Class _:^ 
 
 fofiyrightN!'. 
 
 CCEMRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
CAPTAIN OTWAY BURNS 
 
Captain Otway Burns 
 
 Patriot, Privateer and 
 Legislator 
 
 Arma virumquc cano.— 
 
 Vergil. 
 
 COLLECTED AND COMPILED 
 
 BY 
 
 WALTER FRANCIS BURNS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 1905 
 
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 us R arToTgoSressI 
 
 Two OC'L-iei- deceived | 
 
 APH ^c 1905 
 
 ) 00tiy,-.;T;ir rf.av i 
 
TO THE) MEMORY O^ 
 
 AMERICA'S NAVAL HEROES 
 
 WITH FEEI^INGS 01^ THE DEEPEST ADMIRATION FOR 
 
 THEIR ACTS 01^ SPI.ENDID DARING FOR THE 
 
 HONOR OF OUR COUNTRY THIS WORK 
 
 IS RESPECTFUI.I.Y DEDICATED 
 
Copyright 1905 
 WALTER FRANCIS BURNS 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 A careful and sustained search for written and 
 traditional records of those who shared in the na- 
 tional defence in 1812 has revealed a lamentable 
 dearth of authentic information both in official and 
 private circles. America has been prodigal of her 
 heroes. Contemporaneous foreign history shows a 
 wealth of smallest details in their perfected systems 
 of War Office Records. But America was in her 
 infancy; a struggle for even the form of the con- 
 stitution itself was raging while the war of 1812 
 was being waged. Such official records as were 
 kept were despoiled by the British invasion of 
 Washington. The vast extent of the country and 
 the rapidly shifting scenes of action also contri- 
 buted much to the difficulty of accurately recording 
 events. But above all the fact that so many who 
 acquitted themselves most bravely in this struggle 
 retired to their home-life, and, Cincinnatus-like, 
 
took up the arts of peace with the happy reflection 
 of duty performed has made the historian's work 
 a most discouraging and difficult task. 
 
 The writer was actuated by family interest in 
 gathering information of his immediate ancestry; 
 but as the work went on with increasing difficulty, 
 as he soon found himself involved in a tangle of 
 historical detail, and confronted by a mass of im- 
 perfect and contradictory local traditions, he was 
 impelled to place the result of his pains-taking in- 
 vestigation in a permanent form. It is sincerely to 
 be hoped that others may be prompted to perpetuate 
 the memory of those who have contributed to the 
 making of a nation and that there may be evolved 
 from the chaos of the past a lasting memorial to 
 the actors in the great drama. 
 
 Especial thanks are due to those who have 
 rendered material assistance in gathering and veri- 
 fying information and for the interest that they 
 have displayed in the subject. The writer feels 
 under great obligations to many who have entered 
 upon the work of collecting facts in the life and 
 doings of Captain Otway Burns and who were 
 actuated solely by pride in the career of an illus- 
 trious North Carolinian. 
 
 8 
 
Foremost among these is the Honorable Chief 
 Justice Walter Clark, of the Supreme Court of 
 North Carolina, who in a letter to the writer says: 
 *'You have done great service to the state of North 
 Carolina in having the useful and honorable career 
 of your grandfather traced out and put upon record. 
 This state is too prone to neglect to record the 
 fame of her sons who have served her well. In 
 neglecting their fame she has neglected her own." 
 
 Kemp Plummer Battle, LL. D., Alumni Profes- 
 sor of History in the University of North Carolina, 
 has been indefatigable in the research work upon 
 this local, as well as national, historical subject, 
 and has brought to bear upon the work his sixth, 
 or "historical sense" with which he is so eminently 
 endowed. 
 
 Mr. Romulus A. Nunn, of Newbern, N. C, 
 has proven a most competent and tireless ally, not 
 only in the efficient discharge of the onerous duties 
 of chairmanship of committees, but in the tedious 
 and exacting work of investigation and proof of 
 details. Not a portion of his work left his hands 
 until he was positive of its full authenticity. 
 
The writer gratefully acknowledges the many 
 courtesies and the willing assistance of all who 
 have contributed to the success of this undertaking. 
 
 WaIvTeir Francis Burns. 
 New York City, 1905. 
 
 10 
 
CAPTAIN OTWAY BURNS. 
 
 The deeds and character of Captain Otway 
 Burns are most eloquently and graphically described 
 in the scholarly and graceful orations which are 
 reproduced in their integrity. There is, of course, 
 some repetition in the statement of facts ; but the 
 use of the collected material by two men of such 
 eminent attainments serves to show the workings of 
 two trained minds upon the same material. The 
 deductions, inferences, and mental processes of a 
 trained jurist and of a keen historian acting upon the 
 same premises form a study of interesting psycho- 
 logical importance. Mutilation for convenience or 
 for practical purposes would under these circum- 
 stances be unpardonable. 
 
 The oration of the Honorable Chief Justice 
 Walter Clark was delivered at Beaufort, N. C, in 
 July, 1901, on the occasion of the unveiling of a 
 monument erected to the memory of Captain Otway 
 Burns by his descendants. It was vastly to the 
 
 II 
 
honor of the state that a ceremony which might 
 easily have been regarded as a family commemo- 
 ration was, by the numbers and the eminence of 
 those who participated in it from all parts of the 
 state, transformed into a tribute from North Caro- 
 lina to the memory of one whom her people were 
 glad to honor. 
 
 12 
 
PROGRAM 
 
 of the 
 
 Ceremonial Exercises 
 
 at the Unveihng of the Monument 
 
 erected to the memory of 
 
 CAPTAIN OTWAY BURNS 
 
 by his descendants 
 
 Beaufort, N. C. 
 
 July 24, 1 90 1. 
 
 1. Song ''America.** 
 
 2. Prayer Rev. Thomas P. Noe. 
 
 3. Song "Columbia.'* 
 
 4. Introduction of Orator 
 
 Charles L. Abernathyj Bsq. 
 
 5. Oration Hon. Chief Justice Walter Clark, 
 
 6. t/NVEii^iNG. . .M/^^ Theodora Waltona Wilkens. 
 
 7. Salute Nezvbern Naval Reserves. 
 
 8. Benediction Rev. Mr. Hornaday. 
 
 13 
 
ORATION BY CHIEF JUSTICE WALTER 
 CLARK. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 We have met to do honor to the memory of one 
 whose Hfe reflected honor on this city and county, 
 and on his state and country as well, — one of those 
 brave sailors and soldiers,who in our second war with 
 Great Britain, maintained the honor of his country 
 upon the open seas and carried the starry flag of 
 the Union of our fathers to distant latitudes. We 
 rarely hear of him now ; but when the past century 
 was entering upon its 'teens, fame had no greater 
 favorite in these parts than the brave sailor and 
 soldier. Captain Otway Burns. Both of these 
 names "Otway" and "Burns" are borne to this day 
 by many of your citizens as Christian names. No 
 surer proof could be had of the respect, admiration, 
 and affection inspired by the original bearer of 
 these names among the masses of his countrymen. 
 
 15 
 
The destructive process of the years is strik- 
 ingly shown by the small mass of authentic material 
 left out of which to construct a narrative of the 
 life of one whose smallest actions were once on 
 every lip. One by one those cognisant of his deeds 
 of daring and courage have passed away. With 
 true North Carolina indifference his deeds were 
 rarely committed to paper and hence it is now 
 perhaps impossible with the utmost diligence to 
 compile a narrative of the career of Captain Burns 
 which is worthy of him or to give it that interest 
 which would attach to a complete and accurate 
 statement of the stirring events in which he shared. 
 
 And first I may be pardoned for a word as to 
 the historic interest attaching to the city and county 
 which are most intimately associated with his fame 
 and which hold his ashes and the monument which 
 we are about to unveil to his memory today. 
 
 It was your shores which were first espied by 
 Amidas and Barlow, July 4, 1584, — three hundred 
 and seventeen years ago, in the first exploring ex- 
 pedition sent out by England to this continent. 
 They proceeded farther up the coast and entered 
 one of the inlets above us, probably Ocracoke. The 
 next year, 1585, the first English settlement was 
 
 16 
 
made at Roanoke Island over thirty-five years be- 
 fore the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and 
 twenty-two years before the settlement of James- 
 town, which was in reality a continuation of the 
 one at Roanoke Island, the more commodious one 
 at James River being selected as a substitute for 
 the rather inaccessible one at Roanoke. 
 
 But aside from that, eight centuries and a half 
 of English history are inextricably interwoven in 
 the very names of your country and city. On the 
 shores of France, where the loud waves of the 
 British Channel lash the shores, there lies the town 
 or village of Carteret. From thence came the name 
 of your historic county. As the steamer speeds 
 from St. Malo in France to Southampton, the pas- 
 senger standing on deck sees to the right, on a tall 
 cliff, the little village of Carteret, containing only 
 some 500 inhabitants today. Its aspect faces the 
 setting sun, for at that point the. French coast runs 
 for many miles nearly north and south. Looking 
 further down the coast to the right, near the verge 
 of the horizon, is the smoke of a larger town, of 
 some 10,000 or 12,000 people which for near 1,000 
 years has borne the name of Granville. Still fur- 
 ther south, about 100 miles as the crow flies, down 
 in the heart of that pleasant land of France in the 
 
 17 
 
beautiful valley of the Loire, between two swift 
 rolling streams, lies the town of Beaufort. From 
 thence comes the name of this second Beaufort, 
 this fair town which lies around us, — a town whose 
 importance is beginning and whose fame and wliose 
 limits will grow with the years that are to come. 
 
 How happens it that this country and this city 
 founded and peopled by the English speaking people 
 should revive and continue the names of French 
 towns? Many present doubtless know, but they 
 will pardon me if I relate the story to those who 
 do not. In the year of our Lord one thousand and 
 sixty six, William, of Normandy, ruler of the pro- 
 vince of France which borders on the English 
 Channel, took steps to add the Kingdom of England 
 to his property, — for so they regarded dukedoms and 
 kingdoms in those days, when the ownership of the 
 people went with the ownership of the soil. He 
 gathered himself a brave array of gallant soldiers, 
 good knights, needy adventurers, and everyone who 
 was willing to fight for love of leader, love of ad- 
 venture, or love of plunder. To him, among others, 
 came the owner of the village of Carteret, with his 
 retainers whom he probably made a captain, and 
 the lord of Granville, v/ho was doubtless a colonel 
 
 i8 
 
or general. At Hastings, William conquered and 
 the English land was parcelled out to his adherents. 
 Carteret and Granville fared well in England. Dur- 
 ing the succeeding centuries their names were prom- 
 inent in English history. Reginald de Carteret and 
 his seven sons were all made knights in one day by 
 Edward III for having held possession of the island 
 of Jersey against Bertrand de Guesclin and the 
 French. When England became a republic under 
 Cromwell, Sir George Carteret went into exile with 
 Charles II. On the restoration of that monarch, 
 he rewarded this devotion by giving to Carteret 
 and seven others the broad domain reaching from 
 the Virginia line down to Florida and from the 
 Atlantic clear across to the Pacific, under the style 
 of the Lords Proprietors. The colonists dutifully 
 named one of their precincts Carteret. Sir George 
 Carteret's grandson (whom Colonel Wheeler in his 
 history has confounded with his grandfather) was 
 created first Baron Carteret and married the heiress 
 of the Granvilles. He died very young and his son, 
 John, Baron Carteret and Earl Granville, was not 
 only a Lord Proprietor but a member of the British 
 Cabinet and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Walpole 
 says he was one of the five greatest men he had 
 ever known. When the other Lords Proprietors 
 
 19 
 
sold out, he retained his one-eighth ownership and 
 had it laid off next to the Virginia line which was 
 his northern boundary. Portions of his southern 
 border you can see to this day in the long straight 
 line in the middle of your state which marks on the 
 map the southern boundary of Chatham, Randolph, 
 Davidson, Rowan, and Iredell. All between that 
 straight line, extended east to the Atlantic and west 
 to the Pacific, up to the Virginia line (extended 
 in like manner to both oceans), — a tract nearly 
 seventy miles broad and extending from ocean to 
 ocean — he retained in fee simple. No wonder when 
 counties were first created in this province in 1729 
 one of them was named Carteret and that a little 
 later, 1746, when another great county was created, 
 it was called Granville. It was his own land, a 
 part of his own farm. When the American Revo- 
 lution ended in our independence he claimed that 
 under the terms of the treaty of peace his right to 
 the ownership of that vast territory was protected 
 and he had a good show of right, as the treaty is 
 worded. He began suit in the United States Court. 
 How and why he failed is another story. 
 
 But how about Beaufort? Well, the English 
 kings, descendants of William, returned the Norman 
 invasion by themselves becoming conquerors of the 
 
 20 
 
greater part of France. One of the sons of Ed- 
 ward III, John of Guant, ''time honored Lancaster", 
 acquired among other scraps of property in the 
 conquered country this town of Beaufort which 
 he gave to some of his illegitimate children, one 
 of whom was the great Cardinal Beaufort who con- 
 ducted the English King Henry VI, to be crowned 
 at Paris as King of France and who presided at 
 the trial and conviction of Joan of Arc. He it 
 was, when dying, whom Shakespeare makes offer 
 to the approaching specter of death. 
 
 ''If thou be'est death, I'll give thee England's treasure, 
 Enough to purchase such another island, 
 So thou wilt let me live and feel no pain." 
 And it is to him the king said : 
 
 "Lord Cardinal, if thou thinkest on heaven's bliss, 
 Hold up thy hand, make signal of thy hope. 
 He dies and makes no sign ; O, God, forgive him." 
 Warwick. "So bad a death argues a monstrous life." 
 King Henry. "Forbear to judge, for we are sinners 
 
 all- 
 Close up his eyes, and draw the curtain close, 
 And let us to meditation." 
 
 From a brother of that Cardinal Beaufort was 
 descended the Duke of Beaufort who was one of 
 the eight Lords Proprietors. The name of whose 
 duchy was bestowed upon your city, and from him 
 also is descended the present duke who sits as a 
 
 21 
 
hereditary senator in the British Parhament and 
 thorough the female Hne he also numbers among 
 his descendants the present King of England. 
 
 Nor does your historic connection with France 
 terminate here, for this province was originally 
 named Carolena in honor of Charles IX of France 
 who is damned to all time and eternity as the author 
 of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, and it was 
 rechristened Carolina when granted to the Lords 
 Proprietors by Charles II of England, — himself of 
 very indifferent fame. 
 
 For this digression, showing to some extent how 
 history is interwoven in the very warp and woof of 
 the names of your county and city I trust that in 
 an address upon an historic subject I may be par- 
 doned both by those who remember these facts and 
 by those who, perchance, may have forgotten them. 
 
 Now to this historic <scene came Otvv^ay Burns 
 to add by his deeds to the interest which shall al- 
 ways linger around the historic names of Beaufort 
 and Carteret. 
 
 Otway Burns was born in the county of Onslow, 
 named in honor of the famous Speaker Onslow 
 afterwards Lord Onslow. He was born on Queen's 
 Creek, tvvO miles from Swannsboro in the year 
 
 22 
 
1775- His father, also named Otwa}- Burns, was 
 born at the same place. The father of the .latter, 
 Francis Burns, settled in North Carolina in 1734, 
 coming from Glasgow, Scotland. As Glasgow is 
 not far from Ayreshire he ma}- well have been of 
 the same family as the great poet who has made 
 the name of Burns a household word wlierever the 
 English tongue is spoken or wherever the accents 
 of freedom can move the hearts of men. 
 
 Francis Burns lived to a good old age, his 
 will probated in 1793, nearly sixty years after his 
 arrivar in this country, is still to be seen upon the 
 records' of Onslow County. It shows that he was a 
 man of considerable wealth for those days. He 
 names as his legatees his grandsons Otway Burns 
 and Francis, his brother, and also other grand- 
 children through his daughters who have married 
 into the Spooner, Smith, and Davis families. It 
 is thus probable that tlie relatives of Captain Otway 
 Burns are numerous in Onslow and adjoining coun- 
 ties though he himself left only one son, whose 
 descendants, though not numerous, are widely scat- 
 tered from Amsterdam to Australia, but none of 
 them live in this state. 
 
 23 
 
Before the war of 1812, Captain Otway Burns 
 had attained the command of a merchantman which 
 sailed from Newbern, N. C, to Portland, Maine, 
 He was on one of these voyages when the smould- 
 ering troubles with Great Britain came to a crisis 
 by the declaration of war in June, 1812. On this 
 arrival at Portland he learned the news and found 
 that peaceable commerce was at an end. He took 
 his vessel to New York and bought a larger and 
 swifter one, previously named the "Levere." He 
 altered this into a vessel of war, arm.ed and equipped 
 her, changing her name to the ''Snap-Dragon" which 
 was destined for three years to be a name of ill- 
 omen and terror to the enemy. Taking her to New- 
 bern, books of subscription were opened to the cap- 
 ital stock which was necessary to be raised to pay 
 for the purchase and equipment of the vessel and 
 for the defrayal of her expenses. Among the ov/n- 
 ers were John Shepard, grandfather of Judge Henry 
 R. Bryan, James McKinley, John Harvey and other 
 leading men of that day, whose descendants are still 
 prominent in business and social circles. 
 
 In recent years there has been an effort in high 
 financial circles to discredit privateering. This is 
 because that element thinks that war should be con- 
 
 24 
 
fined to injury to the persons, or destruction of the 
 Hves, of the sailors or soldiers (who usually have the 
 least interest in the war) but that their property 
 should be held sacred and exempt. But privateering, 
 which is simply a volunteer navy, dependent upon 
 its own enterprises and courage for pay, has always 
 been the resort of a weak nation against a superior 
 sea-power. It was the rjght arm of this country 
 upon the sea in both our wars with Great Britain 
 and was resorted to by the Southern Confederacy in 
 our late Civil War. 
 
 The legality of privateering is expressly recog- 
 nized in the constitution of the United States, Art. 
 I, Sec. 8, Clause ii, which empowers Congress to 
 issue ''Letters of Marque and Reprisal." Under 
 the influence of those largely interested in shipping, 
 the merchants of the great sea-ports, many Euro- 
 pean nations agreed to a provision in the Treaty 
 of Paris, 1856, prohibiting privateers, but the 
 United States did not assent to it. The experience 
 of the United States and of the Confederate States 
 as well has been that the surest way to inculcate 
 a desire for peace in that influential element of the 
 enemy is for our privateers to lay rude hands upon 
 their floating wealth. Shooting at the enemy's 
 soldiers and, sailors had no such salutary eflfect. 
 
During the first six months of the war of 1812 our 
 privateers captured 500 merchantmen and several 
 thousand prisoners. 
 
 It is proper to add that privateers are only com- 
 missioned upon a petition setting forth all the par- 
 ticulars required by government. If after investi- 
 gation letters are issued, the owners of the privateer 
 give bond for the observance of all the regulations 
 prescribed by law, one of which is that on the return 
 from each voyage a journal giving each day's pro- 
 ceedings, with name and value of each capture 
 verified by the commanding officer shall be filed 
 with the government. No capture is turned over 
 until the ownership of the vessel and the legality 
 of the capture is adjudged by a court of admiralty. 
 
 It was probably required that application for 
 letters of jMarque and Reprisal should be renewed 
 before each voyage for we have a copy of the appli- 
 cation made by Captain Burns on July i, 18 13. 
 In that he specifies that the vessel is of 147 tons 
 burthen, named ''Snap-Dragon", number of crew 
 75, armament 5 carriage guns, 50 muskets and 4 
 blunderbusses, Captain, Otway Burns ; First Lieu- 
 tenant, James Brown. In one of his subsequent 
 voyages he had a crew of 127 men with De- 
 
 26 
 
Cokely First Lieutenant, and in the onl}' one of 
 which we have a full copy of certified journal, Jan- 
 uary-April, 1814, he had a crew of 99 men. 
 
 The journals of all his cruises giving his daily 
 doings with lists of officers and men were, of course, 
 filed at Washington as required by law. As after 
 proper application only the one mentioned can be 
 found it is probable they were destroyed with so 
 many other archives wdien the British burnt the 
 government buildings at Washington in 1814. To 
 some extent however, we have information of the 
 contents of the journals of two other cruises from 
 articles written in the University Magazine in 1855 
 and 1856 by someone who had seen copies of these 
 logs, presumably the late Governor Sw^ain. Copies 
 of the original journals, have been seen by parties 
 still living, Dr. J. W. Saunders, of your county, 
 Colonel John D. Whitford and possibly others. 
 
 From the synopsis of those given in the Univer- 
 sity Magazine the following is condensed. The 
 "Snap-Dragon" was a Baltimore clipper and noted 
 for her speed. Her armament was two guns (12 
 pounders) on each side and a pivot gun. She 
 ranged from beyond Newfoundland, where on one 
 occasion she tackled an iceberg, when her captain 
 was out of a job, down to the northern coast of 
 
 27 
 
South America near the Equator. She thus pa- 
 trolled the whole ocean front, carrying terror to 
 the enemy's comnierce and defying his men-of-war, 
 and when they were not too big she tackled them 
 too, on one occasion as we shall see defeating one 
 of 22 guns. Like the Alabama in our late war she 
 sometimes placed prize crews on captured vessels 
 and sent them into ports and when that was not 
 feasible she relieved them of the most valuable 
 portion of the cargo and burnt the vessel. 
 
 While the log of the cruise in the spring of 
 1814 alone is complete, it is on record that in the 
 first seven months. Captain Burns in the ''Snap- 
 Dragon" captured two barks, five brigs, and three 
 schooners with cargoes valued at one million dollars 
 and 250 prisoners. As this was not calculated to 
 dampen his energy, we may make some calculation 
 of the damage he did to British commerce in the 
 nearly three years before the "Snap-Dragon" met 
 her fate, and estimate the size of the sentiment for 
 peace with Captain Burns built up in the influential 
 ship-owning classes in British ports who had no 
 liking for war which was made at their expense. 
 As long as sailors and soldiers shot each other they 
 may not have been much concerned, but when their 
 
 28 
 
bales of merchandise and their vessels were sacri- 
 ficed they clamored for the war to stop. 
 
 Among many incidents it is recorded that Cap- 
 tain Burns of the "Snap-Dragon" and Captain 
 Almida of the "Kemp" having made some joint 
 captures proceeded to make a division in port, when 
 the fiery Burns disapproving of the division chal- 
 lenged Almida to fight it out at sea. They put to 
 sea for that purpose, but happening upon some of 
 the enemy's merchant vessels each took a new prize 
 and very sensibly dropped the dispute. 
 
 On Captain Burns' first cruise his first adven- 
 ture was to fall in with two British men-of-war, 
 a frigate and a sloop. By the superior swiftness of 
 his vessel he escaped but he was willing to fight 
 and shortly falling in with a vessel of 14 guns he 
 captured her, this being his first prize. His next 
 experience was at the island of St. Thomas when 
 he suddenly found himself all but surrounded by 
 five British men-of-war, three to windward and 
 two to leeward. To deceive them he hoisted Span- 
 ish colors but John Bull was too wide awake. He 
 knew the cut of her jib and that a Baltimore clipper 
 had no business floating Spanish colors. The "Gar- 
 land" man-of-war fired a 32-pound shot at the 
 
 29 
 
''Snap-Dragon" barely missing her and signalled 
 the other man-of-war to close in. The latter soon 
 had her top-hamper up and crowded all her sail. 
 The only possibility of escape was through Sail- 
 Rock passage, which was forty miles distant, and 
 dead to windward and with three of the hostile 
 vessels on that side. With the intuition and the 
 prompt decision of a born sailor, Captain Burns 
 saw that his only chance was to head his ship direct 
 for the Rock, so it could not be seen which side of 
 it he would pass. A course was so shaped that all 
 the ''Garland's" sails drew on one mast which gave 
 the "Snap-Dragon" an advantage. When they ap- 
 proached the Rock the "Garland" made signals to 
 her companions to cut off Burns' ship when she 
 hauled in to choose her passage. They manoeuv- 
 ered accordingly. Now came the rub. Captain 
 Burns made all his men lie down and took the 
 helm himself. The "Sophia" brig was nearest 
 and as the "Snap-Dragon" came abreast discharged 
 at her a broadside of grape and round shot. In 
 the hurry to repeat the fire the "Sophia's" ov/n bul- 
 warks were shot away, in the delay the crisis 
 wajs over, for in five minutes the "Snap-Dragon" 
 had all five of the enemy on the wind and 
 out of gunshot for she could "walk the waters 
 
 30 
 
like a thing of life." When safely out of reach, 
 Captain Burns ran up the American colors and 
 defiantly fired a gun to tell them goodbye. Next 
 day another man-of-war, the "Dominick" chased 
 the "Snap-Dragon" but was too slow for her though 
 the strong wind carried away the jib-boom and 
 two top-mast stays of the latter. 
 
