The Connecticut courant, and the weekly intelligencer — Hartford [Conn.], 1781-12-25 00:00:00, page 2

{rig to Miuiftry having fine orders to feiports to prevent the
failing of the outward-bound ships till further orders.
By a letter from an officer at New-York, by the last mail,
we are informed that the rebel army, with the French, were
then encamped within fight of the British lines, and that they
expeded daily to be attacked: their force was reported to
confit of near £2,000 men, with 70 pieces of brass cannon,
and 30 howitzers: that Mons. de Grade was daily expeded
upon the coast from the Weft-Indies, when some important
blows would certainly be struck, which might probably bring
thislong, ill-looking, and id-concluded business to a crisis.
Admiral Rodney's fleet is expe&ed at New-York about the
middle of August.
From the above account; it seems strange, that bur Com
mander in Chief,who has fpentfo many campaigns in march
es and counter-marches in pursuit of an enemy which he
could never come up with, should now fuffer himfelf, with so
fine an army, to be cooped up in entrenchments, waiting an
attack, when, by a well-conduced coup de main, he might
molt probably finish the rebellion. It surely appears dif
graceful for a British armyto Itand upon the defenfive only,
a'gainlt an enemy they have always beaten with inferior
numbers, and efpccially now, as their force is rather superi
or, or at lealt equal to their opponent.,
Sept. 13. In consequence of an order received from Ply
mouth, from the Lords of the Admiralty the Quebec fleet,
which lay in the Sound, have all gone into Catwater, to be
secure from the combined fleet.
The N. S. D'Ardoras, Gregory Sylvas, master, is arrived
at Dublin from Oporto, in rx days. The master fays, that
before he left Oporro, intelligence had been received there,
that the Spaniards had attempted to carry Gibraltar by storm,
for which purpose they had kept up a dreadful cannonade and
bombardments from their batteries on the land fide, till a
great body of troops under cover of their ships, had landed
on the fide next the sea, after which the garrison was jointly
attacked ; but having loft some thousands of their troops,
without being able to make any impredion, were obliged to
give over the attacks Many of the Spaniards were drown
ed in reimbafking, and a great number of prisoners made ;
and it was the opinion at Oporto when he failed, that the
Spaniards would be obliged to raise the liege, in conference
es the iofs they had sustained.
Letters from the Levant, relative to the plague, are very
tiffeaing; it makes the most extraordinary ravages; almost
all the Turkish Iftes arc affected with it : At Alexandria a
bove 100 persons die in a day; and at Cairo above 1000.
Sept, u, Vednefday dispatches of the utmost importance
were received at the Balt-India Houle from the Governor
and Council of Madras, which were brought over land b,
Caps. ^Uppleby.---They contain the particulars of Sir Eyre
Coote's advantage over Hyder Ally in the Carnatic, which
have been so spit iced and decifivc, as to oblige that sangui
nary depredator to relinquish all his late coquefts in that
quarter of the Company's possessions.---The intelligence
further mentions, that Sir Eyre's successes have been follow
ed with the redaction of the most considerable fortrefles on
the frontiers of Hyder'sowh country, and that every day pro
mised the most ample vengeance on the lawless Asiatic Hy
der, whose footfteps were every where marked with blood
and desolation.
Belides the above agreeable and interesting news we learn,
that there had been a very severe engagement between the
Bombay troops and a large detachment of the enemy, in
which the former had'gained a complete vidory, and had
taken a number of prisoners, with fevcral large pieces of
cannon, baggage, &c.
Another account fays, that General Goddard had defeated
the Mahrattas in several a&ions, and had killed upwards of
8000 in different skirmishes.
There are advices in France, said to be received from a
Danish settlement in the kingdom of Bengal, which fays,
that the English East-India Company have taken possession
of Phulta, a considerable Dutch port in the river Hugely,
with immense quantities of goods, stores cash, &c. also se
veral country ships, and two homeward-bound Eaft-India
znen.
It seems to be an agreed point among politicians, and not
controverted by Minilters or their friends, that our armies
are so far from over-running North-America, and reducing
the Colonists to their allegiance to this country, that the re
bel armies, assisted by land and fea-forces, are closing in up
on our army at Head-quarters in New-York, on all sides, to
besiege it in due form, apparently with a view to extirpate
the power and jurifdi&ion of Grear-Britain from that coun
try, by one capital effort or final trial of strength and skill,
between her forces an ! those of her combined enemies, in
the prefentftate :—-a humiliating circumstance for Great-
Britain, after so long a martial ftrife, so many promises of
vigorous exertions repeated from year co year, so many mil
lions of money spent, so many thousands of lives lolt, and
many more cripled in this ill-concerted, worse conduced,
unmeaning, hopelcfs war, or rather forlorn hope.
