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unsheathed his dirk, and attacked the negro, who fled with considerable impetuosity, with the Englishman close at his heels, crying, “En vérité monsieur, prenez garde à vous." The lieutenant then walked into the coffee-house, which was not far distant, where he had scarcely been five minutes, before he was surrounded by a legion of soldiers with charged bayonets, who had rushed down from the arsenal, on hearing of the disturbance. Joysin, Richard, Ferrier, and many other officers also arrived, blustering, foutreing, and threatening the lieutenant with vengeance. The bold officer behaved on the occasion with the most deliberate coolness, handled his dirk again, bade defiance to the whole soldiery, who had formed a complete palisade of bayonets around him, made a resolute stand, and although he did not use precisely the same words, he spoke them in effect

"By Heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me."

At length, after some difficulty, they wrested the weapon from his hand, shut the doors of the house, and sent off an express for Christophe, who was that night in town. The general very shortly came up on his horse in full speed, exasperated to a great degree. When he arrived within a hundred yards of the place, he pronounced in a tone of excessive anger, Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça," and repeated it until he reached the door of the coffee-house, when he imperiously called out, "Where is the captain of the frigate ?" The captain, who had been sent for at the theatre, and had just at that instant arrived, stepped up to the general, and answered" Here I am."" Pray, sir, what is the cause of all this disturbance ?" "Why, sir, as far as I can understand, one of your officers has been saucy to my lieutenant." "It is not so sir, your lieutenant has insulted one of my officers." This conversation was so far in French, but the Englishman became so enraged at the haughty tone of the black chief, that he could not find in that language a sufficiency of words to express, with proper force, his opinion upon the subject. He accordingly resorted to his native tongue, and dealt out plentifully some of those phrases which are so peculiar to sailors. Christophe told him to speak French. He would not. The general then spoke freely his mind, with some reflections upon the conduct of the English. The captain could support it no longer, but turned round upon his heel, and said “the d-d black rascals! what are they jawing about? Come aboard boys, come aboard." He then proceeded to the wharf, followed by his men. The general told him to come back, but he took no notice of him. Christophe, still more enraged at this treatment, ordered the soldiers to make the Englishmen embark instantaneously. He then called for the captain of the

guard, who having come forward, he asked him "how he dared to suffer the French people to escape?" The fellow, half frightened to death, answered that "he endeavoured to prevent it, but could not." "Foutre," cried the general," you ought to have made their heads jump first," and like a fury attacked the poor officer with his whip, and beat him in a severe manner. He then rode to the wharf, and again commanded the Englishmen to embark without delay. The captain then stepping up to him, calmly said, "General, I wish to conceal nothing from. you; I mean to act upon fair grounds. I have had orders from the king my master to grant protection to every one that applies for it, whether they are friends or enemies, and I'll be dd if I don't do it. As for my men, I have myself ordered them to embark, but you, nor no other man shall compel me to leave the wharf until I please." The general, after a little conversation, became calm, and fearing, perhaps, the censure of Dessalines if he should be displeased at this affair, which bordered so nearly upon a rupture with his friends the British, was disposed to compromise. He accordingly had the lieutenant's dirk brought, and offered to restore it. The officer refused to accept it without some apology, saying that the act of disarming him was a declaration of war against the king of Great Britain. The general assured him that no concessions would be made; the captain then stated that "he would send a flag of truce on shore on the following day, to demand in regular form satisfaction for the insult," and as soon as his own boat had arrived for him, he bade the general a good night, and went on board.

About nine o'clock on the succeeding morning, the first lieutenant of the frigate came on shore with a flag of truce, and a letter to Christophe, demanding an apology. The general still refused one, and replied for answer, that "the captain was too young a man to take notice of." This caused a second letter from the captain, in which he stated, that "as young a man as his excellency the general might please to think him, the king of Great Britain had considered him capable of commanding one of his ships of war, and while he was in that capacity, he would never see the British flag insulted." The general still persisted, and at length entered into conversation with the lieutenant. "Pray sir," said he, " do you suppose that if we wished to destroy all the whites in the island, you could prevent it?""Why general," replied the Englishman coolly, "I do not say that we would prevent it; but as to our being able to do it, that is quite a different sort of thing." This answer inflamed Christophe still more, and the lieutenant returned to his ship without having accomplished the object of his mission.

On the following morning we discovered that the frigate during the night had been warped in close to the shore; her broadside was displayed to the town; she had springs on her cables ; and her hammocks all arranged over the gunwale, in battle order; the tomkins were even out of the guns, and every thing in complete readiness for firing upon the town. Most of the Americans staid on board of their vessels, every moment expecting the attack; but nothing was done. The ship lay in that position all day, and at night resumed her old station. The alarm excited in the town upon this conduct of the English commander, was considerable, and four hundred troops were immediately marched in for its defence. During the night a boat was sent on shore for a pilot; they succeeded in getting one, but not without hazard, for the boat was discovered and fired at by the soldiers, one of whom wounded the pilot in the arm. Orders, it appears, had been issued, forbidding the pilots to assist in conducting the frigate out of the harbour.