 After this Captain Burns cruised near the island 
 of St. Croix and made several small captures. 
 
 One morning about forty miles from Tortola, 
 one of the Virgin Islands, the ''Nettler", man-of-war 
 which had heard of the doings of the "Snap- 
 Dragon" bore down rapidly under full press of 
 canvas. "All hands to quarters" was given by Cap- 
 tain Burns. When within two miles, the "Nettler", 
 seeing her arrival was awaited, suddenly taking in 
 her light sails, hauled dead by the wind. The 
 "Snap-Dragon" immediately dashed at her and the 
 "Nettler" took to her heels. The race lasted from 
 7 A. M., to 6.30 P. M., the British vessel passing 
 under the guns of the fort in the harbor of Tortola 
 half a gunshot ahead. The fort is so situated that 
 a vessel may pass by it one way and come out 
 another. Later in the evening Burns passed the 
 fort hoisting English colors and anchored abreast 
 
 31 
 
of the town. That night he lowerd his boats which 
 passed a battery which they had taken to be a flock 
 of sheep but which were guns painted white, and 
 quitely pulled up alongside the '"Nettler", when a 
 hail followed by a volley of musketry showed them 
 that the enemy was ready. Instantly the town was 
 in arms, and sky-rockets were traversing the hea- 
 vens in all directions. Retreat was the only thing 
 to do. The *' Snap-Dragon" hoisted a light to 
 guide them, whereupon the whole battery opened 
 on her. Extinguishing the light. Burns returned 
 the fire with his guns which served equally well to 
 guide the retreat. By daylight he was twenty miles 
 from the island, doubtless with meditations on the 
 unprofitableness of ''going for wool and coming 
 back shorn." 
 
 The next day he captured an English vessel 
 bound for Santa Cruz. She had on board some 
 forty or fifty Guinea negroes and some mechandise. 
 He took seventeen or eighteen and, not wishing to 
 be troubled with the others, let the vessel go on 
 her course. 
 
 Soon after, finding an English vessel in the 
 harbor of Santa Cruz, he sent in a boat's crew and 
 cut her out. Being loaded with lumber and the 
 
 32 
 
vessel not very valuable, he burnt her. The *'Snap- 
 Dragon" then went into the neutral port of Ponce 
 on the south side of Porto Rico to get water and 
 stores and sell her captured goods, only enough 
 to pay for supplies and the Spanish governor went 
 so far as to sell him a very fine long 9-pounder gun. 
 Soon after, on the Spanish Main he chased an 
 English packet but had to give it up by reason of 
 one of those sudden gales which are frequent in 
 those latitudes, and which nearly proved fatal to 
 the "Snap-Dragon." Burns did not leave the deck 
 the whole night. At daylight he placed one of his 
 officers in charge and had just gone below when a 
 shift of wind followed by a tremendous wave 
 knocked the vessel on her beam ends in the trough 
 of the sea, filling the waist with water and setting 
 some of the guns adrift. Burns immediately got 
 on deck, secured the guns, and wore the vessel 
 around on another tack. The pumps showed three 
 feet of water in the hold, and it took three hours 
 to pump her out when it was discovered that the 
 plank sheer had started for more that thirty feet. 
 Fortunately the gale had abated and the ship was 
 saved ; but all admitted that but for Burns' sea- 
 manship and prompt decision the vessel would have 
 gone to the bottom. 
 
 33 
 
The "Snap-Dragon" then bore away to Mara- 
 caibo, in South America, to repair damages. The 
 governor gave the requisite permission and invited 
 the officers to dine with him. Learning that seven 
 or eight sail of EngHsh vessels were close by, the 
 *^Snap-Dragon" sailed among them like a hawk 
 among partridges capturing three and running one 
 ashore. Some days afterwards, Captain Burns fell 
 in with four large ships. He soon decided that 
 one was a man-of-war disguised as a merchantman, 
 but some of his officers, grumbling. Burns told them 
 *'he had as many friends in British prisons as they 
 had and was just as willing as they were to pay 
 them a visit and he now would show them that he 
 was not deceived." So he sailed up nearer. To 
 his first shot the concealed man-of-war replied by 
 a broadside of grape and canister and, giving chase, 
 nearly overhauled the ''Snap-Dragon", but when 
 offixers and men were ready to pack their baggage 
 for a trip to England, Captain Burns by most 
 adroit seamanship evaded capture till night enabled 
 him to escape. An English vessel from Curacoa 
 captured by him a few days later gave the infor- 
 m.ation that the ship from which he had so narrowly 
 escaped was the ''Fawn" sloop-of-war and that she 
 
 34 
 
had g-one into Curacoa with the report that she had 
 sunk the Yankee privateer. 
 
 Having- occasion to land some EngHsh prison- 
 ers, at their request at a port in Venezuela, the 
 Spanish governor seized the boat and crew sent to 
 put them ashore. Thereupon Captain Burns cap- 
 tured a felucca with one hundred men on board 
 belonging to that port and threatened to hang the 
 last one of them in two hours if his boat and crew 
 were not sent back. This message being sent 
 ashore, the missing boat and men were sent back to 
 him with wonderful alacrity. Sailing towards Car- 
 tagena he came upon a Spanish brig of 12 guns 
 and another of 8 guns in company with an English 
 vessel. Burns captured the latter though the com- 
 mander of the Spanish vessel threatened to fight. 
 He went into port soon after, whereupon they got 
 the captured vessel between themselves and the fort 
 and forced the prize-master to surrender. The 
 vessel was finally given up after the Spaniards had 
 robbed it of everything they could lay their hands 
 on. There were 15 or 20 English vessels in the 
 harbor but they prevailed upon the Spanish com- 
 mander of the fort, doubtless by bribery, to lay an 
 embargo upon Burns for a v/eek during which time 
 they all got out of his reach. 
 
 35 
 
In his journal interesting accounts are given 
 of the people at the various ports in South America 
 and in the West Indies where he went ashore. Off 
 Cape Florida he engaged an English privateer of lo 
 guns. He killed several of her men and unshipped 
 several of her long guns when she bore away and 
 ran into the reefs. 
 
 Next he came upon what was thought to be an 
 English ship from Havana, but heaving a shot ahead 
 of her she rounded to showing herself a brig with 
 20 guns mounted. To the relief of some on board 
 she proved to be Spanish. Captain Burns then 
 headed for Beaufort Harbor. When near there he 
 gave chase to a small vessel which soon, to Burns' 
 great amusement pretended to be poling where he 
 well knew there was seven fathoms of water. After 
 giving them a good fright, Burns came up with the 
 vessel which proved to. be manned by some of his 
 old acquaintances. This was off Swansboro and 
 he got into Beaufort that evening after a voyage 
 of six months, discharged the crew and put the 
 vessel into the carpenter's hands for repairs. 
 
 In a short time the "Snap-Dragon" was ready 
 for another cruise. Forty or fifty men came on 
 from Norfollc where Burns had opened another 
 
 36 
 
rendezvous. The agents of the owners wrote on 
 to New York and got a First Lieutenant named 
 Brown, who came highly recommended. He was 
 a fine-looking man but a martinet and before Burns 
 took charge had a part of the men in irons to "tame 
 them" he said, and everything was topsy-turvy, but 
 as soon as Burns took command he had the men 
 discharged from confinement and "tamed" the lieu- 
 tenant. He set sail from Beaufort with a crew of 
 127 fine men. Hearing that the British vessel 
 "Highflyer" was waiting on him off the coast he 
 went to find her, but the vessel was the American 
 privateer "Raleigh" of Baltimore. Captain Burns 
 then laid his course for Newfoundland. Off the 
 Grand Bank he overhauled a large vessel which 
 showed the American colors. Burns had his doubts, 
 so he sent an officer aboard in British uniform who 
 looked at the captain's papers and told him that he 
 must send his ship as a prize to Halifax. There- 
 upon the captain told him that in fact he was British 
 himself and showed the ship's genuine papers the 
 American ones having been forged. He simply gave 
 himself away. 
 
 Some days later Captain Burns made three sail 
 off Cape Race. After a short action a brig and a 
 ship struck their colors but the third, a fine brig 
 
 37 
 
of 10 guns, tried to escape. After a seven hour's 
 chase she struck without firing a gun. It was a 
 fine brig and the cargo was invoiced at $400,000. 
 A prize-master and crew were put aboard, but a 
 fortnight afterwards he bore down ten miles to 
 speak a supposed American frigate which proved to 
 be EngHsh. By this bad management the prize was 
 recaptured and the prize crew in her sent to Dart- 
 moor prison. 
 
 • A few days after the "Snap-Dragon" took two 
 brigs and a schooner. 
 
 The next day thereafter she engaged a well- 
 manned brig of 12 guns. Soon the horizon was 
 full of vessels attracted by the firing. An English 
 frigate under full said bore down, whereupon Burns 
 moved away. He soon left his pursuer out of sight 
 and ran into an outward bound fleet of about forty 
 sail from St. John's to England, which were under 
 the frigate's convoy. Boarding seven or eight of 
 them he found that they were all laden with lumber 
 and let them go untouched, as he disapproved of 
 the wanton destruction of property, though he could 
 have burned half of them before the frigate could 
 have come up. Of¥ St. John's he next captured a 
 valuable prize loaded with dry-goods and started 
 
 38 
 
her for home under a prize crew but she was recap- 
 tured in a few days. 
 
 Next day he met a lo gun brig. Coming up on- 
 her lee quarter he ordered her to cease firing and 
 strike her colors which was immediately done. Her 
 cargo was invoiced at $350,000. A prize crew was 
 put into her and she was started for home even 
 while the ''Rifleman" sloop-of-arms was bearing 
 down under full canvas to give chase. Finding that 
 he was going to lose both the ''Snap-Dragon" and 
 the prize, the "Rifleman" turned to recapture the 
 prize ; whereupon Burns turned and became chaser. 
 Then the "Rifleman" turned to chase Burns. As 
 his guns were 18-pound carronades and Burns' long 
 pivot gun was only a 12-pounder the enemy had the 
 advantage but night coming on the "Rifleman" 
 lost both vessels. However some liquor had been 
 left in the prize and the master and crew getting 
 drunk she was recaptured 20 days later between 
 Bermuda and Cape Henry. 
 
 Captain Burns' strict orders to all prize masters 
 was to run South and East of Bermuda, for from 
 there to Cape Henry was a line of British cruisers 
 the whole war and it was impossible to get into 
 Ocracoke or Beaufort by any other method. Every 
 
 39 
 
master that disobeyed him vvas taken to Dartmoor 
 and remained until the peace. Several masters and 
 sailors died at Dartmoor which was an English 
 stockade containing many thousand of French and 
 other prisoners, in short it was the Elmira or Point 
 Lookout of that day. Captain Burns in his journal 
 says the he was cursed with a miserable set of 
 prize masters whose incompetence, drunkenness, or 
 disobedience caused the recapture of many prizes 
 which he had taken. 
 
 Off the Grand Bank the "Snap-Dragon" again 
 came near foundering and was again saved only by 
 the admirable seamanship of her commander. One 
 of Captain Burns' maxims was that if a vessel could 
 scud nine miles an hour, no sea could board her. 
 Abreast of St. John's several coasters were cap- 
 tured but allowed to go on their way as their 
 cargoes were only lumber. One morning a schoo- 
 ner was described with no guns visible, but the 
 Captain (Fox) who had been taken in the last 
 brig warned Captain Burns (to whom he had taken 
 a liking) that it was the man-of-war "Adonis" of 
 14 guns. About 200 yards distance her commander 
 became frightened lest he should be boarded opened 
 his ports and gave a broadside of grape and can- 
 
 40 
 
ister. This was returned with good-will and a 
 sharp conflict ensued, 5 guns against 14. In the 
 very height of it, Burns' new lieutenant. Brown, 
 who had been sent to him from New York quit his 
 station and ran to tell Burns he would be taken in 
 five minutes. Burns broke his speaking-trumpet 
 over his head and ordered him back to his post. 
 The "Snap-Dragon" sailed around the ''Adonis" as 
 the log says ''like a cooper hammering a cask" but 
 finally both parties hauled off, only four men being 
 wounded on the "Snap-Dragon". It was after- 
 wards learned that 3 were killed and 5 wounded on 
 the "Adonis". Burns promptly broke Brown for 
 cowardice and sent him to the forecastle among 
 the men, and made DeCokely first lieutenant. A 
 few hours later a brig of 8 guns was chased and 
 captured without firing a shot. 
 
 Next day off Cape Francis, Burns fell in with a 
 fleet of English Fisherman, ninety sail of from forty 
 to one hundred tons each. Burns hoisted English 
 colors and exchanged rum with them for fish. One 
 old fellow came aboard and, being invited into the 
 cabin, said : "This does not look like one of our 
 English vessels, but we do not care so she does 
 not trouble us." The "Snap-Dragon" stayed with 
 them all day and caught some 500 or 600 fish. 
 
 41 
 
Burns sent the captain of marines and 25 men ashore 
 to a Httle fishing town where they passed for Eng- 
 lishmen and were poHtely treated. Just as the men 
 were coming back a sail hove in sight and Burns 
 fearing she was a cruiser stood off. He afterwards 
 learned that she was from Bordeaux for Baltimore 
 laden with silks, wines, and brandies. 
 
 Next he ''cruised as far north as 55 degrees, 
 30 minutes which is close to Cape Farewell in 
 Greenland. Discovered some large islands of ice 
 being icebergs that had grounded. On top of one 
 of them was a pond of rain-water. This water 
 being pure, the crew fell to and filled forty casks.'* 
 
 The writer in the University Magazine says 
 that there was here an interruption in the copy of the 
 log before him and that where it resumes it gives 
 an account of the *' Snap-Dragon" being chased, and 
 throwing overboard $150,000 worth of goods; but 
 soon after the ''Snap-Dragon" captured 10 brigs 
 and schooners of which a list is given. One of 
 these was made a cartel and 98 prisoners placed 
 in her upon signing a pledge of honor not to bear 
 arms against the United States until exchanged. 
 This as done June 24, 1813, long. 53 W. lat. 46 
 north, which is off Newfoundland and here followed 
 tiie names of the 98 signers of the parole. 
 
 42 
 
The "Snap-Dragon'' started for home with one 
 of her prizes. A cruiser coming up, Burns boldly 
 made for it and it withdrew. He did not pursue, 
 as all he wanted to do was to protect his prize. 
 Being nearly out of provisions and water he had 
 to leave the prize, which, however, got into Beau- 
 fort ten days after the "Snap-Dragon" arrived, 
 which his journal says he did "after a cruise of two 
 months, twenty-one days, in which he had cap- 
 tured one and a half millions property from the 
 enemy." 
 
 One of the supercargoes Burns had taken was 
 a very gentlemanly man. He claimed four cases 
 of goods worth $4,000 as his private property. 
 Burns gave them up to him and also gave him 
 $,1,000 out of his own pocket to carry him back 
 to St. John's where he belonged. Another of like 
 character, one Campbell, was very useful in the 
 auction room and was allowed commissions. One 
 of the purchasers claiming a more valuable package 
 that he had bought, Campbell refused to give it up» 
 Whereupon the other, being a larger man, abused 
 and struck him. Captain Burns, on learning this, 
 went at once to the auction room and reprimanded 
 the fellow for abusing a prisoner, and pulled his 
 
 43 
 
nose for him, which the cowardly fellow did not 
 resent. Burns also made Campbell a present of 
 $500. 
 
 After paying every expense, the men on this 
 cruise received each $3,000 for his share. 
 
 These two cruises of which the above synopsis 
 is given, and the cruise of January-April, 1814, of 
 which the log is the only one now existing are the 
 only ones of which any record has been preserved. 
 These three voyages covered less than twelve months 
 of the two yeairs and a half that the war lasted, 
 but they show that Captain Otway Burns was a 
 brave, daring man, an accomplished sailor, quick 
 to perceive and decide — in truth a very Viking of 
 the seas. The punishment he inflicted on the enemy 
 was terrible, and the profits of some of his cruises 
 were magnificent. From the journal which we have 
 entire of the cruise from 20th of January to the 
 nth of April 1814. we learn that this was probably 
 his most unprofitable venture, being richer in glory 
 than in pecuniary recompense. The enemy's mer- 
 chantmen had, doubtless, by that time been fright- 
 ened from the seas. 
 
 In this log the officers and men are given as 
 follows : 
 
 44 
 
Otway Burns, Commander: Benj. D. Coakley, 
 1st Lieutenant; James Guthrie, 2nd Lieutenant; 
 Joseph F, Anthony, 3rd Lieutenant; Thomas Bar- 
 ker, Captain of Marines ; David Wallace, Lieutenant 
 of Marines ; Alexander Glover, Sergeant of Ma- 
 rines ; Joseph Maires, Su'rgeon ; John Gardner, 
 Assistant Surgeon ; James Smith, Sail Master ; 
 Moses Horn, Purser ; John Parker, Steward : Israel 
 Dyer, Gunner ; Eli Crawfdrd, Master's Mate ; Tho- 
 mas Green, (killed), Boatswain ; William B. Reddey, 
 Drummer. The Prize Masters were: Gilbert D| 
 Gerry, Simon Pendleton, Gabriel Penn, Samuel S. 
 Pendleton, Theophilus S. Fitch, William Fulford, 
 (6). Boat Mates: Peter Cutler, Richard C. Miller, 
 and Theodore Stickney, (3). Prize Masters Mates, 
 Turner Glawhorn, and George Trath, (2). Able 
 Seamen : Alexander Babcock, Edward Bridgedon 
 (killed), Henry Fletcher (lost an arm), Henry 
 Weaver, John Edgar, William Burns (killed), 
 James Ballantine, Isaac Clark (shot in thigh), John 
 Shilling, Charles Moore (killed), Alexander Kon- 
 non, Arthur Orr, Aaron Plase, John Hendrich, 
 Royer Simpson, William Colhonn, Nicholas Hen- 
 drickson, James Leonard, Isaac Thomas, John 
 Taylor, James Starbuck, Nicholas Bencher, John 
 Williams, Charley Jordan, John vSmith, Sims Stud- 
 
 45 
 
ley, Christopher Kelly, William Smith, John Dizer, 
 Joseph Peter, John Doyle, Joseph Alexander 
 (killed), John Lougon, Constant Doby, Peter Van- 
 Burgen, Nathaniel Crosby, William Watts, Toney 
 John, William Cargon, Charles Williams, Thomas 
 Davis, (41). Ordinary Seamen: John Peter, Alex- 
 ander Taylor, Peter Pohn, John Mason, John John- 
 son, (5). Marines: Nat Ov/ens, Peter McFarlan, 
 Henry Frobiis, Samuel Dyer, William Edds, George 
 Doye, Allen Thomas, (7). Gunner Seamen: Jabe 
 Wright, Peter John, Alexander Cummings, Joseph 
 Davis, Jakeman Emery, William Frederic, John 
 Wallace, (7). Boys: Peter Galea, John Durong, 
 James Jones, John Lewis, John Eubon, Francis 
 Barie, Peter Sullivan, Arnett Latham, David Lewis, 
 John White, (10). Cook: Jamies Belcher. Cook's 
 Mate: James Cajjo. 
 
 Total : 99, of v^^hom 4 were killed and 2 perma- 
 nently disabled on that cruise. The slightly wounded 
 are not even named. 
 
 This log shows that on 20 January, 18 14, the 
 ''Snap-Dragon" crossed the bar here at Beaufort at 
 7 o'clock and saluted the fort. On the 22nd Cap- 
 tain Burns chased a British vessel which struck 
 her colors but got away because the sea was too 
 
 46 
 
"boisterous to board her. On the 24th overhauled 
 a vessel, but she proved to be a Swedish schooner 
 from St. Barts for Rhode Island. Soon after started 
 chase of a half armed vessel which escaped 
 under cover of night. The next day chased a 
 vessel that proved to be an American vessel from 
 St. Domingo for Boston. On Tuesday, 8 Febru- 
 ary 1814 two vessels fired into him, and gave chase, 
 but the *'Snap-Dragon" showed them a clean pair 
 of heels. By this time she was well down in the 
 West Indies. On the 12th boarded a Portuguese 
 vessel. On Sunday, 13th, Captain Burns records 
 that he put two of the crew in irons ''for introducing 
 themselves to a water cask when the ship's company 
 was on allowance." On the i6th he bore down on 
 a strange sail, but finding that it was a large man- 
 of-v/ar ''left her" as he very laconically says. On 
 the 22nd the vessel began to leak and besides being 
 short of water on the 23rd he entered the river 
 Arawari. The tide falling he got stuck in the mud. 
 March ist having gotten off, he saw a strange sail 
 and gave chase. It proved to be a ship carrying 22 
 guns. The following is a verbatim copy of Captain 
 Burns' own words in describing the result of the 
 contest between his 5 guns and the enemy's 22. 
 It shows the style of fighting at a time when ships 
 
 47 
 
lay and fought side by side, yard-arm and yar.d-arm, 
 and when men did not 
 
 "With a hankering for existence, 
 
 Keep merely firing at a foolish distance." 
 
 Here is Captain Burns' statement from his jour- 
 nal which was filed under oath with the government 
 on his return. He was at the time just off Surinam, 
 or Dutch Guiana, as we style it, on the northern 
 coast of South America. 
 
 ''Thursday, 3 March, 1814. Commenced plea- 
 sant light rain about 10 P. M. At 5 A. M. made a 
 strange sail to leeward, at 6 gave chase, about 7 
 gave her a gun and hoisted American colors, she 
 answered us with another and hoisted English col- 
 ors. At half-past we engaged her and a regular 
 and constant fire was kept up by both parties ; the 
 enemy, perceiving that we designed boarding, ma- 
 noeuvred his ship with great skill for a considerable 
 time. At 11.30 got our musketry to bear on her. 
 Orders were given to hoist red flag forward, 20 
 minutes past noon we got on the enemy's quarter. 
 They, perceiving that we meant boarding, gave us 
 several stern guns which injured our sail and rig- 
 ging very much. We kept up a constant fire, of 
 great and small guns. At 1.30 orders were given 
 
 48 
 
to board. The enemy put his helm hard up to run 
 us down; his fore chains took our jib-boom and 
 bow-sprit; he endeavored to haul down his colors 
 and got them as far as the gaff. At that instant 
 our bow-sprit gave way, and our fore-mast went 
 by the board. The schooner then fell ofif as quick 
 as two vessels could. The enemy then rallied his 
 men, let off the men that had boarded him, hoisted 
 his colors, and made the most of a good wind. All 
 hands on board of us were called to clear the wreck, 
 our shrouds, sails, and top-mast being shot away. 
 Our colors were shot away, but were immediately 
 tied in the main rigging. The pumps were sounded, 
 and we found that she had no water. We then 
 rigged a jury-mast and at length set our jib and 
 at 4 made sail on the vessel. Our sails, rigging, 
 and hull are much damaged and our boat completely 
 ruined. The enemy's force is not known. She is 
 a large ship coppered to her bends, mounts 22 guns, 
 and fought desperately using round, grape, canister, 
 and cold shot. They beat off our boarders with 
 pistols, cutlasses, boarding spikes, hand spikes, and 
 the above cold shot were thrown. When some were 
 swarming on board, they threw stink-pots, bricks 
 and glass bottles. We do not know her loss, but 
 suppose she lost considerable, as blood ran out of 
 
 49 
 
her lee scuppers, and her hull received damage from 
 chain and star shot. We lost 4 men killed, viz : 
 Thos. Green, boatswain; Wm. Barnes, John Hart, 
 and Charles Nurse (of color) ; and 7 wounded, viz: 
 Edward A. Brigden, Wm. Rogers, Henry Fletcher, 
 Theodore Stickney, Isaac Clark, Malea and Peter 
 George. B^ridgen lost his right arm, and Fletcher 
 had a severe wound in his thigh. Thus ends an 
 action that forces us to run to some port to repair 
 owing to our losing our mast. Had the mast stood 
 she was our prize. We were so near Surinam we 
 heard guns from the battery. Lat. 5 degrees, 58 
 min. N. Long. 55 degrees, 15 min. W." 
 
