been distributed among the vessels which he had captured, out of the crews of which he recruited his; and to guard against any misfortune arising from mutiny, he never left the deck of his vessel for several days before he arrived in port.

The latter end of 1776, the command of the Randolph, a new frigate of thirty-two guns, was given to Captain Biddle. To complete his crew, he was compelled to receive on board several British prisoners of war, who wished to enter.

This frigate put to sea from Philadelphia in February, 1777. On examining her masts, the lower ones proved unsound, and all of them were carried away by the board, in a heavy gale of wind. Captain Biddle bore away for Charleston, where he intended to refit. But before his arrival at that port, the British sailors, who had entered at Philadelphia, with some mal-contents, formed the design of rising on the officers, and taking the ship. Having made, as they thought, the necessary arrangements, they gave three cheers on the gun-deck; but were overcome by the determined resolution of the captain and his officers. The ringleaders of the mutiny were seized and punished, and the remainder quietly submitted. He refitted as speedily as possible and put again to sea. Three days after he left Charleston bar, he fell in with four sail of Jamaicamen, bound to London. The commander of one of them called the True Briton, mounting twenty guns, who had boasted to his passengers his wish of falling in with the Randolph, made all sail to escape from her, now that his wish was accomplished. Finding his escape impossible, he hove to and kept a steady fire on the Randolph, which bore down on him, and was preparing a broadside, when he struck his flag. Captain Biddle captured the other three and returned to Charleston. The prizes were very rich.

The successful termination of so short a cruise inspirited the government of South Carolina to fit out a squadron to sail under Captain Biddle's command. The Carysfort frigate, Perseus, of twenty-four guns, Hinchinbrook, of sixteen guns, and a privateer, had been for some time off

Charleston bar, annoying its trade. This British force was to attract the first attention. The ship General Moultrie, of eighteen guns, Captain Sullivan; brigs Fair American, of fourteen guns, Captain Morgan; Polly, of sixteen guns, Captain Anthony; and Notre Dame, of sixteen guns, Captain Hall, were, in a short time, fitted for sea. A corps of fifty men, from the first regiment of South Carolina continental infantry was ordered to act as marines on board the Randolph. Her mainmast having been struck and shattered by lightning, a new one was put in, and a conductor was fixed, to obviate a similar mifortune. As soon as this was effected, the squadron went into Rebellion roads, where they were detained by adverse winds and shoal water on the bar, which prevented the Randolph from passing over it. These obstacles being surmounted, the fleet put to sea, and steered an easterly course, in hopes of overhauling the British squadron already mentioned. The following day our commander re-took a ship belonging to the Eastern states, which had been dismasted. She had no cargo on board. The crew, six guns of small calibre, and some small stores, were consequently taken out, and the vessel burnt. The British vessels having left the coast, the American squadron directed their course to the West Indies, and cruised, for some days, in the latitude of Barbadoes, where Captain Biddle boarded several Dutch and French vessels. He also took an English schooner, bound from New-York to Grenada. The captain of the schooner mistook the Randolph for an English frigate, nor did he discover his error until her capture.

For some days prior to the 7th of March, 1778, Captain Biddle expected an attack, and was consequently on the alert. Captain Blake, who commanded a detachment of the second regiment of South Carolina troops, acting as marines on board the General Moultrie, two days before she engaged with the Yarmouth, relates, that, at dinner, Captain Biddle observed "we have been cruising here, for some time, and have spoken a number of vessels, who, no doubt, will give information of us, and I should not be surprised if my old ship should be out after us. thing, that carries her guns on one deck, I think myself a

