of the
inhabitants expected an immediate collision, and began to leave the
place. One Garish Harsin, writing from New York to William Radclift at
Rhyn Beck, sums up in a single sentence the effect of the harbor
news:[20] "It is impossible to describe the confusion the place was in
on account of the regulars being come." And when rumors magnified
Clinton's two or three transports into a British fleet of nineteen
sail, Harsin informs his friend that the people were taking themselves
out of town "as if it were the Last Day." Pastor Shewkirk, of the
Moravian Church, in his interesting diary[21] of passing events, tells
us that "the inhabitants began now to move away in a surprising
manner," and that "the whole aspect of things grew frightful, and
increased so from day to day." To add to the discomfort and suffering
of the people, the weather was very cold, and the rivers full of ice.

[Footnote 20: "New York in the Revolution." Published by the New York
Mercantile Library Association.]

[Footnote 21: Part II., Document 37.]

The Committee of Safety, in their anxiety as to the effect of Lee's
occupation of the city, had already written to the Continental
Congress on the subject, and that body at once sent up a committee,
consisting of Messrs. Harrison, Lynch, and Allen, to advise with Lee
and the New York Committee. The latter accepted the situation,
consented to the entry of the troops into town, and at a conference
with Lee and the Congress Committee on the 6th, agreed to the
immediate prosecution of defensive measures.

Upon his arrival, the general sent his engineer, Captain William
Smith, "an excellent, intelligent, active officer," to survey and
report upon the salient points of the position, especially around Hell
Gate and on Long Island. Lee and Stirling also went over the ground
several times. As a result of these inspections, the general became
convinced that to attempt a complete defence of the city would be
impracticable, because the ample sea-room afforded by the harbor and
rivers gave the enemy every advantage, enabling them, with their
powerful fleet, to threaten an attack in front and flank. Lee saw this
at once, and reported his views to Washington, February 19th. "What to
do with the city," he wrote, "I own, puzzles me. It is so encircled
with deep navigable waters, that whoever commands the sea must command
the town;" and to the New York Committee he said that it would be
impossible to make the place