confidently anticipated from the
superiority of the land and naval forces of the allies, would be put
in imminent hazard.

Information was received that a reinforcement of six ships of the line
under Admiral Digby had reached New York. Confident that the British
fleet, thus augmented, would attempt every thing for the relief of
Lord Cornwallis, De Grasse expected to be attacked by a force not much
inferior to his own. Thinking his station within the Chesapeake
unfavourable for a naval combat, he designed to change it, and
communicated to General Washington his intention to leave a few
frigates to block up the mouths of James and York Rivers, and to put
to sea with his fleet in quest of the British. If they should not have
left the harbour of New York, he purposed to block them up in that
place; supposing that his operations in that quarter would be of more
service to the common cause, than his remaining in the bay, an idle
spectator of the siege of York.

The Commander-in-chief was much alarmed at this communication. Should
the admiral put to sea, the winds and many accidents might prevent
his return to the Chesapeake. During his absence, a temporary naval
superiority might be acquired by the British in those waters, and the
army of Lord Cornwallis might be placed in perfect security. The
movement would expose to the caprice of fortune, an object of vast
importance, which was now reduced almost to certainty. The admiral was
therefore entreated to preserve his station.

Fortunately, the wishes of the general prevailed, and the admiral
consented to relinquish those plans of active enterprise which his
thirst for military glory had suggested, and to maintain a station
which the American general deemed so conducive to the interests of the
allies.

[Sidenote: September 25.]

On the 25th of September, the last division of the allied troops
arrived in James River, and were disembarked at the landing near
Williamsburg; soon after which, the preparations for the siege were
completed.

[Sidenote: Yorktown invested.]

York is a small village on the south side of the river which bears
that name, where the long peninsula between the York and the James, is
only eight miles wide. In this broad and bold river, a ship of the
line may ride in safety. Its southern banks are high, and, on the
opposite shore, is Gloucester Point, a piece of land projecting deep
into the river, and narrowing it, at that place, to the space of one