for their existence, and supported by vague and declamatory generalities."

"Can Britain fail?" asked the poet-laureate of England, in his birthday ode. "Every man," said the wise political economist Tucker, "is thoroughly convinced that the colonies will and must become independent some time or other; I entirely agree with Franklin and Adams, to make the separation there is no time like the present." David Hume from his death-bed advised his country to give up the war with America, in which defeat would destroy its credit, and success its liberties. "A tough business, indeed," said Gibbon; "they have passed the Rubicon, and rendered a treaty infinitely more difficult; the thinking friends of government are by no means sanguine." Lord North had declared his intention to resign if his conciliatory proposition should fail. Lord George Germain was imbittered against the admiralty for having delayed the embarkations of troops, and against Carleton for his lenity and slowness. "I have my own opinions in respect to the disputes in America," said Barrington, the British secretary at war, imploringly to the king; "I am summoned to meetings, where I sometimes think it my duty to declare them openly before twenty or thirty persons; and the next day I am forced either to vote contrary to them, or to vote with an opposition which I abhor." Yet, when the king chose that he should remain secretary at war and member of the house of commons, he added: "I shall continue to serve your majesty in both capacities." The prospect of the interference of France excited in George III. such restless anxiety, that he had an interview with every Englishman of distinction who returned from Paris or Versailles; and he was impatient to hear from America that General Howe had struck decisive blows.

The conquest of the United States presented appalling difficulties. The task was no less than to recover by force of arms the region which lies between Nova Scotia and Florida; the first campaign had ended in the expulsion of the British from New England; the second had already been marked by a repulse from South Carolina. The old system of tactics was out of place; nor could the capacity of the Americans for resistance be determined by any known rule of war; the

depth of their passions had not been fathomed: they will long shun an open battle-ground; every thicket will be an ambuscade of partisans; every stone wall a hiding-place for sharpshooters; every swamp a fortress; the boundless woods an impracticable barrier; the farmer's house a garrison. A country over which they may march in victory wil rise up in their rear. Nothing is harder than to beat down a people who are resolved never to yield; and the English were unfit for the task, for in abridging the liberties of their colonies they were at war with their own.

CHAPTER II.

THE RETREAT FROM LONG ISLAND.

AUGUST 1776.

THE works for the defence of New York Island, including the fortifications in Brooklyn, had been planned by Lee in concert with a New York committee and a committee from congress. Jay thought it proper to lay Long Island waste, burn New York, and retire to the Highlands; but, as it was the maxim of congress not to give up a foot of territory, Washington promised "his utmost exertions under every disadvantage;""the appeal," he said, "may not terminate so happily as I could wish, yet any advantage the enemy may gain I trust will cost them dear." To protect New York city he was compelled to hold King's Bridge, Governor's Island, Paulus Hook, and the heights of Brooklyn. For all these posts, divided by water, and some of them fifteen miles apart, he had in the first week of August but ten thousand five hundred and fourteen men fit for duty. Of these, many were often obliged to sleep without cover, exposed to the dews. There was a want of good physicians, medicines, and hospitals; more than three thousand lay sick, and their number was increasing.

Of the effective men, less than six thousand had had any experience, and none had seen more than one year's service. Some were wholly without arms; not one regiment of infantry was properly equipped. The regiment of artillery, five hundred and eighty-eight in number, including officers, had no skilled gunners or engineers. Knox, its colonel, had been a Boston bookseller. Most of the cannon in the field-works

were of iron, old and honeycombed. The constant arrival and departure of militia made good discipline impossible. The government of New Jersey called out one half of its militia, to be relieved at the end of one month by the other half; but the call was little heeded. "We shall never do well until we get a regular army; and this will never be until men are enlisted for a longer duration; and that will never be until we are more generous in our encouragement. Time alone will persuade us to this measure; and in the meanwhile we shall very indiscreetly waste a much greater expense than would be necessary for this purpose, in temporary calls upon the militia, besides risking the loss of many lives and much reputation." So wrote John Adams, the head of the board of war. He rejected the thought of retiring from Long Island, inclined to judge an army capable of victory when orders for the supply of men and their equipment had gone forth, and never duly estimated the force at command. While he cultivated confidential relations with Gates, he never extended cordial frankness to Washington, never comprehended his superior capacity for war, nor fairly weighed the difficulties before him. Moreover, congress was assuming the conduct of the campaign. To Gates it intrusted a power of filling up vacancies in his army, but refused it to the commander-in-chief. The general officers, whose advice Washington was instructed to ask, knew not enough of war to estimate danger rightly; and the timid ones, with their eyes on congress, put on the cheap mask of courage by spirited votes.

On the fifth of August, Trumbull wrote from Connecticut: "Knowing our cause righteous, I do not greatly dread what our numerous enemies can do against us." Washington answered: "To trust in the justice of our cause without our own utmost exertion would be tempting Providence;" and he revealed to him the weakness of his army. On receiving this letter, Trumbull convened his council of safety. Five regiments from the counties of Connecticut nearest New York had already been sent forward; he called out nine regiments more, and to those not enrolled in any train-band he said: "Join yourselves to one of the companies now ordered to New York, or form yourselves into distinct companies, and choose captains

forthwith. March on: this shall be your warrant; may the God of the armies of Israel be your leader." At these words the farmers--though their harvest was but half gathered, their meadows half cut, their chance of return in season to sow their grain before winter uncertain-rose in arms, forming nine regiments each of three hundred and fifty men, and, selfequipped, marched to New York, just in time to meet the advance of the British. True, they were rather a rally of freemen than a division of an army; but their spirit evinced the existence of a nation.

In New York the country people turned out with surprising alacrity, leaving their grain to perish for want of the sickle. The body suddenly levied in New York, the nine regiments from Connecticut, the Maryland regiment and companies, a regiment from Delaware, and two more battalions of Pennsylvania riflemen, raised the number of men fit for duty under Washington's command to about seventeen thousand; but most of them were fresh from rustic labor, ill-armed or not armed at all.

The New York convention desired that the command of the Hudson might be secured; and, on the recommendation of Putnam and Mifflin, a fort was built on the height now known as Fort Washington, two miles and a half below King's Bridge.

Of the batteries by which New York was protected, the most important was the old Fort George on the south point of the island; a barrier crossed Broadway near the Bowling Green; a redoubt was planted near the river, west of Trinity church; another, that took the name of Bunker Hill, near the site of the present Centre Market. Earthworks were thrown up here and there along the East and Hudson rivers within the settled parts of the town, and at the northern end of the island, on hills overlooking King's Bridge; but many intermediate points, favorable for landing, were defenceless. The regiment of Prescott, who commanded in the battle of Bunker Hill, and one other regiment, were all that could be spared to garrison Governor's Island.

The American lines in Brooklyn, including angles, and four redoubts which mounted twenty large and small cannon, ran for a mile and a half from Wallabout bay to the marsh of