He

well be supposed to put that virtue to a hard test. purchased, in the neighbourhood of New York, a spacious house, with valuable ground, for the life of himself and his wife, and here, with few exceptions, he remained for the rest of his life.

No wonder that the military leaders in the revolution should aspire to the enjoyment of its civil honours afterwards. The war was too short to create a race of mere soldiers. The merchants and lawyers who entered the army, became merchants and lawyers again, and had lost none of their primitive qualifications for administering the civil government. General Gates, however, was a singular example among the officers of high rank. His original profession was a soldier, and disabled him from acquiring the capacity suitable to the mere magistrate and senator. During twenty-three years, he was only for a short time in a public body. In the year 1800, he was elected to the New York legislature, in consequence of a critical balance of the parties in that state, and withdrew again into private life, as soon as the purpose for which he was elected was gained.

General Gates was a whig in England, and a republican in America. His political opinions did not separate him from many respectable citizens, whose views differed widely from his own.

He had a handsome person, tending to corpulence, in the middle of life, and remarkably courteous to all. He is said to have received a classical education, and not to have entirely neglected that advantage in after life. To science, literature, or erudition, however, he made no pretensions; but gave indisputable marks of a social, amiable, and benevolent disposition.

He died, without posterity, at his customary abode, near New York, on the 10th of April, 1806, after having counted a long series of seventy-eight years.

As the affecting tales of Miss M'Crea and lady Ackland are alluded to in the foregoing sketch, and connected with an important period of the life of general Gates, we insert an account of those incidents, the former from Ramsay, the latter from Thatcher's Journal, a valuable and interesting work, lately published in Boston. For some time previous to the capture of Burgoyne's

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army by general Gates, many innocent persons fell victims to the tomahawk and scalping knife of those savages who accompanied the British army. Upwards of one hundred men, women, and children perished by the hands of those ruffians, "whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions." Among other instances, the murder of Miss Jenny M'Crea, excited universal horror.

Mr.

"This young lady, in the innocence of youth, and the bloom of beauty, the daughter of a steady loyalist, and engaged to be married to a British officer, was on the very day of her intended nuptials, massacred by the savage auxiliaries attached to the British army. Jones, her lover, from an anxiety for her safety, engaged some Indians to remove her from among the Americans, and promised to reward the person who should bring her safe to him, with a barrel of rum. Two of the Indians, who had conveyed her some distance, on the way to her intended husband, disputed, which of them should present her to Mr. Jones. Both were anxious for the reward. One of them killed her with his tomahawk, to prevent the other from receiving it. Burgoyne obliged the Indians to deliver up the murderer, and threatened to put him to death. His life was only spared, upon the Indians agreeing, to terms, which the general thought would be more efficacious than an execution, in preventing similar mischiefs.”

"General Gates was no less dignified and brave as a commander, than beneficent and generous as a conqueror. He was remarkable for his humanity to prisoners, and a desire to mitigate the sufferings of the unfortunate, Among the objects in distress, which claimed his attention, was the lady of major Ackland, commander of the British grenadiers, who was dangerously wounded, and captured during the battle of the 7th of October. This heroic lady, from conjugal affection, was induced to follow the fortune of her husband during the whole campaign through the wilderness. Having been habituated to a mode of life with which those of rank and fortune are peculiarly favoured, her delicate frame was ill calculated to sustain the indescribable privations and hardships to which she was unavoidably exposed during an

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active campaign. Her vehicle of conveyance was, part of the time, a small two-wheeled tumbril, drawn by a single horse, over roads almost impassable. Soon after she received the affecting intelligence that her husband had received a wound, and was a prisoner, she manifested the greatest tenderness and affection, and resolved to visit him in our camp, to console and alleviate his suf ferings. With this view she obtained a letter from Bur goyne, to general Gates, and not permitting the prospect of being out in the night, and drenched in rain, to repress her zeal, she proceeded in an open boat, with a few attendants, and arrived at our post in the night, in a suffering condition, from extreme wet and cold. The sentinel, faithful to his duty, detained them in the boat till major Dearborn, the officer of the guard, could arrive. He permitted them to land, and afforded lady Ackland the best accommodations in his power, and treated her with a cup of tea in his guard house. When general Gates, in the morning, was informed of the unhappy situation of lady Ackland, he immediately ordered her a safe escort, and treated her himself with the tenderness of a parent, directing that every attention should be bestowed which her rank, her sex, character, and circumstances, required. She was soon conveyed to Albany, where she found her wounded husband.

