NARRATIVE OF THE MUTINY, &c. 219 



It was three-quarters past nine at night, when the general 

 alarm fired. By this time, some of the volunteer riflemen, and 

 volunteer artillery, to whom secret orders liad been sent, had 

 arrived ; and by midnight, the Plantation-house contained a 

 garrison of 130 men, which I considered sutticient to repel the 

 most formidable attacks of mutinous troops. On the ground-floor, 

 every window and door was guarded by three or four armed men. 

 parties of rifle volunteers lay behind the parapet of the roof; and 

 the rooms on the upper floor, were prepared to have been occu- 

 pied at the instant the mutineers approached. Mrs. Beatson and 

 my children were placed in security against musketry, in one of 

 the upper rooms. It had strongly been recommended to me to 

 remove them from the Plantation-house: but I foresaw, if this 

 were discovered by the mutineers, it might perplex me : and as I 

 felt the strength of my position, my mind was perfectly at ease, 

 although it might not have been so if they had been removed 

 from my own immediate protection. 



After the alarm fired, a judicious movement was made from 

 James's Town, of parties of artillery and infantry to reinforce me ; 

 the former under the command of Major Kinnaird, and the latter 

 under Captain Sampson, two excellent oflicers, who had both 

 been extremely active in bringing back a number of the soldiers 

 to a sense of duty. Captain Sampson halted at Red Hill, about 

 a mile from Plantation-house ; and Major Kinnaird, about twelve 

 at night, had passed Plantation-house, and took up commanding 

 positions, in advance, with field-pieces, and Captain Barnes's 

 company, and some other artillerymen, upon the roads on which 

 the mutineers must pass, in coming from Long Wood. Captain 

 Desfountain, with three guns and the volunteer artillery, occu- 

 pied another position in the rear of Major Kinnaird. 



Although Captain Sampson had expressed a confidence in his 



