sons, in the course of

the march, all fugitives from the Chepachet camp. Upon arriving near the fortification, it was evident that the force had materially decreased; so much so, that the scout party, without waiting for the advance of the main body, determined on entering the fortification alone. No resistance was made! The men fled in confusion, and the scout party took possession without firing a gun. The fortification proved to be quite inadequate for any hostile military operations. The main body immediately arrived, and, the village being now entirely in their power, escape was impossible, and a large number of prisoners were taken, and a

FINAL DISPERSION OF GOV. DORR AND HIS FORCES.

considerable quantity

of arms. Dorr fled to Connecticut, accompa nied by a few of his soldiers. Governor King offered, again, a large reward for Governor Dorr's capture, but he found safe quarters in Connecticut and New Hampshire, until he voluntarily re

turned. The authorities of the state at once took him into custody, and an indictment for high treason having been found against him, he was tried, and a verdict of guilty being rendered, he was sentenced to be imprisoned for life. In 1847, however, Hon. Byron Dinman being then governor of the state, Mr. Dorr was pardoned; and in 1853, during the administration of Governor Allen, the legislature restored

him to full citizenship, and his friends also caused the official record of his sentence to

be expunged. His death occurred the next year, but not until the measures he had espoused were, in good part, engrafted upon the political system of his state, and the party with which he was identified administering its public affairs.

Similar, in some of its features, to the rebellion in Rhode Island, was the antirent insurrection in the state of New York, the origin and character of which, as set forth by Willard, the historian, will sufficiently appear in the following brief

statement:

Under the early Dutch government of that state, certain settlers received patents of considerable tracts of land, that of Van Rensselaer being the most extensive,comprising, as it did, the greater portion of Albany and Rensselaer counties These lands were divided into farms of from one hundred to one hundred and sixty acres, and leased in perpetuity on condition that the tenant pay annually, to the landlord or patroon,' a quantity of wheat, from twenty-two and a half bushels to ten, with four fat fowls, and a day's service with wagon and horses. If the tenant sold his lease, the landlord was entitled to one quarter of the purchase money. The land

6

lord was also entitled to certain privileges on all water power, and a right to all mines.

The summer of 1844 witnessed the most violent disturbances by the anti-rent party in the eastern towns of Rensselaer, and the Livingston Manor in Columbia county. The anti-renters formed themselves into associations to resist the law, and armed and trained bands, disguised as Indians, scoured the country, crying "Down with the Rent!" and, in various ways, intimidating those who favored the execution of the law. law. In 1846, Silas Wright was chosen governor of the state, and by his wisdom and firmness public order was restored. By proclamation, he declared the locality in which these disorders prevailed, to be in a a state of insurrection; resolute men were made sheriffs, military force was brought into requisition, and the leading anti-renters arraigned for trial. Some of these, convicted of murder, were condemned to death, but their punishment commuted to imprisonment for life. Throughout the whole of this exciting period, there were multitudes who sympathized with those who opposed the collection of the rents, but who withheld all countenance from those measures of lawless resistance, to which the more violent resorted.

had just informed him that Mr. Wales, his steward, had approached him as if to converse on their joint duty, and revealed to him, for the purpose of its being communicated to the commander, important information. This was, that, on the night previous, being November twenty-fifth, he, Wales, had been accosted by Spencer, and invited by him to get up on the booms, as he had something uncommon to say. When on the booms, Spencer addressed him as follows:

"Do you fear death? Do you fear a dead man? Are you afraid to kill a man?"

Mr. Wales, thus accosted, and having his curiosity excited, with admirable coolness induced Spencer to go on, and took the oath of secrecy which was administered to him. Spencer then informed him that he was leagued with about twenty of the crew to get possession of the vessel, murder the commander and officers, choose from among those of the crew who were willing to join him such as would be useful, and murder the rest and commence pirating. He mentioned all the details of the plan, and which was well suited to the attainment of his object-involving, indeed, much better notions of seamanship than he himself was capable of forming. As one of the inducements to her capture, he stated that a box, containing wine of rare value, brought off with much care at Madeira, as a present from the United States consul at Funchal to Commodore Nicholson, contained money or treasure to a large amount. It was his purpose to carry the vessel to the Isle of Pines, where one of his associates, who had been in the business before, had friends; to attack no vessels that he was not sure to capture; to destroy every vestige of the captured vessels, after having removed what was useful; to select such of the female passengers as were suitable, and, after they had used them sufficiently, to dispose of them. Spencer also stated that he had the written plan of his project in the back of his cravat, which he would show to Mr. Wales in the morning. On separating,

Spencer gave expression to terrible threats of instant death to Wales from himself or his accomplices, should Wales utter one word of what had passed.

