Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/565

] after the innumerable excesses of rapine, cruelty and lust, the Americans could not be blamed for believing that the British ministers designed to ensnare them. The wound was incurable, and friendship could not be restored. This was universally admitted to be true; and whoever will reflect attentively upon the long series of events which we have related up to this time, will perceive that the Americans were always constant in their resolution, the English always versatile, uncertain, and wavering. Hence it is not at all surprising, that those found new friends, and that these not only lost theirs, but also made enemies of them at the very moment when they could do them the least harm, and might receive the most from them. Vigorous resolutions prevent danger; half measures invite and aggravate it.

Washington's position and activity during the winter and spring, had seriously straitened the British army in Philadelphia for forage and fresh provisions. A portion, at least, of the people of Pennsylvania were not ill affected to the royal cause, nor without a desire to supply the troops, while many more were willing to carry victuals to Philadelphia, where they found a ready market, and payment in gold or silver; whereas the army at Valley Forge could pay only in paper money of uncertain value. But it was not easy to reach Philadelphia, nor safe to attempt it; for the American parties often intercepted them, took the provisions without payment, and not unfrequently added corporal chastisement. The. first operations on the part of the British, therefore, in the campaign of 1778, were undertaken in order to procure supplies for the army. About the middle of March, a strong detachment, under Lieutenant-colonel Mawhood, made a foraging excursion, for six or seven days, into New Jersey. Acting out the spirit of a threat, made by the royal commissioners to increase the horrors of war, they bayonetted in cold blood some fifty or sixty of the militia, and returned to Philadelphia with little loss. Early on the morning of the 4th of May, the British came suddenly upon some militia at Crooked Billet, about seventeen miles from Philadelphia; but the Americans effected their escape with the loss of their baggage. On the 7th of May, the British undertook an expedition against the galleys and other shipping which had escaped up the Delaware, after the reduction of Mud Island, and destroyed some thirty or forty vessels and some stores and provisions. The undisputed superiority of the British naval force, and the consequent command of the Delaware, gave them great facilities in directing a suitable armament against any particular point; and the movements of the militia, on whom Congress chiefly depended for repelling sudden predatory incursions, and for guarding the roads to Philadelphia, were often tardy and inefficient. The roads were ill guarded; and the British commonly accomplished their foraging, and returned to camp, before an adequate force could be assembled to oppose them.

We close the present chapter with a brilliant exploit of the gallant