The Minute Boys of Boston. Otis James

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СКАЧАТЬ time Hiram Griffin entered our home, and when I spoke of the possibility that we Minute Boys might succeed in releasing Archie from his imprisonment, he said emphatically, as if the matter admitted of no argument:

      "You must not for a moment think of any such desperate venture. Even if the lad was not guarded as he surely is, what could any number of you boys do toward releasing him? It would be opposing yourselves to all the king's forces that are at present in Boston, and that is the same as if I had said you would come to certain death."

      Then, as if to dismiss the matter without question, he began to speak with me of what the Committee of Safety believed our Minute Boys might be able to do in aid of the Cause, and explained where we could lay our hands on at least three skiffs which he knew had been secreted by those who loved the colonies.

      "You will be told, before leaving here, how to get possession of the boats; but as to disposing of them in such places as may best suit your conveniences and opportunity in leaving the town, I can offer no advice. That is a matter which you lads must settle among yourselves later."

      "Do you believe we will be aiding the Cause?" I asked, still doubtful as to whether these true men here in Cambridge were minded to lean upon us Minute Boys to any great degree.

      "If you are prudent, close-mouthed, and energetic, there is no question but that you may serve the army which is to be raised, by bringing information of what goes on in Boston, better than could an equal number of men."

      Then my father gave me much advice regarding the future, urging, which was unnecessary, that I should ever hold the good of the Cause above discomfort, above suffering, above even my own life. It mattered little, he declared, if we who had begun the struggle should go down into the Valley of Death, so that we left behind, for those who were to come, a land free from misrule and the oppression of tyrants.

      Now, strange as it may seem, having once arrived in Cambridge I forgot how bitterly hunger and thirst had assailed me during the four and twenty hours just past, until my father was come to an end of his loving converse, when suddenly my desire for food and water returned like a flood, and I cried as if in pain.

      One would have thought the dear man had done me some grievous wrong by not remembering that I might stand in need of refreshment, so many were the words of reproach which he addressed to himself while leading me to where I speedily found all that could be desired.

      In going through this encampment it seemed that already had we of the colonies gathered a vast army, yet my father told me there were less than five thousand men then in Cambridge; but promised that they would be speedily increased in numbers as the days went by.

      "It is but the beginning," he said, "already are those who favor the Cause marching toward this place as rapidly as may be, though as yet we have no real military head. The Provincial Congress has voted to raise an army of thirteen thousand six hundred men. Word has been sent out both by the Congress and Committee of Safety to other colonies, asking them to send all the troops they can spare, and Doctor Warren has written a stirring appeal, as you shall read, for I have made of it a copy."

      Having said this he took from his pocket a folded paper which he gave to me, and I can set down exactly what was written upon it, for I have the document before me even to this day. It is as follows:

"In Congress at Watertown, April 30th, 1775.

      "Gentlemen, – The barbarous Murders of our innocent Brethren on Wednesday the 19th Instant, has made it absolutely necessary that we immediately raise an army to defend our Wives and our Children from the butchering Hands of an inhuman Soldiery, who, incensed at the obstacles they meet with in their bloody progress, and enraged at being repulsed from the Field of Slaughter, will, without the least doubt take the first Opportunity in their Power to ravage this devoted Country with Fire and Sword. We conjure you, therefore, that you give all Assistance possible in raising an Army. Our all is at Stake. Death and Devastation are the certain Consequences of Delay. Every Moment is infinitely precious; an Hour lost may deluge your Country in Blood, and entail perpetual Slavery upon the few of your Posterity who may survive the Carnage. We beg and entreat you, as you will answer it to your Country, to your own Conscience, and, above all, as you will answer to God himself, that you will hasten and encourage, by all possible Means, the Enlistment of Men to form the Army, and send them forward to Headquarters at Cambridge, with that expedition which the vast Importance and instant Urgency of the affair demands.

"Joseph Warren, President."

      I would I might set down all I heard and saw during that day in Cambridge; but it cannot be if I am to tell the story of what we Minute Boys succeeded in doing during a certain portion of the year of Grace 1775.

      It is enough to say that before nightfall I had received all the instructions and advice that could be given, and was ready to make an attempt at getting into town once more, mourning meanwhile because of having left the skiff so far away that a long tramp would be necessary in order to come at her.

      Even amid his duties, and they were many, Doctor Warren had time to think of me and my well-being, for when, near to sunset, I was standing with my father in front of the building occupied by the Committee of Safety, already taking leave of him, the doctor came up smiling as if seeing in me an old and valued friend, and said:

      "I am not minded, lad, that you should tramp from here to the ferry in order to regain your skiff. Leave her where she is, and she may serve you a good turn at another time. Hiram Griffin has made ready a boat on the river, and you can embark in her, if so be it is prudent to land on either shore of the town."

      "I will take the chance, sir, at one place or another," I said, feeling wondrously relieved at thus being spared the many miles of travel, and for a moment thinking it might be the doctor's purpose to send Hiram with me.

      After I found the boat which had been made ready, I could not repress an exclamation of disappointment at seeing that she was a large craft, far too heavy to be handled by a single person.

      "I have the long tramp before me even now," I said in a tone of dismay to my father, who had accompanied me to the river. "With a craft like that I would have no hope of escape if peradventure the lobster backs gave chase."

      "I reckon the two of us can manage to make a decent show of speed," Hiram said with a laugh, and then it was I learned that he counted on going with me into the town, taking his chances of getting back later, rather than allow me to go alone.

      "You had better join us Minute Boys and have done with it, Hiram," I said gleefully, taking my seat in the boat after having bidden my father good by. "It seems to me you are like to meet with more of adventure in our company, than loitering behind here at Cambridge where all are much like a flock of sheep without a leader."

      "Faith, and I begin to believe that myself," Hiram replied as he took up the oars, and a moment later we were gliding down the river in the twilight which would be deepened to darkness before we were come within sight of Boston.

      No sooner were we well under way than there came to me again the same hope I had had during a portion of the time we lay hidden on Noddle island, regarding the possibility of being able to free Archie from prison, and I asked in what I intended should be a careless tone:

      "Hiram, if it so chanced while you were in Boston town that there was the shadow of a hope of getting Archie out of prison, would you lend a hand?"

      "Give me half a show to do aught toward thwarting the lobster backs, and I'll stay with you till the crack of doom, if so be I live that long and the job is not finished before."

      "Then we'll find the way," I said as if believing the words were true, even though at the same moment I deemed it little less than the fancy of a madman to think anything could be done to aid the dear lad while СКАЧАТЬ