Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/667

Rh by congress one of the ministers to negotiate peace. He then went to Paris, where, with John Jay and Benjamin Franklin, he signed the preliminaries of the treaty, 30 Nov.. 1782, and was instrumental in the insertion of a clause prohibiting, on the British evacuation, the "carrying away any negroes or other property of the inhabitants." On his return to Charleston he was welcomed with enthusiasm and offered many offices, which his impaired health forced him to decline. He retired to his plantation near Charleston and devoted his life to agriculture. His will concluded with this request : "I solemnly enjoin it on my son, as an indispensable duty, that, as soon as he conveniently can, after my decease, he cause my body to be wrapped in twelve yards of tow-cloth and burned until it be entirely consumed, and then, collecting my bones, deposit them wherever he may think prop- er." This was the first cremation in this country. Some of Laurens's political papers have been published in the collections of the South Carolina historical society, and his rebus letter to Lord George Gordon is reprinted in the " Magazine of American History " (December, 1884). — His son, John, soldier, b. in South Carolina about 1756 ; d. there, 27 Aug., 1782, was educated in England. At the opening of the Revolution he returned home, joined the army, and becoming aide to Washing- ton, was frequently his secretary, and his chief medium of communication with the foreigners in the service. His first essay in arms was at Brandy- wine, 11 Sept., 1777, and it is said that he participated in every action of the army that Washington commanded. After the battle of Monmouth. 28 June, 1778, he shot Gen. Charles Lee in a duel for disrespectful language to his commander. Lee afterward said of his opponent: "How handsomely the young fellow behaved ! I could have hugged him." At the battle of Germantown he was severely wounded in the attempt to expel the British from the Chew house. On the appearance of the enemy in the south he repaired to Charleston and became attached to the militia force of Gen. Moultrie, who was watching the movements of the British in Georgia, and when Gen. Prevost made a demonstration against Charleston with a force of 5,000 men, Laurens did good service in skirmishing and covering defiles. At the pass of Coosa whatchie. at the head of about 20 regulars and 200 militia, he met Prevost, and was again wounded, escaping with his life by the gallantry of a subordinate officer. Subsequently, when the combined French and American forces under D'Estaing and Lincoln attempted to take Savannah, Laurens led the light infantry and was one of the first to mount the British works. He was also active in the defence of Charleston when it was besieged by Sir Henry Clinton. After its fall he rejoined Gen. Washington, and was sent by him to France to obtain money and supplies, arriving there early in the spring of 1781. Impatient of the delay of the French ministry, lie finally, in defiance of precedent, demanded and obtained an audience with the king in person, and on the next day was officially informed that the required aid would be given. He returned to this country in August and re- ceived a vote of thanks from congress for his services. In three days after he reached Philadelphia he finished his business with congress, and had rejoined the American army. With Dr. Franklin, the Count de Vergennes, and the Marquis de Castries, he arranged a plan for the campaign of 1781. At the siege of Yorktown he captured one of the two redoubts that were stormed, receiving in person the sword of the commander. When operations had ceased in the north he joined the army of the south under Greene, and by his activity checked every effort of the British garrison in Charleston, and confined them for many months to the walls of the city. Hearing of an enterprise against a strong marauding force of the British, who were engaged in ravaging the plantations along the Combahee, Laurens, who had been ill, eagerly sought its command. By hard riding he overtook the brigade, and on the next day led his troops to a point where the British lay in am- bush, having been advised of the proposed attack. Laurens was slain at their first fire. "Poor Laurens!" wrote Gen. Greene, "has fallen in a paltry little skirmish. You knew his temper, and 1 pre- dicted his fate. The love of military glory made him seek it upon occasions unworthy his rank. The state will feel his loss." "He had not a fault that I could discover," wrote Washington," unless it were intrepidity bordering upon rashness." He was also an intimate friend of Alexander Hamilton. His daring won for him from his comrades the title of the "Bayard of the Revolution." He once refused an unusual advance of grade that was offered him by congress, lest it should awaken jealousy and injure the service. He urged upon his father the employment of negroes in the army of the south, but the latter opposed the policy in a letter that is still extant. His correspondence was published for the Bradford club, with a memoir bv William Gilmore Simms (New York, 1867).

LAURENT, Cornelius Baldran (also called ), Dutch buccaneer, b. in Dordrecht, Holland, in the latter half of the 17th century. He was at first in the Spanish service and fought against the buccaneers, but, having been captured by the latter, joined them and soon became one of their chiefs. He excited such terror in the Spanish-American colonies that a prayer was inserted in the public service asking to be delivered from the wrath of &ldquo;Laurencillo,&rdquo; the name by which he was known among the Spaniards. In 1683 there were about 1,200 buccaneers under the joint command of Laurent and Van de Horn (q. v.). They had altogether seven vessels fully armed. Laurent and Horn commanded each a frigate of fifty guns. With this force they sailed to Vera Cruz, surprised the city during the night, took the principal inhabitants prisoners, and held them for ransom. A rescue was attempted by forces from the interior, and the buccaneers were forced to abandon some of their captives, though they succeeded in getting more than 1,000 on board their vessels. Then a dispute arose on the subject of a division of the booty, which amounted to over $1,000,000, and a duel was fought between Horn and Laurent, resulting in the wounding of the former. The quarrel of the chiefs soon spread among the sailors, who would have come to blows if Laurent had not hastened to share the booty and prisoners among them. He then set sail with the greater part of the ships and arrived at Goave, on the west coast of Santo Domingo. The expedition to Vera Cruz having taken place in spite of the prohibition of the French government, Laurent, although well received by the inhabitants of Santo Domingo, was not allowed to appear in public. He resumed his operations in 1684, and took two frigates and a sloop off Carthagena on 23 Dec. He was then intrusted by the governor of Santo Domingo with the task of transporting the royal commissioner to the Windward islands. From 1685 till 1688 he was engaged in various enterprises both in the Antilles and on the Atlantic coast. The king of France made him governor of Avache island, and he also