Sept. Is. The Lively privateer of London, has sent into
Leith an American brig, called the Gustavus ill. with a rich
cargo. She was loaded at Gottenburg for America, has a
great quantity of tea and china on board, together with four
boxes of gold lace.
taft-lndia Hetfi ^ept. ^7, r,£r.
By accounts received over land from Bombay, dated the
31st of March and 30th of April, 1781, the East-India Com
pany are informed, that the terms offered the Mahrattas for
peace, had not been accepted.
That every acquisition proposed by the Government of
Bombay, to be made in the course of the war having been
accomplished, their future opperations would be confined to
a mere plan of defence.
The French fleet left the Coromandel coast inFebruary
without landing any aflihance for Hyder Ally, or doing any
material damage. Gen. Coote burnetii the boats at Pon
dicherry, which prevented the French from getting any sup
ply of provisions from the shore, for which they seemed much
distressed.
Country intelligence collected by Mr. Stuart at Goa, men
tions Hyder having quitted the Carnatic.
Sept. 20. By the latest accounts of the combined fleets,
we learn, that they separated in four divisions, one of which
Lore away for the well of Ireland .to cruise some leagues off
the mouth of the Shannon, and the other three to cruise in
the crafts of cur homeward-bound fleets
Letters from Guernsey, by yefter&y's post, fay, that the
French fleet is returned into Brest, where they have landed
5600 of their sailors lick.
Extract of a letter from Paris, Sept.S
« As Count D'Eftaing entered the Opera-House on Tuesday
sass, the fpedators rose, all of one accord; to pay him their
refpeds, and to teftify their pleasure of feeing him restored
to his priltine health and vigour."
The licuation of the Combined fleets is a paradox which
none can iolve One day a Portugal vessel passes through
them off Scilly ; the next a Dane descries them off the Irish
coast ; by a third, a division of them are seen in the North
Seas; by a fourth, they are in Brcft ; and by a letter from
Madrid, extracted from the foreign mails, they are (at the
very fame time while we hear oftheir being oft Scilly) in
the mouth of the Mediterranian, laying siege to Minorca.
Surely the Kings of France and Spain have been gifted lately
with the all- powerful wooden fivord of Harlequin, thus to make
their fleet skip from sea to sea in such a short space of time.
We need not wonder, therefore, if, in a day or two, we hear
of their laying siege to New-York, destroying Admiral
Hughes's fleet in the Weft-Indies, attacking Commodore
Johnftone and Prince Calimir in South-America, and anchor
ing off Kamskatka, all in the fame day !
A letter from Plymouth, of the 26th, fays, " This evening
the fleet was out of fight from the Tower, and if the wind
continues brisk, will be out of the Channel to-morrow; it
confilts of 27 fail of the line, to frigates, and 3 fire-ships."
Extract of a letter from Falmouth, Sept. 17.
" Last night the grand fleet palled by this harbour."
Can there be a zealot for prolonging these un
natural contentions, who will deny the power of
G rcat-Britain to&nake weekly defeents upon a
naked and unfortified country, and to spread all the
desolations which the laws of war would juftify,
against the fubje&s, cities, towns harbours, flap
ping, mills, houfesarfd territories of a separate
and foreign nation? Nay, is there nothing to be
credited to the generosity of the British army for
abstaining from that waste of the farms and pro
perty of the implacable and unrelenting rebel,
who may be found at this late day in councils or
in arms? What tongue can describe the tragical
feenes that would present themselves to the eye
of companion, the moment Great-Britain gives
command for no further forbearance on the in
land or sea coast frontiers, but to increase by all
possible endeavours, thegeneral burden of distress
and affliction ?—May God of his infinite mercy
prevent them, by a speedy reconciliation between
contending brethren ?
How then shall we find a name for the spirit,
which in dictating the edift for the congressional
thanksgiving prompts to this mode of conducing
the war, by insinuating a censure on the measures
hitherto pursued ?•
After recounting the intermedlingof France in
this quarrel between the parent and her children,
as one instance of the signal interposition of hea
ven in their favour, another is aligned to be,
'• In confounding the councils of our enemies,
“ and fuffering them to pursue such measures,
" as have, molt directly contributed to fruftrate
" their own desires and .expectations. Above
" all, in making their extreme cruelty to the in
“ habitants of these states, when in their power,
“ and their savage devastations of property the
" very means of cementing our union, and ad
“ ding vigor to every effort in opposition to
" them."
But perhaps this paragraph had its origin in the
dread, that Great-Britain might at lift be driven
to compel America to make preference of a hap
py re-union to an unprofitable separation, by' a
warfare that will be ruinous to the projects of the
leaders from the revolt of their partisans; and
that to state it, was the real design ofthis appa
rent Simulation to the fervour 'of devotion, if
possible to prolong the war and their profits by
the common calamities.
