now elapsed without further tidings of the fleet, when
the tormenting uncertainties concerning it were brought to an end by
intelligence that it had actually entered the Chesapeake and anchored
at Swan Point, at least two hundred miles within the capes. "By
General Howe's coming so far up the Chesapeake," writes Washington,
"he must mean to reach Philadelphia by that route, though to be sure
it is a strange one." The mystery of these various appearances and
vanishings which had caused so much wonder and perplexity is easily
explained. Shortly before putting to sea with the ships of war, Howe
had sent a number of transports and a ship cut down as a floating
battery up the Hudson, which had induced Washington to despatch troops
to the Highlands. After putting to sea, the fleet was a week in
reaching the Capes of Delaware. When there, the commanders were
deterred from entering the river by reports of measures taken to
obstruct its navigation. It was then determined to make for Chesapeake
Bay, and approach in that way as near as possible to Philadelphia.
Contrary winds, however, kept them for a long time from getting into
the bay.

Lafayette in his memoirs describes a review of Washington's army which
he witnessed about this time. "Eleven thousand men, but tolerably
armed and still worse clad, presented," he said, "a singular
spectacle; in this parti-colored and often naked state, the best
dresses were hunting shirts of brown linen. Their tactics were equally
irregular. They were arranged without regard to size, excepting that
the smallest men were the front rank: with all this there were
good-looking soldiers conducted by zealous officers." The several
divisions of the army had been summoned to the immediate neighborhood
of Philadelphia, and the militia of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the
northern parts of Virginia were called out. Many of the militia, with
Colonel Proctor's corps of artillery, had been ordered to rendezvous
at Chester on the Delaware, about twelve miles below Philadelphia; and
by Washington's orders General Wayne left his brigade under the next
in command and repaired to Chester to arrange the troops assembling
there.

As there had been much disaffection to the cause evinced in
Philadelphia, Washington, in order to encourage its friends and
dishearten its enemies, marched with the whole army through the city,
down Front and up Chestnut Street. Great pains were taken to make the
display as imposing as po