THE GENTLEMAN's and LONDON MAGAZINE, For AUGU S T, 1785. The SECRETARY'S SOLILOQUY. (With a Picturefque Engraving.) To write, or not to write?-that is the Truth fhall be told against my inclination; queftion Whether 'tis better I fhould here detail, That I am heir to ;-'tis a confequence For when fo many here can contradict me, For would I bear the gibes of North and The fneers of Burke, proud Surry's con-- The pangs of difappointment, and what's worfe And my regard to falfehood turn'd away, Affecting Hiftory of Captain Winterfield, APTAIN Winterfield was a native of Scotland; and, at the age of twentyfive, had loft a moft amiable confort, about fix weeks after he had prefented him with a daughter, the firft pledge of their mutual affection. This unhappy event produced in the captain a fettled melancholy, which time feemed unable to efface: nor could the arguments of friends, or the ftill more powerful advo cate of a youthful conflitution, naturally difpofed to fhare and to embellish the joys of focial and domeftic life, prevail on him to renew thofe vows which death had fo fatally diffolved. His mother, who was a moft exemplary character, had for fome years been a widow; and that turn for gaiety, which had accelera t.d the death of a beloved husband, had at the fame time reduced her from a state of competence, to hardly a bare existence. The old lady, therefore, now lived with her fon; and the endeavoured by the kindeft offices, and the moft unremitted attentions, to footh that affliction in which he was but too well qualified to fympathife. She reprefented to him the confolation fhe had herself derived from the poffeffion of a child whofe affectionate regards had in time reconciled her to life, and pointed out the most flattering refemblances in their respective fituations; his attention was perpetually directed to fome new-discov, red attraction in his little Penelope; and though every communication of this nature apparently gave him a temporary happinefs, he never failed on fuch occafions to pay dearly in private for the flections they as conftantly produced, on the ineftimable value of thofe charms of which he was for ever deprived. In this state of mind, he remained on halfpay, till the commencement of the Ameri-, can conteft; when his regiment was put into commiffion, and ordered on that fervice. At this period his daughter had attained her tenth year; and prefented every day a ftronger refemblance of her departed mother, as well in perfonal as mental accomplishments. A fortnight only was allowed him to prepare for his embarkation; and frequently, in this painful interval, with a firmnefs which few men could boaft, his manly cheek glowed with the confcioufnefs of thofe tears, which the powerful operations of nature forced from their latent fpring, as he preft to his beating bofom his lovely girl, with all the heartfelt forebodings of parental apprehenfion; and often did her little watchful eye mark the progrefs of the glittering drop, and printing with her quivering lips the track which it had purfued, inquire the unconfcious caufe in accents of evident anguish, and with looks of yet ftronger expreffion. From the moment in which the unwelcome fummons had arrived, the good old gentlewoman ceafed not to intreat her fon, that he would avail himself of the plea of indifpofition, to which he was fo fully entitled, as the only means of detaining him at home, where his health was alone likely to be reeftablished: but he difdained to listen to motives which might leave his unblemished repu tation liable to the fmalleft fufpicion, and prepared with alacrity to obey the call of ho nour. Having made the neceflary arrangements, he took leave of his affectionate mother and his dear little girl, with that mournful kind of adieu, which feems to relinquish the hope of ever again beholding the objects from which the fullufed eye unwillingly turns away. For a few moments be folded them in his arms; and recommending them to the mercy of Heaven, with a figh which he vainly endeavoured to fupprefs, hafted from all he held dear, without once daring to look back; and, fortifying himself against thofe founds of anguish which fancy prefented loudly to his ear, went on beard the tranfport which was to convey his troops across the Atlantic, and arrived fafe in America, after a pallage of about fix weeks. It was not till the departure of the captain, that Ms. Winterfield experienced the full force of grief; in her kind efforts to confole the affliction of an adored fon, fe had, as it were, experienced a cefibtion of her own anguife: but now, far from enkavouring to r-prefs the