went on shore to inquire for Brown, I found that he
had just died of his wounds. Nine marines were killed, eleven were
taken prisoners unhurt, and several more were found on the ground
wounded, while of those who got off very few escaped unhurt. Such was
the termination of this foraging expedition--the disaster arising
entirely from the folly of the officers, who would persist, as many had
before done, in despising their enemy, and refusing to take the proper
precautions to guard against surprise. This is only one of many
instances of a similar folly which I observed throughout the American
war. I speak of military officers especially. There is something in
the character of Englishmen which makes them over-confident and
foolhardy, and they will require to be taught by some very severe
lessons before they learn the importance of caution. This want of
caution in an officer, when entrusted with the lives of brave men, is a
very great fault, and shows great folly and an unfitness for command.
The vice, I am happy to say, is not so prevalent generally in the navy.
Most spirited and dashing enterprises are undertaken, and are
successful, for the very reason that forethought is employed and proper
precautions are taken to ensure success. Young officers are too apt to
mistake want of caution for spirit and bravery, and to despise those who
are careful and anxious for the lives as well as for the health of those
entrusted to their care. I am now an old man, but I find these
sentiments penned in my journal, written at the time of the occurrence I
have described, and they have been still more and more impressed by the
experience of fifty years. Since then a long, long catalogue of
melancholy disasters might be chronicled, all contributing to sully the
glory of the British arms, which have arisen from those two causes--the
neglect of proper precaution, and a foolish conceited contempt of the
enemy.

Where a subject is matter of history I need but briefly touch on it and
I have therefore often skimmed over subjects of far more importance than
those I have described. I will now give a sketch of the proceedings of
the troops under General Arnold, and the mode in which the ships of war
were employed in assisting them. Having marched up James river,
supported by some small ships of war, as I have before mentioned, the
general reached Burds Landing on the 6th of January, and from thence,
with only fifteen hundred men, pushed o