Page:Statement of the attempted rescue of General Lafayette from Olmutz.djvu/7

 Mr. Huger’s own words, he said “we conversed freely, and I was led to inform him that General Lafayette had first landed at my father’s house on North Island, in the harbour of Georgetown, in South Carolina. The small vessel in which they had sailed from France, made the land off that part of the coast lying, as they knew, to the north of Charleston, to which port they were bound, but they feared to proceed without information to that city, which might have fallen into the hands of the British during their voyage. They sent a boat to obtain information, and observing a canoe fishing outside the breakers, desired it might be brought to their vessel. The negroes in the canoe were people of my father’s, who alarmed at observing the boat make for them, endeavoured to escape to the shore, but were intercepted and carried on board the vessel; they then piloted the boat with three gentlemen in it, who were General Lafayette, Baron DeKalb and (I think) Steuben, to my father’s house on the Island, which they reached about night fall. The first impression of the servants, that it was a privateer’s boat, had been communicated to the family, who were soon agreeably relieved from their anxiety. These circumstances were told me by my mother. Their