Having looked upon “the countenance of the enemy,” Sir Guy Carleton changed his mind. He decided to return to Canada. The most glorious defeat in the annals of the American navy had saved the nation from an invasion that would have severed it in twain, and probably whelmed its forces in utter defeat. CHAPTER V UNDER THE CRAGS OF THE “TIGHT LITTLE ISLE” THE SAUCY YANKEE CRUISERS IN BRITISH WATERS--WHEN FRANKLIN SAILED FOR FRANCE--WICKES IN THE _REPRISAL_ ON THE IRISH COAST--NARROW ESCAPE FROM A LINER--A PLUCKY ENGLISH LIEUTENANT--HARSH FATE OF THE AMERICANS IN THE BRITISH PRISON--STARVED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT--DEEDS OF THE GALLANT CONNYNGHAM--WELL-NAMED CRUISERS--A SURPRISE AT A BREAKFAST TABLE--TAKING PRIZES DAILY--WHY FORTY FRENCH SHIPS LOADED IN THE THAMES--INSURANCE RATES NEVER BEFORE KNOWN. Signal as has been the value of the services of the little vessels of the infant navy of the United States in their operations along the American coast and upon the woodsy waters of the highway from the north during the year of the nation’s birth, the American sailors had really only just begun to fight, and it was not until they carried the fight into the very harbors of Great Britain that they taught the British merchants, who had been supporting the British ministry in its oppression of the colonies, a lesson they were slow to learn. For the British merchants had looked upon the war in America as a blessing upon their business interests. It would be somewhat expensive in the way of taxation, but it would ruin their competitors, the enterprising colonists. It is in the spirit of trade and tradesmen of all classes to view with complacency the little expenses that ruin competitors. But some of the British merchants who rubbed their hands and smiled with satisfaction as they heard of the retreat of Washington across New Jersey in 1776, were to wring them in distress because of wounds in their pockets before the end of 1777--because of ships that were snatched away from under the very crags of what they were pleased to term their “tight little isle.” “In the meantime the irruption of the _Phœnix_ and the _Rose_ into the waters of the Hudson had roused a belligerent spirit along its borders.” These were the first British warships to sail up the Hudson in the Revolutionary war, and their advent was in July, 1776. The Americans had no ships to send against them, and they commonly remained at anchor out of reach of shore batteries. It was because of their presence that it was proposed to stretch an iron chain across the river at Anthony’s Nose. Other obstructions were prepared, but the only thing done in the way of going afloat to attack them was when some rafts were brought down the river chained between a couple of old sloop hulls, the whole of which were covered with dry fat, pine, tar, turpentine, etc. These were fired and let drift with the tide, but as a substitute for the modern torpedoes they were not successful.