Show H M H H H 11 t H 4 H iM H l FORGOTTEN 0 ff EROES e BY elmo scott watson M 1 M 1 H I 1 H M M M M M the patriots messenger N L FO 0 SOONER had the patriots won the victories of 0 lexing ton and concord on that historic morning of 1773 1775 than the provincial council decided that the news of the battle should be taken at once to london and a n d be b e given g 1 v e n to sympathizers s y mp a thI with the t h e american A m e r i c in cause ca u se before b e ore the british officials could present it to the public in a light favorable to their side of the argument the man who was to carry this message must bo be a man of discretion and courage for it was ce certain ertain that he would be arrested by the officers of the crown it if his mission became known so it was entrusted to capt john derby a well known salem skipper who was to ma make the journey on the packet que quero ile he was ordered to make tor for the port of dublin or any other irish port that seemed wise and proceed there to london to his orders was attached this imperative postscript you xou are to keep this order a profound secret from every person on earth after a voyage of 29 days the quero reached england As a further safeguard against betrayal betra aal yal of his plans captain derby did not lot n put in at an irish port as he had been ordered to do but sailed to the isle of wight and then went overland overla to southampton and london there lie he immediately placed his papers in the hands of benjamin franklin the massachusetts agent in london and the next nest day patriot sympathizers throughout england knew of the result of the battles that thu the officials of the crown knew that an attempt would be made to bring this news to england Is shown by the fact that they were on the lookout for such a messenger who they believed would be captain crown commander of the sukey crown brown however did not arrive in england till june 9 and by that time captain derbys quick trip in the quero had resulted in presenting se to the british public first the patriots ade of the story although captain derby had fulfilled his mission successfully he was not out of danger there was still the chance that agents of the king would try to capture him and his preparations for departure from england were as mysterious as they had been for his big leaving leavi ng america there was still danger too from the authorities when he returned to america and so he made a secret landing upon his return to this country one other item in derbys exploit is Interest interesting lu g in rendering his bill to the provincial congress for the trip lie he made no charge for his own expenses spies A A USTIN ROE might justly be L called the paul revere of new york with this difference that instead of taking one wonderful ride roe took a hundred those are the words of morton er a new york historian who naho recently discovered in tin an old chest in a home on long island some one hundred and fifty year old ol d documents which told the hitherto unknown story of spy system while the british occupied new york city durina during the revolution the man who collected to in new york the information about the british plans was robert townsend the successor of nathan hale this information he be passed along to austin roe who carried the messages from brooklyn to setauket L 1 I where they were handed banded over to abraham wood woodhull bull woodhull then watched tor for a signal from a house far across the fields find and this sig 1 I nal announced that caleb br brewster had arrived with ills his boat to carry the information across the sound to maj benajmin tallmadge who immediately delivered it to washington austin roes reels greatest ride and one which was more remarkable and I 1 infinitely more dangerous than raul pan I 1 ne reveres veres famous exploit was made to save newport R I 1 L from tile the british fifty five miles lie he covered in record time on that occasion find and it gave to washington the information that british troops were embarking at whitestone for newport and that admiral graves with eleven eleve n ships was already on the way to attack the french fleet beet of seven ships olt off the coast of rhode island receiving the message from townsend he sped access long island to reach woodhull while brewster waited to carry the message the information reached washington in time for hini him to put out the false information and see to it that british headquarters got it that he be was contemplating tin an immediate attack upon new york alarmed by this possibility the british commander ordered ti alie ie expedition against newport withdrawn and this was done before they had an opportunity t to 0 destroy the town as they had planned to do GO 0 1931 western newspaper |