George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 6, 10th edition.

[397] Howell, or William Butler; and offering a hundred

Chap. XLVI.} 1771. June.

pounds and a thousand acres of land, as a reward for the delivery of either of them alive or dead. Then twelve men, taken in battle, were tried and brought in guilty of Treason; and on the nineteenth of June, six of them were hanged under the eye of the Governor, who himself marked the place for the gallows, gave directions for clearing the field, and sketched in general orders the line of march of the army to the place of execution, with the station of each company round the gallows. The victims died bravely. It is yet kept in memory, how Benjamin Merrill met his fate in the most heroic manner, sustained by the pious affection of his children, and declaring that he died at peace with his Maker, in the cause of his country.¹

The next day Tryon, having gratified himself with the spectacle, and taking care to make the most of the confiscated lands, which were among the best on the continent, left Hillsborough, and on the thirtieth sailed to take possession of the Government² of New-York, leaving the burden of an illegally contracted debt of more than forty thousand pounds. So general was the disgust, that his successor dared not trust the people with the immediate election of a new Assembly,³ though terror and despair had brought six thousand of the Regulators to submission.⁴

The Governors of South Carolina and of Virginia,