26 LABRADOR 
of Noble and Pinson, “who have been my inveterate 
enemies ever since I came to the coast,’ and his buildings 
were several times destroyed by fire. But the great 
calamity which overtook him was the visit of the American 
privateer Minerva in August, 1778. At one o’clock on 
the morning of August 27, he was alarmed by a loud 
rapping at his door; he opened it, and a body of armed 
men rushed in; they were, they said, from the Minerva 
privateer, of Boston, in New England, commanded by John 
Grimes. They made Cartwright their prisoner, and took 
possession of everything. At nine o’clock Cartwright 
was taken on board, and received by Captain Grimes, 
who was ‘‘the son of a superannuated boatswain of Ports- 
mouth.” Cartwright was not favourably impressed by the 
first lieutenant and the surgeon, whom he describes as 
“two of as great villains as any unhanged.”’ He found 
that his possessions at Charles Harbour and Ranger 
Lodge had already been plundered. An expedition had 
been sent off to Caribou Castle to plunder there; and it 
was only by talking about a British frigate which he 
expected that he frightened them from sending to Paradise 
and White Bear River. They robbed him of everything 
except a small quantity of provisions and a chest of bag- 
gage, which Grimes returned (“but many things were 
pillaged out of it”). Cartwright lost also about one-half 
of his men. The Minerva was short-handed, and Grimes 
offered a share of the booty to any who would enter with 
him. Nearly thirty-five men, mostly Irish and Dutch, ac- 
cepted his offer. It is needless to say, none of them ever saw 
any prize-money; when they reached Boston, they were all 
thrown into prison, where they languished for several months. 
