Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/59

 Rh river falls into the Rhine. The district of which Hanau was the capital was at this time governed by the heir-apparent of the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, as an independent county. The prince was not on good terms with his father, and was unwilling to send his troops through the territories of the latter, for fear of desertion. The soldiers were therefore shipped on boats and sent down the Rhine. The three spiritual electorates, the lands of the Elector of the Phalz, the free city of Cologne, and other less important districts bordered on that stretch of the river which the modern tourist passes in his steamboat between breakfast and dinner-time. Any one of the little states might make trouble if its permission for the passage of troops were not obtained, and after running the gantlet of them all, there was danger of still more serious hinderance when the flotilla came to Rhenish Prussia. Difficulties had already arisen between the local authorities and the English recruiting officers, and although the first regiment from Hanau, in the spring of 1776, was allowed to pass unmolested, trouble was brewing.

A detachment of chasseurs and recruits started from Hanau on March 7th, 1777. On the 8th the boats were stopped at Mainz, and eight men were taken from them. The archbishop claimed these either as his own subjects or as deserters from his service. The English government refused to interfere, and the complaints of the Prince of Hanau were unheeded. On March 25th, at S'Gravendael, in Holland, seven men sprang overboard, and three of them escaped, with the help of sympathizing peasants.

Meanwhile, two regiments of Anspach and