conflict ia ber hofon, the abandonedhorlelf to forrow, and weja „knoft inceffint ly, till the fatal account afrived of the battle at Bunker's Hill, where fo many British of ficers feemed cruelly felected for flaughter; when, not at all doubtful that the name of Captain Winterfield was included in the lift, her agony increafed to fuch a height, that he became inftantly diftracted, and continued in that most melancholy of all fituations upwards of fix months before the could pofitively be fatisfied that her fon ftill lived, nor would the at least have been convinced, had fhe not received an incontrover tible evidence of his perfect fafety under his own hand. In the mean time the captain, whofe amiable difpofition, and intrepid behaviour, procured him univerfal efteem, had contracted the strictest intimacy with his fuperior officer, Colonel Bellinger, who never failed to confult him on every affair af moment, whether of a private or of a profeffional nature. The Colonel was about eight years younger than Captain Winterfield; he was likewife a native of North Britain; but having married a lady of immenfe fortune in England, by whom he had two fons and a daughter, his chief refidence, when at home, was in the county of Norfolk. The lady of Colonel Bellinger doated on him to diftraction,and continually implored him to quit a profeffion fo unfavourable to their loves, and the neceflity of purfuing which had been happily prevented by the kindnefs of fortune; but, the nice and delicate feelings of a foldier's honour prevented his acquiefcence in a request of this nature, though his denials coft him many a pang. He cominunicated to his faithful friend every fource of his regrets; and was ftrengthened in his refolution by the approbation of a heart which, though tender as that of an infant, was equally a ftranger to fear or deceit. For upwards of four years they conftantly fought together, and neither of thun had received the leaft hurt: about this time however, Captain Winterfield was flightly wounded in the legs, as he went out with the colonel to reconnoitre; but in lefs than three months the wound was entirely healed. The fears of the captain had been awakened by this accident, for the fituation of his Penelope and her grandmother, to fuch a degree, as to produce a violent fever; and the colonel, who never ceafed to vifit him at least once a day during his confulement, having difcovered the cause of his anxiety, which a becoming delicacy had prompted him as much as pol.ble to conceal, changed himfelf, on the honour of a foldier, with the care of Mis. Winterfield, and 's little daughter, fhould that eveni take place, at any future period, which he doubted not he would happily efcape on the present oc cafion. The kindness and generolity of this aflurance affurance contributed more to Captain Winterfield's fpecdy recovery, than all the efforts of his furgeon, the utmost exertions of whofe skill had hitherto been baffled by the mental difeafe of his unhappy patient. Shortly after the captain's recovery, an expedition up the country was projected, and it was executed by thefe gallant officers with the moft brilliant fuccefs. In their return, however, an accident occurred which had nearly proved fatal to the colonel. Having difperfed every appearance of an enemy, while they one day halted to relieve the foldiers from a fatigue of a long march, the colonel, who was remarkably fond of fowling, propofed an excurfion for that purpofe in a neighbouring wood. Captain Winterfield and two other officers were of the party; and they agreed to divide two and two, and not to penetrate more than half a mile or a mile at fartheft, without forming a juretion at that diftance, as nearly centrical as poffible from the fpot where they fet out. The colonel and Captain Winterfield were together, and they had not proceeded more than five or fix hundred yards, when they were alarmed by a general difcharge of mufquetry. On advancing towards the fpot from whence the found proceeded, they difcovered fix armed favages engaged with the officers from whom they had jult feparated. A couple of favages likewife lay wounded on the ground; and the colonel and captain levelling the pieces brought two more to the earth: the other four, terrified at this unexpected ftroke, fled with precipitation towards the thicket where the colonel was flati oned; and before he or his friends could reload, had beat him down with their muskets, and would in a few minutes have difpatched him with their tomahawks, had not Captain Winterfield, and the other two officers, immediately rushed to his assistance, and each of them