York was then the headquarters of Gen- pounders. Pike's men were about to storm it, and Chauncey's round-shot were pounding it, when the wooden magazine of the battery, which had been carelessly left open, exploded, killing some of the garrison and seriously damaging the works. The dismayed enemy spiked the cannon and retired to a battery nearer the town. That, too, was soon abandoned, and Sheaffe and his men fled to the garrison, near the governor's house, and then opened a fire of round and grape shot upon the Americans. eral Sheaffe, at the head of regulars and THE POWDER-MAGAZINE BLOWN UP BY THE BRITISH soon followed, and the British were driven back to their works near the town. The Americans, led by Pike, followed closely and captured two redoubts, and at the same time Chauncey hurled deadly volleys of grape-shot on the foe from his guns. Heavy ordnance had been landed, and these were pressed forward with great fatigue over the many ravines. The Indian allies of the British, frightened by the cannon, deserted Sheaffe, and the latter fell back to the Western Battery, mounting 24 The great guns of the British were soon silenced, and the Americans expected every moment to see a white flag displayed from the block-house, when a sudden and awful calamity occurred. General Pike was sitting upon a stump conversing with a huge British sergeant who had been taken prisoner, and with his staff around him, when a sudden tremor of the ground was felt, followed by a tremendous explosion near the British garrison. The enemy, despairing of ho'ding the place, had blown up their powder-magazine, situated upon victory when the British ensign was pullthe edge of the lake, at the mouth of a ed down at York. He lingered several ravine. Fragments of timber and huge hours. Just before he expired that flag stones, of which the magazine walls were was brought to him. He made a sign for built, were scattered in every direction over it to be placed under his head, and in that a space of several hundred feet. By that position he died. The port and village of explosion fifty-two Americans were slain and 180 wounded. Forty of the British also lost their lives. General Pike, two of his aides, and the captive sergeant were mortally hurt. The terrified Americans scattered in dismay, but were soon rallied, the column was reformed, and Col. Cromwell Pearce, of Pennsylvania, assumed the command. The Americans pressed forward to the village, where they were met by the civil authorities of the town, who surrendered the place, together with 290 regulars and the militia. With them were also taken the war-vessel (the Duke of Gloucester) and a large quantity of naval and military stores. The loss of the Americans in the capture of York, in killed and wounded on land, was 269; and on the fleet, seven teen. The British loss, besides the prisoners, was 149. General Pike was crushed between two stones, and was carried on board the Pert, then Chauncey's flag-ship. His benumbed ears heard the shout of York were abandoned by the Americans, for they were of little value to them. General Sheaffe, taking advantage of the confusion after the explosion, and the time purposely consumed in the capitulation, after destroying some vessels on the stocks and some storehouses, escaped with the larger portion of the regulars to Kingston. After the Americans left, the fort at Toronto was repaired, and has been garrisoned ever since, only the barracks being kept in order. When the Americans took possession of York, the Parliament-house and other public buildings were burned by an unknown hand. It was said that the incendiary was instigated by the indignation of the Americans, who found hanging upon the wall of the legislative chamber a "human scalp," for which commodity Proctor had paid bounties when at Fort Malden. It is not pleasant to relate a fact so discreditable; but, as a British historian (Auchinleck), has intimated that the scalp in question — which Commodore Chauncey feet in height, and a shower of pitch and sent to the Secretary of War-was taken from the head of a British Indian "shot, while in a tree," by that officer when the Americans advanced, the fair fame of a dead man demands the revelation of the truth. Chauncey was not on shore at York. A few days after the capture of that city he wrote from Sackett's Harbor to the Secretary of the Navy: "I have the honor to present to you, by the hands of Lieutenant Dudley, the British standard taken at York on the 27th of April last, accompanied by the mace, over which hung a human scalp. These articles were taken from the Parliament-house by one of my officers and presented to me." General Dearborn wrote: "A scalp was found in the legislative