15. The Privateers' Attack[80]
BY JOHN FONTAINE (1708)
WITH a constant apprehension of attack before us, we
lived on the qui vive from the first day of June, 1704,
until the eighth day of October, 1708, when, with all our
precautions, we were actually taken by surprise.
A French privateer entered the harbor during the night, and
anchored off Bear Haven, about five miles from my house,
and entirely out of our sight. She hoisted English colors by
way of deception. She succeeded in her wish, for the officer
no sooner discovered her, than he concluded she was a vessel
just arrived from America, and went down with two or three
soldiers of his company.
He was in great haste to be the first to board her, in order to
regale himself with rum punch, a beverage of which he was
unhappily much too fond. He was made a prisoner the instant
his foot touched the deck of the vessel, but the captain and the
officers behaved towards him with the greatest civility.
He was a little shocked at first, but they made him so very
welcome, treating him to the best of wine and brandy, that he
soon lost the remembrance of his situation. He gave the
captain all the information he wanted, and it was of a nature
to encourage him to proceed. He told him that the soldiers
were dispersed without any commander, for the captain and
lieutenant were both absent, as well as himself. He was sure
it would be very easy to surprise my house, for I had no one
near enough to help me but my own family. Upon the strength
of this information,
the captain prepared for going ashore, and sent eighty
men in three boats, commanded by two lieutenants.
They quitted the ship at midnight, and landed before
it was light. They commenced their march about daybreak, in
perfect silence, and stooping very low, in order that they
might be neither seen nor heard. An Irish servant who was
fetching home the cows was the first person to discover them,
marching in good order, and only the distance of a long
musket shot from the house. He ran home as fast as he could,
and cried out that we were lost, for a number of armed men
were in sight.
We got up directly, and I ordered every door to be shut,
but there was so much confusion that the gates of the large
court in front, and even the house door below the tower
were forgotten and left open for some time. This was
perceived by the enemy as we afterwards learned; but it
was supposed to have been done on purpose as a feint, and
that we must have a loaded cannon within
ready to fire if any one approached. When the men were
near enough to hear me, I hailed them through a
speaking-trumpet. I told them if they were friends to stop,
and let us know who they were, and if enemies, to come
forward, and we would receive them with vigor.
In the meantime my children were busily engaged
loading our arms and putting them in order. The men
continued to advance. I ordered my son James to fire upon
them from a garret window with our largest gun, which was
six feet long. This made them lower their heads; they then
separated into six detachments and took various posts. Some
of them, under cover of hedges and ditches, contrived to get
round to the back of the house. They had determined to root
us out this time, for their first act was to set fire to the
malt-house, which was towards the east, then to the stacks
of hay, straw and grain which were at the north and east, and
after that to the cow-house, stable, and long fish-press which
were at the west of my house.
These were all very combustible. In less than half an hour
we were encompassed with flames on every side but one. By
reason of the fire and smoke between them and us, we were
unable to see our enemies, and we suffered much from the
smoke, which found its way to us through every crevice.
I ordered the servants to put water in every tub and bucket
that could be found, and then immerse sheep-skins with wool
upon them, and ox-skins, of both which we had many in the
house. When these were thoroughly saturated I had them
placed in the windows, as being the most exposed parts of
the house. My dear wife superintended these arrangements.
The roof was slated, so there appeared but little
danger of fire being communicated to us through that
channel.
The whole garrison consisted of my wife and
myself, our children and four servants. Two of the latter were
mere cowboys, and the other two had never seen a battle. We
fired hap-hazard, as fast as we could load. We did so,
because we could actually see nothing but fire and smoke,
and therefore could not aim at our enemies.
My chief apprehension arose from the fear that they might
possess themselves of our cannon and turn them against
ourselves. Therefore I thought that while unable to see what
our assailants were doing, I could not employ myself better
than in firing my large blunderbuss every few minutes in the
direction of the cannon.
While I was firing at random, I had a glimpse of a man
setting fire to the covering of the fish-press. I took deliberate
aim at him with my blunderbuss, loaded as usual with
swan-shot, and wounded him in several places, but not
seriously.
While we were blinded and suffocated by the smoke from the
burning stacks, our adversaries raised a small mound of turf
and wood, behind which they intrenched themselves. They
set to work with long poles to detach the slates from the roof
of the north-east tower. As soon as they uncovered a portion,
they applied fire to it, by means of burning straw at the end
of their poles, and in this way the roof was on fire three
times, and we as often extinguished it from within.
[[80]]
This is one of the boldest defences known in
American history. A privateer was a vessel authorized to capture an
enemy's property, but the privateersmen often were little better than
pirates, as in this case.