 Thus the brave sailor told the round unvarnished 
 tale of the fight between his 5 guns and the enemy's 
 22 guns. And hear the old sea-dog's growl at the 
 end: ''had our mast stood the prize was ours." 
 There is something of Paul Jones in that brave old 
 North Carolinian. The state may well be proud 
 of him. It was long before the enemy forgot him. 
 
 The log says that on the 7th of March, three 
 days after the fight on the 4th, he crossed the bar 
 and ran some twenty miles up the Arawari river. 
 Lieutenant Anthony and some men went ashore 
 on a raft, got timber, and went to work to repair 
 
 50 
 
the vessel. On the 12th the authorities sent some 
 men from Angostura to know what he was doing, 
 to whom he repHed that he wanted only water 
 and repairs. On the following days, having gotten 
 off, he gives us the names of vessels and their 
 captains he met ; but none of the British. From one 
 of them he learned of a battle between the South 
 American Republicans, then trying to establish their 
 independence, and the Royalists (Spanish), in which 
 the latter, 1500 in number, were annihilated, only 
 three escaping, for no quarter was given. On the 
 14th he gave chase to a strange sail, but found she 
 was the American ship ''Saratoga" and learned that 
 another ship the ''Comet" had beaten two British 
 privateers, one of 22 guns and another of 19, after 
 fighting eighteen hours. 
 
 On the 24th he boarded a schooner floating Swe- 
 dish colors but she proved to be an American vessel 
 which had been captured by the British frigate 
 "Cleopatra" and had a prize crew aboard. He 
 chan,eed crews, put his own prize master, Simon 
 Pendleton, with Theodore Stickney as mate, and 
 a crew, aboard and ordered her to the United States. 
 On April 7th he made Cape Lookout light-house, 
 saw a light off Ocracoke, fired a gun for a pilot, 
 and, finally, after beating back and forth, came to 
 
 51 
 
anchor off Shell Castle. He was lightered and then 
 proceeded up Nense River. At ii A. M. on Satur- 
 day, 9th of April, came to anchor off the old county- 
 wharf, Newberne. "So ends," says the journal, 
 "a cruise commenced for four months' abridged by 
 an accident to 79 days. Fired a salute at a quarter 
 past II." This is signed by Otway Burns, and 
 duly verified by him (with a full list of crew an- 
 nexed) before Francis Hawks, Collector of the Port. 
 The ''accident" so mildy referred to was his fight 
 with a 22 gun ship. 
 
 This was, probably, the most unprofitable voyage 
 he made. Game had become scarce. The doves 
 had become frightened and hostile hawks were 
 plentiful. The prowess of Captain Burns and 
 other brave sailors had dx^iven British merchantmen 
 from the seas and, in their stead, the ocean was 
 swarming with British men-of-war and privateers. 
 
 The last cruise of the "Snap-Dragon" was made 
 under command of Lieutenant DeCokely, Captain 
 Burns being laid up with rheumatism contracted 
 in the great exposure to which he had been sub- 
 jected. The British prepared a special man-of-war, 
 the "Leopard", for their old enemy, and concealed 
 the guns, so that she might seem to be a merchant- 
 s' 
 
man. Captain Burns, as we have seen, had always 
 detected that trick by his close observation, but 
 Lieutenant DeCokely fell into the snare. He ran 
 up too close to get away when the "Leopard" opened 
 her broadside upon him. The "Snap-Dragon" 
 fought with her old time courage, as if instinct with 
 life, but when her commander, DeCokely, and others 
 lay dead on deck and many of the rest wounded, 
 the "Snap-Dragon" lowered her flag to the enemy 
 for the first time in her whole career. She was 
 carried to England and the crew to Dartmoor prison. 
 A very old man, Redmond Stanley, within the 
 memory of living men, resided at Kenansville, and 
 told a stirring tale of that last fight of the gallant 
 ship, and of his experience in Dartmoor prison. 
 It is much to be regretted that no one took down 
 his narrative for succeeding generations. 
 
 During the war of 1812, there were some 300 
 soldiers, mostly militia, at Fort Macon, just opposite 
 Beaufort. On one occasion, when Burns was in 
 port, some of them having gotten into a row with 
 citizens of the town while drunk, were being rough- 
 ly handled. They called out the rest of their com- 
 rades to whom some of the ofiicers very foolishly 
 issued 12 rounds of ammunition per man. Captain 
 Burns interposed and his exertions alone saved 
 
 53 
 
bloodshed. One of the soldiers, however, struck 
 him and Burns promptly knocked the man down. 
 When this news reached the ears of the crew of 
 the *'Snap-Dragon" they came en masse to avenge 
 the insult. It required all Burns' eloquence to 
 quiet his men, who very probably would have taken 
 the fort and all the militia. 
 
 In his journal. Captain Burns relates the great 
 difficulty he always had to prevent his men from 
 being swindled out of their prize money and pay 
 by men, whom he bitterly denounces as being usually 
 Tories, — the very class of men who had opposed 
 the war and thrown every obstacle in the way of its 
 successful prosecution. Probably every age and 
 every country has the same class of men to afflict 
 it, but doubtless there were very few of them in 
 this section. 
 
 It is narrated of Captain Burns that on one 
 occasion, when his vessel was in part at Beaufort, 
 a boat coming over from the fort with four men 
 and an officer capsized. As the boat was carried 
 out by the tide, the four men, when opposite the 
 point, tried to swim ashore and two of them 
 drowned. The officer, James Chadwick, doubtless 
 of the well-known Carteret county family, held on 
 
 54 
 
to the boat and was saved when two miles out to 
 sea by the most strenuous efforts of Captain Burns 
 and his gunner. 
 
 Having amassed a large fortune, Captain Otway 
 Burns, after the war built a fine residence in Beau- 
 fort near the spot where the Atlantic Hotel after- 
 wards stood and resided there twenty-two years. 
 His great services were remembered both by the 
 people of his native state and the Federal Govern- 
 ment. From 1 82 1 to 1834, he served twelve years 
 in the General Assembly, seven years in the House 
 of Commons and five years in the Senate, being thus 
 elected twelve times, as the elections were annual 
 at that time. After 1834 he declined re-election. 
 During his service in the Senate, in that year, the 
 county of Yancey was formed in the western part 
 of the state, named in honor of Bartlett Yancey one 
 of the greatest men the state produced. In honor 
 of Captain Burns' distinguished services on the sea, 
 and partly also for his breadth of view in supporting 
 the creation of the western county, its beautiful 
 county seat was named Burnsville. It is the high- 
 est above sea-level of any town in the United States 
 east of the Rocky Mountains. So Captain Burns' 
 fame may be said to have gone through every gra- 
 dation to the highest level then attainable. 
 
 55 
 
His only child, Owen Burns, born in 1810, was 
 a chip of the old block. He was appointed a mid- 
 shipman by the United States government in 1824; 
 promoted to Master on the ''John Adams" in the 
 Mediterranean Squadron in 183 1 ; commissioned 
 Lieutenant in the United States Navy April 8, 1834; 
 and resigned in 1840. His last service was three 
 years in the "Falmouth" man-of-war in the Pacific. 
 Captain Otway Burns, himself, was appointed to 
 the charge of the "Brant Island Shoal Light" by 
 President Andrew Jackson in 1835 and was thence- 
 forward in the service of the United States govern- 
 ment until his death. 
 
 In 1820, Captain Burns built for a company at 
 Wilmington the "Prometheus", the first steamer 
 that plied on the waters of the Cape Fear. The 
 vessel was carried around to Wilmington, Captain 
 Burns being in charge and one, Snyder, being the 
 engineer. When it was announced that the long- 
 expected steamer was in the water, and had turned 
 the "Dam Tree' below Wilmington, the bells were 
 rung, cannon were fired and the entire population 
 turned out without regard to age, sex, or color. 
 As she neared Market Dock, Captain Burns ap- 
 peared on deck in his brilliant uniform with cocked 
 hat and epaulets. There being no speaking-tubes 
 
 56 
 
iY'(^^^W''M^^:§^^M^^^'' 
 
 mm^^ 
 
 ^j^WmmMmmv?m 
 
 CAPTAIN ()\\t;x EURXS 
 
or electric bells in those days, he raised his speak- 
 ing trumpet to his lips and there rang out in sten- 
 torian tones like the bellow of some monster of the 
 deep, the command to the engineer: "Give it to 
 her, Snyder." This became for long years a stand- 
 ing phrase on the Cape Fear something like the 
 "Let her go, Gallagher" of recent days. 
 
 In 1823, Captain Burns built the brig "Warrior" 
 and in 1831, the brig "Henry". The timbers were 
 staunch live-oak which came from Shackleford and 
 Bogue banks. Both vessels engaged in the West 
 India and also the coast-wise trade which was profi- 
 table then. He also built a small two-masted sail- 
 boat, naming her the "Snap-Dragon" and put a 
 "center-board" in her, — ^the first ever known in this 
 section. She could beat any boat in Core Sound 
 sailing. 
 
 Captain Otway Burns married in 1809 a Miss 
 Grant, daughter of Reuben Grant of Onslow county. 
 By his marriage he had one child Owen Burns, 
 born in 1810, who, as already stated, became a lieu- 
 tenant in the United States Navy. 
 
 After the death of his first wife, he married, 
 December 4, 1814, Miss Jane Hall of Beaufort; 
 and for her the handsome residence was built. 
 
 57 
 
After her death, he married Miss Jane Smith of 
 Smyrna N. C, on February 22nd, 1842, and moved 
 to Portsmouth, N. C, where he Hved until his death, 
 which, according to the best accounts, occurred 
 August 25th, 1850, his wife preceding him to the 
 grave. By his second and third wife he had no 
 issue. Portsmouth, at that time, was a port of 
 entry, a sea-side resort, and a prosperous town of 
 more than a thousand inhabitants. But very appro- 
 priately his body was brought back and buried in 
 Beaufort whence he had so often gone forth on his 
 bold expeditions against the enemy and to which 
 he had always returned with added honor. 
 
 His only child, Captain Owen Burns, married 
 in 1849, Miss Martha Armstrong, daughter of 
 Solomon Armstrong, and grand-daughter of Gen- 
 eral John Armstrong, an officer of the Revolution. 
 The only living descendents of Owen Burns are his 
 seven -sons, a daughter and ten grand-children. 
 
 1. I. R. Burns, who resides in New York City 
 and Daytona, Florida. He has an only daughter 
 Bessie Burns Hulse. 
 
 2. X. Eugene Burns, a fruit grower in Santa 
 Clara Co., San Francisco, Cal., who has an only 
 daughter Eugenia Burns Hulse. 
 
 58 
 
MONUMENT OF CAPTAIN OWEN I'.URNS. 
 
3- Richard Jerome Burns, who resides in Chi- 
 cago, has an only son Grindall Jerome Burns. 
 
 4, Charles O. Burns, President C. O. Burns 
 Co., New York City. 
 
 5. Walter Francis Burns, of Inwood, New 
 York City, vice-president and general manager of 
 the W. F. Burns Co., has two sons, Walter Francis 
 Burns, Jr., and Otway Burns. 
 
 6. Edwin Oscar Burns, San Francisco, Cal., 
 who has a daughter Martha Burns and a son Owen 
 Burns. 
 
 7. Owen Burns, of the W. F. Burns Co., who 
 resides in Chicago. 
 
 The only daughter Lillian lives at Inwood, New 
 York City and is married to John Anthony Wilkens, 
 of Rotterdam, Holland. They have an only child 
 the charming young lady of four, Theodora Wal- 
 tona Wilkens, who will do us the honor to pull the 
 cord at the unveiling of the monument to her dis- 
 tinguished ancestor. She is accompanied by her 
 mother and father and her uncle, Walter Francis 
 Burns, son of Captain Owen Burns. The cannon 
 by the monument is one of those which helped to 
 earn fame for the *' Snap-Dragon" and her gallant 
 captain and crew. Its roar was music in their ears 
 in many a fight in those long-vanished days. 
 
 59 
 
Like all men who have performed distinguished 
 service in their day, myths have already gathered 
 around the name of Captian Otway Burns. One of 
 them, repeated without investigation in ''Wheeler's 
 Reminiscences", is that his residence was crowned 
 by an observatory from whence Captain Burns 
 scanned the horizon for a strange sail and kept the 
 crew of his vessel in readiness to rush out and 
 seize it. Aside from the absurdity of keeping a 
 crew under, constant pay for such precarious ser- 
 vice, it is sufficient to say that, first, the house was 
 not built until after the war, and secondly, during 
 the war English merchantmen had no possible des- 
 tination that could bring them within sight of our 
 coast. Captain Burns had to go to seek them where 
 they could be found, in the West India trade and 
 oft the coast of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. 
 The idle story, doubtless, arose from the fact that 
 his handsome house, after the war, had an obser- 
 vatory from which, with his old-time fondness for 
 the sea the gallant old sailor would often sweep 
 the horizon with his glass. 
 
 A most remarkable mis-statement in regard to 
 a man whose actions had been so distinguished and 
 had lived so much in the public eye, being also for 
 the last thirty years of his life in State or Federal 
 
 60 
 
III "f ■!' f " ■■" '. " '* 
 
 ^ 
 
 To.Mi; (II' Sdl.o.MO.X .XK.MS'I'RUXG 
 
service, was one recently made by an anonymous 
 correspondent in the ''Newbern Journal" to the 
 effect that Captain Burns was the pirate who made 
 the ill-fated Theodosia, daughter of Aaron Burr 
 and wife of Governor Alston of South Carolina, 
 ''walk the plank". She was lost at sea probably 
 in a gale, in January 1813. There is no proof that 
 she was taken by pirates, and, certainly no vindi- 
 cation of such a charge is needed by Captain Burns 
 or the brave men of this and adjoining counties who 
 served under him. The outrageous and absurd in- 
 sult to one of the most gallant men North Carolina 
 has ever produced was promptly answered by two 
 of your distinguished fellow-citizens, Dr. J. W. San- 
 ders, formerly Senator from Carteret, and Major 
 Graham Davis. I only allude to the matter, which 
 is unpleasant to mention, to impress upon North 
 Carolinians the necessity of greater care in pre- 
 serving our records and the memory of the great 
 deeds performed by those who, like Captain Burns, 
 have reflected honor upon our state and her people. 
 Captain Burns was as humane to his prisoners 
 as any man who ever walked a quarter-deck. But 
 while he was fighting it was a ''fight for a funeral." 
 One of the captured commanders asserted that 
 Burns having run short of ammunition, had loaded 
 
 61 
 
his last gun with sail-needles. That enemy proba- 
 bly got into port "sewed up." The red flag spoken 
 of in his journal was the signal to board the enemy. 
 
 As long as Carteret and Onslow can furnish men 
 who shall guard our ocean front with the courage 
 and the fidelity displayed by Otway Burns and the 
 brave men under his command we need fear no 
 enemy. 
 
 They did well to bury Otway Burns here by the 
 sounding sea, in the hearing of the waves whose 
 rolling had been his lullaby in life. In the sea's 
 wildest mood he was its master, and rode on its crest 
 to fame and fortune. Judged with allowance for 
 the means at his disposal, Otway Burns and his 
 famous vessel were full peer to the "Alabama" 
 under Raphael Semmes or the "Shenandoah" under 
 the gallant Waddell. 
 
 There is a fascination to all who gaze on yon 
 wild waves' incessant play. Standing by its side, 
 how small seem the actions of us petty men on 
 the shore. On the ocean the real drama of history 
 has always been played and the nation which con- 
 trols it, is master of the world while that dominion 
 lasts. That dominion has passed from nation to 
 nation as the centuries have passed av/ay, but un- 
 
 62 
 
caring, unknowing, and unchanged itself, the ocean 
 
 has not ceased to roll. 
 
 "Thy shores are empires changed in all save thee, — 
 Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they? 
 Thy waters wasted them while they were free. 
 
 And many a tyrant since. 
 Unchangeable, save to thy wild waves' play, 
 Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow ; 
 Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now. 
 Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form 
 
 Glasses itself in tempests ; 
 Dark-heaving, boundless, endless, and sublime, 
 The image of eternity, the throne of the Invisible." 
 To one who dared thy fiercest moods and loved 
 them all, the brave sailor and soldier, 
 
 CAPTAIN OTWAY BURNS, 
 
 we now unveil his monument. 
 
 f>2, 
 
PRESENTATION 
 
 01^ A PORTRAIT OF 
 
 CAPTAIN OTWAY BURNS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 State of North Carolina 
 October 30, 1901. 
 
 "That was a most interesting ceremony in the 
 hall of the House of Representatives — indeed a 
 most valuable contribution to the history of the 
 state — ^the presentation of a portrait of a patriot 
 son who rendered his state and country valiant and 
 able service in their early struggles, and the sketch 
 of him and of his deeds so well delivered by Dr. 
 Kemp P. Battle. It was a graceful act on the part 
 of Mr. Walter Francis Burns of New York, a 
 grandson of this state, to present to the state the 
 portrait of his distinguished grandfather. Captain 
 Otway Burns, who commanded a privateer in the 
 war of 1812, and served his state as a legislator 
 later, the subject of Dr. Battle's most interesting 
 address last night. Dr. Battle always does his work 
 well, and this production is but another of his very 
 many valuable contributions to our State's histo- 
 rical literature." 
 
 The Raleigh Post 
 
 Bditorial Column 
 
 October ji, igoi. 
 
 64 
 
PORTRAIT OF CAPTAIN OTWAY BURNS. 
 
 The portrait of Captain Otway Burns which was 
 presented to the State of North Carolina on behalf 
 of Mr. Walter Francis Burns by Kemp Plummer 
 Battle, LL.D., Alumni Professor of History of the 
 University of North Carolina, is the work of Mr. 
 F. Mahler, pupil of Mr. W. M. Chase, America's 
 great portrait artist. Mr. Mahler is also a suc- 
 cessful exhibitor and the recipient of honorable 
 mention at the Paris Salon. 
 
 The painting is a life-size head and bust with 
 
 a sailing vessel in the back-ground. It is a copy 
 
 of an authentic oil-painting on wood and represents 
 
 the subject at about forty years of age. Colonel 
 
 John D. Whitford who knew Captain Otway Burns 
 
 in his later years has pronounced it a faithful like- 
 ness. 
 
 The picture is protected by a massive gold frame, 
 glass, and shadow-box and bears the following in- 
 scription : 
 
 65 
 
"Captain Otway Burns, born 1775, died 1850, 
 Commander United States Privateer "Snap-Dra- 
 gon", War 1812-15, presented to the State of North 
 CaroHna by his grandson, Walter Francis Burns." 
 
 The presentation took place in the Senate Cham- 
 ber, at the Capitol in Raleigh, on Wednesday eve- 
 ning, October 30th, 1901. 
 
 PROGRAM. 
 
 1. Introductory Remarks, Justice Walter Clark, 
 
 President of the North Carolina Historical 
 and Literary Society. 
 
 2. Presentation Address, Kemp Plumnier Battle, 
 
 LL. D., Alumni Professor of History, Uni- 
 versity of North Carolina. 
 
 3. Acceptance for the State, Governor Charles 
 
 Brantley Aycock. 
 
 66 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY WALTER 
 
 CLARK, CHIEF JUSTICE OF NORTH 
 
 CAROLINA. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 North Carolina has always loomed up grander 
 in war than in peace. In piping times of peace, we 
 are prone to take our ease and let the days drift by, 
 but when the long roll beats, and brave men crowd 
 to the perilous edge of battle, then her stalwart sons 
 gather as to a marriage feast. 
 
 In the war of 1812, as in all others. North Caro- 
 lina contributed her full quota of men, but the con- 
 test did not come within our reach. The war was 
 fought largely on the ocean. On the land it was 
 confined largely to the Canada border and, what 
 was then our other border, at New Orleans, save the 
 brief dash from Washington. This State sent a 
 brigade to Norfolk, where they languished and died 
 at Craney Island. She sent another brigade under 
 General Joseph Graham to the aid of General Jack- 
 
 67 
 
son in Alabama in the Indian War, but it arrived 
 just too late to take part in the battle of Horse-Shoe 
 Bend, where he broke the Indian power. This state 
 furnished other troops, which also endured hard- 
 ships and wasting disease, but were denied oppor- 
 tunity for distinction on the battlefield. 
 
 On the sea was our only opportunity. There 
 in our small navy, Johnston Blakely, from North 
 Carolina, achieved merit and distinction, and, on his 
 premature death, the state educated his daughter, 
 Edna; and a town was named in his honor, but it 
 has long since vanished from the map. 
 
 The most conspicuous figure that North Carolina 
 furnished in our second war with Great Britain, take 
 him all in all, was Captain Otway Burns. The Con- 
 stitution of the United States provided for privateer- 
 ing, and, under the broad seal of the federal govern- 
 ment, Otway Burns was commissioned captain of a 
 privateer, whose career was notable. He patrolled 
 our ocean front, and displayed the Union Jack from 
 Cape Farewell, the southernmost point of Greenland, 
 to Cape San Roque, the easternmost point of Brazil. 
 He captured the enemy's vessels under the guns of 
 Halifax, and pounced upon them like a hawk upon 
 a covey of doves off the mouth of the Orinoco. 
 
 68 
 
For three years he was a terror to the British 
 merchant marine, and inflicted damage only rivalled 
 since by the Alabama and by another son of this 
 state, the gallant Waddell in the Shenandoah. 
 
 Captain Burns left but one son, who became a 
 lieutenant in the United States navy, and who sided 
 with the South in the Civil War. The children of 
 this son, the only descendants of Captain Otwav 
 Burns, are scattered from Australia to Holland, 
 none of them residing in North Carolina. 
 
 But wherever they are, the hereditary fervor of 
 devotion to the land of their origin still flows in 
 their veins. As a great people, now dispersed 
 abroad, still turns to Jerusalem as the cradle of 
 their nation and their hopes, and as the Roman 
 legions, who "marched from east to west beneath 
 the eagles from Pontus and Gaul," ever looked to 
 the imperial city as their home, so these descendants 
 of the brave North Carolina soldier and sailor 
 still fondly recall the land of his nativity and the 
 honors he won for the state of his birth. 
 
 And North Carolina has not forgotten him. The 
 highest town in the Union, east of the Rocky Moun- 
 tains, the county seat of one of our fairest counties — 
 Burnsville, bears his name. When, last summer, his 
 
 69 
 
descendants unveiled a monument to his memory 
 in the town of Beaufort, the counties of Carteret, 
 Jones and Onslow, which had furnished his brave 
 sailors, turned out to do honor to the memory of the 
 commander who had led them to victory. And to- 
 night, when his portrait is to be presented with filial 
 piety to the state, a distinguished citizen, formerly 
 president of our State University, and who occupies 
 the chair of History in that historic institution, is to 
 make the presentation, and the Governor of the 
 state (who is, himself, unavoidably absent) will re- 
 ceive it through a high state official, who has served 
 North Carolina in two great wars, and this brilliant 
 and cultured audience is here to bear testimony to 
 the honor North Carolina pays those who have re- 
 flected honor upon her history as a state. 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen, I now present to you Dr. 
 Kemp P. Battle, of the University of North Caro- 
 lina. 
 
 70 
 
ADDRESS BY KEMP P. BATTLE, LL. D. 
 
 We are met to honor a man whose fortune it was 
 at important epochs to do good service to the United 
 States and to North CaroHna. It is my duty, at 
 the request of his descendants, to show how this 
 honor was won, and what chapters in our history 
 are illustrated by his career. 
 
 The portrait, which I have the honor in behalf 
 of Mr. Walter Francis Burns of New York, to 
 present to the state, is that of his grandfather, Otway 
 Burns, Captain of a privateer in time of war, and a 
 most useful legislator for his state in time of peace. 
 It delineates him when in his prime, about forty 
 years old. 
 
 The original painting from which this is copied, 
 was secured from Mrs. Hall, of Beaufort, an aunt 
 of Jane Hall, second wife of Captain Burns, by Mr. 
 Washington Bryan, and by him transferred to Mr. 
 Walter Francis Burns. The copy is by a pupil of 
 
 71 
 
the eminent William M. Chase, of New York, F. 
 Mahler, who has received honorable mention in the 
 Paris Salon. 
 