"Lady Ackland accompanied major Ackland to Canada, in 1776, and was called to attend on him while sick in a miserable hut at Chamblee. In the expedition to Ticonderoga, in 1777, she was positively enjoined not to expose herself to the risk and hazards which might occur on that occasion; but major Ackland having received a wound in the battle of Hubberton, she crossed lake Champlain, to pay her attention to him. After this she followed his fortune, and shared his fatigue, while traversing the dreary, woody country, to Fort Edward. Here, the tent in which they lodged, took fire, by night, from which they escaped with the utmost difficulty. During the action of the 19th of September, she was to

the fate great fatigue, and inexpressible anxiety for the fate of her husband, being advanced in the front of the battle. On the 7th of October, during the heat of the Conflict, lady Ackland took refuge among the wounded

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and dying; her husband commanding the grenadiers, was in the most exposed part of the action, and she in awful suspense awaiting his fate. The baroness Reidsel, and the wives of two other field officers, were her companions in painful apprehension. One of these officers was soon brought in dangerously wounded, and the death of the other was announced. It was not long before intelligence was received that the British army was defeated, and that major Ackland was desperately wounded and taken. The next day she proposed to visit her husband, in the American camp. General Burgoyne observes, "Though I was ready to believe, for I had experienced, that patience and fortitude in a supreme degree, were to be found, as well as every other virtue, under the most tender forms, I was astonished at this proposal. After so long an agitation of the spirits, exhausted not only for want of rest, but, absolutely want of food, drenched in rain, for twelve hours together, that a woman should be capable of delivering herself to the enemy, probably in the night, and uncertain into what hands she might fall, appeared an effort above human nature. The assistance I was enabled to give, was smali indeed; I had not even a cup of wine to offer her, but I was told, she had found from some kind and fortunate hand, a little rum and dirty water. All I could furnish to her, was an open boat, and a few lines written on dirty and wet paper to general Gates, recommending her to his protection. It is due justice, at the close of this adventure, to say, that she was received and accommodated by general Gates, with all the humanity and respect, that her rank, her merits, and her fortunes, deserved.

"Let such as are affected by these circumstances of alarm, hardship and danger, recollect that the subject of them was a woman of the most tender and delicate frame, of the gentlest manners, habituated to all the soft elegancies and refined enjoyments that attended high birth and fortune, and far advanced in a state, in which the tender cares, always due to the sex, become indispensably necessary. Her mind alone was formed for such trials."

GIBSON, JOHN, was born at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on the 23d of May, 1740. He received a classical education, and was an excellent scholar at the age of eigh teen, when he entered the service. He made his first campaign under general Forbes, in the expedition which resulted in the acquisition of Fort Du Quesne, (Pittsburg) from the French. At the peace of 1763, he settled at Fort Pitt, as a trader. Shortly after this, war broke out again with the Indians, and he was taken prisoner at the mouth of Beaver creek, together with two men who were in his employment, while descending the Ohio in a canoe. One of the men was immediately burnt, and the other shared the same fate, as soon as the party reached the Kenhawa. General Gibson, however, was preserved by an aged squaw, and adopted by her in the place of her son, who had been killed in battle. He remained several years with the Indians, and became familiar with their language, habits, manners, customs and traditions. It is to be regretted, that the low degree of estimation in which these subjects were held, prevented him from giving his collections to the public, as in the present state of taste for Indian antiquities, they would have been valuable. No person who had equal opportunities of acquiring information of this kind, was so well qualified to communicate it, except his late friend, the Rev. Mr. Heckewelder. At the termination of hostilities, he again settled at Fort Pitt.

In 1774 he acted a conspicuous part in the expedition against the Shawnee Towns, under lord Dunmore; particularly in negotiating the peace which followed, and restored many prisoners to their friends, after a captivity of several years. On this occasion, the celebrated speech of Logan, the Mingo chief, was delivered; the circumstances connected with which, have still sufficient interest to justify a relation of them here, as received from the lips of general Gibson, a short time before his death. When the troops had arrived at the principal town, and while dispositions were making preparatory to the attack, he was sent on with a flag, and authority to treat for peace. As he approached, he met with Logan, who was standing by the side of the path, and accosted him with, "My friend Logan, how do you do? I