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ridge into the Hiwassee valley, sparing or razing CHAP. the towns at his will. There he was joined by Rutherford of North Carolina, who had promptly assembled in the district of Salisbury an army of more than two thousand men, crossed the Alleghanies at the Swannanoa gap, forded the French Broad, and, by the trace which still bears his name, penetrated into the middle and valley towns, of which he laid waste six-and-thirty. "The Cherokees," wrote Germain, in November, to his trusty agent, "must be supported, for they have declared for us; I expect with some impatience to hear from you of the success of your negotiation with the Creeks and Choctaws, and that you have prevailed on them to join the Cherokees. I cannot doubt of your being able, under such advantageous circumstances, to engage them in a general confederacy against the rebels in defence of those liberties of which they are so exceedingly jealous, and in the full enjoyment of which they have been always protected by the king." But the Choctaws never inclined to the war; the Chickasaws seasonably receded; the Creeks kept wisely at home; and dearly did the Cherokees aby their rising. Before Germain's letter was written, they were forced to beg for mercy. At a talk in Charleston, in February, 1777, the Man-killer said: "You have destroyed my homes, but it is not my eldest brother's fault; it is the fault of my father over the water;" and at the peace in the following May, they gave up all their lands as far as the top of the Oconee mountain.

Nor was the overawing of the wild men the

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CHAP. only. good that came out of this bootless eagerness of the British minister to crush America by an 1776. Indian confederacy: henceforward the settlers of Tennessee with oneness of heart upheld American independence; and putting all their feelings and all their mind into one word, they named their district WASHINGTON.

CHAPTER X.

WHITE PLAINS.

OCTOBER 1-28, 1776.

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FOR nearly four weeks Washington and the CHAP. main body of his army remained on the heights of Harlem. The uneven upland, little more than a half-mile wide, and except at a few points less than two hundred feet above the sea, falls away precipitously towards the Hudson; along the Harlem river, it is bounded for more than two miles by walls of primitive rock or declivities steep as an escarpment. Towards Manhattanville, it ended in pathless crags. There existed no highway from the south, except the narrow one which, near the One hundred and forty-fourth street, yet winds up Breakneck hill. The approach from that quarter was guarded by three parallel lines, of which the first and weakest ran from about the One hundred and forty-eighth street on the east to the One hundred and forty-fifth on the west; the second was in the rear, at the distance of two fifths of

CHAP.
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a mile; the third, one quarter of a mile still further to the north; so that they could be protected, one from another, by musketry as well as cannon. A little further than the third parallel the house which Washington occupied stood on high ground overlooking the plains, the hills above Macgowan's pass, the distant city, the bay, and its islands.

North of head-quarters, the land undulates for yet a mile, to where Mount Washington, its highest peak, rises two hundred and thirty-eight feet over the Hudson. The steep summit was crowned by a five-sided earthwork, mounting thirty-four cannon, but without casemates, or strong outposts.

Just beyond Fort Washington the heights cleave asunder, and the road to Albany, by an easy descent, passes for about a mile through the rocky gorge. Laurel hill, the highest cliff on the Harlem side, was occupied by a redoubt; the opposite hill, near the Hudson, known afterwards as Fort Tryon, was still more difficult of access. Thence both ridges fall abruptly to a valley which crosses the island from Tubby-hook. Beyond this pass, the land to Kingsbridge on the right is a plain and marsh; on the left, a new but less lofty spur springs up, and runs to Spyt den Duyvel creek, by which the Harlem joins the Hudson. This part of New York island was defended by Fort Independence, on the high ridge north of Spyt den Duyvel; a series of redoubts guarded Fordham heights, on the east bank of the Harlem; an earthwork was laid out above Williams' bridge; and on the third of October a guard of riflemen

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had their alarm-post at the pass from Frog's neck. CHAP. Greene, who was fast gaining a name among the statesmen of New York as "beyond a doubt a first-rate military genius," and "in whose opinion Washington placed the utmost confidence," commanded a body in Jersey, at Fort Lee, on the summit of the palisades, where they were seventythree feet higher than Fort Washington. The obstructing of the Hudson between Fort Lee and Fort Washington was intrusted to Putnam, who promised perfect success through an invention of his own.

If Howe could force the Hudson and get to the north of New York island, the American army would be caged, and compelled to surrender or fight under the greatest disadvantage. Against this danger Washington was on his guard; but with the Hudson obstructed, with Greene above the palisades of Jersey, with Lee, who was looked for every day, in command on Fordham heights, he would have awaited an attack from the south, for an assault from that quarter would not have menaced his communications. "If the enemy should not change their plan of operations," so he wrote to a friend, "and if the men will stand by me, which I despair of, I am resolved not to be forced from this ground while I have life."

During this suspense, many of the states were moulding the forms of their new governments, so as to fix in living institutions the thoughts of the American people on the freedom of conscience, the independence of religion, the legal equality of opinions, the safest guardianship of the principles