



Produced by David T. Jones, Juliet Sutherland and the
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GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE.

VOL. XXXII. PHILADELPHIA, APRIL, 1848. NO. 4.

JACOB JONES.

OR THE MAN WHO COULDN'T GET ALONG IN THE WORLD.

BY T. S. ARTHUR.


Jacob Jones was clerk in a commission store at a salary of five
hundred dollars a year. He was just twenty-two, and had been receiving
this salary for two years. Jacob had no one to care for but himself;
but, somehow or other, it happened that he did not lay up any money,
but, instead, usually had from fifty to one hundred dollars standing
against him on the books of his tailors.

"How much money have you laid by, Jacob?" said one day the merchant
who employed him. This question came upon Jacob rather suddenly; and
coming from the source that it did, was not an agreeable one--for the
merchant was a very careful and economical man.

"I havn't laid by any thing yet," replied Jacob, with a slight air of
embarrassment.

"You havn't!" said the merchant, in surprise. "Why what have you done
with your money?"

"I've spent it, somehow or other."

"It must have been somehow or other, I should think, or somehow else,"
returned the employer, half seriously, and half playfully. "But
really, Jacob, you are a very thoughtless young man to waste your
money."

"I don't think I _waste_ my money," said Jacob.

"What, then, have you done with it?" asked the merchant.

"It costs me the whole amount of my salary to live."

The merchant shook his head.

Then you live extravagantly for a young man of your age and condition.
How much do you pay for boarding?"

"Four dollars a week."

"Too much by from fifty cents to a dollar. But, even paying that sum,
four more dollars per week ought to meet fully all your other
expenses, and leave you what would amount to nearly one hundred
dollars per annum to lay by. I saved nearly two hundred dollars a year
on a salary no larger than you receive."

"I should like very much to know how you did it. I can't save a cent;
in fact, I hardly ever have ten dollars in my pocket."

"Where does your money go, Jacob? In what way do you spend a hundred
dollars a year more than is necessary?"

"They are spent, I know; and that is pretty much all I can tell about
it," replied Jacob.

"You can certainly tell by your private account book."

"I don't keep any private account, sir."

"You don't?" in surprise.

"No, sir. What's the use? My salary is five hundred dollars a year,
and wouldn't be any more nor less if I kept an account of every half
cent of it."

"Humph!"

The merchant said no more. His mind was made up about his clerk. The
fact that he spent five hundred dollars a year, and kept no
private account, was enough for him.

"He'll never be any good to himself nor anybody else. Spend his whole
salary--humph! Keep no private account--humph!"

This was the opinion held of Jacob Jones by his employer from that
day. The reason why he had inquired as to how much money he had saved,
was this. He had a nephew, a poor young man, who, like Jacob, was a
clerk, and showed a good deal of ability for business. His salary was
rather more than what Jacob received, and, like Jacob, he spent it
all; but not on himself. He supported, mainly, his mother and a
younger brother and sister. A good chance for a small, but safe
beginning, was seen by the uncle, which would require only about a
thousand dollars as an investment. In his opinion it would be just
the thing for Jacob and the nephew. Supposing that Jacob had four or
five hundred dollars laid by, it was his intention, if he approved of
the thing, to furnish his nephew with a like sum, in order to join him
and enter into business. But the acknowledgment of Jacob that he had
not saved a dollar, and that he kept no private account, settled the
matter in the merchant's mind, as far as he was concerned.

About a month afterward, Jacob met his employer's nephew, who said,

"I am going into business."

"You are?"

"Yes."

"What are you going to do?"

"Open a commission store."

"Ah! Can you get any good consignments?"

"I am to have the agency for a new mill, which has just commenced
operations, beside consignments of goods from several small concerns
at the East."

"You will have to make advances."

"To no great extent. My uncle has secured the agency of the new mill
here without any advance being required, and eight hundred or a
thousand dollars will be as much as I shall need to secure as many
goods as I can sell from the other establishments of which I speak."

"But where will the eight hundred or a thousand come from?"

"My uncle has placed a thousand dollars at my disposal. Indeed, the
whole thing is the result of his recommendation."

"Your uncle! You are a lucky dog. I wish I had a rich uncle. But there
is no such good fortune for me."

This was the conclusion of Jacob Jones, who made himself quite unhappy
for some weeks, brooding over the matter. He never once dreamed of the
real cause of his not having had an equal share in his young friend's
good fortune. He had not the most distant idea that his employer felt
nearly as much regard for him as for his nephew, and would have
promoted his interests as quickly, if he had felt justified in doing
so.

