o
declare, although he had no knowledge regarding it whatsoever, that
heavy reinforcements were already on the way from Cambridge.

Just at that time I was giving more heed to the spectacle before me,
than to the great disparity in numbers between the Britishers and
ourselves. The barges laden with red-coated men, who stood or sat
immovable as statues with the sunlight glinting on their accouterments
like tiny flashes of lightning, came on steadily. The oarsmen worked
with the greatest precision, while the _Lively_ and the _Falcon_ swept
with iron hail all that tract of land between Breed's hill and the
point.

It was a wondrous sight, the landing of those troops at Morton's point.
Even though they were enemies, and were come to grind us yet further
into the dust, I could not but admire the military exactness with which
they disembarked and moved in heavy lines straight up on what we
sometimes called Morton's hill, as if the whole force was one gigantic
piece of machinery instead of being formed of human atoms.

General Howe was in command of the Britishers, as we afterward learned,
and he acted as if intending to take matters in the most leisurely way
possible, for after all the troops had arrived and ascended the hill,
huge tubs containing punch made from spirits, and baskets seemingly
filled to repletion with food, were brought ashore from the barges,
while we who were thirsty and hungry could look down upon those
red-coated men as they were allowed to stretch themselves at ease upon
the ground, eating and drinking at their pleasure.

The sight was one well calculated to cause us greater desire for food
and drink than before, if indeed that could be possible, and for a time
I believed General Howe had done this for no other purpose than to
tantalize us, thus showing how different was the care taken of those
hired men who served the king only for the money to be gotten thereby,
and us who were struggling to free our land.

Afterward I came to learn that the reason for the long halt on Morton's
hill was that the troops had brought with them cannon balls too large to
be used in their pieces, and the delay in making an attack was enforced
that this mistake might be rectified by sending to Boston for what was
needed.

By the time the lobster backs had come to an end of their sumptuous
dinner, we on Breed's hill were heartened by seeing the remainder of
Colonel Stark's regiment and all of Reed's corps coming forward