 Francis Burns, one of that stalwart people, who 
 have produced in proportion to numbers more men 
 of mark in all pursuits than any others in the world's 
 history, the Lowland Scotch, of whom their neigh- 
 bors, the Scotch-Irish, are offshoots, emigrated from 
 Glasgow in 1734. He was in company with many 
 neighbors, who followed their countryman, Gov- 
 ernor Gabriel Johnston, to the new lands offered for 
 sale on low terms by the Crown, which had recently 
 purchased seven-eighths of the title, and all the right 
 of government. He chose Onslow for his habitation, 
 a choice which profoundly affected the career of his 
 grandson, because the county looks out on the waves 
 of the great Atlantic. It is so penneated by sounds, 
 inlets, and rivers that every Onslow baby is born a 
 lover of the sea, as every duck is born web-footed. 
 His farm was on Queen's Creek, two miles from 
 Swansboro, and therefore very near the county of 
 Carteret. His will dated in 1792 shows that he had 
 been thrifty. He bequeathed lands, cattle, hogs, and 
 fifteen slaves, and gave back to his wife all the prop- 
 erty she had before marriage, as agreed in a pre- 
 
 72 
 
■r.\Ti: o!" XOrvTH-CAROLTNA. 
 
 To all to 
 
 TH-CAROLTNA. Ko. ^ 
 
 zvhom thefe Prefoitsjhi 
 f(7mcj Greeting. 
 
 ril 
 
 K 
 
 NOW Vf., T ha' Wc, loi- and in Coiifidcration of 
 Fifty J^hiliingj for every Hunch td A^rci heruhy -;, 
 into our Treafary bv ^"/■"rn^^ff^ /^u>rtx' > • 
 
 havo Given amb Granted a., 
 I Grant-wuo the hid ^/rAint-xx.- ^'/i . 
 ^V;^ (f-^T^ Tiaa of Lao,!, 
 
 Piefents do Gr 
 
 . A«ru, 
 7. 
 
 Iyin| : 
 
 id being in our\C<ii' 
 
 
 -^w^ 
 
 
 
 ;>^^- 
 
 <;/ix^T, 
 
 >x§ 
 
 <<i<^ 
 
 
 ^ «' ' p^^ ^ ^n-X. 
 
 i% by the Plat hereant6 annexed tfoth appears fc^«ther -with all WodAs, 
 Waters, Mines, Mineral ;, Hereditaments, and Appurtenances, to die 
 {aid Land belonging or appertainiwg : To iioW to the f.vid 'i''7a:n'^ 
 
 AlTigns, for ever. Yielding md paying to us fuch Sums of Money 
 V- t'k O' othcrvvife, as our General AilL-tnWy torn Timt; ty Time may 
 ::i;c-.' I'tfoviDED ALWAYS, Tiiatthefaid ^^^'^^'"Ci^ ^^j'^-^n.^ 
 
 n\al! caufe tli^ Grapt to 
 ?54'f%'!fkr«! hi the ncsiller's Office of our faid County of i^^-'A.v 
 
 within Tvvclve Months from the Uate heicdi, othemife 
 the fhme rtval! be vaM aiul of no Effech 
 
 ]\ '1 l-STLMOXi wliereof, we have caufed our Great Seal to bp 
 ^- ;tu.-p :.tfixcd. \\ .TNf .-5 k rC H A RD CA 5 W E L L, Ef^ 
 . • ' •,•■ (,\ venigr. Capiain-Gencia!, and Conimaiuln in Chief, al 
 
 }■-'- ■'-.- ,-;;r^.> nay ofi^??^^^ -- , 
 
 ■^ i-^ Y^r of our Jndejxndenee^-O^iA ja tlie 
 
 %aro, 
 
 y\7 
 
 Thoufand Scvat Hiutdnd and ifi 
 
 / .,- 
 
 ,so 
 
 ^-Cf^>' ^,^4^^^ 
 
 /. 
 
 ORIGINAL GRANT TO FRANCIS BURNS 
 
nuptial contract. Legacies were made to his grand- 
 sons, Otway and Francis, and to children of daugh- 
 ters, who had married into the Smith, Spooner and 
 Davis families. 
 
 The father of Otway Burns was also named 
 Otway. The son was born in 1775. His early life 
 was spent on the farm. He soon, however, devel- 
 oped sea-faring tastes. On the sharpies and small 
 schooners which plied in pursuit of fish or for pleas- 
 ure in the neighboring sounds and near the ocean's 
 shores, and in the larger vessels carrying merchan- 
 dise to and from the Atlantic's ports and the West 
 Indies, he learned thoroughly all the duties of sail- 
 ors, from those of the Jack Tar before the mast to 
 those of the lordly captain in his vigilant solitude on 
 the quarter deck. 
 
 He learned more than this. He became a builder 
 of ships; not the great cHppers, of course, but of 
 such craft as could enter the shallow waters of North 
 Carolina. His ship-yard was at Beaufort. 
 
 The merchants of his section, ever on the look- 
 out for nautical experience, soon discerned in him 
 qualities of leadership. He had a frame of hercu- 
 lean strength and of tireless endurance, a mind 
 active and acute, a courage which knew not shrink- 
 
 73 
 
ing, a nerve which grew more steady in the fiercest 
 dangers, a temper quick but never unsettling judg- 
 ment, a serene self-confidence, which, united to fer- 
 tility of resource and skill in seamanship, gained the 
 confidence of others, and an iron will which com- 
 pelled obedience. He was employed as a commander 
 of a coaster, his extreme limits being Newbern on 
 the south, and Portland, in Maine, on the north. 
 
 The news of the passage by Congress on the i8th 
 of June, 1812, of the declaration of war with the 
 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, found 
 him sailing to his northernmost harbor. On entering 
 it, he was urged to convert his vessel into a privateer 
 with him as commander, but deeming her too slow, 
 he declined the proposition. He found in New York 
 a clipper-built schooner, called the 'Xevere," of 
 admirable sailing qualities. By the aid of a joint 
 stock company she was purchased, strengthened, 
 armed, and in all ways made ready for her new and 
 hazardous career. 
 
 Sailors are fond of calling vessels after animals 
 noted for qualities of pluck, or swiftness, or some 
 dangerous trait, offensive or defensive, and the own- 
 ers like to please them. Thus in the regular navy of 
 1812 we find a Wasp, Hornet, a Viper, and those 
 
 74 
 
5^- » >v -, 
 
 «"„1^k1 
 
 
 
 5? \^ 
 
 •I 
 
 s- ri5 
 
 I; 
 
 ?- 
 
 ?C?- 
 
 
 V' .^^Svg..^,,^^ 
 
 
equally dangerous ladies, Vixen and Syren. Among 
 privateers there were likewise a Wasp and a Hornet, 
 and in addition, a Fox and a wily Reynard, a Hawk, 
 an Owl, a Snow-bird, a Sparrow, a Swallow, a Lark, 
 a Curlew, a Young Eagle, a Young Wasp, a Lion 
 and a Leo, a Reindeer, a Sword-fish, a Fly, and that 
 giant mosquito, the Galliniper. In accordance with 
 this taste in nomenclature, the name of the Levere 
 was changed to that of Snap-Dragon, an animal 
 not dangerous in either sting or bite, but having a 
 suddenness of motion quite startling The co-part- 
 ners of Burns were principally well-known business 
 men of Newbern. Among them were William Shep- 
 ard, father of the late eminent Raleigh lawyer, John 
 H. Bryan, one of whose sons, William Shepard 
 Bryan, has been on the Supreme Court bench of 
 Maryland ; another, Henry R., is now a judge of the 
 Superior Court of our state. Another share-holder 
 was Isaac Taylor, of the Western Hospital for the 
 Insane. Others were James McKinley, John Har- 
 vey and Dr. Edwards Pasteur. 
 
 Burns' experience as the captain of a coaster 
 eminently fitted him for the charge of a privateer. 
 The troublous days of the Napoleonic wars, when 
 neutrals were not strong enough to enforce their 
 
 75 
 
rights by anns, when, in imitation of the arrogance 
 of ships of war of belHgerents, their merchant ves- 
 sels often were guilty of acts of insolence and law- 
 lessness verging on piracy, and when pirates in 
 reality were sometimes met, the commanders of our 
 merchant marine were forced to be wise as serpents 
 and not harmless as doves. They were quick to 
 resist , ready, if needs be, to train their long guns on 
 the aggressor, or drive back boarders, with cutlass, 
 pike and ax. They went prepared to fight as well as 
 to trade. 
 
 As privateering seems to be not in accordance 
 with the spirit of the age and as it is often spoken of 
 as "legalized piracy," I deem it proper to say a few 
 words in vindication of those who in the war of 1812 
 engaged in it. 
 
 It is a settled principle of international law that 
 private property on land, unless needed for military 
 purposes, must not be considered lawful plunder, 
 but this humane law has never been applied to 
 private property at sea. It is a recognized law that 
 the seizure of merchant vessels and goods, and their 
 appropriation or destruction, is an appropriate means 
 of reaching the enemy and making him ready for 
 peace. 
 
 76 
 
It is one of the duties of public war vessels to 
 make these captures, and nations having great navies 
 may be satisfied to use no other force. But when 
 a nation strong on the sea fights another which is 
 weak in public ships, the latter may be driven in 
 self-defence to hire her citizens to make captures in 
 her behalf. These captures are made under written 
 governmental authority. 
 
 The trend of civilization is, however, evidently 
 against privateering. Franklin in 1785 procured a 
 treaty between the United States and Prussia by 
 which each agreed not to employ privateers against 
 one another; a provision, not, however, renewed in 
 a subsequent treaty. It was not in use by either 
 party in our conflict with Mexico, nor by either 
 nation in the Crimean War, nor by either party in 
 the recent Spanish War. In 1877, after making 
 a treaty ending the Crimean War, Great Britain, 
 France, Russia, Austria, Sardinia, Prussia, and Tur- 
 key agreed to abolish privateering, and invited other 
 nations to concur. The United States, Spain and 
 Mexico are the only powers which refused. The 
 United States replied that it was their policy to keep 
 only a small navy, and in case of war to rely on in- 
 creasing their power by the use of privateers. If, 
 
 77 
 
however, an additional rule should be adopted, plac- 
 ing private property on the seas on the same footing 
 as that on land, they would gladly accede. This 
 suggestion was not adopted. When the Confederate 
 War broke out, alarmed by the danger to their com- 
 merce, by privateers expected to be licensed by the 
 Confederacy, the United States offered to adopt the 
 rule, but as the offer was evidently intended for 
 present use against the Confederate States, the great 
 powers, having already conceded to the latter bellig- 
 erent rights, did not accept the offer. The Confed- 
 erate States, in view of their extreme weakness on 
 the ocean, offered letters of marque to foreigners, 
 as well as to their own citizens, but owing to the 
 difficulty of bringing captures into port, and to the 
 illegality of disposing of them in neutral ports, the 
 project failed. The government was driven to build- 
 ing or buying their own cruisers, the Alabama, 
 Florida, Shenandoah, and others, which not only 
 crippled, but well-nigh destroyed the merchantmen 
 of the Union. 
 
 This statement shows clearly that although in 
 modern times privateering is less resorted to than 
 formerly, yet it is entirely in accordance with inter- 
 national law. Our wise statesmen of 1787 conferred 
 
 78 
 
upon Congress, as auxiliary to the war power, the 
 right to issue letters of marque and reprisal, and 
 prohibited it to the individual states. It was not 
 until 1 812 that this sleeping power was aroused into 
 action. It had, however, been freely used by the 
 Continental congress and the Confederation. 
 
 After submitting for years to degrading insults 
 and oppression, on the part of the warring European 
 powers, led by England and France, the peace-lov- 
 ing, tax-hating, debt-abhorring, standing-army- 
 dreading, navy-despising statesmen who held the 
 reins of power, declared war gainst Great Britain, 
 believing her more blamable than France. Although 
 the war had for years seemed possible if not proba- 
 ble, neither respectable armies nor the material for 
 making them had been provided. Our antagonist, 
 of men-of-war had nominally ten hundred and sixty 
 sail, of which nearly eight hundred were in good 
 fighting order. We had a grand total of twenty sail, 
 of which only seventeen were ready to fight. Great 
 Britain had many great ships of the line, 74's and 
 even larger. Our greatest vessels were three 44-gun 
 frigates, the Constitution, the President, and the 
 United States, while nine were from 18 to 12-pound- 
 ers. With this enormous disparity in naval force 
 
 79 
 
our government naturally, as Queen Elizabeth did 
 against the Spanish Armada, made use of the ships 
 of her citizens. Bonds were required that they 
 would act according to the rules of international law. 
 Captures and their cargoes, where necessity did not 
 require burning or ransoming, were to be brought 
 before a district court for adjudication. The usual 
 import duties were to be paid out of the proceeds. 
 A percentage was to be reserved for pensioning the 
 disabled in service, and the widows and children of 
 the killed. The residue was to be distributed accord- 
 ing to proportions prescribed by law ; namely, unless 
 there was a special agreement otherwise, one-half 
 to the owners of the ship and armament, the other 
 among the officers and crew in like manner as in 
 case of public armed vessels. In truth, the priva- 
 teers were as much government forces and doing 
 government work, as were the independent com- 
 mands of Marion, Sumpter, and Cleveland, in the 
 Revolutionary War, or those of Ashby and Forrest, 
 in the early stages of that of our own ; or in the 
 Franc-tireurs, in that between France and Germany. 
 The captures by such ships were no more robbery 
 than the captures by ships of war. The Snap- 
 Dragon was no more piratical than the Bon-Homme 
 Richard, or the Constitution, the Alabama, or the 
 
 80 
 
Shenandoah; Otway Burns no more a pirate than 
 Paul Jones, or Hull, Bainbridge, or Blakely, 
 Semmes, or Waddell. 
 
 The Federalist opponents of the War of 1812 
 vented their fury in abusive epithets against those 
 of the war party. Once a compam' of idlers was 
 assembled at the wharf at Newbern, where the Snap- 
 Dragon was lying. An ardent anti-war man, an im- 
 pulsive citizen of French extraction, a compiler of 
 our laws and author of a history of our state, after- 
 wards a Supreme Court judge in Louisiana, Francis 
 Xavier Martin, used against her officers and crew 
 the epithet fashionable among Federalists, ''licensed 
 robbers." Captain Burns heard the words, leaped 
 into his boat, was rowed rapidly to the wharf and, 
 catching the word-slinger by the seat of his breeches 
 and collar of the coat, flung him into the Neuse. 
 This cooling process persuaded him, I will not say 
 to eat his words, but, in the refrain of an old rollick- 
 ing song, to ''drink them down." 
 
 The doughty Captain was also prompt to resent 
 what he considered an infringement of his rights, 
 and his methods were not always such as are laid 
 down in books of legal procedure. While enlisting 
 recruits at Newbern, he became satisfied that a sys- 
 
 81 
 
tematic effort was being made to thwart him by 
 arresting his recruits for petty debts. He gave 
 orders that no process should be served on his men 
 and, when a boat-load of constables rowed along- 
 side his ship, he promptly ordered it to be upset, and 
 the officers of the law made their way to land like 
 half -drowned rats. 
 
 When the government called for privateers, our 
 sailors, being prevented by British blockaders and 
 cruisers from plying their regular calling on the 
 seas, responded with true American alacrity. Balti- 
 more sent 58 vessels ; New York 55 ; Boston, 32 ; 
 Philadelphia, 14; Portsmouth, N. H., 11; Charles- 
 ton, S. C, 10. Others sent smaller numbers, 
 the total being 253. North Carolina furnished four, 
 the Lovely Lass, of Wilmington, the Hawk, of 
 Washington ; the Hero, of Newbern, and the Snap- 
 Dragon. 
 
 Some of the privateers were of considerable 
 size and strength, and refused to run away from a 
 war vessel near their size. The Chasseur, of Balti- 
 more, with 16 guns, attacked and succeeded in cap- 
 turing the St. Lawrence, a public war schooner of 
 her own class. Captain Champlin, of the General 
 Armstrong, gallantly engaged a British frigate of 24 
 
 82 
 
guns, and, after a desperate action, escaped. In this 
 action he lost six killed and sixteen wounded, and 
 had masts, sails, rigging, and hull badly cut up. 
 Captain Reid, in the same General Armstrong, in the 
 neutral harbor of Fayal, made one of the most 
 gallant defenses of his vessel known to history. 
 The Non-Such, of Baltimore, Captain Levely, a 
 i2-gun schooner, fought three hours and twenty 
 minutes a i6-gun ship and a 6-gun schooner, and 
 made her escape. The brig privateer, the True- 
 blooded Yankee, the Saratoga, and the General Arm- 
 strong, each carried i8 guns and i6o men. Others 
 had i6 guns or less. These were intended for com- 
 bats with armed merchantmen and enemy privateers, 
 if perchance they should be met. Others expecting 
 to encounter weaker adversaries had fewer guns and 
 men. One captain actually sailed with a single gun, 
 but it was very large and he had a crew of 50. 
 
 The aim of the privateers, if they attacked an 
 armed vessel, was to do all the execution possible 
 with their guns, and then dash in and board the 
 adversary, their superior numbers thus generally 
 gaining the victory. This maneuvre was generally 
 dangerous in a storm, as the smaller craft dashing 
 against the larger might be wrecked, but in favorable 
 
 83 
 
weather victory was well-nigh sure. Merchantmen 
 carrying as many as 14 guns had only 25 sailors, 
 others 30, while the privateers could throw on them 
 80 to i(X) men who had no duties in navigating the 
 ship, but were trained to fight. This accounts for 
 remarkable captures, for example the taking of a 
 merchantman so large that the victorious captain 
 hauled his craft on the deck of his prize and thus 
 sailed into Portland. 
 
 As a rule the British merchant vessel sailing alone 
 was almost sure of being captured, and it was usual 
 therefore to make up fleets, under the protection of 
 one line-of-battle ship and two or three frigates. 
 The privateers met this by hovering near and attack- 
 ing stragglers, trusting to their speed to escape the 
 armed escort. They were like wolves prowling 
 around a flock of sheep, endeavoring to evade the 
 vigilance of the shepherd dog. If perchance a storm 
 scattered the fleet, a golden harvest was reaped. 
 The Snap-Dragon, being fast and strong, quickly 
 obedient to her helm, and commanded by an ex- 
 tremely skillful captain, was very successful in weath- 
 ering storm and picking up stray vessels. 
 
 The law required that a description of privateer 
 vessels and lists of crews should be filed before 
 
 84 
 
each voyage. We have only one of these in rela- 
 tion to the Snap-Dragon, that of July, 1813. In 
 that she is said to be of 147 tons burthen, her crew 
 78, her armament 5 carriage guns, 50 muskets 
 and 4 blunderbusses. The First Lieutenant was 
 James Brown. On subsequent voyages her force 
 was strengthened ; when off the coast of Nova 
 Scotia she had one long gun on a pivot, probably 
 an i8-pounder, and six others. 
 
 On one voyage she had 187 men, and her last 
 under Burns, in 1814, 99. A 147 ton merchant- 
 man would not require more than 6 men to handle 
 her, which shows clearly the excess of numbers on 
 a privateer needed to board the enemy and furnish 
 Qrews for prizes taken. The officers in the lists pre- 
 served for the cruise beginning January 20, 18 14, 
 were besides Burns, Captain ; Benjamin DeCokely, 
 First Lieutenant; James Guthrie, Second Lieuten- 
 ant ; Thomas Barker, Captain of Marines and Joseph 
 Meires (probably Myers), Surgeon. Fourteen of 
 the whole number were classed as marines. 
 
 Some of the papers connected with the cruises of 
 the Snap-Dragon, have been lost, but we have 
 authentic copies of the logs or journals, kept by 
 Burns in 1813-14. The substance of one is pre- 
 
 8s 
 
served in the North Carolina University Magazine, 
 of October and November, 1855, in a sketch pre- 
 pared by the late John H. Bryan, Jr. ; the second was 
 found by myself printed in the Raleigh Register, 
 September 24, 1814. The third was procured from 
 the collector of the port of Newbern by Colonel 
 John D. Whitford and printed in the Newbern Jour- 
 nal January 5 — /February 23, 1896. This last cruise 
 was from January 20, to April 19, 18 14. 
 
 These journals portray in the terse, direct style 
 usual in such documents the important incidents of 
 the voyages. I will abbreviate some of them, trans- 
 lating the nautical language into the vernacular, as 
 I presume most of you are, like myself, *'land- 
 lubbers". Some I will give without alteration. It 
 is unfortunate that the publication in the University 
 Magazine does not give the dates of the cruise 
 therein commemorated. From internal evidence it 
 appears to be the fiirst. It was among the West 
 Indies. 
 
 To show the method of Captain Burns in manag- 
 ing his crew, I give the following: While on his 
 first cruise he called at Providence, a beautiful 
 island of the West Indies. Mindful of the health 
 of his men, he allowed them, one-third at a time, 
 
 86 
 
to go on shore. The last party, in which were 
 several Irishmen, found a dram shop, with the usual 
 results. While in the midst of the carnival, the 
 Captain sent an officer to order them to return at 
 once, but prompted by the sergeant of marines, a 
 reckless son of Erin, named Plane, they refused 
 obedience and threatened to throw the messenger 
 down the hill. As soon as this was reported to 
 Burns, he seized a cutlass, and ordered the boatmen 
 to put him ashore. In his maudlin recklessness. 
 Plane met him, saying : Well, Captain, when ashore 
 I am as good a man as you are." Without a word 
 Burns cut him down, with a wound not mortal, and 
 then attacked the rest of the party single-handed, 
 cutting and slashing until blood ran in streams. 
 They were overawed by his terrific manner, and 
 submitted to be driven to their duty. This conduct 
 may sound harsh to a landsman, but Jack Tar must 
 render swift and unquestioning obedience as a habit, 
 or else in storms and battles crew and craft may be 
 lost. I am not describing a kindergarten teacher 
 nor the chairman of a Peace Society, but a fighting 
 captain of a fighting cruiser. 
 
 Another incident on the same cruise will further 
 illustrate his discipline. The Snap-Dragon had just 
 captured a merchantman of 14 guns. A seaman, 
 
named Thompson, with a tongue as tireless as the 
 restless waves of the sea, had been from the be- 
 ginning of the voyage, gasconading about his prow- 
 ess and exploits. On this occasion his words were 
 really offensive, tending to create disaffection among 
 the crew towards the officers. The captain roundly 
 chided him, observing that he was always loudest in 
 peace and stillest in danger. Thompson replied tliat 
 the captain, being the commander, could safely use 
 such abusive language. Burns said he was willing 
 to waive his rank, but thought it essential to disci- 
 pline to administer a flogging, which he proceeded 
 to do with his own hand. It subsequently became 
 necessary to put the flogee ashore. He left with 
 threats of vengeance upon the flogger. It is strange 
 that the first person he met after landing in the 
 United States was his old enemy, but instead of 
 carying out his threat he begged that the past be for- 
 gotten. 
 
 This incident illustrates the strong difference 
 between the discipline of a man-of-war and that of 
 a privateer. Such a scene could not have occurred 
 in the regular service, where by custom and rule 
 the commander has but little personal communi- 
 cation with the crew. The captain of a privateer, 
 with recruits recently enlisted, with the terror of 
 
 88 
 
government authority much more remote, his men 
 serving primarily for gain and little for patriotism, 
 must exact obedience by strength of character, tact, 
 utter fearlessness and indisputable superiority and 
 seamanship. 
 
 In order that you may form some idea of the 
 graphic and vigorous style of Captain Burns' log, 
 I give in its words an encounter with a large and 
 powerful merchantman. The date is March, 1814. 
 It shows the daring nature of the man, that he at- 
 tacked a vessel with three times as many guns 
 as he had. Victory was prevented only by an 
 accident as will be seen. 
 
 "Thursday, 3rd, commenced a pleasant light rain 
 about ten P. M. At five A. M. made a strange 
 sail to leeward ; at six gave chase ; about seven 
 gave her a gun and hoisted American colors ; she 
 answered us with another and hoisted English col- 
 ors. At half-past seven we engaged her and a 
 regular and constant fire was kept up by both par- 
 ties ; the enemy perceiving that we designed board- 
 ing, manoeuvred his ship with great skill for 
 considerable time. At half-past eleven got our mus- 
 quetry to bear upon him — orders were given to 
 hoist the red flag; (the red flag was the signal for 
 
 89 
 
boarding.) At twenty minutes past noon we got 
 on the enemy's quarter. They perceiving that we 
 meant boarding gave us several stern guns, which 
 injured our sails and rigging very much. We kept 
 up constant fire of great and small arms; at half- 
 past one we received orders to board. He put his 
 helm hard up to run us down ; his fore chains took 
 our jib-boom and bow-sprit; he endeavored to haul 
 down his colors and got them as low as the gaff. 
 At that instant our bow-sprit gave way and fore- 
 mast went by the board. The schooner then fell off 
 as quick as two vessels could fall. The enemy 
 then rallied his men and let off the men that had 
 boarded him, hoisted his colors and made the most 
 of a good wind. All hands on board of us were 
 called to clear the wreck, our shrouds, sails and 
 top-mast being shot away. Our colors were shot 
 away, and immediately tied in the main rigging. 
 The pumps were sounded and we found she made 
 no water; we then engaged by a jury-mast and at 
 length set our jib, and at four made sail on the 
 vessel. Our sails, rigging and hull is much dam- 
 aged, and our boat completely ruined. The enemy's 
 force is not known. She is a large ship, coppered 
 to her bends, mounts 22 guns, and fought desper- 
 ately, using round, grape, canister and cold shot. 
 