"It's my luck, I suppose," was the final conclusion of his mind; "and
it's no use to cry about it. Any how, it isn't every man with a rich
uncle, and a thousand dollars advanced, who succeeds in business, nor
every man who starts without capital that is unsuccessful. I
understand as much about business as the old man's nephew, any day;
and can get consignments as well as he can."

Three or four months after this, Jacob notified the merchant that he
was going to start for himself, and asked his interest as far as he
could give it, without interfering with his own business. His employer
did not speak very encouragingly about the matter, which offended
Jacob.

"He's afraid I'll injure his nephew," he said to himself. "But he
needn't be uneasy--the world is wide enough for us all, the old
hunks!"

Jacob borrowed a couple of hundred dollars, took a store at five
hundred dollars a year rent, and employed a clerk and porter. He then
sent his circulars to a number of manufactories at the East,
announcing the fact of his having opened a new commission house, and
soliciting consignments. His next move was, to leave his
boarding-house, where he had been paying four dollars a week, and take
lodgings at a hotel at seven dollars a week.

Notwithstanding Jacob went regularly to the post office twice every
day, few letters came to hand, and but few of them contained bills of
lading and invoices. The result of the first year's business was an
income from commission on sales of seven hundred dollars. Against this
were the items of one thousand dollars for personal expenses, five
hundred dollars for store-rent, seven hundred dollars for clerk and
porter, and for petty and contingent expenses, two hundred dollars;
leaving the uncomfortable deficit of seventeen hundred dollars, which
stood against him in the form of bills payable for sales effected, and
small notes of accommodation borrowed from his friends.

The result of the first year's business of his old employer's nephew
was very different. The gross profits were three thousand dollars, and
the expenses as follows: personal expense, seven hundred dollars--just
what the young man's salary had previously been, and out of which he
supported his mother and her family--store-rent, three hundred
dollars; porter, two hundred and fifty, petty expenses one hundred
dollars--in all, thirteen hundred and fifty dollars, leaving a net
profit of sixteen hundred and fifty dollars. It will be seen that he
did not go to the expense of a clerk during the first year. He
preferred working a little harder, and keeping his own books, by which
an important saving was effected.

At the end of the second year, notwithstanding Jacob Jones' business
more than doubled itself, he was compelled to wind up, and found
himself twenty-five hundred dollars worse than nothing. Several of his
unpaid bills to eastern houses were placed in suit, and as he lived in
a state where imprisonment for debt still existed, he was compelled to
go through the forms required by the insolvent laws, to keep clear of
durance vile.

At the very period when he was driven under by adverse gales, his
young friend, who had gone into business about the same time, found
himself under the necessity of employing a clerk. He offered Jones a
salary of four hundred dollars, the most he believed himself yet
justified in paying. This was accepted, and Jacob found himself once
more standing upon _terra firma_, although the portion upon which his
feet rested was very small, still it was _terra firma_--and that was
something.

The real causes of his ill success never for a moment occurred to the
mind of Jacob. He considered himself an "unlucky dog."

"Every thing that some people touch turns to money," he would
sometimes say. "But I wasn't born under a lucky star."

Instead of rigidly bringing down his expenses, as he ought to have
done, to four hundred dollars, if he had had to live in a garret and
cook his own food, Jacob went back to his old boarding-house, and
paid four dollars a week. All his other expenses required at least
eight dollars more to meet them. He was perfectly aware that he was
living beyond his income--the exact excess he did not stop to
ascertain--but he expected an increase of salary before long, as a
matter of course, either in his present situation or in a new one. But
no increase took place for two years, and then he was between three
and four hundred dollars in debt to tailors, boot-makers, his
landlady, and to sundry friends, to whom he applied for small sums of
money in cases of emergency.

One day about this time, two men were conversing together quite
earnestly, as they walked leisurely along one of the principal streets
of the city where Jacob resided. One was past the prime of life, and
the other about twenty-two. They were father and son, and the subject
of conversation related to the wish of the latter to enter into
business. The father did not think the young man was possessed of
sufficient knowledge of business, or experience, and was, therefore,
desirous of associating some one with him who could make up these
deficiencies. If he could find just the person that pleased him, he
was ready to advance capital and credit to an amount somewhere within
the neighborhood of twenty thousand dollars. For some months he had
been thinking of Jacob, who was a first-rate salesman, had a good
address, and was believed by him to possess business habits eminently
conducive to success. The fact that he had once failed, was something
of a drawback in his mind, but he had asked Jacob the reason of his
ill-success, which was so plausibly explained, that he considered the
young man as simply unfortunate in not having capital, and nothing
else.