transfixed an affailant with his bayonet. There was only one left; and he would have proved fufficiently formidable for the deftruction of the colonel, againft whom his armed hand was already railed, had not Captain Winterfield, with an admirable prefence of mind, and the most undaunted refolution relinquifhed his mufquet; and, fpringing on the favage among the bushes, brought him inftanly to the ground; while one of the other officers who had by this time difengaged his bayonet, plunged it into the bowels of the proftrate victim. The colonel had received two violent contufions on his head, and was otherwife bruifed and wounded in ftruggling with the favages. Captain Winterfield bound up his wounds; and with the affiftance of his brother officers, carried him to his tent, where the skull being examined by the chief furgeon, it was found to be terribly fractured in both places. A party of men were now fent to fearch the wood, and to bring an account of the favages; and captain Winterfield gave particular directions that if either of them yet furvived he might be brought into camp, and if poffible cured of his wounds, as the means of difcovering whether this ambuscade had been treacherously formed: inftances having often occurred, in the course of this unhappy war, where the affectation of loyal ty had occafioned a fatal confidence in the unfufpecting foldier, who was frequently drawn into fuch fituations by thefe diabolical machinations, as admitted no pol fibility of escape. In confequence of thefe orders, two of the favages, who had been only flightly wounded, were brought away, and cured in less than three weeks; but nothing of treachery appeared to have actuated thefe unhappy wretches, who were only out on a hunting party, when they were feduced by the hope of plunder to make the fatal attack. They feemed full of contrition for their paft conduct, and grateful for the attention which had evidently been paid to their recovery; and as one of them, in pa ticular, apparently poffeffed every requifite qualification for an active, faithful, ane affectionate domeftic, Captain Winter field took him in his fervice, and treated him with all imaginable kindnefs: but in lefs than two months, though they were kept conftantly unarmed, and in general clofely watched, they found means to effect their efcape. During this time, Colonel Bellinger grew rather worfe than better; and the furgeon, defpairing of reducing the principal fracture, recommended the application of the trepan, which the colonel vehemently oppofed. Captain Winterfield perceived that the cure would probably be as much defeated by the adoption of an operation to which his friend could by no means fubmit without the most alarming apprehenfions, as from the total neglect of this measure however profeffionally advifable, feconded the colonel's refolution with much apparent confidence; afferting, that he had known worfe fractures totally healed, by a more patient procefs, under a far lefs fkilful furgeon. This declaration had its full éffects, both with the furgeon and his patient: the former politely, tho' faintly acquiefced in foregoing his intention, under a bare poffibility, as a return for the captain's compliment to his ability; and the latter, tranquillized by affurances fo confonant to his wishes, fubdued by degrees that impatience and perturbation of mind, which had greatly contributed to retard his cure. D dd 2 Colone Colonel Bellinger in his firft intervals of recollection, after expreffing his gratitude to Captain Winterfield for an attachment which he could never reward, had preffed upon him the acceptance of an infirument, in which he bequeathed him the fum of three thousand pounds, as a teftimonial of his friendship. Indeed the captain was perpetually with his friend; and the knot of ainity was if poffible ftill clofer drawn, as well by the danger and fufferings they had both experienced, as from the kind confolations they had in their turns mutually received and adminiftered. The colonel had been confined to his tent about ten weeks, when word was one morning brought by the officers who commanded a foraging party the preceding evening, confifing of twenty men, that a band of at leaft a hundred favages had chafed them to within half a league of the camp, and appeared to be on the look-out for fuch fmall parties. Captain Winterfield, who was prefent, exprefled his indignation at being harrafled by thefe petty affailants; and immediately ordering out one hundred men to follow unperceived at a full distance, adyanted limielf with only ten, towards the fpot where they were firft difcovered. This was near