 90 
 
They beat off our boarders with pistols, cutlasses, 
 boarding-pikes, and the above cold shot were 
 thrown. When some were swarming on board they 
 threw stink-pots, bricks, and glass bottles. We do 
 not know her loss, but suppose she lost considerable, 
 as blood run out of her lee-scuppers and her hull 
 received damage from chain and star shot. We 
 lost 4 killed, 7 wounded * * * . This ends an 
 action that forces us to run for some port to 
 repair, owing to losing our mast ; had it stood she 
 was our prize. We were so near Surinam, we 
 heard guns from the battery." 
 
 This story brings out clearly the usual tactics 
 of the privateers in capturing a much larger mer- 
 chantman, armed with many more guns. At a 
 distance the long guns are used ; as they approached, 
 the carronades and the musketry. Then, as soon 
 as possible, boarders leaped on the enemy's deck. 
 Resistance, however desperate, was usually over- 
 come by superior numbers of picked men, trained 
 for hand-to-hand conflicts. In this fight the Eng- 
 lish captain was evidently a very able and fierce 
 antagonist. As a last resort he adopted the dan- 
 gerous expedient of endeavoring to ram the Amer- 
 ican, and, although Burns by prompt action pre- 
 
 91 
 
vented entire success, he carried away the support 
 of the Snap-Dragon's fore-mast and caused its fall. 
 He then sailed away and escaped. It was a beautiful 
 contest between two uncommonly skillful seamen, 
 the Englishmen evidently having a larger crew 
 than was usual with merchantmen. One of the 
 Snap-Dragon's crew, Nat Owens, stated that in one 
 of his fights at close quarters. Burns charged his 
 gun with sail-needles when grape ran low, and 
 this was probably the occasion. 
 
 Burns was a capital sailor. In a tropical gale 
 of tremendous force, the Snap-Dragon was saved 
 entirely by his resourcefulness. The first blow of 
 the wind lost her jib-boom and started her cut- 
 water. After being on deck all night he took a 
 rest, leaving his lieutenant in charge. The wind 
 shifted and a huge wave knocked the ship on her 
 beam-ends, breaking the guns from their fasten- 
 ings and opening a seam in her side thirty feet 
 long. Burns rushed on deck, secured the guns, 
 promptly turned her head and held it on the tack. 
 This raised the leak above the water and by vig- 
 orous pumping the danger was passed. 
 
 The log tells of a narrow escape from capture 
 effected by the benius of Burns. Four large ships 
 were descried. His keen eye satisfied him that 
 
 92 
 
one was a war vessel disguised by taking down her 
 fore and mizzen top-gallant masts and pinning old 
 black patches on the sails. There was such mur- 
 muring at his caution that Burns concluded that it 
 was best to run some risk in order to satisfy his 
 crew. Bearing down on the stranger he sent sev- 
 eral shots into her but no answer was made until 
 the Snap-Dragon began to retreat. Suddenly the 
 batteries were unmasked and grape and cannister 
 whistled through her sails. The peaceful-looking 
 merchantman was transformed into a povverful and 
 swift man-of-war. Then ensued a trial of skill be- 
 tween the two, both manoeuvering with ability, while 
 the breeze increased almost to a storm. Some on the 
 Snap-Dragon, seeing the Englishmen's size and 
 speed, began to pack up their clothing, so as to 
 be ready for a voyage to England. But the pluck 
 of Burns and the faith in his craft never faltered. 
 He seized the helm and suddenly tacking, sailed 
 by his adversary only three hundred yards off. Of 
 course he received a broad-side, but just as the shot 
 left the guns a great wave hid the privateer, so 
 that she really seemed to dive like a duck out of 
 danger. Her sails were only slightly cut up. The 
 Englishman attempted to tack in pursuit but his 
 ship failed to turn promptly and, by a series of 
 
 93 
 
short tacks, which his larger enemy could not irri- 
 tate, the Snap-Dragon rapidly increased her distance. 
 Such was the force of the wind and she was so 
 hidden by the mountainous waves, that the captain 
 of the man-of-war reported that she had sunk. 
 
 Captain Burns' pluck and seamanship was dis- 
 played to great advantage in rescuing his vessel 
 from five British vessels of war at the port of St. 
 Thomas on the island of the same name, then in 
 possession of Great Britain. Stationing himself at 
 night near the harbor in order to cut out some 
 vessels at anchor therein, he was surprised when 
 the darkness lifted at finding himself lying between 
 five English men-of-war, three to windward and two 
 to leeward. One of them, the Garland frigate, was 
 in gun-shot distance, and fired a 32-pound shot, 
 which, fortunately, missed. Forty miles distant 
 there was a huge rock, called the Sail Rock, it 
 being feasible to pass on either side. Burns, headed 
 his swift cruiser directly for the rock so that the 
 enemy could not divine on which side he would 
 pass. Making his men lie down, he took the helm 
 himself, and at the critical moment chose the safer 
 side. The nearest brig, the Sophia, gave him a 
 broad-side of grape and round shot, and then 
 anodier, without effect, and the Snap-Dragon sailed 
 
 94 
 
down the Wind until out of danger. The captain had 
 the pohteness, or perhaps you will call it the im- 
 pudence, before going out of sight, to tack his 
 ship, display the American colors, and fire a fare- 
 well gun. There were few men in our navy who 
 could have escaped such an ordeal unharmed. 
 
 Burns did not hesitate to attack a lo-gun brig- 
 of-war. The Nettler of that force, when he was 
 cruising near Tortola, one of the Virgin Islands, 
 bore down upon him. The Snap-Dragon was 
 headed to meet her, but the Nettler declined the 
 combat and took refuge under the walls of the fort. 
 Burns, when night came on, ran by the fort and 
 endeavored to seize one of the merchantmen. In 
 the darkness his boat encountered the Nettler, and, 
 being unable to fight both brig and fort, by aid of 
 his sweeps he left the harbor. 
 
 At one time, when ofif the coast of a Spanish 
 island, some English prisoners on the Snap-Dragon 
 begged to be put on shore. Burns, who was always 
 kind to his prisoners, consented with reluctance, 
 because the island was remote from the tracks of 
 commerce, and his men might be detained on sus- 
 picion of piracy. His fears were well founded. 
 His boatmen were thrown into prison, and vexatious 
 delays interposed against their release. He deter- 
 
 95 
 
mined on the strong hand. He weighed anchor and 
 sailed off. Soon a small war boat, called a felucca, 
 with about a lOO men on board, came out of the 
 harbor. The Snap-Dragon suddenly returned and 
 captured her. Two gibbets were rigged and the 
 commander was notified that, if the Americans were 
 not released in two hours, all would be hanged, 
 beginning with the captain. In one hour the Snap- 
 Dragon's men were on board, and the voyage was 
 continued. 
 
 Another incident well illustrates the little weight 
 the United States then had among nations. While 
 sailing to Cartagena for supplies, Burns disting- 
 uished an English vessel on the high seas convoyed 
 by two Spanish, one a brig of 12, the other a 
 schooner of 8 guns. Without any warrant of inter- 
 national law, they claimed in a blustering manner 
 that the Englishman was exempt from capture. He 
 disregarded their threats, seized her, put on her a 
 prize crew of 20 men, and, ordering them to await 
 his return, proceeded to Cartagena. While absent, 
 a number of Spanish gunboats attacked and cap- 
 tured the prize after a short resistance and carried 
 her into harbor. The crew were thrown into prison 
 in irons for firing on the Spaniards. After three 
 
 96 
 
weeks' detention, by free use of bribes, their release 
 was secured. The loss to the stockholders of the 
 Snap-Dragon was estimated at $20,000. It is not 
 conceivable that a United States privateer would 
 be treated in this arbitrary manner in these days 
 of fleet smashing off Manila and Santiago. 
 
 While at Cartagena, one of the crew attempted 
 to desert, and, being caught, claimed to be a Span- 
 iard. A brig-of-war anchored near her, and her 
 captain came on board the Dragon and claimed the 
 sailor. High words followed between him and 
 Burns, when in a spirit of gasconade, he drew his 
 sword. Burns seized a boarding-pike and was with 
 difficulty prevented from staving it through his 
 adversary, who promptly abandoned his claim. 
 Shortly afterward, in exercising the right of search 
 of a Spanish brig, and while the boarding officer 
 was in the cabin examining papers, some of the 
 sailors who had been imprisoned at Cartagena, pro- 
 ceeded to hang a Spaniard or two by way of 
 retaliation. The rope was around the neck of one 
 of the dons, and the body was about to swing, 
 when the officer came up from below and stopped 
 the execution. Truly, Jack Tar is a reckless fellow 
 in times of war. 
 
 97 
 
The next incident is supplied by Mr. Thomas 
 C. Davis, of Morehead City, to whom I am indebted 
 for much valuable information. Captain Burns and 
 Captain Almida, of the privateer Kemp, differed 
 about the division of a valuable prize. The dispute 
 waxed so hot that Burns challenged Almida to a 
 "yard-arm-duel." In this mode of satisfying honor, 
 the antagonists station themselves on a yard-arm 
 of their respective vessels, Then the vessels are 
 sailed near and around one another, while tlie duel- 
 ists from their airy seats fire away each at the other 
 with musket, rifle, or pistol, while the sailors below 
 eagerly watch the sport. He, who is hit, may drop 
 at once on deck or into the ocean. While they 
 were on their way to the place agreed upon, they 
 chanced to see in the distance several sails. The 
 hostile encounter was changed into a chase of the 
 enemy, and the capture of one apiece so mollified 
 their anger that the duel was adjourned sine die by 
 unanim.ous consent. 
 
 From the journal of the cruise from June 3rd 
 to August i6th, 1813. over the Banks of New- 
 foundland, we find a sarcastic allusion to an opinion 
 of the Chief Justice of the United States. ''June 
 8, spoke American ship Active, from Wilmington 
 to Cadiz, cargo, flour — had the impudence to show 
 
 98 
 
us his British Hcense ; suirered him to proceed ; so 
 much for the decision of Judge Marshall.*' To the 
 downright mind of Burns accepting the license from 
 the enemy made the acceptor equally an enemy. 
 
 The following shows quick work, though not 
 profitable : "June 24, at 4 P. M. captured the barque 
 Henrietta, Captain Mason, of Liverpool — at a quar- 
 ter past four captured the brig Jane, of Maryport, 
 Captain Arkbridge — at five captured brig, Pandora, 
 of Havre de Grace, Captain Murphey, all in ballast." 
 
 "June 25, at 7 A. M. manned and ordered for 
 the United States the two former and gave up the 
 latter to the owners, after having paroled the pris- 
 oners and put them on board her." 
 
 The next statement of the journal shows the 
 cunning of the Englishman, and how the fox. 
 Burns, was not caught in the trap. 
 
 "June 27, at meridian saw a strange sail to 
 the south of us, and stood for her. At 2 P. M. 
 the chase gave us a gun and hoisted English colors, 
 distant three miles. We returned it and hoisted 
 American colors. She then crowded all sail and 
 we gave chase until night concealed her from us. 
 Saw her again at daylight and chased her again 
 until 5 A. M. when the fog, which, how^ever, was 
 
 99 
 
light, cleared away and discovered a convoy of 
 25 or 30 sail to windward, protected by several 
 frigates and 74's, two of which stood for the chase, 
 as soon as they heard her signal guns. As soon as 
 the chase, which we ascertained to be a brig, show- 
 ing 14 guns, came up with one of them, she was fired 
 upon, and immediately ran toward us, and the firing 
 continued at intervals until 4 P. M. We, however, 
 suspected a decoy, and kept at a respectful distance." 
 
 After some days of anxious sailing in and out of 
 the "darkness visible" of the fogs, was made the 
 most valuable capture of the voyage. I quote from 
 the log: "At 4 P. M., a thick fog prevailing, a 
 brig hove in sight in half-musquet shot, standing 
 across our quarter. We hailed immediately. She 
 answered she was the brig Ann, Captain Martin, 
 from Liverpool for St. John, New Brunswick, car- 
 go, bale goods, steel, card wire, and crockery; put 
 a prize master and crew on board and took her in 
 tow. Thick fog prevailing for several days." 
 
 "July 15th and i6th employed in taking goods 
 out of the prize and putting them aboard the Snap- 
 Dragon." 
 
 On August 1 6th, Beaufort Vv^as reached after a 
 cruise of 76 days. The captures were of inconsid- 
 
 100 
 
erable value, except that of the last mentioned brig, 
 the Ann, which, with her cargo, was estimated at 
 nearly half a million dollars. After being duly 
 libelled in the District Court of the United States, 
 Judge Henry Potter presiding, they were sold for 
 cash at auction by Edward Pasteur and William 
 Shepard, agents, at Newbern, beginning October 
 nth, 1813. The hearts of the belles and beaux of 
 North Carolina must have leaped for joy at reading 
 the advertisement. I copy the list of articles speci- 
 fied in order that you may see what kind of goods 
 our grandfathers and our great-grandfathers and 
 their wives and daughters wore and used. "Super- 
 fine and coarse cloth of all colors and sizes ; Cassi- 
 meres, ditto ; Grey, Brown and Olive coatings ; Red 
 and White Flannels; Rose and Striped Blankets, 
 Plams, Duffels, Kerseys, Bombazeens, Bombazets 
 of all colors ; Satinetts and Rattinets of all colors ; 
 Swansdown, Striped and Figured ; Prince's, Bruns- 
 wick, and Benner's Cord; Flushings of all colors; 
 Carpeting, Cambric, and Cambric Muslin, Cotton 
 Shirting, Prints, Calicoes, Shawls, Checked and 
 Fancy Molesdown, Plain and Silk Striped Toil- 
 enets, Bedford, Patent and Windsor Cords; Vel- 
 veteens; Elastic Stockinett; Webb Braces; Cotton 
 and Silk Laces; Men's and Women's Cotton and 
 
 lOI 
 
Vv^orstecl Hose ; Dimities, Love Handkerchiefs, Bea- 
 ver Gloves, Fancy Vestiilets, Sewing Silks, Boot 
 Cord, Thread, London and Whitechapel Needles, 
 60 casks Card Wire invoiced at 2200 pounds ster- 
 ling, 25 tons of Steel and Sheet Iron, and finally, the 
 contents of 58 packages as yet unknown." The 
 Ann and her furniture were sold at the same tim.e. 
 
 Articles of the same name as most of these 
 are Vv^ith us yet about our persons and homes. 
 Some are new to me. I have heard of Satinetts, 
 but what are Ratinetts? I am not acquainted with 
 Molesdowns. Perhaps they all got lost on the 
 ''Underground Railway." 'Xove Handkerchiefs" 
 became obsolete before I had need of them, away 
 back in the fifties. If a toilenet ever crossed my 
 path, I did not recognize whether it was male or 
 female. I can only guess that a "Vestulet" is a 
 more becoming appellation for a modern raiment 
 with a name, which to an old-fashioned ear has a 
 flavor of immodesty, ''Shirt-Waist. " The list is 
 comforting as showing that the fabrics which adorn 
 the persons of the ladies of 1901 are not much more 
 numerous and perhaps not more costly than the 
 fabrics which aided our grandmothers in causing 
 the hearts of our grandfathers to thump under 
 their capacious waistcoats. 
 
 102 
 
We have no means of knowing the number and 
 the value of the captures made by the Snap-Dragon 
 under Captain Burns. Mr. T. C. Davis, who has 
 paid the matter more attention than anyone else, 
 states that in the first seven months of the war, he 
 took two barks, five brigs, and three schooners, 
 with valuable cargoes, estimated at one million 
 dollars. With the vessels were taken 250 prisoners 
 for which the government paid a bounty of $10 each. 
 The brig Ann and her cargo, already mentioned, 
 were rated at nearly half a million dollars. Cer- 
 tainly, at the call of the government our worthy 
 Captain played no unimportant part in carrying 
 out its policy by crippling the commerce of its 
 enem}'. 
 
 The aggregate loss inflicted by all vessels carry- 
 ing letters of marque was enormous. Captain George 
 Coggleshall, himself the captain of one of these 
 vessels, in his "History of the American Priva- 
 teers," states the loss to Great Britain as 2000 ships 
 and vessels of all kinds, not counting captures on 
 the Great Lakes. Of these 2000, about 1300 sail 
 were captures of privateers. Of our own vessels 
 taken by the British, he estimates that the number 
 was not over 5CXD, which appears reasonable when 
 it is remembered that we declared an embargo 
 
 103 
 
seventy-five days before the war began and that a 
 large portion of our merchantmen returned to their 
 ports within four months afterwards and were laid 
 up out of reach of the enemy. After six months 
 the blockading vessels rendered regular commerce 
 imf>ossible. 
 
 The privateers penetrated every part of the 
 several oceans, where it was likely that a British 
 merchantman could be found. They cruised and 
 made prizes in the English Channel, in the Irish 
 Channel, in the Bay of Biscay, and along the 
 Spanish coast, in the waters around Hindostan and 
 Australia, among the West Indies, along the coast 
 of South America and Africa and beyond the Arctic 
 Circle. They not only inflicted immense losses on the 
 enemy, but to them, as well as to the commanders 
 of our war frigates, is due the increased respect 
 felt by all the nations of the world for the intelli- 
 gence and skill, the daring and energy of American 
 seamen. They aided in securing the grand result 
 that the United States was thenceforth to be recog- 
 nized and treated as equal to any of her older 
 brothers in the family of nations. 
 
 Wheeler is wrong in stating in his "Remini- 
 scences" that Captain Burns was captured with the 
 
 104 
 
Snap-Dragon. His constant exposure to drenching 
 storms and icy blasts told even on his iron frame, 
 and during her last cruise, excruciating rheumatism 
 kept him anchored at port. In this last cruise the 
 commander was Lieutenant DeCokely. On the 29th 
 of June, 1 8 14, she was carried into Halifax as the 
 prize of the British man-of-war, the Leopard. She 
 had sailed from Ocracoke on the 28th of the pre- 
 ceding month. The lieutenant was experienced and 
 capable but he doubtless lacked the nautical genius 
 of Burns. Perhaps the Snap-Dragon resembled the 
 woe-begone Lady of Orange, who married a bad 
 husband. She accounted for her bad fate by saying 
 ''that she was snared into it." 
 
 We will now briefly trace the career of Captain 
 Burns in times of peace. 
 
 About the close of the war. Captain Burns mar- 
 ried Miss Jane Hall, of Beaufort, and lived there 
 in a handsome residence for twenty-two years. 
 He renewed his old calling of ship-building, using 
 the staunch old live oak timbers from Shackel- 
 ford's and Bogue's banks. About 1820, be built 
 for a Wilmington company the first steamer which 
 ever plied between Wilmington and Smithvill^, 
 now Smithport. The captain was Thomas N. 
 
 10; 
 
Gautier and the engineer John Snyder. The sig- 
 nals were given by a trumpet, and it is handed 
 down that when more speed was desired, the cap- 
 tain shouted down : "Give it to her, Snyder." This 
 expression was admitted into the language of cant 
 and has hardly died out at this day. 
 
 Shortly afterwards, Burns built the brig War- 
 rior and afterwards the brig Henry, both being in 
 the coast-wise and the West India trade. He also 
 constructed a small two-masted sail-boat, the swif- 
 test of the Sounds, and named her in honor of his 
 beloved old fighting-vessel, the Snap-Dragon. He 
 put in her a center-board, the first ever heard of 
 in that section. He, however, did not confine him- 
 self to private business, but found time to represent 
 his county in the General Assembly, which then 
 held annual sessions. He was a member of the 
 House of Commons, in 1821, 1822, 1824, 1825, 
 1826, 1827, and of the Senate in 1828, 1829, 1830; 
 of the House of Commons again in 1832 ; and of 
 the Senate again in 1833 and 1834, in all twelve 
 terms after twelve elections. This statement shows 
 that he had in a marked degree the esteem of the 
 people. When the Republican party divided into 
 Jacksonites, afterwards Democrats, and National 
 
 106 
 
Republicans, afterwards Whigs, he followed the 
 leader most like himself in character, Andrc'.v Jack- 
 son. 
 
 My yoimg friend, Ivey F. Lewis, has examined, 
 at my request, the Journals of the Houses of which 
 Otway Burns was a member and noted his votes 
 on the questions of the day. In tracing his course, 
 I find that no North Carolina statesman took more 
 independent and enlightened positions than he. 
 His public career was at a time when the great 
 Eastern and Western controversy was being agi- 
 tated. A short statement of the causes of the con- 
 troversy is necessary to understand the singular 
 merit of the political conduct of Captain Burns. 
 
 Under our colonial government the counties of 
 old Albemarle had five members each and those 
 from Bath two members only in the General Assem- 
 bly. In order to secure harmony, John Harvey and 
 other patriots induced the former to agree that the 
 State Conventions or Congresses should have five 
 delegates from each county. When in the darkest 
 hour of the Revolution, the Constitution of 1776 
 was formed^ the public danger swallowing up all 
 minor questions, the people of Albemarle surren- 
 dered the representation they had enjoyed for one 
 
 107 
 
hundred years, and consented to equality with the 
 others, that is, one senator and two Commoners 
 from each county and a commoner each from six 
 boroughs. 
 
 Of course this arrangement was to the advan- 
 tage of the small counties of the east, but for some 
 time the only serious effect on legislation was the 
 taxation of land by the acre, a $20 eastern acre, rich 
 in corn, paying the same as a ten cents middle or 
 western acre, rich in jagged stones. This inequal- 
 ity produced little discontent because the rate was 
 only six cents on $100 worth. 
 
 The General Assembly thus constituted had al- 
 most unlimited power. It could tax some articles 
 and not others and that without limit. There was 
 no restraint whatever on its pledging the credit of 
 the state. It elected the governor and other execu- 
 tive officers for one year only and controlled their 
 salaries. While the judges were chosen during 
 good behavior, their salaries were subject to the will 
 of the legislature. It is much to the credit of our 
 people that there was no wild action by this power- 
 ful body, that the only complaint was as to their 
 strict economy. 
 
 As all the smaller counties were in the eastern 
 half of the state, eastern land-holders controlled the 
 
 108 
 
General Asembly by a two-third's vote. This con- 
 trol they determined to retain. Whenever the 
 necessities of the west required a new county, its 
 creation was either refused, or delayed or accom- 
 panied by the creation of a new western county. 
 
 In 1776, the Senate stood 2'j eastern to 8 western 
 members ; counting the borough members, the House 
 stood 58 to 20. In 1777, were created three east- 
 ern and two western counties ; in 1779, five eastern 
 and five western counties ; and so on. Between 
 1776 and 1835 there were 17 new western and 16 
 new eastern counties. The Vv^est had one advantage 
 and that was obtained largely by the independence 
 and love of fair play of the sturdy old privateer, 
 Otway Burns. In 1827, the vote for Macon County 
 stood 6}^ to 61, and he was one of the 63. In 1822, 
 his vote was cast for the county of Davidson. In 
 1827, he favored the establishment of Yancey Coun- 
 ty, the vote being tied, 62 to 62. The speaker voted 
 Aye, but the measure was lost in the Senate. In 
 1833, in the Senate, Yancey was created by 33 to 
 28, and so grateful were the people of the new 
 county to Bums, that they named their county-seat 
 Burnsville in his honor. He likewise favored the 
 erection of Cherokee, in 1828, (63 to 61) eleven 
 
 109 
 
years before it was admitted into the family of 
 counties. 
 
 Matters in the General Assembly went on for 
 some years after the Revolution in an easy, som- 
 nolent, way. The war of 1812 aroused the mem- 
 bers to the extent of taking land according to the 
 value, instead of by the acre. But the time was 
 approaching when Governor DeWitt Clinton, with 
 many great men of the state of New York, tra- 
 velled in a canal-boat eastward from Buffalo, and, 
 being towed through New York harbor, amid deaf- 
 ening shouts from the throats of men and screams 
 from the whistles of engines and bellowings from 
 the mouths of cannon, poured water from Lake 
 Erie into the Atlantic. Thus was the marriage of 
 the lakes and the ocean solemnized. 
 
