OUR FIRST ALLIANCE 



529 



and inconsiderate French ones had made 

 it. We knew it, and so well, too, that the 

 appropriateness of having our troops 

 winter in our colonies of the West In- 

 dies was at one time considered. Our 

 minister, Gerard, was of that opinion : 

 "The Americans are little accustomed to 

 live with French people, for whom they 

 cannot have as yet a very marked incli- 

 nation." 



"It is difficult to imagine," said Abbe 

 Robin, "the idea Americans entertained 

 about the French before the war. They 

 considered them as groaning under the 

 yoke of despotism, a prey to superstition 

 and prejudices, almost idolatrous in their 

 religion, and as a kind of light, brittle, 

 queer-shapen mechanism, only busy friz- 

 zling their hair and painting their faces, 

 without faith or morals." How would 

 thousands of such mechanisms be re- 

 ceived ? 



preparing to give the enemy "hot 

 shot" 



With his usual clear-headedness, Ro- 

 chambeau did the necessary thing on each 

 point. To begin with, in case of an Eng- 

 lish attack, which was at first expected 

 every day, he lost no time in fortifying 

 the position he occupied, "having," wrote 

 Mathieu-Dumas, "personally selected the 

 chief points to be defended, and having 

 batteries of heavy artillery and mortars 

 erected along the channel, with furnaces 

 to heat the balls." 



During "the first six days," says 

 Closen, "we were not quite at our ease, 

 but, luckily, Messieurs les Anglais showed 

 us great consideration, and we suffered 

 from nothing worse than grave anxie- 

 ties." After the second week Rocham- 

 beau could write home that if Clinton 

 appeared he would be well received. 

 Shortly after he feels sorry the visit is 

 delayed ; later, when his own second divi- 

 sion, so ardently desired, did not appear, 

 he writes to the war minister: "In two 

 words, Sir Henry Clinton and I are very 

 punctilious, and the question is between 

 us who will first call on the other. If we 

 do not get up earlier in the morning than 

 the English, and the reinforcements they 

 expect from Europe reach them before 

 our second division arrives, they will pay 



us a visit here that I should prefer to pay 

 them in New York." 



Concerning the reputation of the 

 French, Rochambeau and his officers 

 were in perfect accord ; it would change 

 if exemplary discipline were maintained 

 throughout the campaign. There is noth- 

 ing the chief paid more attention to than 

 this, nor with more complete success. 

 Writing to Prince de Montbarey a month 

 after the landing, Rochambeau says : "I 

 can answer for the discipline of the 

 army ; not a man has left his camp ; not 

 a cabbage has been stolen ; not a com- 

 plaint has been heard." 



NOT ONE COMPLAINT AGAINST THE 

 CONDUCT OP THE PRENCH TROOPS 



To the President of Congress he had 

 written a few days before : "I hope that 

 account will have been rendered to Your 

 Excellency of the discipline observed by 

 the French troops ; there has not been 

 one complaint ; not a man has missed a 

 roll-call. We are your brothers and we 

 shall act as such with you ; we shall fight 

 your enemies by your side as if we were 

 one and the same nation." 



Mentioning in his memoirs the visit of 

 those "savages" who 'had been formerly 

 under French rule and persisted in re- 

 maining friendly to us, he adds : "The 

 sight of guns, troops, and military exer- 

 cises caused them no surprise ; but they 

 were greatly astonished to see apple trees 

 with their apples upon them overhanging 

 the soldiers' tents." "This result," he 

 concludes, "was due not only to the zeal 

 of officers, but more than anything else 

 to the good disposition of the soldiers, 

 which never failed." 



William Channing, father of the phil- 

 anthropist, confides to the same Ezra 

 Stiles, in a letter of August 6, 1780, his 

 delighted surprise : "The French are a 

 fine body of men and appear to be well 

 officered. Neither the officers nor men 

 are the effeminate beings we were here- 

 tofore taught to believe them. They are 

 as large and likely men as can be pro- 

 duced by any nation." So much for the 

 brittle, queer-shaped mechanisms. 



With the French officers in the West 

 Indies, most of them former companions 

 in arms and personal friends, Rocham- 