council-chamber, suspended near the speaker's chair, accompanied by the mace." Torpedoes. The government of the United States, like that of Great Britain, refused to make use of Fulton's torpedoes in warfare, but it was attempted by individuals against the British blockading squadron. In New York Harbor a schooner named the Eagle was used as a torpedo-vessel. In her hold John Scudder, Jr., originator of the plot, placed ten kegs of gunpowder, with a quantity of sulphur mixed with it, in a strong cask, and surrounded it with huge stones and other missiles, which, in the event of an explosion, might inflict great injury. At the head of the cask, in the inside, were fixed two gunlocks with cords, attached to their triggers at one end, and two barrels of flour at the other end, so that, when the flour should be removed, the lock would be sprung, the powder ignited, and the terrible mine exploded. The Eagle, commanded by Captain Riker, sailed for New London late in June, 1813, where, as was intended, she was captured by armed men in boats sent from the Ramillies, Commodore Hardy's flag-ship. The crew of the Eagle escaped to the shore and watched the result. An unavailing at tempt was made to get the Eagle alongside the Ramillies, for the purpose of transferring her cargo to that ship. Finally boats were sent out as lighters, and when the first barrel of flour was removed the explosion took place. A volume of fire shot up from the Eagle fully 200 tar fell on the deck of the Ramillies. The Eagle and the first lieutenant and ten men of the Ramillies were blown into atoms, and some of the occupants of boats near were fatally injured. This was followed by an attempt to explode a torpedo under the Ramillies. A citizen of Norwich, Conn., acquainted with Bushnell's torpedo, invented a submarine boat, in which he voyaged under water at the rate of 3 miles an hour. Three times he went under the Ramillies, and on the third occasion had nearly fastened the torpedo to the ship's bottom, when the breaking of a screw baffled the attempt. He was discovered, but escaped. A fisherman of Long Island, named Penny, made attempts on the Ramillies with a torpedo in a whale-boat, and Hardy was kept continually on the alert. He kept the Ramillies constantly in motion, and caused her bottom to be swept with a cable every two hours, night and day. Finally he warned the inhabitants that if such warfare was not discontinued he would proceed tc burn the town. The warning was effectua.. In July, Mr. Mix, of the navy, attempted to blow up the Plantagenet, seventy-four. guns, with a torpedo. She was lying off Cape Henry, Va. Under cover of intense darkness, the torpedo was carried out in an open boat called the Chesapeake Avenger, and dropped so as to float down under the ship's bow. It exploded a few seconds too soon. A column of water 25 feet in diameter, half-luminous with lurid light, was thrown up at least 40 feet high, with an explosion as terrific as thunder, producing a concussion like the shock of an earthquake. It burst at the crown, and water fell in profusion on the deck of the Plantagenet. At the some moment she rolled into the chasm made by the explosion, and nearly upset. Torpedoes were also placed at intervals across the Narrows, at New York, and at the entrance to the harbor of Portland. The impression prevailed in the British navy that the United States government had adopted Fulton's torpedoes, and this made the British commanders on our coast very circumspect. No doubt the fear of torpedoes saved the American coast-towns from plunder and the torch. Torpedo war A, platform; B, torpedo, C, water-tight pine-box; D, pin to be drawn. Lower cut: A, vessel at anchor; fare was much practised in the Civil War. the wires connected with bomb-proofs on The torpedoes used by the Confederates shore. were various in form and construction. The most efficient ones were the galvanic and percussion. The former were provided with a wire connected with a gal PERCUSSION TORPEDO-NO. 1. vanic battery on the shore, by which the mine might be exploded at any moment. The percussion or "sensitive" ones exploded by the act of forcible contact. Some of these were made in the form of a double cone, with percussion tubes ar One of these, containing nearly a ton of powder, was planted in the centre of the deep channel at Drury's Bluff. On account of the depth of water, it was attached to a long rod, and that to the "mushroom" anchor by a chain, as it was desirable to have the torpedo only the depth of a vessel below the surface. No. 1 was made of a common barrel, with solid pointed ends, made of palmetto-wood, and were used in Charleston Harbor. After the capture of Fort Fisher, vessels were