must be recollected that all the successes which had attended the arms
of Washington were the results of a winter campaign. Still something
was done by General Howe during this season of repose. Several thousand
provincial troops, native Americans, and ardent royalists were enrolled
and trained, and placed under the command of Governor Tryon, who was
honoured with the rank of major-general of the provincials. And the good
faith of these troops might be calculated upon, for the greater part
had been losers by the revolution, not only of property, but of the
consideration which they had held in the colonies; and they hoped,
therefore, to regain all that they had lost. Moreover, during the
winter, an intercourse was kept up with the royalists in other parts of
the continent; and both Washington and congress were frequently alarmed
by rumours of movements and insurrections in various colonies. Congress,
however, by means of the committees of safety, did what they could to
remove all persons of influence and "desperate character" into some
remote place, where they could effect no harm to the republican cause.

BRITISH EXPEDITION UP THE HUDSON RIVER.

In the course of the spring General Howe was assured that Washington's
main position, now among the Jersey hills, and called the Manor of
Courland, was converted into a kind of citadel, and that the port to
which his supplies were chiefly carried was Peekshill, about fifty mites
up the Hudson River. Acting upon this information he sent a detachment
of five hundred men, under the command of Colonel Bird, in a couple of
transports, to drive the Americans away from Peekshill, and to capture
their stores. As Bird approached the Americans fled from their position,
but before they retreated they set fire to their store-houses, so that
no booty was obtained. Shortly after this exploit Howe sent 2000 men,
under the command of Governor Tryon, General Agnew, and Sir William
Erskine, to seize a large quantity of stores which had been collected
for Washington's army at Danbury, on the borders of Connecticut. This
detachment sailed up the east river in transports, and having landed
at Camp's Point, the troops marched to Danbury. On their approach, the
Americans fled precipitately, and they entered the town, where they
found a large quantity of stores; but having no carriages to carry
them away, they were burned, together with the town of Danbury. Having
completed their work of destruct