3. It will also appear that more than three thousand prizes, from the British merchant marine, were captured by the American Navy and privateersmen. This loss crippled very severely the mercantile prosperity of England. It is to be noted, in the same connection, that the supplies of spars and other naval stores from America were cut off,-and that the navy and mercantile marine of France and Spain had the advantage of them.

4. The activity of the privateers served the direct purposes of the American Army. Washington's mortars, used in the siege of Boston, were those taken from the Nancy in Boston Bay. The powder used by Arnold against Quebec, is said to have been that brought from the British Islands by Hopkins and Whipple. In one prize taken by Jones, before he crossed the ocean, were ten thousand English uniforms. D'Estaing's fleet in the fall of 1778 was refitted in Boston Harbor by the stores sent out to the English in New York, which had been captured by New England privateers. In 1779 Hopkins took eight out of ten vessels which Clinton was sending with men and stores to Georgia. It is fair to say that the victories of Gates and Greene and Washington are largely due to the resources which the country received in hundreds of such captures.

It is desirable that the precise facts bearing on such successes should be carefully discovered and arranged. When the country and the world discusses the question of the American fisheries, still a question of the first importance, careless critics have been heard to say that there are but one hundred thousand men engaged in those fisheries, and that so small a body is an unimportant factor of the strength of the nation. Probably there were not more than one hundred thousand of such men in the years between 1775 and 1783. But they were enough. It was they who crippled English commerce. It was they who broke down the haughty indifference with which England regarded the war

when it began. It was they, largely, who clothed and provided the American army. It was they who secured Independence. It is not simply true, that, but for them we should have no national fisheries. But for them, there would be no nation.

NOTE.-The severity of a Council report may perhaps be lightened a little by the following ballad, which only exists in manuscript.

THE YANKEE PRIVATEER.

[BY ARTHUR HALE,]

I.

Come, listen and I'll tell you
How first I went to sea,

To fight against the British

And earn our liberty.

We shipped with Captain Whipple

Who never knew a fear,

The Captain of the Providence,

The Yankee privateer.

We sailed and we sailed

And made good cheer;
There were many pretty men
On the Yankee privateer.

II.

The British Lord High Admiral
He wished old Whipple harm,
He wrote him that he'd hang him
From the end of his Yard-arm.
"My lord," wrote Whipple back again,
"It seems to me it's clear,

That if you want to hang him,

You must catch your Privateer."

So we sailed and we sailed

And we made good cheer,

For not a British frigate

Could come near the Privateer.

III.

We sailed to the South'ard

And nothing did we meet

Till we found three British frigates

And their West Indian fleet. Old Whipple shut our ports

And crawled up near,

And shut us all below

On the Yankee Privateer.

So slowly he sailed

We fell to the rear

And not a soul suspected

The Yankee Privateer.

IV.

At dark he put the lights out

And forward we ran, And silently we boarded

The biggest merchantman.

We knocked down the watch,-
The lubbers shook for fear,-
She's a prize, without a shot,
To the bold Privateer!

We sent the prize North
And dropped to the rear,

And all day we slept

On the bold Privateer.

V.

For ten days we sailed,
And, e'er the sun rose,
Each night a prize we'd taken
Beneath the Lion's nose.
When the British looked to see

Why their ships should disappear

They found they had in convoy
A Yankee Privateer.

But we sailed and we sailed

And never thought of fear; Not a coward was on board The Yankee Privateer.

VI.

The biggest British frigate

Bore round to give us chase, But though he was the fleetest, Old Whipple wouldn't race, Till he'd raked her fore and aft,For the lubbers couldn't steer,Then he showed them the heels

Of the Yankee Privateer.

We sailed and we sailed

And we made good cheer

For not a British frigate

Could come near the privateer.

VII.

Then we sailed to the North,
To the town we all know,
And there lay our prize;

All anchored in a row.

And welcome were we

To our homes so dear,
And we shared a million dollars
On the Yankee Privateer.
We'd sailed and we'd sailed

And we made good cheer

We had all full pockets
On the bold Privateer.

VIII.

Then we each manned a ship
And our sails unfurled,

And we bore the stars and stripes
O'er the oceans of the world.
From the proud flag of Britain
We swept the seas clear,

And we earned our independence On the Yankee Privateer!

Then, sailors and landsmen,

One more cheer!

Here is three times three

For the Yankee Privateer!

REPORT OF THE TREASURER.

IN compliance with the By-Laws the Treasurer of the American Antiquarian Society herewith submits his semiannual report of receipts and disbursements for the six months ending October 1, 1888.

By direction of the Finance Committee there has been carried to each fund, from the income of the investments for the past six months, three per cent. on the amount of the several funds April 1, 1888. A balance of income, amounting to about $400, has been carried to the reserved. "Income Account," making it $938.91.

A detailed statement of the investments is given as a part of this report, showing the par and market value of the various stocks and bonds.

The total of the investments and cash on hand October 1, 1888, was $105,410.11, divided among the several funds as follows:

The income of the Tenney Fund for the past six months has been transferred to the Librarian's and General Fund.