"I think Mr. Jones just the right man for you," the father said, as
they walked along.

"I don't know of any one with whom I had rather form a business
connection. He is a man of good address, business habits, and, as far
as I know, good principles."

"Suppose you mention the subject to him this afternoon."

This was agreed to. The two men then entered the shop of a fashionable
tailor, for the purpose of ordering some clothes. While there, a man,
having the appearance of a collector, came in, and drew the tailor
aside. Their conversation was brief but earnest, and concluded by the
tailor's saying, so loud that he could be heard by all who were
standing near,

"It's no use to waste your time with him any longer. Just hand over
the account to Simpson, and let him take care of it."

The collector turned away, and the tailor came back to his customers.

"It is too bad," he said, "the way some of these young fellows do
serve us. I have now several thousand dollars on my books against
clerks who receive salaries large enough to support them handsomely,
and I can't collect a dollar of it. There is Jacob Jones, whose
account I have just ordered to be placed in the hands of a lawyer, he
owes me nearly two hundred dollars, and I can't get a cent out of
him. I call him little better than a scamp."

The father and son exchanged glances of significance, but said
nothing. The fate of Jacob Jones was sealed.

"If that is the case," said the father, as they stepped into the
street, "the less we have to do with him the better."

To this the son assented. Another more prudent young man was selected,
whose fortune was made.

"When Jacob received lawyer Simpson's note, threatening a suit if the
tailor's bill were not paid, he was greatly disturbed.

"Am I not the most unfortunate man in the world?" he said to himself,
by way of consolation. "After having paid him so much money, to be
served like this. It is too bad. But this is the way of the world. Let
a poor devil once get a little under the weather, and every one must
have a kick at him."

In this dilemma poor Jacob had to call upon the tailor and beg him for
further time. This was humiliating, especially as the tailor was
considerably out of humor, and disposed to be hard with him. A threat
to apply for the benefit of the insolvent law again, if a suit was
pressed to an issue, finally induced the tailor to waive legal
proceedings for the present, and Jacob had the immediate terrors of
the law taken from before his eyes.

This event set Jacob to thinking and calculating, what he had never
before deemed necessary in his private affairs. The result did not
make him feel any happier. To his astonishment he ascertained that he
owed more than the whole of his next year's salary would pay, while
that was not in itself sufficient to meet his current expenses.

For some weeks after this discovery of the real state of his affairs,
Jacob was very unhappy. He applied for an increase of salary, and
obtained the addition of one hundred dollars per annum. This was
something, which was about all that could be said. If he could live on
four hundred dollars a year, which he had never yet been able to do,
the addition to his salary would not pay his tailor's bill within two
years; and what was he to do with boot-maker, landlady, and others?

It happened about this time that a clerk in the bank where his old
employer was a director, died. His salary had been one thousand
dollars. For the vacant place Jacob made immediate application, and
was so fortunate as to secure it.

Under other circumstances, Jacob would have refused a salary of
fifteen hundred dollars in a bank against five hundred in a
counting-room, and for the reason that a bank, or office clerk, has
little or no hope beyond his salary all his life, while a
counting-house clerk, if he have any aptness for trade, stands a fair
chance of getting into business sooner or later, and making his
fortune as a merchant. But a debt of four hundred dollars hanging over
his head, was an argument in favor of a clerkship in the bank, at a
salary of a thousand dollars a year, not to be resisted.

"I'll keep it until I get even with the world again," he consoled
himself by saying, "and then I'll go back into a counting-room. I've
an ambition above being a bank clerk all my life."

Painful experience had made Jacob a little wiser. For the first time
in his life he commenced keeping an account of his personal expenses.
This acted as a salutary check upon his bad habit of spending money
for every little thing that happened to strike his fancy, and enabled
him to clear off his whole debt within the first year. Unwisely,
however, he had, during this time, promised to pay some old debts,
from which the law had released him. The persons holding these claims,
finding him in the receipt of a higher salary, made an appeal to his
honor, which, like an honest, but not a prudent man, he responded to
by a promise of payment as soon as it was in his power. But little
time elapsed after these promises were made, before he found himself
in the hands of constables and magistrates, and was only saved from
imprisonment by getting friends to go his bail for six and nine
months. In order to secure them, he had to give an order in advance
for his salary. To get these burdens off of his shoulders, it took
twelve months longer, and then he was nearly thirty years of age.

