On the 6th April, 1777, he left Leesburg and eventually succeeded in getting to the British man-of-war _Phoenix_ off the mouth of the Chesapeake. After another visit to New York he finally reached England in safety. In spite of all his tribulations and the very real dangers he incurred in his American sojourn, he records that "Virginia is the very finest country I ever was in"--no small concession.[104] [104] The book itself should be read. The above abstractions necessarily omit much of fascinating interest. The people of Loudoun's German Settlement may have been "a set of ignorant Dutchmen" to the irritated Cresswell but they proved loyal and effective fighters in the American cause. They seem to have been whole-heartedly with their Tidewater and Scotch-Irish neighbors in the controversy and are reputed to have largely joined Armand's Legion under Charles Trefin Armand, Marquis de la Rouaire (1751-1793) who, after service in the Garde de Corps in Paris, had volunteered in the American Army on the 10th May, 1777, under the name of Charles Armand, had been commissioned a colonel by the Congress, saw much service and was greatly beloved by his men, few of whom were able to speak English. Cresswell is confirmed in his statement regarding Clapham's gun factory by the record of a session of the Committee of Safety of Virginia, held on the 27th March, 1776, at Williamsburg: "Ordered that a letter be written to Colonel Clapham in answer to his of Feby 23rd and March 24th informing him that we have sent him £360 to pay for the rifles mentioned by Chro. Perfect, that the Comm'ee agree to take all the good musquets that shall be made by the 5 or 6 hands he mentions by the 1st December next, and desire him to contract for the 12 large rifles also mentioned."[105] [105] 8 Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 139. Two other men in Loudoun must again be cited for their activities in the cause of independence--one as a statesman, the other as a soldier. Thomson Mason, from his ownership of Raspberry Plain, was identified closely with the county although not a continuous resident there. We find him constantly devoting his time and abilities to the American cause. Even as early as 1774 he wrote "You must draw your swords in a just cause, and rely upon that God, who assists the righteous, to support your endeavours to preserve the liberty he gave, and the love of which he hath implanted in your hearts as essential to your nature."