VI. CHAP. New York a moment longer than he should think it proper for the public service." Sept. 11. 1776. On the eleventh, Lord Howe sent his barge for Franklin, John Adams, and Rutledge; relying on his honor, they took with them the officer sent as a hostage for their security. They were met by him at the water's edge, and conducted through files of grenadiers, armed with fixed bayonets, to a large stone house, where, in a room carpeted with moss and green boughs, they partook of an excellent collation. In the discussion of business, a difficulty presented itself at the outset. As they had been formally announced as a committee from congress, Lord Howe premised, with some embarrassment of manner, that he was bound to say he conversed with them as private individuals. At this, John Adams came to his relief, saying: "Consider us in any light you please, except that of British subjects." During a conversation which lasted for several hours Lord Howe was discursive in his remarks: he went back to the last petition of congress to the king, and to the time anterior to the declaration of independence; he hoped that this interview might prepare the way for the return of America to her allegiance, and for an accommodation of the two countries. To bring the discussion to a point, Edward Rutledge cited to him the declaration of Sullivan, "that he would set the acts of parliament wholly aside, because parliament had no right to tax America, or meddle with her internal polity." Lord Howe had no discretionary power whatever with regard to these two vital points in the con VI. 1776. troversy; he therefore answered Rutledge, like a CHAP. man of honor, with truth and frankness, "that Sullivan had extended his words much beyond their Sept. import; that, while the king and ministry were 11. willing that instructions and acts of parliament complained of should be revised, his commission in respect to them was confined to powers of consultation with private persons." Franklin inquired if the commissioners would receive and report propositions from the Americans; as no objection was interposed, he represented "that it was the duty of good men on both sides of the water to promote peace by an acknowledgment of American independence, and a treaty of friendship and alliance between the two countries;" and he endeavored to prove that Great Britain would derive more durable advantages from such an alliance than from the connection which it was the object of the commission to restore. Lord Howe did not fail to report this overture, which he in his heart was beginning to approve. The committee of congress, on their return to Philadelphia, reported that he had made no proposition of peace, except that the colonies should return to their allegiance to the government of Great Britain; and that his commission did not appear to contain any other authority of importance than what was expressed in the act of parliament, namely, that of granting pardons, and declaring America, or any part of it, to be in the king's peace, upon submission. Our sins against God," wrote the governor of Connecticut, "need pardon from the supreme VI. Sept. 11. 12. CHAP. Director of all events; the rebels who need pardon from the king of Britain are not yet discovered." 1776. By this time the army of General Howe extended along the high ground that overlooks the East river and the sound, from Brooklyn to Flushing, and occupied the two islands which we call Ward's and Randall's; a battery erected at Astoria replied to the American works on the point just north of Hellgate ferry. Night after night, boats came in and anchored just above Bushwick. On the twelfth, Washington, supported by the written request of Greene and six brigadiers, reconvened his council of war at the quarters of Macdougall ; and this time it was decided to abandon the lower part of the island, none dissenting but Spencer from sheer ignorance and dulness, Heath from dishonesty, and George Clinton from stubborn zeal. The council was hardly over, when Washington was once more in the lines; and at evening the Americans under his eye doubled their posts along the East river. He was seen by the Hessians, and Krug, a captain of the Hessian artillery, twice in succession pointed cannon at him and his staff, and was aiming a third shot, as he rode on. The thirteenth, the anniversary of the victory on the Plains of Abraham, in which Howe bore an honorable part, was selected for the landing of the British in New York; the watchword was Quebec, the countersign Wolfe; but the ships of war that were to cover the landing caused delay. In the afternoon, four of them, keeping up an incessant fire, and supported by the cannon on Governor's 13. VI. 1776. Sept. 14. island, sailed past the American batteries into the CHAP. East river, and anchored opposite the present Thirteenth street. Washington kept a close watch on their movements, and one of their shot struck within six feet of him. During the fourteenth he did all that his very scanty means of transportation would allow, to save his stores and artillery About sunset, six more British armed ships went up the East river. In one more day, the city would have been evacuated. On the fifteenth, three ships of war ascended the Hudson as far as Bloomingdale, which put a stop to the removal of army stores by water. At eleven, the ships of war which were anchored in the stream below Blackwell's island began a heavy cannonade, to scour the grounds; at the same time, eighty-four boats laden with troops, under the direction of Admiral Hotham, came out of Newtown creek, and with a southerly wind sailed up the East river in four columns; till, on a signal, they formed in line, and, aided by oars and the sweeping tide, came to the shore between Turtle bay and the city, in array for battle. At the sound of the first cannon, Washington, who had supposed the principal landing would be made at Harlem or Morrisania, rode "with all possible despatch towards Kip's bay, near Thirty-fourth street; as he drew near, he found the men who had been posted in the lines running away, and the brigades of Fellows of Massachusetts and Parsons of Connecticut, that were to have supported them, flying in every direction, heedless of the exertions of their generals. Putnam's division of about four thousand 15. CHAP. troops was still in the lower city, sure to be cut VI. off, unless the British could be delayed. When all 1776. else fails, the commander-in-chief must in person Sept. 15. give the example of daring: Washington presented himself to lead any body of men, however small, who would make an effort to hold the advancing forces in check. He used every means to rally the fugitives, get them into some order, and reanimate their courage; but on the appearance of a party of not more than sixty or seventy, they ran away in the greatest confusion without firing a single shot, panic-stricken from fear of having their retreat cut off, leaving him on the ground within eighty yards of the enemy. "Are these the men by whom I am expected to defend the liberties of America?" he asked of himself; and he seemed to seek death rather than life. Being reminded by the officers nearest him that it was in vain to withstand the British alone, he turned to give the wisest orders for the safety of Harlem heights, and for guarding against ill consequences from the morning's disaster. As the Hessians took immediate possession of the breastworks which guarded the Boston road, near the present Lexington avenue, the fugitive brigades fled, not without loss, across woody fields to Bloomingdale. At ten minutes past three in the afternoon, the American colors were struck on the old Fort George, and the English flag was raised by Lord Dunmore. Most of Putnam's division escaped by a road very near the Hudson; its commander, heedless of the intense heat of the day, rode from post to post to call off the pickets and |