1813	Boat-attacks, &c. in Chesapeake Bay	235

editors, as the affair at Hampton. All the hireling pens in the United States were put in requisition, until tale followed tale, each outdoing the last in horror. The language of the brothel was exhausted, and that of Billingsgate surpassed, to invent sufferings for the American women, and terms of reproach for their " British " ravishers. Instances were not only magnified, but multiplied, tenfold ; until the whole republic rang with peals of execration against the British character and nation. A few of the boldest of the anti-government party stood up to undeceive the public ; but the voice of reason was drowned in the general clamour, and it became as dangerous, as it was useless, to attempt to gain a hearing. The " George-town Federal Republican," of July 7, a newspaper published just at the verge of Washington city, and whose editor possessed the happy privilege of remaining untainted amidst a corrupted atmosphere, contained the following account: " The statement of the women of Hampton being violated by the British, turns out to be false. A correspondence, upon that subject and the pillage said to have been committed there, has taken place between General Taylor and Admiral Warren. Some plunder appears to have been committed, but it was confined to the French troops employed. Admiral Warren complains, on his part, of the Americans, having continued to fire upon the struggling crews of the barges, after they were sunk."

On the 11th of July Sir John Warren detached Rear-admiral Cockburn, with the Sceptre 74, into which ship he had now shifted his flag, the Romulus, Fox, and Nemesis, frigates armed en flûte, the Conflict gun-brig, and Highflyer and Cockchafer tenders, having on board the 103d regiment, of about 500 rank and file, and a small detachment of artillery, to Ocracoke harbour, on the North-Carolina coast, for the purpose of putting an end to the commerce carried on from that port by means of inland navigation, and of destroying any vessels that might be found there. During the night of the 12th, the squadron arrived off Ocracoke bar; and, at 2 a.m. on the 13th, the troops were embarked in their boats ; which, accompanied by the Conflict and tenders, pulled in three divisions towards the shore. Owing to the great distance and heavy swell, the advance division, commanded by Lieutenant Westphal, first of the Sceptre, did not reach the shoal-point of the harbour, behind which two large armed vessels were seen at anchor, until considerably after daylight : consequently, the enemy was fully prepared for resistance.

The instant the British boats doubled the point, they were fired upon by the two vessels ; but Lieutenant Westphal, under cover of some rockets, pulled directly for them, and had just got to the brig's bows, when her crew cut the cables and abandoned her. The schooner's colours were hauled down by her crew about the same time. The latter vessel proved to be the

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