five miles difton e from the camp; and they had not proceeded far beyond the ti lace which had been defcribed, when upthwards of a hundred favages fuddenly appeared, and came on to the attack with great fury. Captain Winterfield, with his little party made a fhew of retreating, ftil keeping up a running fire, till he perceived lus corps de rejer-ve, when they immediately turned on the purfuers; and after leaving near thirty dead on the field, put the reft totally to flight. Captain Winterfield and his troops now continued the purfuit,and had just come up within reach of the fugitives, when a new ambufcade, confifling of at least fifteen hundred, fuddenly iffued forth from an adjoining wood, and in an infiant cut off the faremoft of their enemies, including the brave captain; whoin the few who ekaped beheld fall, after a gallant refiftance, amidft heaps of his flaughtered adherents. This melancholy catanrophe plunged the unhappy ceload into an abyfs of forrow; he refufed every fpecies of confolation; and was the next day fuzed with a fever which continued with unabated violence for three wecks, at the end of which time his wounds were in a more dangerous way than ever, and the furgeon defpaired of a recovery. Youth, and a good conflitution, however, in about fix months fo far prevailed, that his wounds were nearly healed; but he was advised by his furgeon, as well as by the commander in chief, to go to Europe with the next difpatches, for the perfect recovery of his bealth, An opportunity foon offered, and he arrived fafely in England. (To be concluded in our next.) Memoirs of General James Oglethorpe*. AMES OGLETHORPE was the fon of Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe, of Godalmin. t, in the county of Surry, by Eleonora his wife, daughter of Richard Wall, of Ragane in Ireland. He was born in the parifh of St. James, and it may be conjectured, about the year 1688 T. Though the circumflances N 0 Τ E S. * See Thoresby's Leeds, p. 255, where it appears the General had two Chriftian names, though he used only one. He is there called James-Edward, and these names were evidently bestowed upon him in compliment to the Pretender The family-feat at Godalmin continued the property of General Oglethorpe until his death, but it had not been inhabited for many years. Various reafons have been given fer his fhutting up this houfe, which he is remembered to have vifited, though without going into the inside of it. It had been fuggefted, that he was once difgraced by an arreft there, and then made a vow that he never would go into it any more. The public prints have added a few years to thic General's age, but apparently without any foundation. As we have departed from the common received opinion, it is neceflary to affign fome reafon for the variation. In the year 1707, a pamphlet was publifhed entitled," Mrs. Frances Shaftoe's Narrative; containing an account of her being in Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe's family, where hearing many treasonable things, and amongst others, that the pretended Prince of Wales was Sir Theophilus's fon, the was tricked into France by Sir Theophilus's daughter, and barbarouffy ufed to make her turn Papift and Nun, in order to prevent a difcovery; but at laft made her escape to Swifferland, and from thence arrived in England in December1756. 4to." This pamphlet contains a story told with all the illiterate fimplicity of a fervant. She appears from it to have obtained fome knowledge of the Jacobitical principles of the family, by her refidence near twelve months at Godalmin; and on that account to have been carried into France to prevent a difcovery. The following paffage will in fome nicafiare afcertain the Ġeneral's age: “ Ann Oglethorpe told me, that the firft pretended Prince of Wales died of convulfion fits at the age of five or fix weeks old; but her mother had a little fon fome days olier than the Prince of Wales, and her mother took her hittle brother James all in hafle, and went to London with him, for by a royal charter; the fund for fettling it was to arife from cliaritable contributions, collections were made throughout the kingdom, the bank contributed a handfome fum, and the Parliament gave 10,000 l. which enabled the trustees. of whom General Oglethorpe was one, to entertain many poor families, and provide for their accommodation and removal to America: In the month of November, about 100 perfons embarked at Gravefend on board the Anne of 200 tons, commanded by Capt. Tho❤ mas, and with them Mr. Oglethorpe. They arrived at Carolina on the 15th January following, from whence they failed to