engagement, as to put an entire stop to their operations. Instead of
coming forth and improving their pretended victory, they did not dare to
venture out of the trenches and fortifications they had constructed
round Boston.

"The only apparent benefit gained by the troops was that they kept
possession of the ground whereon Charleston had stood; they fortified it
on every side, in order to secure themselves from the sudden attacks
that were daily threatened from so numerous a force as that which now
invested Boston....

"The Provincials, on the other hand, to convince the troops how little
their success had availed them, raised intrenchments on a height
opposite Charleston, intimating to them that they were ready for another
Bunker's Hill business whenever they thought proper, and were no less
willing than they to make another trial of skill.

"Their boldness increased to a degree that astonished the British
officers, who had, unhappily, been taught to believe them a contemptible
enemy, averse to the dangers of war, and incapable of the regular
operations of an army. The skirmishes were now renewed in Boston Bay.
The necessities of the garrison occasioned several attempts to carry off
the remaining stock of cattle and other articles of provision the
islands might contain. But the Provincials, who were better acquainted
with the navigation of the bay, landed on these islands, in spite of the
precaution of the numerous shipping, and destroyed or carried off
whatever could be of use; they even ventured so far as to burn the
light-house, situated at the entrance of the harbour, and afterwards
made prisoners of a number of workmen that had been sent to repair it,
together with a party of marines that guarded them." (Dr. Andrews'
History of the Late War, etc., Vol. I., Chap. xiii., pp. 300-306;
published under royal authority in 1785.)]

[Footnote 376: History of the United States, Vol. VII., Chap. xxv., pp.
271, 272.]

[Footnote 377: The Secretary of State had instructed Lord Dunmore to
call the Assembly together, in order to submit to them a "conciliatory
proposition," as it was called, which Lord North had introduced into
Parliament--a proposition calculated to divide the colonies, and then
reduce each of them to servitude; but the colonies saw the snare, and
every one of them rejected the insidious offer. Lord Dunmore, in
obedience to his instructions, assembled for the last time the Virginia
House of Burgesses in J