tion. They were however forced to fly with fome lofs, and left three pieces of brafs cannon in the hands of the British guards and the Heffian grenadi ērs. Our men pursued the fugitives as far as Weltfield, but the woods and the intense heat of the weather prevented the purfuit producing any effect. In this attack thofe who boasted of victory fuffered more than the vanquished, and the fatigue of their march rendered them unfit for any action in a fhort time.

General Washington by this time perceived his error, and speedily remedied it by withdrawing his army from the plains, and again recovered his ftrong camp upon the hills. At the fame time perceiving the further defign of Lord Cornwallis, he fecured thofe paffes upon the mountains, the poffeffion of which by the British troops would have laid him under the neceffity of a critical change of fituation, which could not be executed without much danger. Thus was General Howe's well concerted fcheme of bringing the enemy to action, or at least of withdrawing them from their ftrong holds, rendered abortive by the caution and prudence of General Washington. In this attempt General Howe fhewed a great deal of military addrefs and forecast, and did all that any officer could have done to fulfil the defign which he had in view. But he was fo well matched in point of Generalfhip by General Washington, that the ut most bounds of his military plans and operations were investigated by that officer, either before they were executed, or as foon as they began to be put in practice, and generally prevented from producing any effect.

Sir William Howe was now convinced that Washington was too firmly attached to his defenfive plan

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of operation in conducting the war, to be induced by any other means than by fome very clear and decided advantage, to hazard a general engagement. Nothing now remained to be done in the Jerfeys. To advance to the Delaware through an enemy's country, and with fuch a force in his rear, appeared to the British commanders a project pregnant with folly, and approaching near to madness. They had found by experience that the provincials could fight when they perceived that it was for their advantage, and that in cafe of marching through the Jerfeys to the Delaware, they would have many difficulties, and what aggravated the circumstances, was, that the King's troops knew of no friends before them in cafe of any misfortune. All delay and waste of time now in the Jerseys was fruit lefs, and could answer no vaJuable purpose; it was better to employ the troops in fome other quarter, where fome advantages might be gained. This was the opinion of the British officers in general, as well as of the commanders in chief. General Howe accordingly returned with his troops to Amboy, and paffed them over to Staten Ifland, from whence the embarkation was to take place.

The preparation for this grand expedition excited a general alarm over all America. Bofton, the North River, the Delaware, Chesapeak Bay, were alternately confidered as its objects. General Washington endeavoured to inform himself in the beft manner he could concerning the object of this expedition; he made ufe of all the fpies he had about New York and other parts, to try if he could fift out the place of its destination, that he might put the people upon their guard, and provide against the impending danger.

-It was one of the manifeft advantages of these fea adventures, that it was next to impoffible for General Washington directly to know where the ftorm would fall. He was therefore under the neceffity to continue in his prefent fituation, and the King's troops were proceeding to the place of deftination before he could be in readiness to refift them. By this means he could not have that choice of pofts, by which hitherto he had had it in his power to avoid an action.

While this grand expedition was preparing, and the Americans were in anxious apprehenfion concerning its destination, a fpirited adventure was undertaken by a few of the provincials. This adventure not only retaliated the surprise of General Lee, but feemed to procure an indemnification for his person. Upon the 10th of June, Colonel Barton, a provincial officer, with fome other officers and volunteers, paffed over by night from Providence to Rhode Island, and though, they had a long paffage by water, they eluded the watchfulness of the fhips of war which furrounded the island, and conducted their enterprize with fuch filence, fecrecy, boldness, and dexterity, that they furprised General Prefcot, who commanded in chief, in his quarters, and brought him and his aid-de-camp, through all those perils, fafe to the continent. The method they purfued was, as foon as they came near the King's fhips they muffled their ears, and rowed to the place of their deflination,` where the rowers lay upon their oars, and the Colonel and his party went a-fhore. They proceeded to the General's quarters through a field of growing corn, unperceived by any of the guards upon the island, and came ftraight to the house where the General was; and having fecured a centinel at the door, Colonel

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Colonel Barton boldly rufhed in, and found the General, with moft of his cloathes off, going to bed.-There was not much ceremony used in converfation; he was ordered immediately to come off just as he was, and to keep filence, otherwife he fhould die that moment he made the smallest noise, both he and This aid-de-capm; but provided they did not make noise or resistance, they should be used as gentlemen, and receive no harm. They were carried off in this manner, and led by the Colonel and his party thro' the field of corn, and brought to the boat that was waiting for their arrival, in which they were immediately put and carried to the continent. This was a moft terrible mortification to General Prefcot, who not long before this had carried matters to fuch a length as to fet a price upon the head of General Arnold, and offered a reward of 1000l. for taking his perfon, as if he had been a common outlaw, or a rob'ber; an infult which Arnold returned by offering 500l. to fuch as fhould apprehend General Prefcot, fignifying that he did not think him worth a thousand pounds, nor of fo much value as himself. Amidst all the hurry and threatening of war, the continen.al congrefs did not forget thofe fecondary means, that as well as immediate intereft, render men brave and intrepid in the caufe of his country. As a teftimony of public gratitude and an excitement to virtue and true patriotifin, they ordered, that a monument should be erected at Bofton in honour of Major-General Warren, who commanded and fell at the battle of Bunker's-hill; and another in Virginia in honour of Brigadier-General Mercer, who was flain in the action near Princetown in the Jerfeys. The refolution conveyed in a very few words the highest eulogium

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on the characters and merits of the deceased. They alfo decreed that the former of thefe gentlemen, and the youngest fon of the latter, fhould be educated at the expence of the United States. As General Mercer had a good landed eftate, the propriety of adopting his youngest fon, as the child of the public is abundantly evident. It was eafy to perceive, that men who were so zealous in pursuing wife and prudent measures in the most inferior parts of policy, were not to be over-reached by a people drowned in corruption, and funk in vice.

Though the preparations for the grand expedition had been purfued for fome time with great zeal and alacrity, and the crews of 300 veffels had given their affistance, yet fuch were the unavoidable delays inci, dent to fuch extreme operations, that it was not till the 23d of July that the fleet and army could depart from Sandy Hook. With a defign to deceive and perplex the provincials, the General ordered fome transports with a fhip cut down to act as a floating battery, up the North River, a little before the em. barkation was compleated; a feint which fucceeded fo far as to induce General Washington to detach a confiderable body of his troops a cross that river.→ The force that embarked upon this expedition confifted of thirty-fix British and Heffian battalions, including the light infantry and grenadiers, a powerful artillery, a body of New Yorkers, called the Queen's rangers, and a regiment of light horfe. Seventeen battalions, with a regiment of light horse, and the remainder of the new provincial troops, were left for the protection of New York and the adjoining islands. Seven battalions remained in Rhode Ifland. So much was the army weakened by keeping poffeffion of thefe