Life of Count Riimford. 125 



Neither have I succeeded further than in approxi- 

 mating to the dates at which Thompson sailed from 

 England and arrived at Charleston. It was undoubtedly 

 stress of weather which carried him thither, rather than 

 to Long Island, New York, where the remnant of the 

 corps of dragoons which he was to command was quar- 

 tered. Curwen, as we have seen, writes of having had 

 an interview with Thompson in London, August n, 

 1781, and then writes of him as absent under date 

 of November 25, 1781. Between these dates, proba- 

 bly about October 4, Thompson, who had before re- 

 ceived his commission, had left England. He was in 

 Charleston early in January, 1782. He has left, how- 

 ever, but faint traces of his visit there, and but one 

 signal event of the many which Pictet reports is at- 

 tached to his name. 



The following brief extracts from American papers 

 of the time, published on the royal side, help us to a 

 few facts relating to Colonel Thompson : * 



Rivington's New York Gazette, January 5, 1782. 

 " The British fleet of forty-odd sail, under convoy of the Rotter- 

 dam, of 50 guns, Astrea, 32, and Duke de Chartres, 16, with 

 Lord Dunmore, destined for this port, was safe arrived at 

 Charleston." 



January 9. " The Quebec [which left Cork, the great 

 depot for provisions, October 29] a convoy has anchored 

 in New York Harbor. They left the Rotterdam and Astrea's 

 fleet of victuallers and store-ships, &c. at Charleston, where 

 they arrived from Cork ten days before the Quebec convoy got 

 thither." 



New York Mercury, January 16, 1782. "The fleet which 

 sailed from this port for South Carolina, 25th ult., was seen on 



* I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Henry Onderdonk, Jr., of Jamaica, L. I., 

 in communicating to me these extracts. 



