quit shootin’ but come on a’ter me pell-mell.  They got to comin’ too fast an’ I heard ’em goin’ down through the roof o’ the bay behind me an’ rasslin’ with the logs.  That put meat on my bones!  I could ‘a’ gone back an’ made a mess o’ the hull party with the toe o’ my boot but I ain’t overly fond o’ killin’.  Never have been.  I took my time an’ slopped erlong toward shore with the runt under my arm cussin’ like a wildcat.  We got ashore an’ I made the leetle sergeant empty his pockets an’ give me all the papers he had.  I took the strip o’ rawhide from round my belt an’ put a noose above his knees an’ ‘nother on my wrist an’ sot down to wait fer dark which the sun were then below the tree-tops.  I looked with my spy-glass ’crost the bay an’ could see the heads bobbin’ up an’ down an’ a dozen men comin’ out with poles to help the log rasslers.  Fer some time they had ‘nough to do an’ I wouldn’t be supprised.  If we had the hull British army on floatin’ timber the logs would lick ’em in a few minutes.”

Solomon came in with his prisoner and accurate information as to the force of British in the Highlands.

On the night of the fifteenth of July, a detachment of Washington’s troops under Wayne, preceded by the two scouts, descended upon Stony Point and King’s Ferry and routed the enemy, capturing five hundred and fifty men and killing sixty.  Within a few days the British came up the river in great force and Washington, unwilling to risk a battle, quietly withdrew and let them have the fort and ferry and their labor for their pains.  It was a bitter disappointment to Sir Henry Clinton.  The whole British empire clamored for decisive action and their great Commander was unable to bring it about and meanwhile the French were preparing to send a heavy force against them.

2

Solomon, being the ablest bush scout in the American army, was needed for every great enterprise in the wilderness.  So when a small force was sent up the Penobscot River to dislodge a regiment of British from Nova Scotia, in the late summer of 1779, he went with it.  The fleet which conveyed the Americans was in command of a rugged old sea captain from Connecticut of the name of Saltonstall who had little knowledge of the arts of war.  He neglected the precautions which a careful commander would have taken.

A force larger than his own should have guarded the mouth of the river.  Of this Solomon gave him warning, but Captain Saltonstall did not share the apprehension of the great scout.  In consequence they were pursued and overhauled far up the river by a British fleet.  Saltonstall in a panic ran his boats ashore and blew them up with powder.  Again a force of Americans was compelled to suffer the bitter penalty of ignorance.  The soldiers and crews ran wild in the bush a hundred miles from any settlement.  It was not possible to organize them.  They fled in all directions.  Solomon had taken with him a bark canoe.  This he carried,