 The spirit of canal building spread with the 
 intensity and rapidity of a prairie fire. In North 
 Carolina there were wild dreams of navigating our 
 streams nearly to their sources. Raleigh was to 
 receive the vessels of Pamlico Sound up Neuse 
 River, up Walnut Creek, up Rocky Branch to the 
 crossing of the Fayetteville Road. Boats were to 
 ascend Cape Fear and Deep Rivers to the Randolph 
 Hills. The produce of the Yadkin valley from the 
 
 no 
 
foot of Blowing Rock was to cross to Deep River 
 and be exported from Wilmington. The puffing 
 of steamboats was to be heard on the head-waters 
 of the Catawba and the Broad. In vain Carney 
 Cotton, a Commoner from Chatham, told the House 
 that after dry weather a terrapin could carry a sack 
 of flour on his back from the hills of Guildford to 
 the landing at Fayetteville, right through the middle 
 beds of the rivers, while not a drop of water would 
 dampen the flour. Such prudential counsels were 
 unheeded. When the salary of the governor was 
 only $1500, our staid ancestors imported from Scot- 
 land a civil engineer, Fulton, at a salary of $6000 
 in gold to begin the good work, and the western 
 members clamored for appropriations in money or 
 in bonds by the state to save the tribulations of 
 four-horse wagons rumbling over jagged rocks or 
 splashing through mucilaginous mud. They had 
 gold-tinted visions of Asheville, Morgantown, Ra- 
 leigh, Wilkesboro, Asheboro, Louisburg, Ruther- 
 fordton, glistening with the white wings of com- 
 merce. 
 
 A few years afterwards, when the canal fever 
 had been cured in part, at least, it was replaced by 
 by the railroad fever. At last, distance was to be 
 partially annihilated and the different sections made 
 
 III 
 
near neighbors. The western counties became 
 clamorous for the state to open her treasury and 
 to provide these swift and easy highways. The 
 eastern counties having navigable rivers through 
 their borders, or of convenient access, sat heavily 
 on the treasury box and answered every appeal with 
 emphatic Noes. 
 
 This difference of interests fired the minds of 
 the western people with indignation against the 
 inequality of representation in the General Assem- 
 bly. They began to assert with wrathful intensity 
 that the state government was under the control 
 of an oligarchy of landed wealth. They pro- 
 claimed with eloquence the injustice of Green 
 with 432, Camden with 394, Carteret with 364, 
 Chowan with 329, Jones with 261, Currituck with 
 138 votes, having the same weight in the Senate 
 and in the House as Buncombe with 1344, Burke 
 with 1360, Rowan with 1594, Surrey with 1755, 
 Wilkes with 1765, and Lincoln with 1929 votes; 
 four freemen from one locality not having as much 
 weight in the government as one in another. 
 
 An active agitation ensued for calling a Con- 
 vention to redress the evil. It goes in history under 
 the name of the eastern and western controversy. 
 
 112 
 
It was of such bitterness that even so prudent a 
 man as Governor Swayne, a citizen of Buncombe, 
 warned the east that there was danger of the west 
 rising in its might and pulHng the pillars of state 
 down with a ruinous crash. After long discussion 
 the Convention of 1833 was called and the evil 
 partially remedied. The measure was passed by 
 a few bold and independent eastern members, who 
 were convinced of its justice, and were willing 
 to sacrifice their local popularity for what they con- 
 sidered to be right in itself and for the best inter- 
 ests of the whole state. Prominent among these, 
 am.ong whom was the great Judge William Gaston, 
 was the fearless and independent sea-captain, Otway 
 Burns. Their action led directly to the restoration 
 of harmony and eventually to the development of 
 our state by building the iron highways from north 
 to south, from east to west, throughout the borders. 
 By this patriotic course. Burns sacrificed his 
 popularity. His legislative career ended with 
 the senate of 1834. And when the amended con- 
 stitution was passed on by the people the county 
 of Carteret repudiated his action by 322 to 32, over 
 ten to one. Other eastern counties were even more 
 rabid. The constitution in Hyde obtained only 
 two votes, in Tyrrell only one, in Bladen six, and 
 
 "3 
 
in Brunswick the negative was unanimous. But 
 in the west the approval was shown by such major- 
 ities as in Lincoln 1887 to 42, Rowan 1570 to 24, 
 Buncombe 1322 to 22, Wilkes 1757 to 8, Surrey 
 1754 to 4, Burke 1359 to i, and Yancey with its 
 county-seat of Burnsville, rolled up a vote of 564 
 to nothing. 
 
 Captain Burns showed that he was superior to 
 the prejudices of his section in other ways. He 
 favored all measures looking to internal improve- 
 ments, such as clearing out of Cape Fear below 
 Wilmington and making navigable the Cape Fear 
 and Deep Rivers, draining Mattanuskeet Lake, aid- 
 ing the construction of a turn-pike road from Fay- 
 ettesville to Wilkesboro, granting charters for rail- 
 roads, and draining the swamp lands. He opposed 
 all propositions to cripple the work projected for 
 improving our rivers. He favored measures de- 
 signed to favor our agriculture and manufactures. 
 He aided in carrying against strong opposition the 
 bill making appropriations for rebuilding the 
 Capitol in place of that destroyed by fire in 1831. 
 He opposed efforts to cripple the Supreme Court, 
 which, having been recently established, had not 
 then the strength in popular estimation wliich it 
 
 114 
 
afterwards acquired. And those who had made 
 an ineffectual effort to give debtors a homestead, 
 a beneficent provision forty years later placed in the 
 constitution. 
 
 He displayed conspicuous courage in other direc- 
 tions. He refused to court popularity by favoring 
 the election of Sheriffs and Clerks of the Court by 
 the people. When the notorious Bob Potter started 
 a crusade against the Banks of the state, which 
 were then the subject of much popular odium, he 
 declined to join in the persecution. And, finally, 
 he could not be drawn into the rapidly growing 
 prejudice against free negroes. He voted against 
 the prohibiting those of other states from settling 
 in North Carolina. And he favored a bill allowing 
 slaves to be emancipated by their owners. On the 
 whole, in legislative bodies in which sat such men 
 as Bartlett Yancey, Montfort Stokes, John Owen, 
 James Iredell the younger, William Gaston, John 
 M. Morehead, John L. Bailey, David F. Caldwell, 
 Charles Fisher, and others like them, as a broad- 
 minded, fearless, intelligent member, the old priva- 
 teer and ship-builder, Otway Burns, was the equal 
 of any. By doing his full duty in arduous posi- 
 tions in war and peace, and by his services to the 
 
 im 
 
United States and to North Carolina he has earned 
 a right to a place in the Portrait Gallery of the 
 state. 
 
 In the course of my investigations into the career 
 of Otway Burns, I must admit that harsh words 
 have been said of him, usually in connection with 
 his privateering ventures. I have come to the con- 
 clusion that this traditional opinion is unjust; that 
 it is founded on two misconceptions, both engend- 
 ered and propagated by hot party spirit. The Fed- 
 eralists who disapproved the war, visited all acts of 
 the administration, including the sending forth pri- 
 vateers, with hot displeasure and calumnious epi- 
 thets. Then again, when in opposition to nine-tenths 
 of his constituents, he sided with the west, and gave 
 votes which they deemed fatally injurious to their 
 interests they poured forth the vials of their wrath 
 upon him. Time has shown that he was right, and 
 I believe that in his political course he was actuated 
 by honest motives. I remember distinctly that my 
 fathei", the late Judge William H. Battle, who was 
 a commoner from Franklin in 1833 and 1834, when 
 Burns was Senator, spoke of him in high terms, 
 especially praising his independence and freedom 
 from demagoguery, coupled, candor compels me 
 
 116 
 
to say, with the disposition to answer supposed 
 insults with the strong argument of ^ponderous 
 fists. 
 
 After his legislative career was over, Captain 
 Burns, his fortune having been impaired by the 
 financial crisis of those days, received from Presi- 
 dent Jackson the appointment of Keeper of the 
 Brant Island Shoals Light Boat. This was not 
 far from the village of Portsmouth, then a port 
 of entry, with a population of about looo. He re- 
 moved his residence to that place and there the 
 old seaman lived a tranquil life until his death on 
 October 25th, 1850. He was buried in the beauti- 
 ful cemetery of Beaufort under his favorite live 
 oaks. Recently a cannon, said to have been on the 
 Snap-Dragon, was placed over his grave, with ap- 
 propriate ceremonies. Judge Walter Clark deliv- 
 ering an able and scholarly address. 
 
 Captain Otway Burns was thrice married; first 
 to Miss Grant daughter of Reuben Grant, of On- 
 slow, executor of his grandfather's will; second to 
 Miss Jane Hall of Beaufort, in 1814; and third, in 
 1842, to Miss Jane Smith of Smyrna, in Carteret 
 County. His only child was by his first wife, born 
 in 18 10, a captain in the United States Navy, who 
 
 117 
 
after service on the Atlantic, Mediterranean and 
 Pacific, resigned in 1840 and died in 1869, Cap- 
 tain Owen Burns. 
 
 Captain Owen Burns married Miss Martha 
 Armstrong, daughter of Solomon, and grand- 
 daughter of Gen. John Armstrong. The only liv- 
 ing descendants of Owen Burns are his seven sons, 
 a daughter and ten grandchildren. 
 
 1. I. R. Burns, who resides in New York City 
 and Daytona, Florida. He has an only daughter 
 Bessie Burns Hulse. 
 
 2. X. Eugene Burns, a fruit grower in Santa 
 Clara Co., San Francisco, California, who has an 
 only daugher Eugenia Stewart Burns. 
 
 3. Richard Burns, who resides in Chicago, has 
 an only son Grindall Jerome Burns. 
 
 4. Charles O. Burns, President C. O. Burns Co., 
 New York City. 
 
 5. Walter Francis Burns, of In wood. New York 
 City, Vice Pres. and General Mgr. of the W. F. 
 Burns Co., has two sons Walter Francis Burns, Jr., 
 and Otway Burns. 
 
 6. Edwin Oscar Burns, San Francisco, Cal., 
 who has a daughter Martha Burns and a son Owen 
 Burns. 
 
 118 
 
WAl.TKR 1- RAN CIS BURNS 
 
7- Owen Burns of the W. F. Burns Co., who 
 resides in Chicago. 
 
 The only daughter Lillian lives at Inwood, New 
 York City and is married to John Anthony Wilkens, 
 of Rotterdam, Holland. They have an only child 
 a charming young lady of four, Theodora VVal- 
 tona Wilkens. 
 
 Divers great-grandchildren of the old privateer 
 bid fair to insure that his blood will continue red 
 and lively as long as our Ship of State shall be 
 manned by men of active brains, brave hearts and 
 strong hands. 
 
 In conclusion, I do not claim that my hero was 
 a shining light in the church or appropriated to 
 himself all the cardinal virtues. But he had strong 
 virtues. He was brave and honest, faithful to his 
 trust, and kind of heart. He was largely generous 
 both in his prosperity and in his adversity. His 
 long service in both branches of the legislature 
 shows that he had the confidence of his neighbors, 
 not alone of the poor, but, as only land-owners 
 voted for the Senators, of the rich as well. And we 
 can now see that this straight-forward sense of 
 justice aided in settling dangerous questions and 
 advanced the prosperity of the state. At the call 
 
 "9 
 
of the government he did his full duty in arduous 
 and dangerous service on the sea. Let us then hold 
 in honor the bold warrior and v^^ise legislator, 
 Otway Burns. 
 
 120 
 
LOG OF THE CRUISES OF CAPTAIN 
 
 OTWAY BURNS AND THE 
 
 SNAP-DRAGON. 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 DURING the year 1812, Otway Burns com- 
 manded a merchantman, which sailed from 
 the port of Newbern, N. C, to Portland, 
 Maine. Whilst on his voyage and before he reached 
 Portland, war was declared between Great Britain 
 and the United States. Commercial intercourse 
 being at an end Captain Burns determined to render 
 all the assistance in his power to his country, and 
 to second in a private capacity the gallant and glori- 
 ous struggles of our infant navy. 
 
 At this time several privateers were fitting out 
 at Portland to cruise against the enemy. A com- 
 pany of persons proposed to Burns to purchase his 
 vessel and convert her into a privateer, upon con- 
 dition thaf he would take command. He was not 
 averse to the employment but thought his vessel too 
 
 121 
 
slow a sailor to suit the service. He therefore 
 declined the proposition and soon after sailed for 
 New York. Whilst there he fell in with a schooner 
 very well suited as he thought for a privateer. 
 Upon inquiry he ascertained that her name was 
 'Xevere," that she was for sale at $8,000. After 
 consultation with a gentleman who was part owner 
 of the vessel he commanded, they sold their vessel 
 and bought the other. They fitted her up as a 
 privateer and changed her name to the Snap- 
 Dragon, and sailed for Newbern. Here she was 
 sold out in shares and books were opened to ship 
 men for a cruise. At this time most of the influ- 
 ential men in Newbern were opposed to the 
 war, and endeavored to counteract Burns' efforts. 
 Among other expedients adopted to prevent his 
 obtaining a crew, they tempted those who had 
 already shipped to contract debts, and then would 
 issue civil process for their arrest. Burns being 
 very much provoked, gave orders that no legal 
 officer should be allowed to board the Snap-Dragon 
 without his permission. On one occasion six con- 
 stables undertook to board without obtaining leave. 
 The officer qji duty ordered them to keep off. 
 They disregarded his command and came along- 
 
 122 
 
side. The officer then ordered his sailors to upset 
 their boat, which was accordingly done and the 
 poor constables were compelled to get upon the 
 bottom of their boat to keep from drowning, where 
 they remained until they drifted ashore. That 
 frolick, says the Log Book, "finally broke tlie con- 
 stables." 
 
 Another incident which happened at this time, 
 illustrates the opposition entertained by many citi- 
 zens to the war of 1812, as well as the bold and 
 daring character of Burns. Whilst the Snap- 
 Dragon was moored on the Neuse in front of the 
 town, a considerable crowd assembled on the nearest 
 wharf. In the crowd was Francis Xavier Martin, 
 then a resident of Newbern, since a Judge in Loui- 
 siana, who hailed the Snap-Dragon and called her 
 a "licensed robber." Burns was on board, heard 
 the epithet and ordered his boat to be manned. He 
 soon stood upon the wharf in the midst of the 
 crowd. He seized Martin, dragged him to the 
 water's edge and threw him into the river, when 
 the ardor of his patriotism soon cooled to civility. 
 Whilst in the water he begged Burns to pardon 
 him. Upon being released he and his associates 
 dispersed in confusion. 
 
 123 
 
Finding that he could not complete a crew in 
 Newbern, Burns sailed for Norfolk. The priva- 
 teer Revenge, was also at that port for the same 
 purpose. In a few days both were ready for sea, 
 and it was agreed by their respective commanders to 
 cruise together. They weighed anchor and passing 
 through Hampton Roads sailed down the Cliesa- 
 peake. 
 
 124 
 
Chapter II. 
 
 Shortly after the vessels were clear of the Capes 
 a sail was descried on the weather bow, and a 
 signal was made from the Revenge for a chase. 
 The Snap-Dragon was immediately under a press 
 of canvas and in two hours was several miles to 
 the windward of her companion. It was soon ascer- 
 tained that the chase was an armed vessel and all 
 hands were called to quarters. Whilst in port, 
 some of the crew of Snap-Dragon in the language 
 of her commander represented themselves to be the 
 bravest fellows in the world, and if they might be 
 believed, could make each a meal of an English- 
 man. Captain Burns having never seen a hostile 
 shot fired, was by no means disposed to brag until 
 he had an opportunity to make a trial of his nerves. 
 Now, when the moment of trial seemed to be at 
 hand, some of those men who had been very brave 
 in port, turned pale and asked Burns if it was not 
 best to wait for the Revenge to come up. He made 
 
 125 
 
no reply, but stood on his course. When in gun 
 shot distance, the chase fired a shot to leeward and 
 hoisted American colors, proving to be a Baltimore 
 privateer. 
 
 The Snap-Dragon still continued in company 
 with the Revenge, and in a few days made two 
 sail to windward. Again the signal was given for 
 chase. The Snap-Dragon was soon alongside the 
 stranger and fired a gun, whereupon they hove to. 
 Captain Burns sent a boat aboard to examine their 
 papers, and ascertained that both were Spanish 
 vessels and being neutrals were of course permitted 
 to pass unmolested. It was upon this occasion, as 
 before, with these very brave fellows among the 
 crew: their fears magnified each vessel into a man- 
 of-war, and it was whispered among them that the 
 "fool of a boy (Burns) w^ould send them all to 
 prison or the devil, by imprudently running along- 
 side a strange vessel before he knew what she was." 
 
 The two privateers had now been in company 
 for some eight or ten days, but Captain Burns hav- 
 ing by this time ascertained that his companion 
 was a slow sailor, concluded to separate. He ac- 
 cordingly did so. The very next day, cruising 
 alone, he fell in with two British men-of-war, a 
 
 120 
 
frigate and a sloop. The day was fine and they 
 gave chase to the Snap-Dragon: it was fruitless 
 however for the Snap-Dragon had the heels of both 
 and using them, she soon, in the language of Cap- 
 tain Burns, bade them adieu. The chase though 
 short was interesting. It was the first time that 
 the speed had been decidedly tested, and the result 
 confirmed Captain Burns' judgment and raised the 
 spirits of the crew. The two best qualities of a 
 privateer are speed and spirit, and both are equally 
 important. The speed of the Snap-Dragon was 
 already ascertained : of the spirit the sequel will 
 more properly speak. 
 
 Having escaped an unequal encounter with 
 the British vessels, Captain Burns resumed his 
 course, and in a few days encountered a British 
 ship of 14 guns. It was late in the evening when 
 the sail was made, and soon after night-fall the 
 Snap-Dragon was alongside. Burns fired one gun 
 and the enemy surrendered, being the first prize. 
 
 For some days after this adventure the weather 
 was very fine and the Snap-Dragon moved pleas- 
 antly and sleepily over the waters. The pause of 
 adventure allows mention of a little incident, which 
 illustrates what has ever been remarked, the inti- 
 mate union of the braggadocio and the coward. 
 
 127 
 
One Thompson, holding in the Snap-Dragon some 
 subordinate post, had already thrust himself fre- 
 quently upon the notice of the Captain as the 
 noisiest of the crew, vaunting constantly, in the 
 absence of danger, of his daring, and when it was 
 presented complaining of the imprudence of Burns 
 in encountering it. After the capture of the British 
 vessel mentioned above, Thompson, as usual, was 
 gasconading in the hearing of the officers who were 
 assembled on the quarter deck, and in language 
 which savored of mutiny. He was interrupted by 
 Burns who told him he wearied of his bragging, 
 that he observed he was always loudest in peace, 
 and stillest in peril. Thompson of course went 
 into a net, and said that Captain Burns felt safe 
 in using such language being his superior officer, 
 but would not dare to do so if ashore and on 
 equality. Captain Burns told him that he waived 
 all distinction of grades, and called upon the other 
 officers to witness that he held himself in this 
 particular on an equal footing with him. and fur- 
 ther he told Mr Thompson that under the circum- 
 stances he considered it important for the discipline 
 of the vessel to administer to him with his own 
 hands "a genteel flogging," and that he was at 
 liberty to defend himself. Thompson submitted 
 
 128 
 
and Burns chastised him with the end of a rope. 
 
 If you should incHne to consider the conduct 
 of Burns rather harsh in this instance, 3^ou will 
 please consider the nature of the service — demand- 
 ing the strictest subordination and the most in- 
 trepid spirit. What followed will at least show 
 that Thompson deserves none of his sympathy. If 
 so happened that during that cruise Thompson was 
 put ashore at St. Matthews on the Spanish main, 
 declaring that if he ever met Burns, he would kill 
 him. He did not return to the United States until 
 after peace was restored, and by a singular co- 
 incidence the first man he met upon land was 
 Burns himself. He did not pursue his purpose of 
 revenge, but on the contrary begged Captain Burns 
 not to mention what had passed. In relating the 
 adventure now, Captain Burns acts upon the prin- 
 ciple that the moral is worth more than the man. 
 
 In a few days the Snap-Dragon made the island 
 of St Thomas, which was in posession of Great 
 Britain, and at night a boat was despatched to 
 reconnoitre the harbor, which reported that several 
 vessels, ready for sea, had dropped out. It was too 
 late after the return of the boat to cut them out 
 that night so the Snap-Dragon hauled off to the 
 windward of Buck Island, intending to cruise near 
 
 129 
 
the harbor the next day. With this view she was 
 disguised, but at daylight the first objects descried 
 by Captain Burns were five British men-of-war, 
 three dead to windward, and two leeward. The 
 "Garland" frigate was in gunshot distance ; and in 
 fact such were the relative positions of all towards 
 one privateer, that they could not have been im- 
 proved if they had been chosen with a view of 
 capture, instead of being as they were, purely acci- 
 dental. Captain Burns first tried to deceive the 
 enemy by hoisting colors, but John Bull was wide 
 awake. The Garland fired a 32-pound shot at the 
 Snap-Dragon, which came near striking the hull, 
 and immediately set skysails and made a signal 
 to the other men-of-war to join in the chase. The 
 condition of the privateer was perilous, and soon 
 her top hamper was up, and every sail set to the 
 best advantage. The only possibility of escape, 
 was through Sail-Rock passage, which was some 
 forty miles distant, dead to windward, and to 
 make the point, three of the enemy hovering upon 
 her direct course, was of extreme difficulty. Indeed 
 escape was hopeless, unless the enemy could be 
 deceived by some manoeuvre. With that sort 
 of decision which distinguishes the man of genius, 
 and that presence of mind which, marks tlie man of 
 
 130 
 
courage, Captain Burns adopted perhaps the only ex- 
 pedient which could have succeeded. It was this : 
 To put the Snap-Dragon directly towards the Rock, 
 which gives name to the passage, so that the enemy 
 could not anticipate on which side she designed to 
 pass. The chase immediately opened in goovd earn- 
 est, and our little privateer, pursued by five British 
 men-of-war, may not inaptly be compared to a fox 
 chased by a pack of hounds in full view. Captain 
 Burns so shaped his course as to get all the Gar- 
 land's sails to draw on one mast, which gave his 
 vessel a great advantage in sailing. Nevertheless, 
 the frigate kept for more than two hours in gun- 
 shot, during which the shot continued to fall around 
 the Dragon, and although without effect, still so near 
 as to throw the spray upon the officers. When they 
 approached the rock, the Garland made signals to 
 her companions to cut off the Dragon when she 
 hauled up to choose the passage. Two brigs accord- 
 ingly got into the passage with the object of inter- 
 cepting her. Now came the rub ; Captain Burns 
 made all of the men lie down and took the helm him- 
 self. The brig Sophia was nearest the privateer, and 
 when she came abreast discharged at her a broadside 
 of grape and round shot. The fire was harmless, and 
 such was the hurry of the brig to repeat lier fire, 
 
 131 
 
that in doing it her forward bulwark was shot 
 away. The crisis was now over. In a few minutes 
 the Dragon had all five of the enemy on the wind, 
 and was quite out of gun-shot, ''walking upon the 
 waters like a thing of intellect." As soon as he was 
 well to windward Captain Burns tacked ship, hauled 
 up his foresail, displayed his colors, and fired a gun 
 by way of defiance and farewell. Night at length 
 interrupted the pursuit. 
 
 At daylight the next morning a sail was made on 
 the lee quarter, which proved to be his Majesty's 
 ship Dominick. She gave chase to the Snap-Dragon 
 and ran her down to the passage, and then aban- 
 doned the pursuit. During the chase the wind blew 
 so fresh as to carry away the jibboom and two top- 
 mast stays of the Snap-Dragon. 
 
 After this Captain Burns beat up to windward 
 and cruised about the island of St. Croix, where he 
 made several small captures. 
 
