JOHN TREEGATE'S MUSKET

To eleven-year-old Peter Treegate, his father's musket symbolizes adventure and valor. For it was this musket which was used in the battle of the colonies against the French, a battle terminating in a colonial victory. When years later Peter is apprenticed to a cooper, and his father, strongly pro-Royalist, leaves for England,lonely and confused,he boards the Maid of Malden, John Hancock's ship and after a series of gruelling adventures is washed ashore on the South Carolina beach and rescued by a Scottish Chief whose entire clan has been destroyed at the battle of Culloden. A deep affinity springs up between the Scot and Peter, the Scot devoting himself to making a man out of the frightened boy. Finally, in search of Peter's father, the man and boy journey to Boston where after a poignant reunion, John Treegate takes arms with his son against the approaching redcoats. A dramatic story which casts a broad view of the various factions at work up to the moment of the American revolution, well told by Leonard Wibberley, prolific writer of adult and juvenile fiction.