hree millions, has killed one
hundred and fifty Yankees this campaign, which is twenty
thousand pounds a head. And, at Bunker Hill, she gained a
mile of ground, half of which she lost again by our taking
post on Ploughed Hill. During the same time sixty thousand
children have been born in America. From these data, Dr.
Price's mathematical head will easily calculate the time and
expense necessary to kill us all, and conquer our whole
territory."

It required a journey of thirteen days, for the Commissioners to pass
from Philadelphia to Cambridge. On the 4th of October they reached the
camp. Mrs. John Adams, who was equal to her husband in patriotism, in
intellectual ability and in self-denial, writes,

"I had the pleasure of dining with Dr. Franklin, and of
admiring him whose character, from infancy, I had been
taught to venerate. I found him social, but not talkative;
and when he spoke, something useful dropped from his tongue.
He was grave, yet pleasant and affable. You know I make some
pretensions to physiognomy, and I thought that I could read
in his countenance, the virtues of his heart; and with that
is blended every virtue of a Christian."

The conference lasted four days, and resulted in the adoption of very
important measures. While in the camp, news came of the burning of
Portland, then Falmouth. It was a deed which would have disgraced
American savages. The town was entirely defenceless. It held out no
menace whatever to the foe. The cold blasts of a Maine winter were at
hand. A British man-of-war entered the harbor, and giving but a few
hours notice, that the sick and the dying might be removed, and that
the women and children might escape from shot and shell, to the frozen
fields, one hundred and thirty humble, peaceful homes were laid in
ashes. The cruel flames consumed nearly all their household furniture,
their clothing and the frugal food they had laid in store for their
long and dreary winter. A few houses escaped the shells. Marines were
landed to apply the torch to them, that the destruction might be
complete.

There were several vessels in the harbor. The freezing, starving,
homeless wives and daughters who had not strength to toil through the
wilderness to seek distant cabins of refuge, might perhaps escape in
them. To prevent this they were burned to the water's edge. It was an
infernal deed. It struck to the very