In this case, the people of America, and even
the advocates for independent whiggifm, unless
they arc fliarcrs of the plunders of the Congress,
owe no thanks to theirhigh niightineffes, for fu^l
gelling metres that cannot be viewed, even m
N E W-Y O R K, November 28.
(From Rivington's Royal Gazette.)
It is scarcely possible to conceive of a more im
pudent and cruel insult upon humanity, than the
order of the Congress for the celebration of a
feftival, after bringing their country to the very
edge of the precipice of utter deftruflion.
It is impudent to affigh as a motiveof rejoicing,
what the meanest underflanding mull ascribe to
Great-Britain's disinclination to prosecute the
war as a foreign one, instead of a chastisement
of fubje&s rebellious indeed, but not yet given up
as irreclaimable. And what cruelty greater, than
to provoke her to depart from this diftin€tion,
and proceed in future with a studied severity, for
rendering them as incapable of mifehief, as the
Congress declare them to be inimical and obsti
nate ?
diflant prefpea without hotter, except by eyee
from which nothing can draw a tear. And yet
it seems, for the benefits that have flowed from
their pall losses and fufferings, the Americans are
commanded to rejoice ! Obdurate hypocrites!
forbear to pervert the genuine devotions of grate
ful piety to yourbarbarous and deftruCtiye policy:
And tell me,whether yourselves have not, by this
very proclamation, furnifhed evidence of the in^
terpofition of Divine Providence, for the con
founding of your own wicked councils. Ccafe
from your delusions before they are made mani
feft to yoiff fellow-citizens, in one general indis
criminate conflagration, from which even you
may find it difficult to escape, with all the spoils
you have amassed in a more lenient and dilatory
but consuming war, Vaunt no longer of a French
triumph in your country, which instead of adding
to, has exhausted her wealth, by increasing her
debt ; and rendered every thing dear to a people,
the easier prey to a rapacious army, and an insi
dious popifli ally, whose interelt leads him to
hold the advantages he already has by your weak
ness, and whose long pra&ifed arts enable him to
cheat you, and the n^iferable people trusting in
your untutored skill, out of that peace, liberty,
and fafety, which are only to be gained by a re
turn to that fold, from which like filly sheep they
have strayed. And let the present miseries of
your country teach you, what the history of your
ancestors, in the long wifhe^ for restoration that
closed the, civil wars of the last century, ihould
have taught you, that an Englishman can never
be happy under any other government but his
,wn: and that the longer he is separated from
it, the more intollerable his anxieties, and the
keener his refentmehts at last against the authors
of the innovations from which they naturally
flow.
[Before any reply should be made to the fore
going venemous nonfenficaleffort of fialice, one
position ought to be established, viz. The free
Americans of the United States utterly deny
themselves to be Englishmen in any refpea.
Although these gentlemen are fond of honoring
us with the appellation ofchildren and brethren,
we beg leave to dispense with the compliment;
as we should reckon it the greatest disgrace to
be thought-to be any way related to that wretch
ed, blood thirsty people. An Englishman can
be happy underno other government but his own,
fays Rivington. ;it is very strange then that two
large British armies have at different times thought
fit to give us the fatigue of covering them.
Would it not be prudent in these New-York gen
tlemen rather to haflen to Britain while it is in
their power, and enjoy that ineffable, seraphic
happiness they speak of, than to run the rifque of
its filtering diminution under congressional au,
thority ?
But where is the mighty absurdity of a gene
ral feftival being ordered by Congress to teftify
our gratitude to heaven for delivering a desola
ting monster with fin army of near nine thousand
(all in the express image of their master) into our
hands. And has not this stroke in its conse
quences, brought Britain to the very edge of the
precipice of utter deftru&ion ? Surely these mor
tified Englishmen cannot freally think, that we
have so much tenderness and attention for Britifli
armies at this day, as to faft, and be clad in sack
cloth, when they fall into our power by whole
file.
Although we have feffered all the various ca-°
lamities of war that devils,or even Britons could
inflict (whenever they had the power,) yet after
all, it seems we have hitherto only received a lit
tle gentle chastisement, and are not yet given up
as irreclaimable. But take care gentlemen re
bels ?—harfher means arc now to be used ; we
are threatened with new and unheard of ruin.
These Englishmen may be amply compared to
a madman confined in an iron cage. He me
naces death and defiruaion to those without,
and endeavours to terify by his ravings, when at
the fame time it is evident he cannot stir an inch
beyond the bars of his ihclofure.
How handsomely these cut-throats give them
selves credit for not having desolated the Thir
teen States, and extirpated the inhabitants. By
their account of matters, although it has becnin
their power, yet they have been so kind, benevo
lent and humane as not to have set fire to one
town, city, ship, mill, or house in the United
States ; they have wafted no farms or property ;
they have not even burnt a meeting-house !---In
short, their whole conduct has proved them to be
an army of angels ; but if charaacrifed by their
deeds,eaciT undoubtedlybears a near rcfembl/rcr