34 ' PAST AND PRESENT OF

purpose (to use their own words) of cutting her throat, because her father, a Mr. Coflin, of Boston, is remarkable for his attachment to the government. She was, fortunately, out at his farm four' miles distant, and es- caped, but “these brutal violators of domes- tic felicity have left her without a single glass of wine, without a candle to burn, or ‘ a sufficiency of provisions of the bread-kind, most of the furniture of her house taken away, and, for what I know, all her clothes. They have certainly taken away her best things, together with her rings, bracelets, etc., none of which have been restored, al- though some of them have been seen wearing by the connections of these villains.”

After a passage of fourteen days, the prisoners reached Winter Harbor, one hun- dred and ten miles east of Cambridge. They were received by Washington very politely. The relation of the barbarities inflicted on them affected the authorities so much that they were shortly afterwards liberated * * * “Fearing a change in their favorable reso- lutions, which I had a right to expect, the Corporal (who had been employed on the Island recruiting) being a prisoner with me, and having accounts in his pockets of the money I advanced to carry on the service, I hastened away after three days’ stay, and at a considerable expense have fortunately got thus far, having been brought in a state of mptivity six hundred miles by sea, and trav- eled one hundred and twenty miles by land, all of which I have repeated on my return.”

Mr. Callbeck then gives a lengthy state- ment of the state of the rebel forces, and of the condition of affairs in the New England provinces. On the 15th January, he again wrote at length, urging that measures be taken to provide for the future defence of the Island. Considerable further corre-

spondence took place between Callbeck and the home authorities, andalso with General Howe, on the same subject, and Mr. Call- beck did take very active measures to put the Island in a posture of defense.

In October, 1776, the Council and House of Representatives jointly memorialized Lord Howe, praying for a vessel of defence to winter here, and propose that Lieutenant Edmund Dodd, commander of His Majesty’s armed brig, the “Diligent,” be granted them as their future safeguard. In February, I777, the grand jury addressed Mr. Call- beck, president of the Council and acting governor, setting out the danger to life and property in which the inhabitants were, by reason of their firm attachment to their sov- ereign and the laws of their country, and pray “that every possible means may be put into execution for the immediate protection of this province.”

The “Diligent” was stationed at Char- lottetown during the summer of I776, for the protection of the Island, and was re- lieved in November by the “Hunter,” sloop of war, Captain Boyle, who wintered and spent the following summer, and until No- vember, here for the same purpose. In De- cember the “Hunter” brought from Halifax fifty stand of arms, one hundredweight of gunpowder, and musket balls in proportion, for a company being raised by Callbeck.

On eighteenth August, 1778, Callbeck again reported to Lord George Germain that the Island had again been invaded by two rebel privateers, who landed at St. Peters, and “began their accustomed wanton depre- dations, by shooting with grape shot oxen and sheep, and taking but very few of them away for use.” He ordered a detachment of his own company, and Colonel Hierlihy's independent companies, who had been sent