"Thirty years old!" he said, to himself on his thirtieth birth-day.
"Can it be possible? Long before this I ought to have been doing a
flourishing business, and here I am, nothing but a bank clerk, with
the prospect of never rising a step higher as long as I live. I don't
know how it is that some people get along so well in the world. I am
sure I am as industrious, and can do business as well as any man; but
here I am still at the point from which I started twenty years ago. I
can't understand it. I'm afraid there's more in luck than I'm willing
to believe."

From this time Jacob set himself to work to obtain a situation in some
store or counting-room, and finally, after looking about for nearly a
year, was fortunate enough to obtain a good place, as book-keeper and
salesman, with a wholesale grocer and commission merchant. Seven
hundred dollars was to be his salary. His friends called him a fool
for giving up an easy place at one thousand a year, for a hard one at
seven hundred. But the act was a much wiser one than many others of
his life.

Instead of saving money during the third year of his receipt of one
thousand dollars, he spent the whole of his salary, without paying off
a single old debt. His private account-keeping had continued through a
year and a half. After that it was abandoned. Had it been continued,
it might have saved him three or four hundred dollars, which were now
all gone, and nothing to show for them. Poor Jacob! experience did not
make him much wiser.

Two years passed, and at least half a dozen young men here and there
around our friend Jacob, went into business, either as partners in
some old houses, or under the auspices of relatives or interested
friends. But there appeared no opening for him. He did not know, that
many times during that period, he had been the subject of conversation
between parties, one or both of which were looking out for a man of
thorough business qualifications against which capital would be
placed; nor the fact, that either his first failure, his improvidence,
or something else personal to himself, had caused him to be set aside
for some other one not near so capable.

He was lamenting his ill-luck one day, when a young man with whom he
was very well acquainted, and who was clerk in a neighboring store,
called in and said that he wanted to have some talk with him about a
matter of interest to both.

"First of all, Mr. Jones," said the young man, after they were alone,
"how much capital could you raise by a strong effort?"

"I am sure I don't know," replied Jacob, not in a very cheerful tone.
"I never was lucky in having friends ready to assist me."

"Well! perhaps there will be no need of that. You have had a good
salary for four or five years--how much have you saved? Enough,
probably, to answer every purpose--that is, if you are willing to join
me in taking advantage of one of the best openings for business that
has offered for a long time. I have a thousand dollars in the savings
bank. You have as much, or more, I presume?"

"I am sorry to say I have not," was poor Jacob's reply, in a
desponding voice. "I was unfortunate in business some years ago, and
my old debts have drained away from me every dollar I could earn."

"Indeed! that is very unfortunate. I was in hopes you could furnish a
thousand dollars."

"I might borrow it, perhaps, if the chance is a very good one."

"Well, if you could do that, it would be as well, I suppose," returned
the young man. "But you must see about it immediately. If you cannot
join me at once, I must find some one who will, for the chance is too
good to be lost."

Jacob got a full statement of the business proposed, its nature and
prospects, and then laid the matter before the three merchants with
whom he had at different times lived in the capacity of clerk, and
begged them to advance him the required capital. The subject was taken
up by them and seriously considered. They all liked Jacob, and felt
willing to promote his interests, but had little or no confidence in
his ultimate success, on account of his want of economy in personal
matters. It was very justly remarked by one of them, that this want of
economy, and the judicious use of money in personal matters, would go
with him in business, and mar all his prospects. Still, as they had
great confidence in the other man, they agreed to advance, jointly,
the sum needed.

In the meantime, the young man who had made the proposition to Jacob,
when he learned that he had once failed in business, was still in
debt, and liable to have claims pushed against him, (this he inferred
from Jacob's having stretched the truth, by saying that his old debts
drained away from him every dollar, when the fact was he was freed
from them by the provisions of the insolvent law of the state,) came
to the conclusion that a business connection with him was a thing to
be avoided rather than sought after. He accordingly turned his
thoughts in another quarter, and when Jones called to inform him that
he had raised the capital needed, he was coolly told that it was too
late, he having an hour before closed a partnership arrangement with
another person, under the belief that Jones could not advance the
money required.