sent to pick up the torpedoes sunk in the Cape Fear River. As soon as Richmond was evacuated by the Confederates, in April, 1865, a notable expedition was undertaken in search of torpedoes, with which it was known a portion of that river abounded. The expedition consisted of about 300 men in several tugs and thirty small boats, all under the command of Capt. Ralph Chandler, U. S. N. On the morning of April 3, Captain Chandler started from Dutch Gap, with a flotilla and his flagranged around the cylinder thus formed, ship the Sangamon, and before sunset he at the point of contact of the bases of the had so cleared the river of these dangerous cones, as seen in the illustration here obstructions that the passage to Richmond PERCUSSION TORPEDO-NO. 2. was made comparatively safe, and the next morning President Lincoln went up to Richmond from City Point in the Malvern, Admiral Porter's flag-ship. The fishing was carried on in this wise: The steamvessels were protected by torpedo-nets formed of ropes weighted with iron or lead, and furnished with hooks to catch the little submarine mines. These nets were hung from spars placed athwart the bowsprit in front of the vessel, and sometimes in like manner along its sides. A net like that at the bow was placed off the stern, and was dragged after the vessel as a fisherman drags his net. No officer in the TORPEDO-NET. navy was better qualified for performing this task than Captain Chandler, requiring as it did cool courage and rare judgment. "The knowledge that a simple touch will lay your ship a helpless, sinking wreck upon the water without even the satisfaction of firing one shot in return," wrote Captain Chandler, “calls for more courage than can be expressed, and a short cruise among torpedoes will sober the most intrepid disposition." absolute or possessory; if absolute, the title must be approved by the master of titles before the ownership can be registered in fee-simple. Tortugas, DRY. See DRY TORTUGAS. Torture. Although various kinds of torture were in use in Europe and Great Britain for many ages, the use of such cruelty was never legally recognized in the British colonies, and it was exceedingly seldom that resort was had to such punishment. A notable exception is found in the case of Giles Corey, a supposed witch in Salem, Mass., who, in 1692, refused to answer any questions on his trial, and was pressed to death, this being the only known instance in America of the infliction of the penalty, known in French as peine forte et dure, or pressing to death. Totem, among savage tribes, especially the North American Indians, the token or symbol of a family or clan; usually an animal or some natural object selected for reverence and superstitious regard. It serves for a sort of surname of the family. Its importance lies in the notion that individuals trace their lineage from it. The turtle, the bear, and the wolf appear to be favored and honored totems among many tribes. The obligations growing out of a common totem are scrupulously regarded. Intermarriage among those having it was criminal. All such, of whatever clan or tribe, friendly or hostile, have the rights of hospitality, of succor in distress, and of friendship as blood-relations. The totem is never changed. Totten, CHARLES A. L., military officer; born in New London, Conn., Feb. Torrens's Land System, a plan of land 3, 1851; graduated at the United States transfer drawn up by Sir Robert Torrens, Military Academy in June, 1873; and and by him put in operation in Australia. was commissioned a second lieutenant 'It is now used in all the Australian prov- of the 4th United States Artillery. In inces, in Tasmania and New Zealand, and 1889 he was appointed military instrucin British Columbia and Ontario, and has tor at the Yale Scientific School, and while been attempted in various parts of the there gained notoriety as a chronological United States. Its object is to make the investigator. His eccentric speculations transfer of land as simple as that of bank as to the length of time that the earth stock, and render the title of the holder had existed, and his prophecy, which he thereof as free from danger or difficulty based on the book of Daniel, that the world as ordinarily the title of the holder of would come to an end in 1895, along with bank stock is to the shares he holds. A many other similar teachings, made him land registry is established under the con- the object of much ridicule and subjected trol of an officer known as the master of Yale University to severe criticism. He titles, by whom all land transactions are was therefore notified in April, 1892, registered. A title may be registered as that he would be relieved of his instruc |