Never did the pulse of love towards a parent state beat stronger

in human bosoms, than in those of the Carolinians towards Britain.
We looked on her as indeed our mother, and on her children as our brothers.

And ah! had their government but treated us with correspondent kindness,
Carolina would have been with them to a man. Had they said to the people,

as they might easily have done (for there was a time, and a long time too,
when the whole state was entirely at their feet,) had they then said to us,

"We are far richer, far stronger, than you; we can easily burn your houses,
take your provisions, carry off your cattle, and sweep your country

with the besom of destruction; but we abhor the idea. Your houses,
your women, your children, are all sacred in our eyes; and even of your goods

we will touch nothing without giving you a reasonable price."
Had they but said this, Carolina would, to a certainty,

have been divorced from Congress, and re-wedded to Britain.
We may lay what emphasis we please on the term COUNTRYMEN, COUNTRYMEN!

but after all, as Christ says, "he is our countryman who showeth mercy
unto us."

A British officer, a major Muckleworth, for example, calls at my plantation,
and takes my fine horses and fat beeves, my pigs, my poultry and grain;

but at parting, launches out for me a fist full of yellow boys!
On the other hand, an American officer calls and sweeps me of everything,

and then lugs out a bundle of continental proc! such trash,
that hardly a cow would give a corn shock for a horse load of it.

The Englishman leaves me richer than he found me, and abler
to educate and provide for my children: the American leaves me and my family

half ruined. Now I wish to know where, in such a selfish world as this,
where is there a man in a million, but would take part

with the generous Englishman, and fight for him?
This was the theory of Marion; and it was the practice of Muckleworth,

whom it certainly saved to the British; and would, if universal,
have saved Carolina and Georgia to them too; and perhaps, all America.

But so little idea had they of this mode of conciliating to conquer,
that when the good major Muckleworth returned to Charleston,

he was hooted at by the British officers, who said he might do well enough
for a chaplain, or a methodist preacher" target="_blank" title="n.讲道者，传教士">preacher, for what they knew,

but they'd be d--n-d if he were fit to be a British major.
The truth is, such divinephilosophy was too refined for such coarse

and vulgar characters, as Cornwallis, Rawdon, Tarleton, Balfour, and Weymies;
monsters who disgraced the brave and generous nation they represented,

and completely damned the cause they were sent to save.
But what better was to have been expected of those, who,

from early life, if tradition say true, discovered a total dislike
to the ennobling pleasures of literature and devotion, but a boundless passion

for the brutalizing sports of the bear-garden and cock-pit?
Bull-baiters, cock-fighters, and dog worriers, turned officers,

had no idea of conquering the Americans, but by "cutting their throats
or knocking out their brains;" or as the tender-hearted Cornwallis commanded,

by "hanging them, and taking away, or destroying their goods."
Now Satan himself could have counselled my lord better than that;

as any man may see, who will but open his bible and turn to the book of Job,
chap. the 1st, verse 6th, and so on. There Moses informs, that when Satan,

whose effrontery is up to any thing, presented himself at the grand levee,
the Almighty very civilly asked him, (now mind that, `saints',

in your speech to poor sinners) -- the Almighty, I say,
very CIVILLY asked him "where he had been of late."

To this, his royal highness, the brimstone king, replied,
that he had been only taking a turn or two "up and down the earth."

The divine voice again interrogated: "Hast thou considered my servant Job?
an excellent man, is he not; one who feareth God and escheweth evil?"

"Job's well enough," replied Satan, rather pertly, but where's
the wonder of all that? You have done great things for the fellow;

you have planted a hedge around him, and around all that he hath
on every side. You have blessed the works of his hands,

and his substance is increased in the land; and if, after all this,
he cannot afford you a little gratitude, he must be a poor devil indeed.

But put forth thy hand now, and touch all that he hath,
and he'll curse thee to thy face."

This was the devil's logic as to Job: but the British general had not the wit
to reason in that style towards the Americans. For my Lord Cornwallis

said unto my lord Rawdon; and my lord Rawdon said unto my would-be lord,
colonel Tarleton; and colonel Tarleton said unto major Weymies;

and major Weymies said unto Will Cunningham, and unto the British soldiers
with their tory negro allies; "Put forth your hands, boys, and burn,

and plunder the d--n-d rebels; and instead of cursing you to your face,
they will fall down and kiss your feet."

"Experience," says Doctor Franklin, "is a dear school;
but fools will learn in no other, and hardly in that."

And what right had lord North to expect success in America,
when for officers he sent such fools as would take no lesson

either from God or devil.
Chapter 22.

Colonel Watson attempts to surprise Marion -- is out-generaled,
and after much loss driven back to Georgetown.

In consequence of his incessant attacks on the British and tories,
Marion was, I believe, heartily hated by them, as ever Samson was

by the Philistines, or George Whitefield by the devil.
Numerous were the attempts made by their best officers to surprise him;

but such was his own vigilance and the fidelity of his whig friends,
that he seldom failed to get the first blow at them, and to take

their unwary feet in the same evil net which they had spread for him.
His method to anticipate the meditated malice of his enemies,

is well worthy of notice. He always had in his service
a parcel of active young men, generally selected from the best whig families,

and of tried courage and fidelity. These, mounted on the swiftest horses,
he would station in the neighborhood of those places where

the British and tories were embodied in force, as Camden, Georgetown, &c.
with instructions to leave no stratagem untried to find out

the intended movements of the enemy. Instantly as this information
was obtained, (whether by climbing tall trees that overlooked the garrisons;

or from friends acting as market people) they were to mount and push off
at full speed to the nearest of a chain of posts established at

short and convenient distances, with fleet horses ready saddled and bridled,
to bear the intelligence with equal speed, the first to the second,

the second to the third, and so on. In this expeditious method,
as by a telegraph,* Marion was presently notified of the designs of the enemy.

Of the exceeding importance of such a plan, we had a very striking proof
at this time. Exasperated against Marion, for the infinite harm

he did the royal cause in Carolina, the British general, in Camden,
determined to surprise him at his old place of retreat, SNOW'S ISLAND;

and thus destroy or break him up completely. To this end
he despatched a couple of favorite officers, colonels Watson and Doyle,

with a heavy force, both cavalry and infantry, to seize the lower bridge
on Black river and therebyeffectually prevent our escape.

But the vigilance and activity of his scouts frustrated
this well-concerted plan entirely. Getting early notice of this manoeuvre

by captain, now general Canty, Marion instantly started his troops,
composed chiefly of mounted riflemen and light dragoons and pushed hard

for the same point. By taking a nearer cut, we had the good fortune
to gain the bridge before the enemy, and having destroyed it

as soon as we crossed, we concealed ourselves in the dark swamp,
anxiously waiting their arrival. In a short time, they came in full view

on the opposite hill, and there encamped. -- Presently,
unapprehensive of danger, for they saw nothing of us, two of their men

came down for water to the river. Unable to resist such a temptation,
two of our noted marksmen instantly drew their sights and let fly.

The two Englishmen fell; one of them was killed dead; the other badly wounded,
and so frightened, that he bellowed like a bull-calf for help.

Several of his gallant countrymen ran to his assistance,
but they were shot down as fast as they got to him.

--
* The old meaning of "telegraph" is used here, as any system of communication

over distance, such as signal fires, semaphore, etc. -- A. L., 1997.
--