miles, the breadth of the river seldom above one
hundred yards, the banks high, and the inhabitants on each side
generally hostile. He was compelled, therefore, to continue his
retreat by land, quite to Wilmington, where he arrived on the 7th of
April.

It was his lordship's intention, as soon as he should have equipped
his own corps and received a part of the expected reinforcements from
Ireland, to return to the upper country, in hopes of giving protection
to the royal interests in South Carolina, and of preserving the health
of his troops until he should concert new measures with Sir Henry
Clinton. His plans were all disconcerted, however, by intelligence of
Greene's rapid march toward Camden. All thoughts of offensive
operations against North Carolina were at an end. Sickness, desertion,
and the loss sustained at Guilford Court-house, had reduced his little
army to fourteen hundred and thirty-five men. In this sad predicament,
after remaining several days in a painful state of irresolution he
determined to take advantage of Greene's having left the back part of
Virginia open, to march directly into that province, and attempt a
junction with the force acting there under General Phillips.

By this move, he might draw Greene back to the northward, and by the
reduction of Virginia, he might promote the subjugation of the South.
The move, however, he felt to be perilous. His troops were worn down
by upwards of eight hundred miles of marching and countermarching,
through an inhospitable and impracticable country; they had now three
hundred more before them; under still worse circumstances than those
in which they first set out. There was no time for hesitation or
delay; Greene might return and render the junction with Phillips
impracticable; having sent an express to the latter, therefore,
informing him of his coming, and appointing a meeting at Petersburg,
his lordship set off on the 25th of April, on his fated march into
Virginia.

We must now step back in dates to bring up events in the more northern
parts of the Union.

CHAPTER LXII.
THE WAR IN VIRGINIA.--DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST NEW YORK.

In a former chapter we left Benedict Arnold fortifying himself at
Portsmouth, after his ravaging incursion. At the solicitation of
Governor Jefferson, backed by Congress, the Chevalier de la Luzerne
had requested the French commander at the eastward to send a
ship-of-the-line and some frigates to Chesapeake Bay to opp