used for that purpose, and filling the casks with wet hay,
some rotten limes, and the stuff they were packed in, returned them to
the hold. On examination, the casks of limes were found to have been
entirely spoilt. Such tricks are, however, I must own, not only
unworthy of imitation, but scarcely fit to be recorded.

I must now give a glance at the position of the belligerent armies at
this period. Washington, having crossed the Hudson into the Jerseys,
had been compelled by the desertion of a considerable number of his
troops, who had enlisted only for short periods, to retreat across the
Delaware, while some of the most fertile tracts of the country fell into
the hands of the Royalists. General Lee, an officer of considerable
talent and daring, was surprised and captured by a body of British
cavalry; while the other rebel generals found themselves, with
diminished and disheartened forces, separated from each other, and
without resources or means of recruiting; indeed, the revolutionary
cause appeared to have arrived at its lowest ebb, and great hopes were
entertained that a speedy conclusion would be made to the sanguinary
contest. Perhaps the Americans were not so badly off as we supposed.
That they were not asleep was proved by their gallant and well-conducted
surprise and capture of Colonel Rahl and a thousand Hessian troops at
Trenton on Christmas Day, an enterprise which inspirited the Americans,
and was a severe loss to the Royalists. The Hessian commander was
mortally wounded, and died the next day; and most of his men, being
marched into the interior, settled in the country. Soon after this
occurrence Washington was appointed military dictator, and through his
consummate conduct the prospects of the rebels began to revive.

Of course the progress of the war was the constant subject of
conversation while I was at New York, and I consequently heard a good
deal about it. Before I end this chapter, I think it may prove
interesting if I give a slight sketch of the warlike proceedings which
had occurred up to this period on the Canadian frontier, as well as some
of the proceedings of General Washington and his army.

Lakes Champlain and George, approaching as they do the upper waters of
the Hudson, have always been considered the key to the northern
provinces from Canada. Their possession has therefore been looked on as
of the first importance; and Ticonderoga, the chief fort at the head of
Lake Champla