he previous evening, which had fallen with fatal effect
on more than one of Washington's soldiers, threatened to delay the
movement, but a still atmosphere followed, and the morning of the 22d
broke favorably.[108] At dawn the three frigates Phoenix, Greyhound
and Rose, with the bomb-ketches Thunder and Carcass, took their
stations close into the Bay as covering ships for the landing, while
Sir George Collier placed the Rainbow within the Narrows, opposite De
Nyse's Ferry, now Fort Hamilton, to silence a battery supposed to be
at that point. Upon the Staten Island shore fifteen thousand British
and Hessian troops, fully equipped, and forty pieces of artillery had
been drawn up during the day and evening before, and a part of them
embarked upon transports lying near at anchor. At the beach were
moored seventy-five flat-boats, eleven batteaux, and two galleys,
built expressly for the present service, and manned by sailors from
the ships of war, which, with the rest of the naval armament, were
placed under the direction of Commodore Hotham.

[Footnote 107: The Tories gave Howe all the information he needed. One
Gilbert Forbes testified at the "Hickey Plot" examination that a
Sergeant Graham, formerly of the Royal Artillery, had told him that he
(the sergeant), at the request of Governor Tryon, had surveyed the
works around the city and on Long Island, and had concerted a plan of
attack, which he gave to the governor (_Force_, 4th Series, vol. vi.,
p. 1178). On his arrival at Staten Island, Howe wrote to Germaine,
July 7th: "I met with Governor Tryon, on board of ship at the Hook,
and many gentlemen, fast friends to government, attending him, from
whom I have had the fullest information of the state of the rebels,
who are numerous, and very advantageously posted, with strong
intrenchments, both upon Long Island and that of New York, with more
than one hundred pieces of cannon for the defence of the town towards
the sea," etc.--_Force_, 5th Series, vol. i., p. 105.]

[Footnote 108: This storm, which is mentioned by Colonel Douglas,
Captain Hale, Chaplain Benedict, and others, hung over the city from
seven to ten in the evening, and is described by Pastor Shewkirk as
being more terrible than that which "struck into Trinity Church"
twenty years before. Captain Van Wyck and two lieutenants of
McDougall's regiment and a Connecticut soldier were killed by the
lightning.]

As soon as the covering frigates were in position, the