 Intelligence of Captain Burns' movements 
 reached the island of St. Thomas, where his Maj- 
 esty's brig. The Nettler, of ten guns, was in harbor. 
 One morning found the Snap-Dragon about forty 
 miles from Tortola under easy sail, when she made 
 a sail to windward, running down upon her, which 
 
 1^2 
 
proved to be the Nettler. Her force was known to 
 Captain Burns, and when some of his officers pro- 
 posed to run from her, he, aware that he had more 
 men, and there being httle disparity in size, and 
 withal being (in his own language) tired of run- 
 ning, scouted the idea, and prepared for action. The 
 Nettler came rapidly down under a full press of 
 canvas. "All hands to quarters" was the order of 
 Bums. When the Nettler came within about two 
 miles, she changed her purpose of attack and, taking 
 in her light sails, hauled dead by the wind. The 
 Snap-Dragon immediately started in pursuit, and 
 chased her into the harbor of Tortola, the race con- 
 tinuing from 6 A. M. to 6 :30 P. M., at which time 
 the Snap-Dragon was within half gunshot of her. 
 The Nettler passed under the guns of the fort at 
 dusk and anchored. Such is the position of the fort 
 that a vessel may pass by it and go out another way. 
 Captain Burns hoisted English colors and passed the 
 fort. It soon became very calm and dark. The 
 Snap-Dragon lay abreast of the town about a half 
 mile distant. Some of the officers being well 
 acquainted with the harbor and town, the boats were 
 manned in order to take some of the vessels there 
 anchored if possible. The boats pulled in to a point 
 only a hundred yards distant, which was covered as 
 
 133 
 
they thought upon a near inspection by a flock of 
 sheep, but which turned out to be a battery, the guns 
 of which were painted white. Passing the battery 
 undiscovered they approached a vessel at anchor. 
 Quietly they pulled alongside, and visions of prize 
 money were already passing through the imagina- 
 tion of the crew, when a hail followed by a volley of 
 musketry informed them they had gotten hold of the 
 wrong customer. It proved to be the Nettler. Her 
 crew were evidently prepared for their reception. 
 The town was in arms, and sky-rockets were travers- 
 ing the heavens in every direction. Under these 
 circumstances it was considered advisable to retreat. 
 A light was hoisted on board the Snap-Dragon to 
 guide them in retracing their steps. The light dis- 
 covered her position to the battery, which opened 
 upon her immediately. Burns, extinguishing his 
 light, returned the fire with his long gun, which 
 enabled the boats to find him. He then ceased firing, 
 ran out his sweeps, and in a few minutes was out of 
 danger. But Burns thought it would never do to 
 take so much trouble for nothing, and he came to 
 the conclusion if he could not get a prize he would 
 at least get some fresh provisions. He therefore 
 ordered a boat to be manned and went ashore to a 
 plantation. Filled with sheep, poultry and vegeta- 
 bles she returned to the privateer, and by daylight 
 the island was twenty miles distant. 
 
 134 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 We left our gallant navigator at the epoch of his 
 escape from the harbor of Tortola, twenty miles at 
 5ea rejoicing in his might. That day we fell in with 
 and captured an English vessel bound to Santa Cruz ; 
 she had on board between forty and fifty Guinea 
 negroes and some other articles of merchandise. We 
 took out of her seventeen or eighteen of the blackest, 
 who were very anxious to go with us, and released 
 her to pursue her voyage. 
 
 Some days afterwards while cruising off Santa 
 Cruz, we sent in a boat and cut out a schooner; 
 her crew had already left and she was loaded only 
 with mill timber and was not considered worth man- 
 ning, so she was burnt. The Snap-Dragon then 
 went into a small harbor on the south side of Porto 
 Rico, named Ponce. This was a neutral point or 
 port belonging to the Spaniards. We were very 
 kindly treated, for the Governor gave us permission 
 to fill water and get what stores we might want. 
 
 135 
 
We sold dry goods and some otlier articles to pay 
 for what we got ; bought a very fine long nine of the 
 Governor and in four or five days were ready to go 
 on our cruise again. 
 
 We shaped our course with an English packet ; 
 we exchanged some shot with her, but were forced 
 to give up the chase on account of the rough sea. 
 Here we encountered a tremendous gale, which 
 lacked but little of proving fatal to the Snap-Dragon. 
 We were to the windward of the Gulf of Mexico 
 when it came down on us; she lost her jibboom and 
 started her cutwater; we lay to under sail; Burns 
 never left the deck the whole night, for she wanted 
 watching by such a man as he was, and there was 
 no man on earth that could manage her like him. 
 At four o'clock he called one of his best officers, and 
 giving him charge of the deck, went below to refresh 
 himself a little. In a few minutes the wind had 
 shifted two or three points and brought the Snap- 
 Dragon in the trough of the sea ; still the officer of 
 the deck did not see her danger, till a tremendous 
 wave knocked her on beam ends, filled the w^aist with 
 water and set some of the guns adrift. Burns was 
 on deck in an instant and proved himself equal to 
 the crisis ; the guns were secured and as soon as pos- 
 
 136 
 
sible the vessel wore round and got on the other 
 tack; the pumps were sounded and three feet of 
 water found in the hold; they were immediately 
 manned, but it took two hours of hard work to pump 
 her out. When the daylight came it was found that 
 the plank sheer had started more than thirteen feet, 
 so that you could put in your finger. As luck would 
 have it, the gale now moderated, and our good bark 
 was saved. I am as certain as that I have a soul to 
 be saved that if it had not been for Burns, the Snap- 
 Dragon and all her brave crew must have gone to the 
 bottom ; for if she had not been gotten on the other 
 tack she would have sunk in fifteen minutes; all 
 the leak was under water and wearing her was the 
 only way to bring it above the waves. 
 
 Now we bore away to Maracaibo to repair dam- 
 ages; but we put into a small harbor where were 
 only a few fishermen. We had on board two very 
 good carpenters and plenty of tools and everything 
 that was wanted. From where we lay to the Gover- 
 nor's house was three or four miles and the com- 
 mander had to go there to get permission to repair. 
 The carpenters set to work with a will and all hands 
 helped, so in three or four days we were all right 
 and tight again. Meantime the Governor paid us 
 
 ^37 
 
a visit and was treated as well as the nature of our 
 circumstances would permit. We were invited in 
 turn to dine with him. 
 
 Having learned from the fishermen that some 
 seven or eight sail of English vessels were up the 
 gulf, trading with the Spaniards, we got under way 
 and stood out after them. There was a fine breeze 
 at eleven A. M. We fell in with five of them alto- 
 gether; they soon separated like a covey when a 
 hawk darts in among them, but we succeeded in cap- 
 turing three, one ran on shore and the other escaped. 
 The prizes were principally loaded with dressed 
 skins and dry goods; we took on board the greater 
 part of the cargoes ; gave two of the barks to their 
 original owners ; manned the other and ordered her 
 to the United States. 
 
 Some days after this we fell in with four sail of 
 large ships, all in company ; the Snap-Dragon was to 
 windward and bore down on them till our command- 
 er was satisfied one of them was a man-of-war ; he 
 was in disguise, had his fore and mizzen top gallant 
 mast struck, and a good many old black patches on 
 his top sails. All the others kept well under his lee ; 
 there was a spanking breeze and we just hauled off 
 from him, dead by the wind. Now some of those 
 
 138 
 
cowardly officers began to grumble, and said they 
 were all merchantmen ; you will always find such 
 fellows, plenty of them, anywhere, ready to get in 
 a scrap and never know how to get out. After a 
 little Burns got angry and told them he had as many 
 friends in British prison as they had and was just 
 as wiUing as they were to pay them a visit like, and 
 he now would show them he Vv^as not deceived in the 
 stranger, so he ordered her helm hard aweather, 
 and hauled in our weather braces ; now says he, "I 
 hope I see some of your bravery," but soon you 
 might see some of their fierce countenances change. 
 The chase kept on their course, as near the wind as 
 they would lie, the Snap-Dragon ran down till every- 
 body was thinking the ship would not fight. Our 
 shot had struck him several times, but he never 
 replied ; all he wanted was to get us close alongside 
 and then make a sure business of it ; but Burns or- 
 dered his vessel hard by the wind ; just then the man- 
 of war seemed to think it was his only chance and 
 he did show his teeth and let us know he could bark 
 and bite, pretty savage. He gave us a broad side of 
 grape shot and canister, but it did not hurt us and 
 only cut some holes in our sails ; he then put up his 
 top mast, set a press of sail, and we soon perceived 
 
 139 
 
that he was a first-rate sailer. The Snap-Dragon 
 had just such a breeze as we wanted, and we eat the 
 ship right out of the wind, but before she reached 
 on us, both were heading into the land, and as the 
 wind increased we had to furl top gallant sails, single 
 reef topsails and take the bonnet out of the fore sail. 
 It was pretty tight times, the wind blowing big guns, 
 the sea breaking over us, and a dangerous looking 
 stranger walking right in our wake ; he had by this 
 forereached on us four or five miles, but we were to 
 windward. When we got pretty near to land he 
 tacked ship and a squall came off which favored 
 him, so he headed to windward of our bow ; the wind 
 still increasing we were forced to furl top sail. Now 
 came the rub which was to weather, the Snap- 
 Dragon or the ship. Burns had sent all of his men 
 below except just enough to work the vessel ; some 
 of the officers wished to keep the Snap-Dragon away 
 from the wind, but he paid no attention to anything 
 they said; he knew his business too well for that, 
 for the ship would have been alongside in a jiffy. 
 Men and officers were all packing up their baggage 
 to go aboard the stranger, for we made certain we 
 were all ticketed for a free passage to England. As 
 good luck would have it, just at the scratch as the 
 
 140 
 
two vessels were meeting, the wind favored the little 
 Snap-Dragon, and she weathered the ship three hun- 
 dred yards off. Just as the ship got abreast us, he 
 up ports and gave us another broadside of grape and 
 canister. Burns had the helm himself, the men all 
 lying low, and as the ship fired it apperared the 
 Snap-Dragon dived like a duck, so that nearly all 
 the shot flew over us ; only four or five struck our 
 sails. 
 
 "Now boys," says our commander, when he saw 
 that none of our spars were gone, "now we are safe." 
 We were so near the ship you could tell the officers 
 from the men, and almost hear the commands they 
 gave. Before he could get another at us we flew by 
 him; we were heading on one tack and he on a 
 different one, so he attempted to tack and missed 
 stays ; at the same time the Snap-Dragon split flying 
 jib, and carried away two back stays, but we repaired 
 them without loss. Burns was determined to make 
 short tacks, dead to windward; he knew the Snap- 
 Dragon would not miss stays, and he found in such 
 a gale the ship would catch him on long tacks ; 
 again he ordered her in stays, and round she spun 
 beautifully, hard as it was blowing, and she buried 
 in the waves. The ship had now just got on the 
 
 14T 
 
right tack, but we shot by him again a Httle further 
 than before ; he paid us his compHments at parting, 
 but it was impossible to hit our hull, for that .was 
 almost under water. Towards night it moderated 
 a little and we put on more sail ; at sunset the Snap- 
 Dragon was more than two miles dead to windward ; 
 dark came on and that was the last we ever saw of 
 our troublesome customer. Nothing saved us that 
 day but the exertions of Captain Burns alone and his 
 skill in sailing manceuvres. 
 
 A few days after we captured an English vessel 
 from Curacoa, which gave us the information that 
 the ship with which we had such a tight race was 
 the Fawn, sloop of war, one of the fastest in H. B. 
 M.'s service. She had gone into Curacoa and re- 
 ported that she had sunk a Yankee privateer. I sup- 
 pose he did think so, after taking three full broad- 
 sides at us ; but people make mistakes sometimes on 
 sea as well as land and some of his English friends 
 found it so too, not long afterwards. 
 
 For some time after this we cruised off Santa 
 Martha; we had some English prisoners on board 
 who were very anxious to be set ashore there ; so 
 one morning the Snap-Dragon stood in about off tlie 
 port. The commander told the prisoners that lie was 
 
 142 
 
willing to oblige them, but the Spaniards were a sus- 
 picious set of people, and that they and his crew 
 might be taken for pirates. But after some time, a 
 boat was manned and the prisoners and one of the 
 officers went on shore ; the Snap lay just out of gun 
 shot from the fort. It began to get late in the after- 
 noon and no boat appeared; our commander grew 
 more and more uneasy, and more certain something 
 wrong was the matter. He did not intend to go in 
 the Snap-Dragon, but finally concluded to send 
 another boat and a copy of his commission ; as soon 
 as she arrived she too was taken and hauled up 
 alongside of the other one ; the officer and his men 
 were marched off to prison where they found their 
 comrades. The reason why they had detained the 
 boats and their crews was, they said, that they 
 thought we were all pirates, and they would not 
 give them up until the Snap-Dragon came in and 
 showed her proper commission. After a great deal 
 of palavering they agreed to let the last boat come 
 off with only the officer on board ; it was now nearly 
 eight o'clock at night. To go off and leave our men 
 in prison looked very hard ; and if the Snap-Dragon 
 went in we did not know but they might take her and 
 all the rest of us. It was finally resolved never to 
 leave the coast until we "fot our men or had satisfac- 
 
 H3 
 
tion. The moon shone as bright as day, and they 
 could see us very plainly from the fort ; so we stood 
 off as if we had finally gone, and next morning we 
 were so far to leeward they could not see us. A 
 little after sunrise there came out one of their 
 feluccas, bound down to Porto Cabello, carrying 
 one hundred men and some guns to fortify the 
 place. As soon as she got well out from the fort the 
 Snap-Dragon made sail in chase ; we soon over- 
 hauled her, fired a gun and made her heave to; 
 ordered her captain on board the Snap-Dragon and 
 told him if he did not go ashore and bring off our 
 men and boat, we would hang every man of them. 
 We rigged two gallows at yards arms and allovv'ed 
 him two hours to do as we bid ; his boat was soon 
 manned, and in less than the time we gave him our 
 men and boat were on board. There never was a 
 set of men worse frightened than these Spaniards, 
 and if that plan had not been adopted we never 
 should have seen our men again. 
 
 We now began to get down to Carthagena for a 
 supply; so we bore away and next morning fell in 
 with three sail. We bore down on them, fired a 
 gun and displayed our colors ; they proved to be a 
 Spanish brig of 12 guns, a schooner of 8, both guard 
 
 144 
 
coasters, and an English vessel. They all showed 
 their colors, and the brig fired a shot just ahead 
 of ns ; in a moment we beat to quarters, bore 
 down on her and demanded of the captain what 
 he meant; he replied that the English vessel was 
 under his convoy and he should protect her ; Burns 
 asked what right he had to protect her, as the 
 United States and his government were at peace, 
 and the Snap-Dragon was commissioned to take 
 all English vessels she fell in with three leagues 
 from land, and this one was not even in sight of the 
 coast. They had some high words, but the Snap- 
 Dragon took possession of the Englishman, put a 
 prize master and twenty men on board, and ordered 
 her to keep company. Next morning we took out 
 of her a considerable amount of goods, and ordered 
 the master to keep off the port and not to come 
 within three leagues until we came out. The com- 
 mander left so many men in the prize for fear some 
 of them might desert if they got a chance. We went 
 into Carthagena and immediately got permission to 
 fill with water. Everything was going on well until 
 that cowardly rascal of a Spaniard, the captain of 
 the brig, Vv-ent into a little port to the windward of 
 Carthagena and reported that we had fired into him 
 
 145 
 
and captured the English vessel; all unknown to 
 Burns. Immediately there were three gun boats 
 sent out in search of the prize ; they found her where 
 we left her, and before they got in close gun shot, 
 Spaniard like, began to fire on her ; the prize master 
 was a brave fellow and silenced the whole three. 
 By this time our commander found out what was 
 going on and despatched a boat and five men, with 
 instructions to the prize master. The cowardly ras- 
 cals had now got two more boats, and they met and 
 captured our boat ; they then met and captured the 
 prize and forced her to surrender ; they brought her 
 in, put all the crew in irons and threw them in jail ; 
 there was as much fuss among the heathen devils 
 as if they had captured a line of battle ship. Here 
 we WQVQ then, in a nice pickle; the Snap-Dragon 
 under the guns of the fort, surrounded by their men- 
 of-war ; no consul and no friends ; now what was to 
 be done? The first thing was to find out the cause 
 of all this; they said we had fired into the king's 
 brig and had captured the prize, in less than tliree 
 leagues from land ; All this was a lie the Spaniards 
 told that they might get the prize, Vv hich was proven 
 by the English crew. After keeping us there three 
 weeks by bribery we got them to give up the prize 
 and release our men. They robbed the vessel of 
 
 146 
 
everything they could lay their hands on, among 
 which was $15,000 in doubloons that we knew noth- 
 ing about until it was too late, or that would have 
 been taken on board the Snap-Dragon too. They 
 robbed the men of everything they had and while 
 they were in prison two of them died. 
 
 There was one thing happened that I shall not 
 soon forget. While we were laying there, the Span- 
 ish brig had come in and anchored about 150 yards 
 from us. One of our men had tried to run away and 
 he was put in irons ; he contrived to get word to the 
 Spaniard that he was a Spanish subject and claimed 
 his protection ; so one day the Spanish captain came 
 alongside and demanded him. Some very high 
 words passed betv/een him and burns, who was on 
 deck; the Spaniard drew his sword and Burns 
 caught up a boarding pike and was in the act of 
 staving it through him, when one of our officers pre- 
 vented him ; and the Spaniard left in a hurry. The 
 whole afifair did not cost the stockholders of the 
 Snap-Dragon less than $20,000, besides her deten- 
 tion. 
 
 There were fifteen or twenty sail of English ves- 
 sels in the harbor when we first got clear ; when we 
 were already to sail they petitioned the Governor to 
 
 147 
 
have an embargo laid on us until they could get 
 out; this was granted them and we were detained a 
 week. After we did sail we hovered on the coast 
 some days in hopes of meeting the brig that had 
 given us so much trouble, in which case it would 
 have been doubtful if she would ever carry any more 
 lies ; they had told enough to sink her anyhow. 
 
 We cruised for some time between Carthagena 
 and Jamaica; one night we fell in w^th a Spanish 
 brig ; the boat's crew that boarded her happened to 
 be some of the unfortunate men that had been in 
 the Spanish prison. While the boarding officer was 
 below examining the papers, some of them fixed a 
 gallows and got a rope around one of the Spaniard's 
 neck ; they were just in the act of swinging him off 
 when the officer interfered ; he hailed us and said 
 our men would hang every Spaniard on board ; so 
 they had to be immediately recalled ; and no one of 
 them who had been in the prison were after this 
 permitted to board a Spaniard. 
 
 We ran down a small island on the Spanish 
 Main, settled principally by English ; the population 
 was about seven hundred and more than three- 
 fourths were blacks ; this little spot, Providence, is 
 one of the prettiest I ever saw ; they raise nothing 
 
 148 
 
but cotton, plenty of cattle, poultry and hogs, and 
 some little breadstuff for their own use. The har- 
 bor is a very fine one, had no fort, and from the road 
 where we lay to the shore is not more than two 
 hundred yards. The head man of the island was as 
 clever a gentleman as I ever saw; he furnished us 
 with everything we wanted and we paid him his 
 own prices, which were very reasonable. If we 
 had gotten there only one day sooner, we should 
 have gotten a fine prize, for a few hours before we 
 arrived a pirate went out and it was reported that 
 he had a large quantity of specie on board ; he had 
 stolen some slaves and cattle from the inhabitants. 
 The commander let one-third of the men go ashore 
 at a time to recruit themselves; the first party be- 
 haved very well and returned at the time appointed ; 
 the second found out an old lady who lived up on a 
 hill, and she had spirits to sell ; but they did as well 
 as the others. There were four or five Irishmen in 
 the last crowd, and one of them was the sergeant of 
 marines, and a saucy scoundrel he was. The Snap- 
 Dragon by this time was under sailing orders, fore- 
 top-sail loosed and a gun fired as a signal ; the first 
 luff had been sent after the men and they refused to 
 come; they said they had not gotten their frolic 
 out, and if the luff interfered they would heave him 
 
 149 
 
down the hill ; back he came with the news. Burns, 
 without saying a word, threw himself into the boat 
 and ordered them to set him ashore ; sword in hand 
 he walked alone to the little pot house. The Irish 
 sergeant — his name was Plane — came to meet him 
 and says he, "Captain, now that I am ashore I am ah 
 good a man as you are;" without a syllable Burns 
 cut him down ; three or four more came up, but he 
 cut and thrust among them until the blood ran in 
 streams. He brought them all down to the boat in 
 front of him, and in less than an hour they were on 
 board the Snap-Dragon. 
 
 That afternoon we shaped our course for Cape 
 Antonio, and fifteen or twenty days sailed for Hav- 
 ana; here we fell in with an English vessel from 
 Honduras ; we took out a part of her cargo and gave 
 her up as she was not worth manning. We now 
 turned towards home. Off Cape Florida we had a 
 slight engagement with the Providence, a privateer 
 of ten guns, but she bore away and ran into the 
 reefs, where we did not pursue her. 
 
 Next morning we made a large ship ahead ; the 
 wind was light and we saw we could not come up 
 with her before dark. It was thought by all hands 
 that she was an English ship from Havana, and it 
 
 150 
 
was concluded that we should dog her until daylight ; 
 at early dawn we were half a mile astern ; called all 
 hands to quarters, showed our colors and fired a gun. 
 The ship would not come to a showing, so we ranged 
 up in musket shot and fired ahead of her; but she 
 would not heave to. We now discovered that all 
 hands were now at quarters, and that she mounted 
 20 guns, and then there were some long faces on 
 board the Snap-Dragon. We came up on her lee- 
 quarter and asked what ship it was. They answered 
 **The Fernando," from Havana to Cadiz. Our 
 commander ordered him to heave to, which he re- 
 fused to do until we threatened to fire on him; 
 finally he did so and we sent our boat on board and 
 gave him a complete overhauling. His papers were 
 all genuine and he was discharged. 
 
 We now stood for Beaufort harbor. North Caro- 
 lina; just before we made land we spied a sail and 
 gave chase, as we were very anxious to speak to 
 some vessel to hear the news ; the chase stood in for 
 land; the wind was quite moderate, but we soon 
 overhauled her, and it was quite laughable to see 
 them make pretense they were poling when there 
 was seven fathoms of water ; all to prevent us from 
 speaking them. We were now near Swansborough,, 
 
and the chase proved to be an old acquaintance. 
 We both got in that evening. The Snap-Dragon had 
 been absent more than six months; the crew were 
 discharged and she was put into the carpenters* 
 hands for repairs. 
 
 1^2 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 In a short time the Snap-Dragon was again in 
 complete order. Burns superintended all the ar- 
 rangements ; forty to fifty men came on from Nor- 
 folk, where a rendezvous had been opened; these 
 with what we had already picked up, made our crevv^ 
 complete, except a lieutenant and one or two prize 
 masters. The agents had written to New York for 
 a first lieutenant and he was expected every day; 
 we had been under sailing orders several days when 
 he arrived. He brought letters from the agents, 
 complimenting Burns upon what a fine young officer 
 they had got for him. He was a fine looking fellow ; 
 his name was Brown. Burns gave him his instruc- 
 tions and sent him on board, where almost all of the 
 crew were waiting for him ; our commander intend- 
 ed to come on board in the afternoon, and we were 
 to sail in the morning if the wind should permit. He 
 found the whole crew in great confusion; eight or 
 ten of the old hands were in irons and there were 
 
 153 
 
no better men in the whole ship ; one fine fellow by 
 the name of Dick, who was a great favorite, looked 
 at Burns as he came over the ship and began to cry. 
 Without a word he went below and sent the steward 
 on deck for Mr. Brown, and asked him what the 
 matter was ; he said they were noisy and saucy and 
 that hewould tame the d — <m rascals and show them 
 how to behave ; the second luff was then questioned ; 
 he said that Dick was cutting some of his monkey 
 capers and others were laughing at him, that they 
 had just come off and were a little merry. Burns 
 very coolly told Mr. Brown that would not do on 
 board a privateer, though perhaps it might do on 
 a king's ship, and ordered him to have them re- 
 leased; he refused and said he would order the 
 master of arms; "No, Sir," answered Burns, "you 
 put them in and you shall take them out." Mr. 
 Brown still hesitated, when Burns caught his sword 
 and said, "Now, Sir, obey my orders or I will run 
 you through;" and this time he was promptly 
 obeyed. From this circumstance Burns put him 
 down as a coward ; for you never saw a tyrant but 
 what was a coward. 
 
