the traitor, General Arnold. She dropped down the river to Curie's [probably named after William Roscoe Wilson Curie, one of the judges of the first Court of Appeals], where we were put on board with the stores of the twenty-gun ship, the ' Renown,' commanded by Commodore Lewis, of Fredericksburg; in addition to which ship, there were two other square-rigged vessels and an armed schooner. We were detained some days lying before Curie's, the residence of Mr. Richard Randolph, who treated us with great hospitality."
The arrival of the British fleet in Hampton Roads prevented them from reaching their destination. He returned to Richmond, and was put in command of the magazine at Westham, then seven miles west of the city. His brother John joined his own regiment "under Captain Coleman, and cannonaded General Phillips, then in Manchester, from the heights at Rockets below Richmond." "In a few days," he says, " after I took the command of the magazine, I saw Mr. Jeffer son, then Governor of the State, for the first time; he came to Westham with one of his Council, Mr. Blair, whom I had known before, and who informed me they wanted to go into the magazine. I replied they could not, on which he introduced me to Mr. Jefferson as the Governor. I turned out the guard; he was saluted, and per mitted to go in. They were looking for flints for the army of the South and of the North, and found an abundant supply." While the Legislature, to escape the Brit ish, had left Richmond and were in session at Staunton, he heard Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee speak in the Assembly. He was put in command of a company which was ordered South to join General Green. The regiment was commanded by a Colonel Febiger. "Having received no pay, the troops mutinied, and instead of coming on the parade with their knapsacks, when the general beat, they came with their arms, as to the beat of the troops. A Sergeant Hogantloy was run through the body by Captain Shelton, and Colonel Febiger ordered
the barracks to be set on fire, and we marched about eight miles in the evening. I have said the troops received no pay; one company of them, commanded by Alexander Parker, had been taken prisoners in Charleston, had been very lately exchanged, when it received orders to return to the South; the officers received one month's pay in paper, which was so depreciated that I received, as First Lieutenant of Artillery, thirty-three thou sand and two thirds of a thousand dollars, in lieu of thirty-three and two thirds dollars in specie; with which I bought cloth for a coat at $2,000 a yard, and $1,500 for the buttons. Nothing but the spirit of the age would have induced any one to receive money so depreciated; but we were willing to take anything our country could give."
While with the army of the South he tells of an incident which sho%vs what stuff he was made of. He was in the command of Captain Singleton, who was a great favorite of General Green. He says : — "We lived in the same marquee, on the most amicable terms, until there was a difference be tween myself and Lieutenant Whitaker, a nephew of the captain. We were eating watermelons, when I said something that he so flatly contra dicted that I supposed he intended to say I lied; on which I broke a half of a melon on his head; to which he said, ' Brooke, you did not think I meant to tell you you lied.' I said, ' If you did not, I am sorry I broke the melon on your head;' and there it ended. But his uncle, I pre sume, did not think it ought to have ended there. Whitaker had fought a duel going out with a Captain Bluir, of the Pennsylvannia line, and wounded him, which made him, at least in appear ance, a little arrogant; and our difference was the talk of the camp."
He helped take possession of Charleston and Savannah when the British retired. In the latter place he was very hospitably received. Finally, the company to which he belonged was ordered back to Virginia. They sailed from Charleston for Virginia, and were twenty-four days out of sight of land, almost long enough now to cross and re-cross the Atlantic twice. It was supposed
