ntured to issue a proclamation, in which he discharged the
militia who were prisoners from their paroles, with the exception of
those who were taken in Charleston and fort Moultrie, and restored
them to all the rights and duties of British subjects; declaring, at
the same time, that such of them as should neglect to return to their
allegiance, should be considered and treated as enemies and rebels.

This proclamation disclosed to the inhabitants their real situation.
It proved that a state of neutrality was not within their reach; that
the evils of war were unavoidable; that they must arrange themselves
on the one side or the other; and that the only alternative presented
to them was, to drive the enemy out of their country, or take up arms
against their countrymen.

[Sidenote: June 5.]

With the most sanguine hopes that the southern states would be
reunited to the British empire, Sir Henry Clinton embarked for New
York, leaving about four thousand British troops in South Carolina,
under the command of Lord Cornwallis.

His lordship found it necessary to suspend the expedition he had
meditated against North Carolina. The impossibility of supporting an
army in that state before harvest, as well as the intense heat of the
season, required this delay. His first care was to distribute his
troops through South Carolina and the upper parts of Georgia, so as to
promote the great and immediate objects of enlisting the young men who
were willing to join his standard, of arranging the plan of a militia,
and of collecting magazines at convenient places.

In the mean time, he despatched emissaries to his friends in North
Carolina, to inform them of the necessary delay of his expedition
into their country, and to request them to attend to their harvest,
collect provisions, and remain quiet until late in August or early in
September, when the King's troops would be ready to enter the
province.

The impatience of the royalists, stimulated by the triumph of their
friends in a neighbouring state, and by the necessary severities of a
vigilant government, could not be restrained by this salutary counsel.
Anticipating the immediate superiority of their party, they could not
brook the authority exercised over them, and broke out into premature
and ill concerted insurrections, which were vigorously encountered,
and generally suppressed. One body of them, however, amounting to
about eight hundred men, led by Colonel Bryan, marched down