"In the beginning of June, 1781, the British garrison at Augusta, Georgia, capitulated to the American forces, under command of General Pickens and Colonel Lee, of the partizan legion. Colonel Grierson, who was obnoxious to the Americans on account of his barbarities, was shot down by an unknown hand, after he was a prisoner. A reward of one hundred guineas was offered to any person who would point out the offender, but in vain. Colonel Brown, the British commander, expecting the same fate, conscious that he deserved it, from his unrelenting and vindictive disposition towards the Americans, was furnished with a guard, although he had hanged thirteen American prisoners, and had given others into the hands of the Indians to be tortured. On his way to Savannah, he passed through the settlements where he had burned a number of houses, and hung some of the relatives of the inhabitants. At Silverbluff, Mrs. M'Kay obtained leave of the American officer, who commanded his safeguard, to speak to him; when she thus addressed him:—'Colonel Brown, in the late day of your prosperity, I visited your camp, and on my knees supplicated for the life of my only son, but you were deaf to my entreaties; you hanged him, though a beardless youth, before my face. These eyes have seen him scalped by the savages under your immediate command, and for no better reason than that his name was M'Kay. As you are now a prisoner to the leaders of my country, for the present I lay aside all thoughts of revenge, but when you resume your sword, I will go five hundred miles to demand satisfaction at the point of it, for the murder of my son!'"