troops stationed at them. He seemed a fit custodian for them,
having been a soldier from his youth; brought up on a frontier subject
to Indian alarms and incursions, and acquainted with the strong points
and fastnesses of the Highlands.

King's Bridge, and the heights adjacent, considered by General Lee of
the utmost importance to the communication between New York and the
mainland, and to the security of the Hudson, were reconnoitred by
Washington on horseback, about the middle of the month; ordering where
works should be laid out. Breastworks were to be thrown up for the
defence of the bridge, and an advanced work (subsequently called Fort
Independence) was to be built beyond it, on a hill commanding Spyt den
Duivel Creek, as that inlet of the Hudson is called, which links it
with the Harlem River. A strong work, intended as a kind of citadel,
was to crown a rocky height between two and three miles south of the
bridge, commanding the channel of the Hudson, and below it were to be
redoubts on the banks of the river at Jeffrey's Point. In honor of the
general, the citadel received the name of Fort Washington. While these
preparations were made for the protection of the Hudson, the works
about Brooklyn on Long Island were carried on with great activity,
under the superintendence of General Greene. In a word, the utmost
exertions were made at every point, to put the city, its environs, and
the Hudson River, in a state of defence, before the arrival of another
hostile armament.

Operations in Canada were now drawing to a disastrous close. General
Thomas, finding it impossible to make a stand at Point Deschambault,
had continued his retreat to the mouth of the Sorel, where he found
General Thompson with part of the troops detached by Washington, from
New York, who were making some preparations for defence. Shortly after
his arrival, he was taken ill with the small-pox, and removed to
Chamblee. He had prohibited inoculation among his troops, because it
put too many of their scanty number on the sick list; he probably fell
a victim to his own prohibition, as he died of that malady on the 2d
of June.

On his death, General Sullivan, who had recently arrived with the main
detachment of troops from New York, succeeded to the command; General
Wooster having been recalled. He advanced immediately with his brigade
to the mouth of the Sorel, where he found General Thompson with but
very few troops to defend that post, having det