This was a bitter disappointment, and soured the mind of Jacob against
his fellow man, and against the fates also, which he alledged were all
combined against him. His own share in the matter was a thing
undreamed of. He believed himself far better qualified for business
than the one who had been preferred before him, and he had the
thousand dollars to advance. It must be his luck that was against him,
nothing else; he could come to no other conclusion. Other people could
get along in the world, but he couldn't. That was the great mystery of
his life.

For two years Jacob had been waiting to get married. He had not wished
to take this step before entering into business, and having a fair
prospect before him. But years were creeping on him apace, and the
fair object of his affections seemed weary of delay.

"It is no use to wait any longer," he said, after this dashing of his
cup to the earth. "Luck is against me. I shall never be any thing but
a poor devil of a clerk. If Clara is willing to share my humble lot,
we might as well be married first as last."

Clara was not unwilling, and Jacob Jones entered into the estate
connubial, and took upon him the cares of a family, with a salary of
seven hundred dollars a year to sustain the new relation. Instead of
taking cheap boarding, or renting a couple of rooms, and commencing
housekeeping in a small way, Jacob saw but one course before him, and
that was to rent a genteel house, go in debt for genteel furniture,
and keep two servants. Two years was the longest that he could bear up
under this state of things, when he was sold out by the sheriff, and
forced "to go through the mill again," as taking the benefit of the
insolvent law was facetiously called.

"Poor fellow! he has a hard time of it. I wonder why it is that he
gets along so badly. He is an industrious man, and regular in his
habits. It is strange. But some men seem born to ill-luck."

So said some of his pitying friends. Others understood the matter
better.

Ten years have passed, and Jacob is still a clerk, but not in a store.
Hopeless of getting into business, he applied for a vacancy that
occurred in an insurance company, and received the appointment, which
he still holds, at a salary of twelve hundred dollars a year. After
being sold out three times by the sheriff, and having the deep
mortification of seeing her husband brought down to the humiliating
necessity of applying as often for the benefit of the insolvent law,
Mrs. Jones took affairs, by consent of her husband, into her own
hands, and managed them with such prudence and economy that,
notwithstanding they have five children, the expenses, all told, are
not over eight hundred dollars a year, and half of the surplus, four
hundred dollars, is appropriated to the liquidation of debts
contracted since their marriage, and the other half deposited in the
savings' bank, as a fund for the education of their children in the
higher branches, when they reach a more advanced age.

To this day it is a matter of wonder to Jacob Jones why he could never
get along in the world like some people; and he has come to the
settled conviction that it is his "luck."




THE DARLING.

BY BLANCHE BENNAIRDE.


    When first we saw her face, so dimpled o'er
      With smiles of sweetest charm, we said within
    Our inmost heart, that ne'er on earth before
      Had so much passing beauty ever been:
    So full of sweetest grace, so fair to see--
    This treasure bright our babe in infancy.

    Like blush of roses was the tint of health
      O'erspread her lovely cheeks; and they might vie
    In beauty with the fairest flower--nor wealth,
      Though told in countless millions, e'er could buy
    The radiance of this gem, than aught more bright
    Which lies in hidden mine, or saw the light.

    The dawn of life was fair; so was its morn;
      For with each day new beauties met our view,
    And well we deemed that she, the dear first-born,
      Might early fade, like flowers that earth bestrew
    With all their cherished beauty, leaving naught
    But faded leaves where once their forms were sought.

    She smiled upon us, and her spirit fled
      To taste the pleasures of that fairer land,
    Where angels ever dwell--she is not dead;
      But there with them her beauteous form doth stand,
    Arrayed in flowing light, before the throne
    Of Him whose name is Love--the Holy One.

    She was our choicest bud, our precious flower;
      But now she blooms in that celestial place,
    Where naught can spoil the pleasure of an hour,
      Nor from its beauty one bright line efface--
    Where all is one perpetual scene of bliss,
    Unmixed with sin; all perfect happiness.

    The darling then is safe, secure from ill;
      Why should we mourn that she hath left this earth,
    When in that brighter land she bloometh still,
      A flower more perfect, of celestial birth?
    Let us submit, and own His righteous care
    Who doeth well; striving to meet her there.




BATTLE OF FORT MOULTRIE.[1]

BY CHARLES J. PETERSON.

