etachments of the main army in covering the country.
Here his vigilance was again conspicuous. His parties were constantly
busy. His own movements to and fro, wherever an enemy could approach,
or was suspected, were continual, from the Cooper to the Santee. His
objects were threefold--to check the irruptions of the enemy, to cut off
their supplies, and to provide for his own people. His scouting parties
penetrated in every hostile direction--sometimes as low as Daniel's
Island and Clement's Ferry--points almost within the ken of the British
garrison. But the enemy was no longer enterprising. They were not often
met. Their cavalry was few and inferior, and their exigencies may be
inferred from their uniforming and converting some of their captured
negroes into troopers. One corps of these black dragoons, consisting of
twenty-six men, was cut to pieces by one of Marion's scouting parties of
twelve, commanded by Capt. Capers.

The British, tired of the war, were preparing to evacuate the country.
Preparatory to this, it was necessary that they should lay in sufficient
store of provisions. General Leslie had been preparing for this
necessity and, late in July, a numerous fleet of small vessels,
conveying eight hundred men, and convoyed by galleys and armed brigs,
left Charleston to proceed, as it was conjectured, against Georgetown.
This compelled Marion to hasten in that direction. Here he made every
arrangement for moving the public stores to a place of safety. Black
Mingo was preferred as the depot, for the honorable reason, as given in
Marion's own words, that it was "a settlement of good citizens and of my
earliest and most faithful followers." But the enterprise of the enemy
was less hazardous. The collection of rice was their object. This was to
be found in the greatest quantity on the Santee, from the banks of which
river they carried off about six hundred barrels. Marion's force was
thrown over the Sampit so as to intercept their march to Georgetown,
but he could not impede their progress up the South Santee, protected as
they were under the guns of their galleys.

With the departure of the enemy from the river, the completion of
his arrangements for the removal of the stores at Georgetown, and the
defence of that place, Marion again recrossed the Santee and hurried to
Watboo, on the Cooper. This river, leading to Charleston, to which the
fleet of the enemy had returned, was naturally thought to be the next
which