PREFACE.

HE Year of which we treat, prefented the

THE

moft aweful appearance of public affairs, which this country had perhaps beheld for miny ages. All ancient fyftems of policy, relative to any fcheme of equality or balance of power, feemed forgotten in Europe. Friends and allies were no more with refpect to us. On the contrary, whether it proceeded from our fault, or whether it was merely our misfortune, mankind feemed to wait, with an afpect which at beft befpoke indifference, for the event of that ruin which was expected to burst upon us.

It has happened fortunately, that the expected evil and danger, were lefs dreadful in the encounter, than in the distant appearance. The great combination of the Houfe of Bourbon with the American Colonies, was far from producing all thofe effects which were undoubtedly expected. If our own fucceffes were not great, and rather negative than direct in their nature, our loffes, however confiderable, were ftill lefs than might have been apprehended.

apprehended. It affords no fmall room both for fatisfaction and hope, that no diminution of national glory has taken place, through any failure of native valour in our Seamen and Soldiers. They have fupported in all cafes, and under whatever circumftances of difadvantage, their antient character.

With the importance and variety of the work, our labour has increafed; and every year of this period, fo full of trouble both abroad and at home, has produced fo much matter, that the bufinefs of one has run in upon the other. The Reader will thus account for the delay which has annually increased. Perhaps we ought rather to apologize for bringing out the matter fo crudely, as we are obliged to do, to keep tolerably within time, than for a delay rendered neceffary by the magnitude of our task. Happy fhali we deem the hour, when, recurring from the horrors of war to the pleasant ways of peace, we fhall have the pleasure of announcing to the Public, the glad tidings of returning tranquillity.

THE

THE

ANNUAL REGISTER, For the YEAR 1779.

THE

HISTORY

OF

EUROPE.

CHA P. I.

Retrospective view of American affairs in the year 1778. Expedition to Bedford, Fair Haven; and to Martha's Vineyard. Admiral Montague difpoffefes the French of the islands of St. Pierre, and Miquelon. Lord Cornwallis, and Gen. Knyphaufen, advance into the enemy's country, on both fides of the North River. Surprize of Baylor's light horle. Success of the expedition to Egg Harbour. Surprize of Pulafki's legion. Cruel depredations by Butler, Brandt, and the favages, on the back frontiers. Destruction of the new fettlement at Wyoming, attended with circumftances of fingular cruelty and barbarity. Col. Clarke's expedition from Virginia, for the reduction of the Canadian towns and fettlements in the Illinois country. Confequences of Clarke's fuccefs. Expedition from Schoharie to the Upper Susquehanna. Deftruction of the Unadilla and Anaquago fettlements.

W

E have feen in our laft volume, that the effectual protection which the French fquadron received from their new allies, at Bofton, had Sept. 8th. entirely fruftrated Lord Howe's defign of at1778. tacking D'Estaing in that road or harbour. Upon this VOL. XXII.

failure of hope with refpect to his primary object, the noble Admiral immediately returned to the fuccour of Rhode Island, which, we have also feen, had been invefted, and vigorously attacked, by General Sullivan. And finding that island already freed from danger, he proceeded to New York, where, [4]

in

in confequence of what is underflood by a previous leave of abfence, he refigned the command of the fleet into the hands of Admiral Gambier, and returned to England.

Sir Henry Clinton, who had embarked with 4,000 men for the relief of Rhode Island, had two other material objects in view, in one or both of which he might probably have fucceeded, if he had not been detained by contrary winds a few hours beyond his time, or that Sullivan had not been attentive to the danger to which he was expofed, when he found himfelf finally abandoned by the French fleet, and in confequence deferted by the New England voJunteers, who compofed the better part of his force. One of thefe was to cut off Sullivan's retreat to the continent; and the other, which might have been either adopted as principal, or purfued as a fecondary object, was to attack the Americans in their head quarters and principal place of arms at Providence; the deftruction, or effectual dismantling of which, would have removed an eye-fore, and conftant source of apprehenfion, at leaft, from the immediate vicinity of Rhode Island.

Sullivan's timely retreat having fruftrated thefe defigns, Sir Henry Clinton, on his return to New York, difpatched Major General Grey, with the fleet of tranfports and troops, under the convoy of Captain Fanfhawe, of the Carysfort frigate, upon an expedition to the eastward. The first object of this expedition was to exterminate fome nefts of fmall privateers, which abounded in the rivers and creeks adjoining to Buz

zards Bay, in that part of New England called the Plymouth Colony; which from their vicinity to Rhode Island and the Sound, greatly infefted the trade of New York, as well as the adjacent coafts of Long Island; whilst the nearness of their retreats, with the fmallness of their veffels, and the fhallowness of their creeks, fecured them in a great measure from all purfuit.

This fervice was performed with great effect by the detachment under the command of the Major General. Between fix in the evening, when the Sept. 5th. troops were landed, and twelve, on the following day, the work was completely done; destroying in their courfe about feventy fail of fhipping, befides a great number of fmall craft. The detachment likewife burnt or deftroyed in the fame manner, the magazines, wharfs, ftores, warehouses, ropewalks, and veffels on the ftocks, both on the Bedford and Fair Ha ven fides of the Acufhinet river.

The tranfports and troops proceeded from Fair Haven to the ifland called Martha's Vineyard; the inhabitants of which, like thofe of Nantucket, were once celebrated for their enterprize, skill, and great fuccefs in the fisheries. This ifland being, however, the reverfe of Nantucket in point of fertility, afforded a confiderable and moft defirable contribution, confifting of 10,000 fheep, and 300 oxen, for the public fervice at New York.

In the mean time, Admiral Montague, who commanded on the Newfoundland ftation, no fooner received intelligence that D'Eftaing had commenced hoftilities on the