5. Here a conspiracy was formed by the English part of the crew, amounting to seventy or eighty men, to kill the officers, seize the vessel, and take it into an English port. The British government had in fact passed a law, some time before this, to encourage acts of mutiny, by the offer of a reward to all such crews as would run away with American ships.

6. The intentions of the conspirators appear to have been of the most cruel nature. The work of death was to have been begun precisely at four o'clock of the afternoon of February 2d. The signal to begin the work was the cry of "Sail ho!" which it was well known would bring the officers and passengers upon the quarter-deck, where they could be seized in a body.

7. The captain was to have been put into a boat, without food, water, oars or sails, heavily ironed, and turned loose upon the ocean. The gunner, carpenter and boatswain were to have been killed on the spot. The marine officer and surgeon were to have been hanged and quartered, and their bodies cast into the sea.

8. The sailing-master was to have been cut into morsels and thrown overboard. The lieutenants were to have had their choice, either to navigate the vessel to the nearest British port, or to walk overboard. The passengers were to have been confined and carried into England as prisoners of war.

9. Among the crew was an excellent young man, whom the mutineers took, from his accent, to be an Irishman, but who had become, in fact, an American. They had proposed their plan to him, and he had learned their whole secret. About an hour before the massacre was to have taken place, he revealed the plot to La Fayette and the captain, who immediately took measures to prevent it.

10. The officers and passengers, as well as such other men as could be trusted, were informed of what was going on. A few minutes before four o'clock, the officers, passengers, and American seamen rushed on deck, with drawn swords and other weapons, and thirty or forty of the mutineers were seized and put in irons. The crime was confessed, the mutineers were secured, and the ship soon arrived at Brest, in France. It was proposed to punish them; but the noble-minded La Fayette insisted on exchanging them as mere prisoners of war.

5. What of a conspiracy? What had the British government done? 6. Describe the plan of the conspirators. 7, 8. What was to have been done with the officers of the ship? What was to have been the fate of the passengers? 9. How was the infamous plot defeated? 10. What means were taken to disarm the mutineers? Where did the ship land? What was done with the prisoners?

PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, CONTINUED.-Continental Money.

1. THE year 1779 was less distinguished for splendid or brilliant achievements by either of the two great contending nations, than any year since the commencement of the war; and this, too, notwithstanding the alliance of the United States with France. One cause of this, among many others, was the troubles which now began to be experienced in respect to paper money.

2. The history of money, in connection with the United States, is quite curious. Going back to 1643, we find the general court of Massachusetts ordering that wampumpeog, or the Indian wampum, should pass current in the payment of debts, to the amount of forty shillings, except taxes; the white wampumpeog at eight for a penny, the black at four.

3. The first mint for coining money in New England was erected in 1652. The money coined was shillings, sixpences and threepences. The law ordered that they should have Massachusetts and a tree on one side, and New England and the value of the coin on the other. This currency continued not only to be used but to be coined, for thirty

years or more.

CHAP. CXXII.-1. Why was the year 1779 less distinguished than many others had been? 2. What was used as money in 1648? 8. When was the first mint in New England established? What was the money coined?

4. Bills of credit, or paper money, appear to have been issued by Carolina, in the year 1706. Soon after the emission, the value of the money fell one-third: one hundred and fifty pounds of Carolina currency being worth only one hundred pounds in English coin. Happily, the emission was only eight thousand pounds. However, in 1712, the South Carolina legislature issued forty-eight thousand pounds, in these bills of credit, to defray the expenses of their Indian wars.

5. About the year 1691, during the progress of King William's war, Massachusetts issued bills of credit to pay the troops. Connecticut, New York and New Jersey followed in turn, in 1709, and issued their paper money, and for the same reason, viz., to pay the expenses of their Indian wars. The legislature of Georgia issued paper bills of credit to the amount of seven thousand four hundred and ten pounds sterling, in 1760. There were also some other instances in the colonies ́ of the same sort.

6. The first emission of bills of credit by Congress was in June, 1775. The amount was two millions of dollars. Eighteen months afterward, twenty millions of dollars more were issued; and still later, a larger quantity; in all, three hundred and seventy-five millions. The states also issued many millions. In 1780, at least two hundred millions of Continental money were in circulation.

