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steering east, with the wind at north, (Fig. 66,) let the wind

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shift to the west. The only consequence of this will be, that F will be thrown still farther to leeward, to its greater dis

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comes round, so as to bring his ships to windward of the three sternmost ships of F, and to leeward of the rest of his line,

so as to cut off the three sternmost ships.

If the wind should

be supposed to veer from point to point, all

round the compass, so that the fleet F, maintaining the weathergage of B, shall make a circuit round B to lee. ward; still, if B act cautiously, F will lose the three threatened ships.

B

B

B

Fig. 68.

Lastly, suppose the wind should instantly shift to a point opposite to what it was at the commencement of the attack, as from north to south. Before it can be ascertained whether such a change will be to the advantage or disadvantage of F, the relative situations of the two fleets must be considered. Suppose that the van and centre be separated at some distance from his rear, and that in consequence this fleet shall have taken such a position as is shown at Fig. 69. Though

B

Fig. 69.

F

in this case he will have got to windward, his three ships can never be regained or preserved from the attack of B. The most favourable situation for F would be when the fleets were in the position denoted by

Fig. 66, as then he could not only support his three ships with advantage, but even threaten, and cut off a part of B's detachment. In attempting this, however, he incurs the risk of coming to a close engagement, which we have supposed him to be sedulously avoiding.

From the Leeward.

Besides this method of attack from the windward, by detachments from the main fleet, Mr. Clerk shows how a successful attack may be made by a fleet to leeward, by its breaking the enemy's line, and this, either near the rear, near the centre, or not far from the van, of which cases the two former will be most likely to prove successful. The enemy's line can only be cut when the two hostile fleets veer on opposite tacks. The most simple method of effecting this is, for the van ship of the attacking squadron, instead of ranging parallel to that of the enemy, and to leeward of him, to pass through the first interval that offers, followed by the rest of the line, which is thus led across that of the enemy. In consequence of this manœuvre, the van of the leeward fleet will be to windward of the enemy's rear, and thus the attacking squadron will

have its line entire, while that of its adversary is divided. Again, the ships of the rear division, having their progress obstructed, will probably crowd on each other, get into confusion, and be driven to leeward.

Having now laid down the fundamental rules by which armies and fleets are managed, we shall, in the next chapter, commence the American Wars, at a period when WASHINGTON commences his great career, and the British urge their preposterous doctrine-the right of taxing colonies not represented in her government; which led, finally, to a rupture between the "mother country" and her infant colonies.

PART II.

FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

CHAPTER I.

Introduction-Cause of the War-The Ohio Company-George Washington's Mission to the Western Wilderness-His Sufferings and Dangers-His Return.

WHEN Our enterprising fathers had become willing exiles, far from the land of their birth, to seek a home in an almost unknown and trackless wilderness, where they hoped to escape from that religious persecution, and political oppression, which had for ages swept like a moral pestilence over the earth, or lay as a heavy load on the souls of men; when their unceasing toils had opened the forest to the fertilizing rays of the sun, and sheltered them from the inclemency of the elements; when they had struggled for years against a foe who was eloquent in council, brave and artful in the field, ferocious in anger, their lives teeming with disgusting excess and brutal passion, despising danger and death, neither asking for, nor extending mercy; when they had encountered the shaggy bear, and heard the terrifying roar of the lion, the fierce growl of the sanguinary tiger, and the howl of the rapacious wolf around their little habitations, where the general stillness which reigned in the vast forest was broken, only by the thunder of the cataract, the deep voice of Indians, or the moanings of wild beasts, as they "roared after their prey, and sought their meat from God;" when the quarrels between foreign monarchs had involved our fathers in a bloody war

with the French and Indians in the reign of William III; when the jealousy subsisting between the British, French, and Spanish, aided by an ungovernable thirst for power and dominion in America, had again impoverished and distressed the colonies, crimsoned the soil with the blood of the valiant in the time of Queen Anne's War; when similar causes had aroused the demon War again, to spread terror and death, with fire and sword, in the reign of George II, during which periods, men professing to be Christians, turned those ruthless blood-hounds of the forest against each other, who, rushing from their ambushes with fiendish yell, often waged inglorious war, with the tomahawk and scalping-knife, against the weak and the innocent; and when all these horrors, like a legion of destroying fiends, had stalked over the infant colonies, crushing for a time almost every ray of hope, and darkening the tortured mind with dread and paralyzing despair, hope burst suddenly upon their delighted vision, and the gladdened multitude with tearful eyes

"Gave to seraphic harps their sounding lays,

Their joys to angels, and to men their praise."

Human happiness or misery is more acutely felt by contrast. Men who excite themselves to joy and hilarity one day, are gloomy and often miserable the next, by contrast. This is the case after a ball, or other great convivial sports, not so much from the fatigue, as from the deprivation of the stimulus of the exhilirating scene. If, on the other hand, men are depressed until their agonized hearts seem to bleed; if the cause of misery is merely removed, this negative joy will almost make them frantic. These being facts which every reflecting mind must acknowledge, it is easy to conceive the mental agony of the colonists, when again the dread tocsin fell upon their startled ears, ushering in a seven years' war, which once more hurried them from their peaceful homes to engage in the bloody conflict.

This is commonly called the French and Indian War; though rather indefinitely, for in reality it was a war between France and England, in which the Indians were employed as allies.

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