celebrated for his
physical strength and personal prowess, lived long in the County of
Buckingham, Virginia, and died there. His origin is obscure: he supposed
that he was a Portuguese by birth, and that he was kidnapped when an
infant, and carried to Ireland. He had no recollection of his parents,
and the first knowledge that he retained of himself was of being in that
country when a small boy. Resolving to come to America, he indented
himself to a sea-captain for seven years, in payment of his passage. On
arriving in Virginia he was indented to Anthony Winston, Esq., of
Buckingham, and labored on his estate until the breaking out of the
Revolution. Being then at the age of sixteen he obtained permission to
enlist in the army. At the storming of Stony Point he was the next,
after Major Gibbon, to enter the fortress, and he received a bayonet
wound in the thigh. He was present in the battles of Brandywine,
Monmouth, the Cowpens, Camden, and Guilford Court-house. In the
last-mentioned action, where he belonged to Colonel Washington's
dragoons, his strong arm levelled eleven of the enemy. His bravery was
equal to his strength.

During the year 1781, while reconnoitring alone, and stopping at a house
in Amelia, now Nottoway, he was made prisoner by a detachment of
Tarleton's dragoons. But availing himself of a favorable opportunity,
when one of the British was stooping to take off his silver
shoe-buckles, Francisco wounded him with his own sword, and another, and
by a ruse frightened off the rest of the party, who fled, leaving their
horses, although Tarleton's corps was in full view. This exploit was
illustrated by an engraving, published in 1814, a favorite ornament of
the drawing-room. Peter Francisco was in height six feet and one inch:
his weight was two hundred and sixty pounds: his strength Herculean. He
used a sword of extraordinary size. His complexion was that of a native
of the south of Europe, his eye