7. The Confederation was indeed pledged to redeem these bills, and each colony its proportion of them, by the year 1779. Nevertheless, they began to lose their value in 1777, and by the year 1778, the period to which, in the progress of our history, we have now arrived, five or six dollars of it would pass for one dollar in specie.

8. But this was only the beginning of its depreciation. In 1779, twenty-seven or twenty-eight dollars of it were only worth one of hard money, and in 1780 it was fifty or sixty for one. By the middle of this year, the bills almost ceased to circulate; and when they did circulate, it was at less than a hundredth part of their nominal value, sometimes less than the five-hundredth.

9. Yet Congress had ordered that they should be a lawful tender for the payment of debts, at their full nominal value, and the soldiers were to be paid in them. Why should not a war be poorly sustained with such a miserable public currency?

10. How could men be raised to fight, even for their homes and firesides, when the money in which they were to be paid would not

4. When was paper money first issued? What effect had this upon the value of money? What was done in 1712? 5 In 1691? In 1709? In 1760? 6. What was done by Congress in June, 1775? What amount was issued? How much continental money was in circulation in 1780. 7. What was the Confederation pledged to do? What happened in 17779 In 1778? & Describe the depreciation of these bills. 9. What had Congress ordered?

CAPTURE OF STONY POINT.

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support their families? Six months' pay of a soldier, in 1779, would not provide bread for his family for a month; nor the pay of a colonel "purchase oats for his horse."

11. There were many causes which operated to produce this unheard-of depreciation of a currency which the nation was bound to redeem. 1. Too much of it was issued. 2. The quantity was greatly increased by counterfeits and forgeries. 3. It was for the pecuniary advantage of public agents-since they received a commission proportioned to the amount of their purchases for the army-to pay high prices. 4. There was a doubt of the ability of the states to redeem these notes, as well as a distrust of the faith of the states, in respect to their redemption.

12. But whatever the causes may have been, and however promising its first effects, no measure of Congress produced more mischief, in the end, by weakening and destroying public confidence, than this same Continental Money. It may be difficult, however, to say by what other means the war could have been sustained.

CHAPTER CXXIII.

PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, CONTINUED.—Cap ture of Stony Point and Paulus Hook.

1. AMID the general paucity of events, there were two brilliant and somewhat decisive actions in the vicinity of New York during the year 1779. One of these was the capture of Stony Point, a strong military post on the west bank of the Hudson, forty miles north of New York, and guarded by about six hundred British troops. Anxious to regain this post, Washington deputed General Wayne, with twelve hundred men, chiefly New Englanders, to make the attempt.

2. General Wayne set out on the 15th of July, and at evening halted a mile or two from the fort to make his arrangements. One hundred and fifty volunteers, guarded by twenty picked men, were to march in front of the rest. They were ordered to proceed in perfect silence, with unloaded guns and fixed bayonets.

3. The attempt was perilous. One disorderly fellow persisted in a

10. Give some idea of the insufficiency of this money for support. 11. What were the causes of this depreciation of currency? 12. What of the measures of Congress concerning Continental money?

CHAP. CXXIII-1. Where is Stony Point? What did Washington do? 2. What of General Wayne? How was the march of the troops arranged?

determination to load his gun, for which he was killed by his captain on the spot. The fort was defended by a deep swamp, covered with water. The troops marched through it, waist deep. The British opened upon them a tremendous fire of musketry and artillery; stili the Americans were not allowed to fire a gun.

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4. But their success was complete. The fort was carried at the point of the bayonet, and its surviving defenders all taken. The Americans lost about a hundred men in the onset, of whom seventeen were of the twenty picked guards who went in front of the rest. The British had sixty-eight killed-the rest surrendering at discretion. 5. General Wayne was among the wounded of the Americans. they were entering the fort, a musket-ball cut a gash in his forehead. He fell, but rose upon one knee, and said, "Forward, my brave fellows, forward!" Then, in a low voice, he said to one of his aides, "Assist me; if I die, I will die in the fort!" But the wound proved less severe than was at first expected.

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3. What happened as to one of the soldiers? Describe the attack upon the fort What was the success of the Americans? Their loss? What of the British loss? 5. Describe General Wayne's conduct when wounded.