CHAP. XVII. 1780. While lord Cornwallis was thus embarraffed and disappointed by various unsuccessful attempts, and the defeat of many of his military operations in the Carolinas this year, fir Henry Clinton made a diverfion in the Chesapeake, in favor of his lordfhip's defigns. A body of about three thoufand men was fent on, under the command of general Leflie. He was under the orders of lord Cornwallis; but not hearing from his lordfhip for fome time after his arrival, he was totally at a lofs in what manner to proceed. But some time in the month of October, he received letters from lord Cornwallis, directing him to repair with all poffible expedition to Charleston, to affift with all his forces in the complete fubjugation of the Carolinas. Sir Henry Clinton, from an idea that Cornwallis's prime object was the reduction of the Carolinas, and fenfible of the neceffity, at the fame time, of folid operations in Virginia, paid all proper attention to the expedition into the Chesapeake. After general Leflie, in obedience to the orders of lord Cornwallis, had marched to the fouthward, the command of the armament in Virginia was given to general Arnold, who now acted under the orders of fir Henry Clinton. In confequence of his defection, he had been advanced to the rank of a brigadier general in the British army. 1780. General Arnold had recently deferted the CHAP. XVII. American cause, fold himself to the enemies of his country, and engaged in their fervice. He was a man without principle from the beginning; and before his defection was discovered, he had funk a character raised by impetuous valor, and some occafional strokes of bravery, attended with fuccefs, without being the poffeffor of any intrinfic merit. He had accumulated a fortune by great crimes, and fquandered it without reputation, long before he formed the plan to betray his country, and facrifice a caufe difgraced by the appointment of a man like himself, to fuch important trufts. Proud of the trappings of office, and ambitious of an oftentatious display of wealth and greatnefs, (the certain mark of a narrow mind,) he had wasted the plunder acquired at Montreal, where his conduct had been remarkably reprehenfible; and had diffipated the rich harveft of peculation he had reaped at Philadelphia, where his rapacity had no bounds. Montreal he had plundered in haste; but in Philadelphia, he fat himself down deliberately to seize every thing he could lay hands on in the city, to which he could affix an idea that it had been the property of the difaffected party, CHAP. XVII. 1780. and converted it to his own ufe. Not satisfied with the unjust accumulation of wealth, he had entered into contracts for speculating and privateering, and at the fame time made exorbitant demands on congrefs, in compensation of public fervices. In the one he was disappointed by the common failure of such adventures; in the other he was rebuffed and mortified by the commiffioners appointed to examine his accounts, who curtailed a great part of his demands as unjust, unfounded, and for which he deserved severe reprehenfion, inftead of a liqui dation of the accounts he had exhibited. Involved by extravagance, and reproached by his creditors, his resentment wrought him up to a determination of revenge for public ignominy, at the expense of his country, and the facrifice of the small remains of reputation left, after the perpetration of so many crimes. The command of the very important poft at West Point, was vested in general Arnold. No one fufpected, notwithstanding the cenfures which had fallen upon him, that he had a heart base enough treacherously to betray his military truft. Who made the first advances to nego See refolutions of the governor and council at Philadelphia, February the third, one thoufand seven hundred and seventy-nine, relative to Arnold's conduct in that city. 1780. ciation is uncertain; but it appeared on a fcru- CHAP. XVII. tiny, that Arnold had made overtures to general Clinton, characteristic of his own turpitude, and not very honorary to the British commander, if viewed abstractedly from the ufages of war, which too frequently fanctions the blackeft crimes, and enters into ftipulations to justify the treason, while generofity despises the traitor, and revolts at the villany of the patricide. Thus his treacherous propofals were listened to, and fir Henry Clinton authorised major Andre, his adjutant general, a young gentleman of great integrity and worth, to hold a perfonal and secret conference with the guilty Arnold. A British floop of war had been stationed for fome time, at a convenient place to facilitate the defign: it was alfo faid, that Andre and Arnold had kept up a friendly correspondence on fome trivial matters, previous to their perfonal interview, which took place on the twenty-firft of September, one thousand seven hundred and eighty. Major Andre was landed in the night, on a beach without the military boundaries of either army. He there met Arnold, who communicated to him the ftate of the army and garrifon at West Point, the number of men confidered as neceffary for its defence, a return of the ordnance, and the dispo fition of the artillery corps in case of an attack or alarm. The accounts he gave in writing, with drafts of all the works. These papers CHAP. XVII. 1780. were afterwards found in the boot of the unfortunate Andre. The conference continued fo long, that it did not finish timely for the fafe retreat of major Andre. He was conducted, though without his knowledge or confent, within the American pofts, where he was obliged to conceal himfelf in company with Arnold, until the enfuing morning. It was then found impracticable for Clinton's agent to make his escape by the way he had advanced. The Vulture floop of war, from whence he had been landed, had shifted her station while he was on fhore, and lay fo much exposed to the fire of the Americans, that the boatmen whom Arnold had bribed to bring his new friend to the conference, refused to venture a fecond time on board. This circumftance rendered it impoffible for major Andre to return to New York by water; he was therefore impelled, by the advice of Arnold, to a circuitous route, as the only alternative to efcape the danger into which he was indifcreetly betrayed. Thus was this young officer, whofe former character undoubtedly rendered him worthy of a better fate, reduced to the neceffity of hurrying as a disguised criminal, through the pofts of his enemies, in fallacious hopes of again recovering the camp of his friends. In this painful state of mind, he had nearly reached the |