When the news of the battle of Lexington reached Charleston, South
Carolina rose in commotion. The provincial Congress, which had
adjourned, immediately re-assembled. Two regiments of foot and one of
horse were ordered to be raised; measures were taken to procure
powder; and every preparation made for the war which was now seen to
be inevitable. A danger of a vital character speedily threatened the
colony. This was its invasion by the British; a project which had long
been entertained by the royal generals. To provide in time for
defeating it, Congress had dispatched General Lee to the South. It was
not until the beginning of the summer of 1776, however, that the
enemy's armament set sail from New York, consisting of a large fleet
of transports with a competent land force, commanded by Sir Henry
Clinton, and attended by a squadron of nine men-of-war, led by Sir
Peter Parker. On the arrival of this expedition off the coast, all was
terror and confusion among the South Carolinians. Energetic measures
were, however, adopted to repel the attack.

To defend their capital the inhabitants constructed on Sullivan's
Island, near the entrance of their harbor, and about four miles from
the city, a rude fort of palmetto logs, the command of which was given
to Col. Moultrie. Never, perhaps, was a more inartificial defence
relied on in so great an emergency. The form of the fort was square,
with a bastion at each angle; it was built of logs based on each other
in parallel rows, at a distance of sixteen feet. Other logs were bound
together at frequent intervals with timber dove-tailed and bolted into
them. The spaces between were filled up with sand. The merlons were
faced with palmetto logs. All the industry of the Carolinians,
however, was insufficient to complete the fort in time; and when the
British fleet entered the harbor, the defences were little more than a
single front facing the water. The whole force of Col. Moultrie was
four hundred and thirty-five, rank and file; his armament consisted of
nine French twenty-sixes, fourteen English eighteens, nine twelve and
seven nine pounders. Finding the fort could be easily enfiladed, Gen.
Lee advised abandoning it; but the governor refused, telling Moultrie
to keep his post, until he himself ordered the retreat. Moultrie, on
his part, required no urging to adopt this more heroic course. A
spectator happening to say, that in half an hour the enemy would knock
the fort to pieces. "Then," replied Moultrie, undauntedly, "we will
lie behind the ruins, and prevent their men from landing." Lee with
many fears left the island, and repairing to his camp on the main
land, prepared to cover the retreat of the garrison, which he
considered inevitable.

[Footnote 1: From a work now in press, and shortly to be published,
entitled "_The Military Heroes of the United States. By C. J.
Peterson. 2 vols. 8vo. 500 pp._"]

There was, perhaps, more of bravado than of sound military policy in
attacking this fort at all, since the English fleet might easily have
run the gauntlet of it, as was done a few years later. But Fort
Moultrie was destined to be to the navy what Bunker Hill had been to
the army. It was in consequence of excess of scorn for his enemy, that
Sir Peter Parker, disdaining to leave such a place in his rear,
resolved on its total demolition. He had no doubt but that, in an hour
at the utmost, he could make the unpracticed Carolinians glad to sue
for peace on any terms. Accordingly on the 28th of June, 1776, he
entered the harbor, in all the parade of his proud ships, nine in
number, and drawing up abreast the fort, let go his anchors with
springs upon his cables, and began a furious cannonade. Meanwhile
terror reigned in Charleston. As the sound of the first gun went
booming over the waters toward the town, the trembling inhabitants who
had been crowding the wharves and lining the house-tops since early
morning, turned pale with ominous forebodings. Nor were the feelings
of the defenders of the fort less anxious. Looking off, over the low
island intervening between them and the city, they could see the
gleaming walls of their distant homes; and their imaginations conjured
up the picture of those dear habitations given to the flames, as
another Charlestown had been, a twelve-month before, and the still
dearer wives that inhabited them, cast houseless upon the world. As
they turned from this spectacle, and watched the haughty approach of
the enemy, at every motion betraying confidence of success, their eyes
kindled with indignant feelings, and they silently swore to make good
the words of their leader, by perishing, if need were, under the ruins
of the fort.

One by one the British men-of-war gallantly approached the stations
assigned them, Sir Peter Parker, in the Bristol, leading the van. The
Experiment, another fifty gun ship, came close after, and both dropped
their anchors in succession directly abreast the fort. The other
frigates followed, and ranged themselves as supports. The remaining
vessels were still working up to their stations, when the first gun
was fired, and instantly the battle begun. The quantity of powder on
the island being