As to any

and

match for her." A signal was made from the Randolph, about three o'clock in the afternoon of the 7th of March, for a sail to the windward, which, as she neared before the wind, appeared as a large sloop with a square-sail set, though when first distinctly seen she was supposed to be a ship. This was about four. In consequence of the sig nal, the squadron hauled on a wind in order to speak to the Randolph. Near seven, the Randolph at windward, hove to; the General Moultrie, rather leeward, about one hundred and fifty yards astern, hove to likewise. The enemy fired a shot a little ahead of the Moultrie, and hailed her about eight in the evening. The reply from the Moultrie was, "the Polly of New-York." The other hauled his wind, and then hailed the Randolph. She was only at that time first discovered to be a two decker. After several questions and replies, as the English ship was obtaining the weather quarter of the American frigate, and ranging along, Lieutenant Barnes of the latter vessel, hallooed this is the Randolph," on which the American stripes were immediately hoisted, and a broadside poured into the British ship. The action soon became warm, Captain Biddle fell, wounded in the thigh. Some degree of confusion resulted from this accident, as a report was spread through the ship that he was killed. He soon restored order by calling for a chair, and causing himself to be brought forward on the quarter deck, where he sat encouraging his crew. As the enemy's stern cleared the Randolph, the commander of the General Moultrie, Captain Sullivan, directed a broadside to be poured into him. The enemy having shot ahead, brought her between the hostile ships and the General Moultrie, whose last broadside was supposed to have been partially received by the Randolph, from that circumstance. Her fire was well directed--her broadsides three to the enemy's one, and during the engagement she appeared in one continual blaze. About twenty minutes after the action commenced, when the surgeon was busily engaged on the quarter-deck, the Randolph blew up. The cause of this disaster was never ascertained. Only four men, out of three hundred and fifteen, survived. After four days tossing on a piece of

the wreck on the ocean, they were taken up. So close were these two ships engaged, that the crew of the Fair American believed it to have been the enemy's ship that was blown up. The Captain of her was so convinced of it, that he stood for the enemy's vessel with his trumpet in hand to hail her, in order to ask after Captain Biddle, when he discovered his error, and the other vessels escaped in consequence of the disabled condition of the enemy, which proved to be the British line of battle ship Yarmouth, of sixty-four guns.

Thus prematurely fell, in the spring of life, a young man in the twenty-seventh year of his age, for whom his country entertained the highest regard and anticipations of future achievements. While his personal worth has called forth the tear of friendship, his memory has been embalmed with the poet's pen.

THOMAS TRUXTON.

THE father of Captain Truxton was an eminent counsellor of the bar, and resided on Long Island, or Nassau Island, where the Commodore was born on the 17th of February, 1755. Having lost his father at an early age, he was placed under the care of John Troup, Esq. of Jamaica, Long Island. The sea was his favourite element. twelve years old, he first embarked in his naval career, under a Captain Joseph Holmes, in the ship Pitt, bound for Bristol, England. The next year, he sailed under a Captain Chambers, in the London trade.

At

In the beginning of the revolutionary struggle he forthwith embarked in the cause of the colonies, against the unjust oppression of Great Britain, and early in 1775 had the command of an armed vessel, with which he cruised against the enemy with great success. In these cruises, the United States were much benefited by the quantities of powder which were found on board his prizes, of which

article they were greatly in want. Towards the close of the same year, when on a voyage to St. Eustatia, a Dutch island in the West Indies, in a letter of marque, of which he was half owner, he was captured off the island of St. Christopher's, his vessel condemned, and himself released under the provisions of the general restraining act, of the British Parliament. From St. Christopher's, he went to St. Eustatia, and thence to Philadelphia. His next cruise was in the capacity of first Lieutenant of the private armed ship Congress, which was just equipping for sea. During the early part of the winter of 1776, this vessel, in company with another private armed vessel, called the Chance, fitted out at the same time, made several prizes off the Havanna, which were very valuable home bound Jamaica ships, going through the Gulf of Florida. He, as prize-master, brought one of them safe into the port of Bedford, Massachusetts. In June of the same year, while New York was blockaded by the British fleet, previous to its evacuation by the Americans, he made his way to sea, through the Long Island Sound, in a vessel called the Independence, fitted out by himself and Isaac Sears, Esq., and placed under his command. Off the Azores or Western Isles, he made several prizes, of which three were large and valuable ships, forming a part of the Windward Island fleet, under convoy. One of these prizes carried more guns and men than his vessel. Truxton next directed his course to the British Channel, in the ship Mars, of twenty guns, where he made a number of prizes, several of which he sent into Quiberon bay. After this cruise, he domiciliated himself in Philadelphia, from which port he sailed during the remainder of the war, commanding vessels, of which he was in general part owner. cruises were generally successful.

His

When commanding the St. James, of twenty guns, and one hundred men, on a voyage to France, with Thomas Barclay, Esq., the Consul General from the revolted colonies to that country, he fell in with a British private ship of war, mounting thirty-two guns, and a proportionate number of men, consequently nearly double his force. After a severe and close engagement, the enemy was obli