PortRoyal, and Mr. Oglethorpe went up the Sa vannah River, and pitched upon a convenient spot of ground to form a fettlement, which appears in the beft light from his own account, which was as follows. ftances of his early life are involved in fome obfcurity, we may prefume, from the military character of his family, his father and both his brothers being in the army, that he was educated with a view to the profeffion which he afterwards embraced. His firft commiffion was that of Enfign, and it was dated 1710. In 1714 he was CaptainLieutenant in the firft troop of the Queen's Guards, and did duty as Enfign at the proclamation of the peace of Utrecht. He afterwards employed himfelf in acquiring the art of war under the famous Prince Eugene of Savoy, and other eminent Commanders, among whom the great Duke of Argyle, his patron, may be named. In his feveral campaigns in Germany and Hungary, having been recommended by John Duke of Marlborough, he acted as Secretary and Aidde-camp to the Prince, and ftored up much ufeful knowledge; and if we are not mifta- "That the river there formed a halfken, he received fome preferment in the moon, around the fouth fide of which the German fervice, in which he might have banks were about forty feet high, and on the continued with as great advantages as his top a flat, which they called a bluff. The companion, the Veldt Marthal Keith, af- plain high ground extended into the counterwards obtained. But with a man of his try five or fix miles, and along the river fentiments, the obligations due to his native about a mile. Ships that drew twelve feet country, and the fervices it required, were water, could ride within twelve yards of the not to be difpenfed with; he quitted his fo- bank. Upon the river fide, in the centre of reign engagements, and long exercised the this plain, he had laid out the town, and opvirtues of the unbiaffed fenator at home, pofite to it was an island of very rich pastuIn the parliament which met May 10, 1722, rage. The river was pretty wide, and the he was returned Member for Haslemere; water fresh. From the key of the town as he was again in 1727 1734, 1741, and might be feen the whole courfe of the fea, 1747; and during that period many regula with the Ifland of Tybee, which formed tions in our laws, for the benefit of trade, the mouth of the river; and the other way and for the general fervice of the public, were the river might be feen for about fixty miles propofed and promoted by him in the fenate. up into the country. The landscape is veTrom the time of Prince Eugene's cam-ry agreeable, the ftream being wide, and paigns, the pacific difpofition of the powers of Europe prevented any exercife of Mr. Ogle thorpe's military talents; but a scheme which was propofed early in the reign of George II. gave him ample opportunities of difplaying his virtues and abilities. In the year 1732, the colony of Georgia fituated between South Carolina and Florida, was cftablished N 0 T E. for fhe had been at her country-houfe; but her little brother was fick, the Prince and he were both fick together, and her little brother died or was lofi, but that was a fecret between her mother and Queen Mary." Sir Theophilus Cglethorpe died in 1701: he was born at Oglethorpe, and baptized at Bramham, Sept. 14, 1650. He was Lieutenant Colonel to the Duke of York's troop, of his Majefty's Horfe-Guards, and commillioner for executing the office of Maiter of the Horfe to Charles II. Member of Parliament, Deputy Lieutenent of the county of Surry, Juftice of the Peace, firft Equerry and Major-General of the army to James II. Thoresby's Leeds, page 255, bordered with high woods on both fides. The whole people arrived there on the first of February, and at night their tents were got up. A fortification was raised, and the woods felled. The town and common was marked out, and Mr. Oglethorpe called the town Savannah, the name alfo of the ri ver. After having made the firft fettlement, he went to Charles-Town, to folicit affifiance for his colony, in which he had fuccefs, and then returned to Savannah; where he was met by the Chiefs of the Lower Creek nation, who claimed from the Savannah river as far as St. Auguftine, and up Flint river, which runs into the Bay of Mexico. A treaty of alliance and commerce was made and figned with them. He alfo concluded a treaty with the two nations of the Cherokees and Chickefaws, relating to their part of the farne province, and a provifional treaty with the Governor of Auguftine and General of Florida, relating to the boundaries between the English and the Spaniards, until the fentiments of the two Crowns |