While Mr. Lee, one of the ministers of the United States, was on a mission to the courts of Vienna and Berlin, he fell in company with a Mr. John de Neufwille, a merchant of Amsterdam, with whom he held several conversations on the subject of a commercial intercourse between the two nations, the result of which was, that the plan of an eventual commercial treaty was sketched out, as one which might thereafter be concluded between them.  This paper had received the approbation of the Pensionary Van Berkel, and of the city of Amsterdam, but not of the States General.

Mr. Henry Laurens, late president of congress, was deputed to the States General with this plan of a treaty, for the double purpose of endeavouring to complete it, and of negotiating a loan for the use of his government.  On the voyage he was captured by a British frigate; and his papers, which he had thrown overboard, were rescued from the waves by a British sailor.  Among them was found the plan of a treaty which has been mentioned, and which was immediately transmitted to Sir Joseph Yorke, the British minister at the Hague, to be laid before the government.

The explanations of this transaction not being deemed satisfactory by the court of London, Sir Joseph Yorke received orders to withdraw from the Hague, soon after which war was proclaimed against Holland.

This bold measure, which added one of the first maritime powers in Europe to the formidable list of enemies with whom Britain was already encompassed, was perhaps, not less prudent than courageous.

There are situations, to which only high minded nations are equal, in which a daring policy will conduct those who adopt it, safely through the very dangers it appears to invite; dangers which a system suggested by a timid caution might multiply instead of avoiding.  The present was, probably, one of those situations.  Holland was about to become a member of the armed neutrality, after which her immense navigation would be employed, unmolested, in transporting the property of the enemies of Britain, and in supplying them with all the materials for shipbuilding, or the whole confederacy must be encountered.

America, however, received with delight the intelligence that Holland also was engaged in the war; and founded additional hopes of its speedy termination on that event.

CHAPTER IX.

Transactions in South Carolina and Georgia....  Defeat of Ferguson....  Lord Cornwallis enters North Carolina....  Retreats out of that state....  Major Wemyss defeated by Sumpter....  Tarlton repulsed....  Greene appointed to the command of the Southern army....  Arrives in camp....  Detaches Morgan over the Catawba....  Battle of the Cowpens....  Lord Cornwallis drives Greene through North Carolina into Virginia....  He retires to Hillsborough....  Greene recrosses the Dan....  Loyalists under Colonel Pyle cut to pieces....  Battle of Guilford....  Lord Cornwallis retires to Ramsay’s mills....  To Wilmington....  Greene advances to Ramsay’s mills....  Determines to enter South Carolina....  Lord Cornwallis resolves to march to Virginia.

[Sidenote:  1780.]