on.

In the preceding month of October, a letter had been laid before
Congress, written by some person in London of high credibility, and
revealing a secret plan of operations said to have been sent out by
ministers to the commanders in Boston. The following is the purport:
Possession was to be gained of New York and Albany, through the
assistance of Governor Tryon, on whose influence with the tory part of
the population, much reliance was placed. These cities were to be very
strongly garrisoned. All who did not join the king's forces were to be
declared rebels. The Hudson River, and the East River or Sound, were
to be commanded by a number of small men-of-war and cutters, stationed
in different parts, so as wholly to cut off all communication by water
between New York and the provinces to the northward of it; and between
New York and Albany, except for the king's service; and to prevent,
also, all communication between the city of New York and the provinces
of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and those to the southward of them. "By
these means," said the letter, "the administration and their friends
fancy they shall soon either starve out or retake the garrisons of
Crown Point and Ticonderoga, and open and maintain a safe intercourse
and correspondence between Quebec, Albany, and New York; and thereby
offer the fairest opportunity to their soldiery and the Canadians, in
conjunction with the Indians to be procured by Guy Johnson, to make
continual irruptions into New Hampshire, Massachusetts and
Connecticut, and so distract and divide the Provincial forces, as to
render it easy for the British army at Boston to defeat them, break
the spirits of the Massachusetts people, depopulate their country, and
compel an absolute subjection to Great Britain."

This information had already excited solicitude respecting the Hudson,
and led to measures for its protection. It was now surmised that the
expedition preparing to sail from Boston, and which was to be
conducted by Sir Henry Clinton, might be destined to seize upon New
York. How was the apprehended blow to be parried? General Lee, who was
just returned from his energetic visit to Rhode Island, offered his
advice and services in the matter. In a letter to Washington, he urged
him to act at once, and on his own responsibility, without awaiting
the tardy and doubtful sanction of Congress, for which, in military
matters, Lee had but small regard.

"New York must be secured," writes h