On the 7th inst. this ship sailed, and as she passed fort Picolet her courses were hauled up, and every preparation made for engagement, in case she should be attacked. No attempt was, however, made to molest her, and she departed in peace. The number of French persons that made their escape in this frigate is said to have been about thirty, and many others might have been equally successful, had they been possessed of sufficient resolution to have hazarded the attempt. Previous to his departure, the captain in a conversation with an American gentleman, declared that “if, during the quarrel on the wharf, he had only said one word to his sailors, they would have picked up Christophe, his horse, and his whole gang, and carried them on board the frigate.” NOTES

Made in 1809, at the time of the publication of the foregoing letter. Mr. B. one of the Frenchmen who escaped through the bravery of the lieutenant of the British frigate, as above related, now resides in Philadelphia. He some time ago informed me, that through the friendship of general Romain, a black chief, now a general of division in 'Christophe's army, he was first advised of the danger in which the whites were of being massacred, and that it was through his admonition he undertook the attempt for his escape.

The frigate noticed in the preceding letter was the Desirée. The captain was Whitby, the same who has been the cause of so much huneasiness in the United States. It is much to be regretted, that a man possessed of so much humanity, even towards his enemies, should have been the unlucky perpetrator of an act which has been justly considered in our country as a wanton and flagrant violation of the laws of nations.

The name of the second lieutenant was Burtz, I believe the same who afterwards commanded his majesty's schooner Redbridge.

Sometime after the departure of the Desirée from the Cape, she went to Jamaica. An English gentleman who went passenger in her, and whom I afterwards saw, related to me the following anecdote, to which he was witness. He went one day with captain Whitby on board of the admiral's ship to pay their respects to the admiral, Sir John Duckworth. After some conversation relative to the affair that had happened at the Cape, Sir John addressed himself to Whitby in the following harsh language, uttered with warmth, and accompanied by his usual lisp: "What! you young son of a b—, threaten to blow a town down, and not do it: Gd you-You're

a disgrace to his majesty's service-I'll report you to the lords of the admiralty, and you shall be tried and hanged, by G,"

CRITICISM- FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

"SPAIN, COMMERCE, AND FREEDOM,"

A NATIONAL ODE,

Sung by Mr. Caulfield at the new Exchange Coffeehouse, Boston, at a public festival given in honour of the Spanish patriots, by the citizens of Boston, January 24, 1809.

Written by ROBERT TREAT PAINE, Junr.

66 ARMA VIROSQUE CANO."

• What a plague ails the man,' quoth friar John, 'start, staring mad, or bewitched on my word. What o'devil has he swallowed, that he thus peppers it away in this maggoty crambo vein.'

"Then Pantagruel chid friar John and said,

"Bold monk, forbear, this I'll assure ye,
"Proceeds all from poetic fury," &c.

WHEN the sage Pantagruel and his merry companions, after touching at Pope Figue Land, the Isle of Odes, and divers other places, not laid down in the maps, came at last to the Oracle of

VOL. II.

3 L

the Holy Bottle; they forthwith became grievously possessed with the spirit of fustian, and began to rhyme incontinently out of all

reason.

Whoever reads the colossal ode, which, for our sins, or rather the sins of the author, we have undertaken to dissect, will naturally conclude that our gigantic poet had just returned from a visit to this same oracle, and became in like manner, to use the words of the renowned Pantagruel, inspired with poetic fury. The poem is undoubtedly written in the true spirit of an oracle, though not that of the Delphic god, for it is sublime, prophetic, and unintelligible.

. The author bounces in upon us like a doughty stage king, with a most alarming blast of trumpets,

"Sound the trumpet of fame !"

A man whose imagination was apt to gambol a little, might here fancy he saw the poet pushing in a queer, bewhiskered, little High-Dutch trumpeter before him, mounted on a Canada poney, and ordering him, under pain of losing his long queue, to " sound the trumpet of Fame," and demand the attention of the whole universe to what he is going to say or sing. Let us hear what they have got to say, for really both poet and trumpeter seem to be charged up to the muzzle with combustibles and inspiration.

Sound the trumpet of FAME! swell that paean again!
Religion a war against TYRANNY wages:

From her couch springs in ARMOUR REGENERATE SPAIN,
Like a GIANT refresh'd by the slumber of AGES!

From the cell where she lay,

She leaps in array,

Like AJAX to DIE in the face of the day :

CHORUS.

And swears from POLLUTION her EMPIRE to save,

Her FLAG and her ALTARS, her HOME and her GRAVE!

Well blown little trumpeter! or rather well sung great poet"great let us call him, for he conquered us”—we mean our gravity. In this verse we are informed that Spain is regenerated, like a huge giant, who being overtaken in liquor perhaps, (for your giants were huge drinkers) fell asleep some hundred years ago, and not having the good fortune to be awakened, like Polyphemus, with a redhot poker, continued to snore away most lustily till the other day. Being at length, however, awakened, he starts up, rubs his eyes, or rather his eye-your genuine giants having but one peeper-yawns, stretches, and stares with gigantic astonishment, on being solemnly assured by his poet

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