the privateer; but the Americans needed not the incentive of the warning
that no quarter would be given to fight with all the vigor and skill at
their command. The struggle was a furious one, but in the end the
British were so decisively defeated that only two of the boats returned
to the ships. The others, filled with dead and wounded, drifted ashore.

[Illustration: BRITISH ATTACK ON SULLIVAN ISLAND.]

(_Our Last Naval Engagement with England_.)

In this brief but terrific struggle there were only two Americans killed
and seven wounded, while the enemy acknowledged a loss of thirty-four
killed and eighty-six wounded, the former including the leader of the
expedition.

Admiral Cochrane was so incensed by the rough treatment his men had
received that he determined to throw neutrality to the winds and destroy
the defiant privateer. Nothing more was attempted that evening, but in
the morning the _Carnation_ advanced to the attack of the _General
Armstrong_. This gave the latter a chance to bring its Long Tom into
play, and it was served with such unerring accuracy that not a shot
missed. Before the brig could come to close quarters she was so crippled
that she was obliged to withdraw.

The three ships now closed in. It would have been folly to fight them.
So Captain Reid scuttled his ship, lowered his boats and rowed ashore.
The enemy were disposed to follow him thither, but he and his men took
refuge in an old stone fortress and dared the Englishmen to do so. Upon
second thought they decided to leave the Americans to themselves.