ammunition behind, as they belonged to the colony and could not be taken out of it; then taking the bridle of the first horse he turned it off towards Beaver Street, and the other five followed. The soldiers were permitted to embark.

During the remainder of seventy-five and until the spring of seventy-six the state of affairs was sad enough. In a letter written by Morin Scott, dated November fifteenth, seventy-five, he describes the general feeling. He says:

"Every office shut up almost but Sam Jones', who will work for six a day and live accordingly. All business stagnated; the city half deserted for fear of a bombardment. A new Congress elected. Those for New York you will see by the papers, changed for the better. All staunch Whigs now. .. Nothing from t' other side of the water but a fearful looking for of wrath. Our Continental petition most probably condemned—the bulk of the nation, it is said are against us and a bloody campaign next summer. But let us be prepared for the worst. Who can prize life without liberty! it is a bauble only fit to be thrown away."

The spring and summer of seventy-six were spent in equipping and drilling the hastily formed troops and in fortifying the city. On the ninth of May the Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, in which a last appeal was made to the king; and he was informed that the colonists had chosen war instead of slavery. John Adams, in an address to the assembled patriots, spoke of the necessity of having a commander for the army, and proposed George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the American army. Congress confirmed the nomination on the fifteenth of June, and Washington at once repaired to New York and met the new Provincial Congress, of which Scott was a member, and which was then sitting in the city. The Continental Congress had put the quota for New

York at three thousand men, and the new commander conferred with the New York Congress upon their equipment and officering, also upon other military

matters.

Four regiments were immediately raised, and Scott's old companion tribune, and also fellow-member of the Committee of One Hundred, Alexander McDougall, was appointed to command one. Another old fellowtribune, John Lamb, was ordered by the Provincial Congress to remove some of the guns from Fort George to the passes by the Hudson. While fulfilling the order on the night of August twenty-third, a launch belonging to the "Asia," a British ship, fired upon his men. Lamb returned fire, and killed one man and wounded several other men; the "Asia" then opened a broadside into the city, and some of Lamb's men were wounded, and most of the inhabitants fled. The Committee of One Hundred ordered that as the ship had fired upon New York she should have no more communication with it, and that in future all communications should be with Governor's Island.

After the British had evacuated Boston and Washington had formally taken possession, the latter brought his army to New York, where he was met by Lee with his Connecticut forces, who had come just in time to baffle the plans of Sir Henry Clinton, who had arrived off Sandy Hook for a descent upon the city, but instead sailed southward.

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The mother country now levied twenty-five thousand English troops and seventeen thousand Hessians, and ordered an immense squadron to attempt the reduction of her colonies; and they, seeing no hope of an amicable settlement, urged their general assemblies to take some definite step toward their independence of Great Britain. Morin Scott, being a member of assembly, met with the other members in council, and they urged Congress to declare formally

the independence of the United Colonies. Congress responded by recommending the different colonies to adopt such government as might best conduce to the safety and welfare of the people; and the result, after much deliberation, was the Declaration of Independence, which was adopted by Congress July fourth, seventy-six.

On the ninth of the month, at six o'clock in the evening, the troops assembled in the Fields, and formed in a hollow square at the lower end, the Commander-in-Chief on horseback being in the centre, and the Declaration of Independence was read aloud by one of his aids. At the conclusion three hearty cheers were given. The following morning it was read at White Plains, and after it the Provincial Congress pledged themselves to "sustain it at the risk of their lives and fortunes." The Provincial Congress then despatched a messenger to their delegates in the Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia, empowering them to vote in the name of the New York colony for its adoption, and ordered it to be proclaimed in the city of New York by beat of drum, and to be read publicly from the City Hall in Wall Street.

All efforts were now directed to preparing for war. Scott was appointed to assist in sustaining Washington, with the rank of brigadier-general, and was appointed to hold and fortify Long Island. Powerful works were constructed on Brooklyn Heights to command New York, this point being the key of the whole position. The army was divided into five divisions under Generals Putnam, Sullivan, Greene, Knox, and Stirling. Aaron Burr, then aged twenty years, was on Putnam's staff, and Alexander Hamilton, a youth of nineteen, held the position of captain of battery.

I find by comparison of dates that Morin Scott held several positions at the same time, one overlapping two or more others; but as I have the facts from public

records, it may be accounted for in this way: "It is common," a writer1 has said in speaking of the times, "to see several offices in the hands of a single person who perhaps was a colonel, a judge of probate, justice of the peace, member of the legislature," etc.

The British had now concentrated their forces, amounting to thirty thousand men, nearly half of whom were Hessians, in the vicinity of New York. Washington's army was greatly inferior to them in numbers as well as in equipment and discipline.

On the twenty-second of August ten thousand British troops landed on Long Island under Howe, Tryon, Clinton, and Cornwallis. The American army, being only eight thousand strong, was posted around Brooklyn. On the twenty-seventh of August General Grant's division of the British army proceeded as far as Greenwood Cemetery, where General Stirling met him with fifteen hundred men, and hostilities commenced, with no decisive result. General Heister, in command of the British centre, advanced beyond Flatbush and engaged the main body of the Americans under Sullivan; but they gained little until the latter was made aware that a battle was going on at his left.

Along the length of the island extended a ridge over which no army could pass except at the regular passes of Flatbush and Jamaica, and at these points videttes had been stationed to give warning of any attempt on the part of the British to cross. Putnam,

towards the north, held the fortified camps. Howe, by some strategy, induced the young officers appointed to guard the Flatbush pass to advance to meet him; when a portion of his army making a détour captured the pass, and only waited for the morning to fold around our army. Sullivan's division had been literally cut to pieces. Nothing was now left for the Henry W. Frost.

patriots but to yield the position; and Washington, with his wonderful tact, that caused his retreats to rank next to victories, collected all the boats possible. A motley assembly, surely, and I doubt if ever such a fleet was seen before; sloops, schooners, whale-boats, periaugers, and rowing-galleys worked all night, and morning gave to the enemy only a few worthless guns. Sullivan, Stirling, and Woodhull, with nearly one thousand patriots, were missing from the day's battle. The English hastily crossed in pursuit, and the patriots tried to escape across the island, having landed at different points in New York. Scott's brigade crossed at Fifteenth Street, and making a détour of the city reached Harlem Plains, where he met the other stragglers. Too much praise cannot be awarded to Mrs. Murray,' whose large farm-house stood at the junction of the present Thirty-fourth Street and Lexington Avenue, then a large farm. Here by her tact she entertained Howe's men with her good cheer, and himself and officers by her gracious hospitality, till the Americans had crossed the island and were safely intrenched on Harlem Heights.

The American army was now obliged to leave New York, and Washington wrote to Governor Turnbull that the Provincial Congress had resolved not to injure the city; but a fire broke out, no one knew how it originated, and the greater part of the city was destroyed. This fire consumed the Huguenot church.

In this year Captain Nathan Hale was arrested by the British, who now held the city, and was executed in the orchard belonging to the family of Scott's wife, Helena Rutger. It took place on what is now East Broadway, a little above Franklin Square.

On the fourth of June, 1777, the New York convention met at Windsor; and the inhabitants of the grant known as New Connecticut elected some depu1 Mother of Lindley Murray, the grammarian.