In a few days another fleet, repulsed from the siege of Charleston, bore the remnant of the forces under Sir Henry Clinton and Sir Peter Parker into the harbor. The shattered masts and the pierced hulls of Sir Peter's squadron, testified to the fierce resistance they had encountered from the guns of Fort Moultrie. Two fifty-gun ships, five frigates of twenty-eight, one of twenty-six, and two sloops of eight guns each, had expended, in two hours fighting, thirty-four thousand pounds of powder, and more than fifty tons of shot; by which they had killed and wounded of the Americans thirty-six men, having in the same time lost one hundred and seventy men, and one of the twenty-eight gun frigates. It was under such disheartening influences that the Admiral brought his fleet, of nine vessels of war and thirty-five transports, carrying Sir Henry Clinton's force of three thousand men, into the harbor of New York.1 From this period, every day witnessed the arrival of reinforcements, gathered, by the order of the king of Great Britain, from every quarter of the globe. The fleet which had hovered off the coast of Florida, the vessels which had thronged the harbor of Jamaica, directed their course, as by some vast magnetic attraction, towards the low shores of Long Island. From the hills of Brooklyn, the anxious gazer could one day descry a fleet of tall ships from the Mediterranean, standing up the wide estuary of New York bay; and the morning of the next would dawn upon another, from the British channel, convoying a hundred transport ships to the same port. On the twelfth of August arrived 1 the last division of the great fleet of the invaders. Six men-of-war, and eighty two transport-ships, bearing seven thousand eight hundred Hessian mercenaries, and one thousand English Guards, who had been driven about upon the face of the deep for thirteen weeks, entered the harbor on this day, and anchored below the Narrows. The commander of the foreign troops was General De Heister; an old man, worn out with half a century of military service, but a personal friend of the landgrave of Hesse Cassel, at whose earnest entreaty he had consented to accept the command.' Although nearly all the cattle had been swept from the rich farms of Staten Island a month before, by Col. Heard, it still seemed like a paradise to the troops after their terrible voyage. The Eght-armed Highlander, and the cum 1- The paste had bez meg telers, for calms, contrary winds, and currents, drove the fext in such alterse itertoons as battled every reckoning, thach kind by them alles aa The General De Heister, who was emarked a land it a memuat és erlausted his whole stock of tobacco Se W2Go & letter, e ached in terms of grief, impalame been imposed area and deceived," said the old retera ́irl was assumed the ↑ rae mai not exceed six or seven weeks— embarked, and full three months since 1 ka end yet I see a me pe spect of landing, than I did a week 爆發 Ì AIL AL 10 TILT premi with wounds, and imbecilitated Ny age and ange, sala s 1possible I should survive if the voyage con Sir George Collzze weet za board the transpert, to visit and comfort the oil gement) and a de it more efferally than by words, he carried with **HREN fresh provisions, etc, but, above all, plenty of tobacco, ist de famed was one principal cause of the veteran's dejection This and an assurance that the voyage would now soon terminate, raised the old Ovetian's Gürtös very effernally. He ordered his band of music to plarde a ̈al frald Hook and swallowed large potations to the health of the Bigland the landgrave and many other friends, and Sir George left a permetty ex Mamtal and happy" Vam'el muON, 1814 are a རྟོནཔ་སྤྱན་ཞིངཉིས་ཀྱིས་འདོགཀུན དྭེ brously equipped Hessian, overburdened with the weight of his own weapons, leaped joyously upon the shore, and looked forward to a brief campaign, which would fill their knapsacks with booty, and their stomachs with unaccustomed luxuries. Twenty-seven thousand men1 landed from the transports, and bivouacked in sight of the doomed city, which they were rejoicing in the anticipation of sacking. Eleven thousand of these were Hessian and Waldeckian troops. The British army was received with the wildest demonstrations of joy by the inhabitants; and the deputations of loyalists from Long Island were not behind in expressions of their profound gratification at the presence of the vast force, which incontestibly guarantied the permanence of the royal government in America.2 Most of the troops were disembarked immediately on their arrival; the Hessians forming a separate camp on the shore of Kill Van Kull, where, with abundant supplies of fresh provisions, they soon recovered from the fatigues of their voyage. They were not permitted, however, to enjoy an undisturbed repose. The American riflemen. thronged the opposite shore of New Jersey,' with eager curiosity to learn something of these foreign soldiers, of whose dreadful ferocity and barbarous warfare the wildest stories had been reported. Unfortunately for the simple 'In Knight's Pictorial History of England the number of English and foreign troops is said to be nearly thirty thousand. Document 41. Elking says, "General Howe had at this time thirty-five thousand active troops at his disposal.”— Hist. of German Auxiliaries in America. Document 40. 2 Marshall's Life of Washington. Quarto edition, II, 410. The Journal of a Hessian officer says: The Americans could be seen across the water, stretching out their long necks to see what sort of people we were." Document 40. and credulous Germans, curiosity did not long keep the American sharpshooters idle; for an occasional puff of smoke from a clump of bushes far across the Kill, and the immediately succeeding fall of one of the Hessian sentinels on the shore, warned them that these curious spectators were active enemies. To the astonishment of the auxiliaries, they learned that even the broad strait between them and their foe was not sufficient to protect their encampment; and it was only by sweeping the Jersey shore with cannon and grape-shot, that this was rendered safe. While the troops were recruiting, Gen. Howe was engaged in forming his plan of the campaign, and in selecting and arranging his forces for the first blow, which he was determined should be overwhelming.' The commanders of the fleet and army had been selected by the king himself; and his choice had been approved by statesmen thoroughly conversant with the great exigencies of the campaign, and with the talents of the persons so highly honored. The history of combined expeditions had hitherto been usually one of misfortune, if not of criminality, as the jealousy, which seldom slumbered between the land and naval forces, exerted its malignant influence upon the respective commanders. But this danger, it was believed, and experience proved, was effectually guarded against by the ap 'The loyalists who reached Howe's camp, were at this time formed into two companies, styled New York Provincials. A negro belonging to one Strickler at Gravesend was taken prisoner (as he says) last Sunday at Coney Island (by the British). Yesterday he made his escape, and was taken prisoner by our rifle guard. He reports eight hundred negroes collected on Staten Island this day to be formed into regiments."- Gen. Greene to Washington, July 21st. pointment of Admiral Lord Richard Howe, and his brother General William Howe. They had both given proof of their valor and skill, on the ocean and on the battle-field. Yet their fraternal affection, and their common courage, were the only points of similarity in their characters. The elder brother Richard, Admiral and Viscount, was a grave, proud man, animated by a noble ambition, that was modified by a humane and generous spirit. In his devotion to the king, he held the rebellious Americans in profound abhorrence; yet his intercourse with them was characterized by a forbearance and gentleness which had the seeming of inconsistency to those who did not justly estimate the mingled sentiments which animated a royalist, jealous of the honor of his king, and a nobleman, sensitive to appeals to his justice and his humanity. The proud reserve of his manner, towards those of an inferior rank, did not always extend to those with whom he was on terms of friendship. He had lived in the most cordial intimacy with Dr. Franklin; and he had received a letter from him, on the 30th ult., containing the bitterest expression of sentiments hostile to the British government, and insulting to himself, with the mild remark: "My old friend expresses himself very warmly." At the interview with Col. Palfrey on board his flag-ship, he spoke of General Washington with the highest respect; giving him, in conversation, his military title, although he could not, as his majesty's officer, address him by it in his communications. He spoke of the revolted colonies as States; and referred to the resolutions of Congress which honored the memory of his brother, who had fallen eighteen years before at Ticonderoga, with expressions of sentiments of the greatest |