British Vessels Driven from Boston Harbor

IMMEDIATELY after the evacuation of Boston, Washington hastened to New York with a greater part of his army, for he suspected Howe of an intention to attack that city. British war vessels lingered in Boston harbor even so late as June, and there was a prevailing fear in New England that Howe intended to return to their shattered capital. It was therefore determined by the Massachusetts Assembly to drive the ships to the sea. This was done at the middle of June, by General Lincoln, at the head of militia and a few regulars, who so annoyed the ships with cannon planted on the shores, that they departed never to return. Howe went to Halifax to prepare for attacking the Americans at what he supposed to be a more vulnerable point.

In June, 1776, General Howe sailed with his recruited army from Halifax for New York, and arrived at Sandy Hook at near the close of that month. There he was soon afterward joined by a large fleet commanded by his brother Richard, Earl Howe. The latter had been made joint commissioner with the general, and authorized by the king to offer pardon to all rebels, in his name, and to negotiate for peace or to prosecute the war as circumstances might demand. The admiral was the pleasant gentleman whom Dr. Franklin met at the chess-playing with Mrs. Howe, in London, and had some diplomatic correspondence with him. He addressed a courteous letter to Franklin, on his arrival, with copies of a proclamation of pardon, which the Congress permitted the shrewd American diplomat to answer. It was done in terms that made Howe shrink from the task of replying to it.

When Washington arrived in New York, he pushed forward the defences of the city, and in the Hudson Highlands, for already intimations had reached the Americans that a grand scheme of the ministers for dividing the colonies, was to effect a junction between troops going up the Hudson Valley, and others coming down from the St. Lawrence, the latter being already at the foot of Lake Champlain. Fort Washington was built on the highest part of Manhattan Island (now Washington Heights); and strong batteries were constructed near it as well as in the more immediate vicinity of the little town whose northern verge was on The Fields, now City Hall Park.

The commander-in-chief went to Philadelphia to confer with the Continental Congress on the topic of the general defence of the colonies, for the theatre of war was evidently about to expand along the entire sea-board. It was then known that the mercenaries of the British monarch were on their way to America; and it was believed that the city of New York was destined to receive the first stunning blow from the combined British and German armies. Danger appeared imminent, and Congress authorized the enlistment of thirteen thousand troops from New England, New York, and New Jersey; also the establishment of a Flying Camp under General Hugh Mercer, composed of men from Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. These were to rendezvous at Amboy, in New Jersey, opposite Staten Island. The Congress also authorized the forming of a body of Indians, two thousand in number, for service in Canada, to oppose the savages employed by Carleton. General Schuyler, who was wiser concerning the Indians than the senators at Philadelphia, asked the significant question: "Where are the Indians to be found?" He knew it would be impossible to gather so large a number for such a purpose. "I think," he said, "that if the Indians can be kept from joining the enemy, it will be as much as we have a right to expect." Knowing their cruel disposition, he was averse to employing them in war; he knew, also, that their maxim in alliances with the white people was to adhere to the strongest, most liberal in giving rewards, and with whom there was the least danger. Schuyler labored successfully in effecting that neutrality; he held the Six Nations in restraint from 1775 until 1783.