 That night a boat arrived from Portsmouth and 
 informed Burns that there was a King's schooner 
 
 154 
 
cruising off that place, inquiring for him, and she 
 was coming around to Beaufort for him the next 
 morning. At 8 A. M. we sailed ; had a fine crew of 
 127 men, some of them as brave as ever trod deck; 
 some of the officers were cowards though, as the 
 reader will see by and by. The schooner had sent 
 word by a boat to us to meet him off Cape Lookout 
 shoals ; which we took for H. R. M. schooner High- 
 flyer. A great many persons had gone down to the 
 Cape to see the fight, for they had heard that the 
 Englishman had sent word to Burns. The two were 
 meeting and when in gun-shot it turned out that the 
 stranger was the Raleigh, a privateer from Balti- 
 mor; she went into Beaufort while we bore up for 
 Ocracoke in search of the Highflyer. On our arrival 
 she was gone ; we cruised there a day and sent in a 
 boat to inquire what had become of her, but she was 
 not to be found. We now steered for Newfound- 
 land; in two or three days sailed off the Grand 
 Bank; made a large ship ahead; orders were given 
 to make sail in chase, and then some of our brave 
 officers began to show their cowardice ; the ship 
 displayed American colors and we English ; we 
 hailed and she answered, ''The American ship Nep- 
 tune, from Wilmington, N. C, to Cadiz." She was 
 ordered to heave to; our officer went aboard in 
 
 155 
 
British uniform and the crew as British man-of- 
 war's men; we had a man by the name of James 
 Smith, who knew him as soon as we laid eyes on 
 him. Burns overhauled his papers, and told him that 
 he must send him to Halifax ; when the prize master 
 and crew were ready, the captain told Burns that 
 he could satisfy him he need not send him in if he 
 would just let him go back to his ship; leave was 
 granted and he returned with his British license. 
 Finding all the papers genuine, we hauled down the 
 British colors and ran up our own; Smith walked 
 up and shook hands with the captain and called him 
 by name and you never did see any poor devil as 
 frightened as he was. His ship was loaded with rice 
 and flour; after plaguing him a little while, we let 
 him go, as we had no instructions in regard to 
 licensed vessels; we tore up his British license 
 though ; I have heard Burns often say since that he 
 was sorry that he did not burn the ship. 
 
 Some days after this we made three strange sails 
 off Cape Race; after a short action a brig and a 
 ship struck their colors ; the other, a fine brig of ten 
 guns, tried to escape ; we gave up the brig we had 
 taken, manned the ship and after several hours 
 chase captured the runav/ay, without firing a gun. 
 
 156 
 
She was as fine a brig as I ever saw and her cargo 
 was invoiced at i8o,ooo. Put one of our best prize 
 masters and a crew on board and ordered her home ; 
 about a fortnight afterwards he bore down ten miles 
 to windward to speak an American frigate, as he 
 thought ; by this bad management he and our prize 
 were retaken and he was sent to Dartmoor prison, 
 where he died. 
 
 In a few days we took two brigs and a schooner, 
 manned one and gave up the others, as they were 
 only in ballast ; 8 A. M. next morning made a strange 
 sail ; by 4 P. M. got on her weather quarter, making 
 her out a well-manned brig of twelve guns. She 
 was nearly a dead match for us in sailing, but we 
 kept in short gunshot all night and next morning a 
 sharp conflict took place between us. Meantime 
 the watch at the mast head bawled out "a. sail" and 
 in a few minutes the horizen was full of vessels ; an 
 English frigate hearing the firing was bearing down 
 on us under a heavy press of sail ; we hauled off 
 from the brig and the frigate put after us ; it was all 
 in vain though, for we made two feet to his one ; so 
 he gave it up. We were now in the midst of an 
 outward bound fleet of about forty sail, timber laden, 
 from St. John to England under the frigate's con- 
 
 ^S7 
 
voy. We boarded seven or eight of them, but let 
 them all go, as Burns disapproved of destroying 
 private property ; he could have burned half of them 
 in sight of the frigate, for we could go in and out 
 amongst the thickest of them in spite of him. Off 
 St. John we captured and manned a brig for home ; 
 she was a very valuable prize, loaded with dry goods, 
 but was retaken in a few days. Next day we made a 
 ten gun brig ; we came up on her lee quarter and or- 
 dered her to cease firing, v/hich she had begun to do, 
 and to strike her flag ; this she immediately did with- 
 out striking a match ; she had a cargo invoiced at 
 iio,ooo; before we could get her manned, the Rifle- 
 man, sloop-of-war, made her appearance ; when she 
 was in gunshot we had just got our prize ready to 
 sail, orders were given her to set all the sail possible 
 and to keep before the wind ; the Snap-Dragon was 
 hauled by the Rifleman and the Rifleman chased us ; 
 we had just such a breeze as we wanted, but the 
 sloop was a first-class sailor and for some time it was 
 impossible to say which was the better. Burns said 
 not a word for some time, for he never suffered 
 any one to talk to him about sailing the Snap- 
 Dragon ; the sloop had several shots at us, to no 
 effect; the chase continued for about an hour and 
 
 158 
 
she discovered she was about to lose both privateei 
 and prize as she turned to go after the prize ; as soon 
 as he did we turned and laid the Snap-Dragon on 
 his track. All the sloop guns were eighteen-pound 
 cannonades, while our long pivot gun was only a 
 twelve-pounder ; we soon began to make this talk to 
 her, while she could not get a single gun to bear on 
 us. Burns had determined if possible that neither he 
 nor the prize should be taken, but now the sloop 
 wore round and chased us again; she fired several 
 divisions of her guns at us, which only cut our sails 
 a little. Finding she could not catch us, for we 
 kept just out of her reach, she bore up again after 
 our prize ; we turned about and trained our long 
 twelve on her ; but as it was now very dark and the 
 prize six or seven miles ahead, that was the last we 
 ever saw of the sloop or the prize. By bad manage- 
 ment and the drunkenness of the prize master she 
 was retaken, twenty days afterwards, between Ber- 
 muda and Cape Henry; unfortunately we had not 
 had time to take all the liquor out of her or perhaps 
 she might have got home safe. Burns' strict orders 
 were to run S. and E. of Bermuda, for from there 
 to Cape Henry was a line of cruisers during the 
 whole war; it was impossible to get in except at 
 Beaufort and Ocracoke, and every master v/ho dis- 
 
 159 
 
obeyed him was taken and carried to Dartmoor and 
 remained till peace; two of them died, and ten or 
 twelve of the crew, all through drunkenness and 
 mismanagement. It was Burns' misfortune always 
 to have a miserable set of masters and it was strange 
 that the agent, and stockholders, would go to so 
 great expense in fitting out a vessel and then ship 
 such trifling fellows ; for after all it depends on the 
 prize masters to make a successful cruise. 
 
 The captain of the brig we had taken was a 
 noble fellow ; he had never been in America and 
 expected from what he had heard that he would 
 have been robbed of everything he had ; but all that 
 he and all his crew claimed was restored to them ; 
 he came to love Burns like a brother and gave him a 
 great deal of credit for outmaneuvering the sloop 
 as he did. 
 
 On the Grand Bank we fell in with a very heavy 
 gale ; we were compelled to strike all our yards and 
 top-masts and send our guns below. Burns was on 
 deck all night until four o'clock and it required all 
 his skill to save the ship ; she was lying to under 
 storm sails, the sea making a constant breach over 
 her; he had scarcely gone below to refresh himself 
 when the first luff called to him that he was founder- 
 
 i6o 
 
ing; he was on deck in an instant and found the 
 Snap-Dragon buried in the waves ; he seized the 
 helm and kept , her before the wind as the only 
 chance for safety ; we had never scudded before, and 
 all hands gave themselves up to be lost, for she was 
 very long and so low in the water you might wash 
 your feet out of the stern ports. In ten minutes 
 her waist was clear of water and I never did see 
 anything skip over waves as she did in all my life; 
 still we knew that the first large sea that struck her, 
 she might go down ; in eight hours we were safe ; 
 the gale moderated and we got up our guns and set 
 our yards and topmasts. I have often heard Burns 
 say that if a vessel could scud nine knots, no sea 
 could board her; we run ten knots the whole time 
 we scudded; but I am well convinced that but for 
 his superior management the sun would never have 
 shone upon us again. 
 
 Off Sit. John's harbor we capeured several coast- 
 ers and gave them up as their cargoes were only 
 lumber. One morning at sunrise we made a strange 
 sail to leeward ; we bore down on her easy sail and 
 she proved to be a schooner. When in about a mile 
 of her Captain Fox, the Englishman we had taken, 
 informed Burns that he made her to be H. B. M. 
 
 i6i 
 
schooner Adonis, of fourteen guns, all eighteens; 
 that she was well manned and advised him to haul 
 off as soon as possible. Her main top was struck, 
 jib boom rigged in, several bundles of hoops were 
 lashed on her quarters and not a gun to be seen, so 
 we took her for a coaster. Burns gave Fox his glass 
 and told him to look again ; we piped to quarters and 
 prepared for action; but Fox swore it was the 
 Adonis and that he had left her in St. John's not 
 ten days before, that she was trying to decoy him 
 and that though he was a prisoner he would be sorry 
 to see him taken. So he persuaded us to haul off, 
 but when we were about two hundred yards off from 
 the Adonis, she got scared and thought we were 
 going to board her ; so she up ports and gave us a 
 broadside of grape and canister; it was returned 
 with a very good will and a sharp conflict ensued. 
 In the very height of it Mr. Brown, the first luff*, 
 quit his station and ran to Burns to tell him he would 
 be taken in five minutes ; Burns broke his speaking 
 trumpet over his head and ordered him back to his 
 port; I wonder he did not shoot him. Orders were 
 given to make sail on the Snap-Dragon, so she could 
 play around the Adonis, like a cooper round a cask ; 
 after teasing her thus some twenty minutes, we 
 hauled off to repair damages which were very slight, 
 
 162 
 
four wounded and some rigging cut; Burns then 
 sent for Mr. Brown and broke him for cowardice, 
 told him he was no longer lieutenant, but moved 
 him forward ; Mr. Coakley was put in his place, and 
 thus ended Mr. Brown's career as a lieutenant. 
 
 In a few hours afterwards we chased a strange 
 sail, which proved to be a brig of eight guns, which 
 we captured without firing a gun; she was loaded 
 with salt from Liverpool to St. John's ; we gave her 
 up as she was a very dull sailor not worth manning. 
 Soon after we left, the Adonis boarded her and thus 
 found out who we were; in the afternoon we met 
 her again and got the news that we had killed three 
 and wounded five of the Adonis' men ; they thought 
 we had intended to board her and we would not have 
 disappointed her only we were short of men. 
 
 Next day off Cape Francois fell in with a fleet 
 of English fishermen, about ninety sail, of from 
 forty to one hundred tons ; hoisted English colors 
 and went aboard several and exchanged rum for 
 fish. One old fellow came on board and examined 
 our vessel very closely; Burns treated him very 
 politely and invited him down into his cabin ; ''Well," 
 says he, "Captain, this don't look like one of our 
 English vessels, but don't care so long she doesn't 
 
 163 
 
trouble us." He gave us some bait, so we went 
 to fishing amongst them ; we staid there nearly all 
 day and took between five and six hundred fish. 
 We went into a little bay to fill water ; two or three 
 miles oflf was a little fishing town ; the Captain of 
 Marines and twenty-five men went to town and 
 treated. Just as we got all ready again, our look- 
 out signaled a strange sail ; vve got out of the bay as 
 soon as possible, for we were afraid it was a cruiser, 
 as we heard there was a schooner ofif the cape. Both 
 vessels were steering for each other, but as we could 
 not make out the stranger we hauled by the wind, 
 so that we could pass to windward until we could 
 make her out; she proved a three-masted schooner, 
 as fine a craft' as ever sat on the sea. Burns tacked 
 and stood after her, but it was too late ; she beat us 
 by the wind. Burns was very mad, for we could 
 have been alongside if we had kept our course ; but 
 we did not like to run up until we found out what 
 kind of craft she was. We learned afterwards that 
 she was the Bordeaux, bound to Baltimore with 
 silks, wines and brandies. 
 
 We cruised north as far as 55° 30'; one day 
 discovered some large islands of ice ; ran within half 
 a mile; our boats found one that had a pond of 
 
 164 
 
water on top and running down the sides in streams, 
 so they fell to and filled twenty casks without diffi- 
 culty, for it was smooth as a dock ; on the leeward 
 they were aground in thirty fathoms of water and 
 as solid as the earth. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Our manuscript is here interrupted, but begins 
 again with our hero in a rather tight fix. 
 
 Burns took the boatswain and his gang and ran 
 up the lanyards of the rigging ; in less than fifteen 
 minutes you might see the difference in the Snap- 
 Dragon's sailing; suppose that morning there was 
 not less than $150,000 worth of property thrown 
 overboard. As soon as the ship gave up the chase 
 and bore away for the fleet, the Snap-Dragon did the 
 same and captured the following named vessels out 
 of it ; we could have taken as many more if we had 
 the hands to run them. 
 
 Here follows a list of brigs, ships and schooners, 
 ten in all, including one which was made a cartel of ; 
 in this the prisoners to the number of ninety-eight 
 were placed after signing a pledge of honor not to 
 bear arms against the United States during the 
 present war until regularly exchanged ; all of which 
 was ''Done on board the Snap-Dragon at sea, in 
 
 165 
 
longitude 53° N., and latitude 46"^ N., this twenty- 
 fourth day of June, 1813." Here follows the sign- 
 ers' names. 
 
 The Snap-Dragon now bore away with one of 
 her prizes for the United States. We had on board 
 nearly $150,000 worth of valuable dry goods which 
 we had captured. One morning at day-light made 
 a strange sail; signalled our brize brig to keep her 
 course ; soon found the stranger was a cruiser lying 
 to looking at us, trying to make out what we were. 
 Burns immediately put on a press of sail and made 
 a bold push at him, when he made off; as all we 
 wanted was to drive him away from the prize we let 
 him alone. We were nearly out of provisions and 
 water, and were obliged to let the prize alone and 
 get home as soon as possible; we arrived safe in 
 Beaufort harbor after a cruise of two months, twen- 
 ty-one days, in which we had captured two and a 
 half millions of property from the enemy ; ten days 
 afterwards the prize got in. 
 
 166 
 
INDEX 
 
 Adjustment of Representation in the Assembly io8 
 
 "Adonis" attacks the "Snap-Dragon" 40, 162 
 
 Albemarle County 107 
 
 Almida, Captain, quarrels with Burns 29, 98 
 
 Alston, Theodosia, lost at sea 61 
 
 "Ann" captured by the "Snap-Dragon" 100 
 
 "Ann" cargo of loi 
 
 Amidas and Barton, discoveries by 16 
 
 Battle, Kemp Plummer, LL. D., oration of 71 
 
 Battle, Kemp Plummer, LL. D., assistance from.. .. 9 
 
 Battle of Horse-Shoe Bend 68 
 
 Beaufort, Duke of 21 
 
 Beaufort, origin of name of 18 
 
 Bertrand de Guesclin 19 
 
 Blakely, Edna 53 
 
 Blakely, Johnston 53 
 
 "Bon-Homme Richard" 80 
 
 British License on 
 
 British loss by privateers 103 
 
 Brown, James , 26 
 
 Burns, Charles 59, 118 
 
 Burns, Edwin Oscar 59, 118 
 
 Burns, Francis, ist, career of 23, 72 
 
 Burns, Francis, ist, will of 72 
 
 Burns, Grindall Jerome 59, lit 
 
 Burns, L R . . 58, 118 
 
 Burns, Otway, ist 23,73 
 
 Burns, Captain Otway and Almida quarrel 98 
 
Burns as a legislator 55, io6 
 
 Burns as a ship-builder 105 
 
 Burns at Cape Race 37 
 
 Burns at Cartagena 35, 96, I44 
 
 Burns at Curacoa • • 142 
 
 Burns at Fort Macon 53 
 
 Burns at Maracaibo 34, 137 
 
 Burns at Newfoundland 37 
 
 Burns at Ponce I35 
 
 Burns at Porto Rico 33 I35 
 
 Burns at St. Thomas 29, 129 
 
 Burns at St. Croix 132 
 
 Burns at Santa Cruz 32, 135 
 
 Burns at Tortola 31,132 
 
 Burns at Venezuela 35 
 
 Burns, birth of 22 
 
 Burns, broad mindedness of 114 
 
 Burns builds first Steamer 105 
 
 Burns builds the "Prometheus" 56 
 
 Burns builds the "Warrior" and the "Henry".. 57 
 
 Burns buried by the sea 62 
 
 Burns, Captain of a Merchantman 24 
 
 Burns, character of 61, 119 
 
 Burns, discipline of 87 
 
 Burns disciplines Sergeant Plane 87, 150 
 
 Burns disciplines Thompson 88, 128 
 
 Burns, early life of 73 
 
 Burns, false stories about 60 
 
 Burns' first adventure 29 
 
 Burns' kind treatment of prisoners 43, 95 
 
 Burns, last days of 56, 105, 117 
 
 Burns, management of crew by 86 
 
 Burns, married life of 57, 105, 117 
 
 Burns not captured with the"Snap-Dragon". ... 104 
 Burns overcomes difficulty of shipping crew. . 81, 121 
 
 Burns, patriotic course of II3 
 
 Burns, portrait of, presented to the State 64 
 
 Burns punishes Judge Martin 81, 123 
 
Burns quarrels with Almida 29 
 
 Burns, residence of 55 
 
 Burns sacrifices popularity to justice 113 
 
 Burns saves drowning men 54 
 
 Burns' seamanship 33, 02 
 
 Burns, valor of 04 
 
 Burns was no pirate 80 
 
 Burns, Otway, 4th 59, 118 
 
 Burns, Owen 59, 118 
 
 Burns, descendants of 58, 118 
 
 Burns, Captain Owen, career of 56, 117 
 
 Burns, Richard Jerome 58, 118 
 
 Burns, Walter Francis 59, 118 
 
 Burns, Walter Francis, Jr 59, 118 
 
 Burns, X. Eugene 58,118 
 
 Burnsville, origin of name of 55 
 
 Canal building fever in North Carolina no 
 
 Cannon on tomb of Captain Otway Burns 59 
 
 Cape Race ^n 
 
 Cardinal Beaufort 21 
 
 Carolena 21 
 
 Carolina, origin of 22 
 
 Cartagena 35, 96, 144 
 
 Carteret, origin of name 17 
 
 Carteret, Sir George ig 
 
 "Chasseur" 82 
 
 Clark, Hon. Chief Justice, assistance from 9 
 
 Clark, Hon. Chief Justice, introductory remarks at 
 
 presentation of portrait 67 
 
 Clark, Hon. Chief Justice, oration of 15 
 
 Confederate States employed privateering 78 
 
 "Constitution" 79 
 
 Curacoa i^ 
 
 Dartmoor Prison 40 
 
 Davis, Thomas C 98 
 
 De Cokely 26 
 
 Discipline on a Privateer 88, 129 
 
 "Dominick" attacks the "Snap-Dragon" 31, 132 
 
Difficulty of shipping crew 122 
 
 Eastern and Western Controversy 112 
 
 "Fawn" attacks the "Snap-Dragon" 34, 142 
 
 FederaHsts opponents of the war 81 
 
 Fort Macon - . . . . 53 
 
 "Garland" attacks "Snap-Dragon" 29, 94, 130 
 
 Gaston, Judge William 113 
 
 Gautier, Thomas N 106 
 
 "General Armstrong" attacks a 24- gun frigate 82 
 
 "General Armstrong" in Fayal 83 
 
 Graham, General Joseph, in the Indian War 68 
 
 Harvey, John, owner of the "Snap-Dragon". . . . 24, 107 
 
 "Henrietta" captured 99 
 
 Historical data, scarcity of 7 
 
 "Jane" captured by the "Snap-Dragon" 99 
 
 John, Baron Carteret and Earl Granville 19 
 
 Johnston, Governor Gabriel 72 
 
 "Leopard" captures the "Snap-Dragon" 53, 105 
 
 Letters of Marque and Reprisal 25, 79 
 
 "Levere" changed to "Snap-Dragon" 24, 74, 122 
 
 Lords Proprietors 19 
 
 McKinley, James, owner of the "Snap-Dragon". ... 24 
 
 Maracaibo 34, 137 
 
 Martin, Judge Francis Xavier, punished by Burns. . 81, 123 
 
 Massacre of St. Bartholemew 22 
 
 Monument to Otway Burns, program at unveiling of. 13 
 Names of vessels chosen from those of animals. ... 74 
 
 Navy, strength of, in war of 1812 79 
 
 "Nettler" attacks the "Snap-Dragon" 31, 95, 132 
 
 Newfoundland 37 
 
 "Non-Such" valiant struggle of the 83 
 
 North Carolina Brigade at Cranes Island (iy 
 
 North Carolina in the war of 1812 67 
 
 Nunn, Romulus A., assistance from 9 
 
 Ocracoke discovered 16 
 
 Onslow County, origin of name 22 
 
 Onslow, speaker 22 
 
 "Pandora" captured by the "Snap-Dragon" 99 
 
Porto Rico 33, 135 
 
 Portrait of Captain Otway Burns, original painting. . 71 
 Portrait of Captain Otway Burns presented to the 
 
 State 65 
 
 "President" 79 
 
 Privateers, damage inflicted by 103 
 
 Privateering, effect upon enemy's shipping 25 
 
 Privateering in Civil War 78 
 
 Privateering in Confederate States 25 
 
 Privateering justified 24,76 
 
 Privateering, laws governing 84 
 
 Privateering, legality of 25 
 
 Privateering, modern attitude concerning TJ 
 
 Privateering, regulations governing 26, 80 
 
 Privateers, number of contributed by the States.. .. 82 
 
 Privateers, plan of attack 83 
 
 Privateers, range of 104 
 
 Privateers, tactics of 91 
 
 "Prometheus", the first steamer on Cape Fear waters 56 
 
 Railroad fever in North Carolina in 
 
 Reginald de Carteret 19 
 
 "Revenge" encountered 125 
 
 Roanoke Island settled 16 
 
 "Rifleman" attacks the "Snap-Dragon" 39 
 
 Sail-Rock Passage 30, 94, 130 
 
 "St. Lawrence" captured by the "Chasseur" 82 
 
 Saunders, Dr. J. W 27 
 
 Shepherd, John, owner of the "Snap-Dragon" . ... 24 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" attacked by four ships 92 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" attacks a 22-gun vessel 47, 89 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" attacks the "Nettler" 95 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" bought 24 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" captured by the "Leopard" 53, 105 
 
 "Snap-Dragon' captures the "Ann" 100 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" captures the "Henrietta" 99 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" captures the "Jane" 99 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" captures the "Pandora" 99 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" captures three vessels at once. ... 34 
 
"Snap-Dragon" captures three vessels off Cape Race 2,7 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" chases the "Nettler".. 31, 132 
 
 "Snap-Dragon", crew of 45, 85 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" damage inflicted 28 
 
 "Snap-Dragon", description of 26 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" destroys English privateer 2)^ 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" escapes the "Adonis" 40 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" escapes the "Dominick" 31, 132 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" escapes the "Fawn" 34, 142 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" escapes the "Garland" 29, 131 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" escapes the "Rifleman" 39 
 
 "Snap-Oragon" escapes the "Sophia" 31, 131 
 
 "Snap-Dragon", estimate of captures by the 103 
 
 "Snap-Dragon", extent of voyages 28 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" fitted out 24, 122 
 
 "Snap-Dragon", last cruise of 52, 105 
 
 "Snap-Dragon", Log of the 121 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" owners of the 24, 75 
 
 "Snap-Dragon" sea-going qualities of 84 
 
 "Snap-Dragon", second cruise of the 36 
 
 "Snap-Dragon", third cruise of the 44 
 
 Snyder, John 106 
 
 "Sophia" attacks "Snap-Dragon" 30, 94, 131 
 
 Swain, Governor 27, 113 
 
 Surinam 48 
 
 Santa Cruz 135 
 
 St. Thomas 132 
 
 Tactics of privateers 91 
 
 Tajdor, Isaac, owner of the "Snap-Dragon" 75 
 
 Tortola 31, 132 
 
 Treaty of Paris on privateering 25 
 
 "United States" 79 
 
 University IMagazine 27, 86 
 
 Venezuela 35 
 
 "Warrior" built by Capain Otway Burns 57 
 
 Washington burnt by British • 27 
 
 Whitford, Col. John D 27 
 
 Wilkens, Lillian Bums 59 
 
Wilkens, J. Anthony 59 
 
 Wilkens, Theodora WaltxMia 59 
 
 Yancey, Bartlett 55 
 
 Yancey County, origin of name 55 
 
 Yard- arm duel qS 
 
Ar« 25 U'06 
 
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