So monstrous and improbable did this project appear to Captain Mackenzie, as thus related to him by Lieutenant Gansevoort, that he at first treated it with ridicule, premising that Spencer had been reading some piratical stories, and then amused himself with working upon Wales's credulity. Considering it, however, to be his duty to be on his guard, lest there should be even a shadow of reality in the scheme, Mackenzie directed his first lieutenant, Gansevoort, to watch Spencer narrowly, without, of course, seeming to do so.

He

In the course of the day, Lieutenant Gansevoort gave information that Spencer had been in the wardroom examining a chart of the West Indies, and had asked the assistant surgeon some questions about the Isle of Pines, the surgeon replying that it was a place much frequented by pirates, and dryly asking him in return if he had any acquaintances there. passed the day rather sullenly in one corner of the steerage, as was his custom, engaged in examing a small piece of paper and writing on it with his pencil, and occasionally finding relaxation in working with a penkife at the tail of a devil-fish, one of the joints of which he had formed into a sliding-ring for his cravat. He had endeavored, too, for some days, to ascertain the rate of the chronometer, by applying to Midshipman Rodgers, to whom it was unknown, and who referred him to the master. With boatswain's mate F. Cromwell, and Elisha Small, seaman, he was seen in secret and nightly conferences, and to both of these he had given money, as well as to others of the crew; he had distributed tobacco extensively among the apprentices, in defiance of reiterated orders; corrupting the wardroom steward, he caused him to steal brandy from the wardroom mess, with which Spencer not only got drunk himself, but administered it to several of the crew. Though servile in his intercourse with Captain Mackenzie,

when among the crew Spencer loaded him with blasphemous vituperation, and proclaimed that it would be a pleasing task to roll him overboard off the round-house. At one time he drew a brig with a black flag, and asked one of the midshipmen what he thought of it; he repeatedly asserted, in the early part of the cruise, that the brig might be easily taken; and, a short time prior to the revelation of the plot, he had examined the hand of Midshipman Rodgers, told his fortune, and predicted for him a speedy and violent death. These and various other circumstances, determined Captain Mackenzie to make sure at once of Spencer's person, and, accordingly, at evening quarters, all the officers were ordered to lay aft on the quarter-deck, excepting the midshipman stationed on the forecastle. The master was ordered to take the wheel, and those of the crew stationed abaft sent to the mainmast. Captain Mackenzie now approached Spencer, and said to him

Alex Midell Mackenzie

you had a project to kill the commander, the officers, and a considerable portion of the crew of this vessel, and to convert her into a pirate?"

"I may have told him so, sir, but it was in joke."

"You admit, then, that you told him so?"

"Yes, sir, but in joke!"

"This, sir, is joking on a forbidden subject—this joke may cost you your life! Be pleased to remove your neck handkerchief."

"What have you done with the paper containing an account of your project, which you told Mr. Wales was in the back of your neck handkerchief?" — nothing being now found in it.

"It is a paper containing my day's work, and I have destroyed it." "It is a singular place to keep days' work in."

"It is a convenient one," was the deferential and bland reply.

"You must have been aware that you could only have compassed your designs by passing over my dead body, and after that the bodies of all the officers. You had given yourself, sir, a great deal to do. It will be necessary for me to confine you, sir;" saying which, Captain Mackenzie turned to Lieutenant Gansevoort with the order-" Arrest Mr. Spencer, and put him in double irons.”

Lieutenant Gansevoort stepped forward, and, taking Spencer's sword, ordered him to be double ironed, and, as an additional security, handcuffed. Lieutenant Gansevoort was directed to keep a constant watch upon Spencer, to answer all his wants, but to have him instantly put to death if detected in speaking to or holding intelligence in any way with the crew.

On searching Spencer's locker, a small razor-case was found, which he had re

to the command of the Somers."

"Oh no, sir," replied Spencer, with a deferential, but unmoved and gently smiling expression.

razor in it. Instead of the razor, the case was found to contain a small paper, rolled in another; on the inner one were strange characters, which proved to be Greek, a