e received advices
from home, which convinced him that a sudden and rapid abandonment of
Philadelphia and of Delaware Bay might become necessary. He therefore
withdrew his ships of the line from New York and Narragansett,
concentrating them at the mouth of Delaware Bay, while the transports
embarked all stores, except those needed for a fortnight's supply
of the army in a hostile country. The threatening contingency of
a superior enemy's appearing off the coast might, and did, make it
imperative not to risk the troops at sea, but to choose instead the
alternative of a ninety-mile march through New Jersey, which a year
before had been rejected as too hazardous for an even larger force.
Thus prepared, no time was lost when the evacuation became necessary.
Sir William Howe, who had been relieved on the 24th of May by Sir
Henry Clinton, and had returned to England, escaped the humiliation of
giving up his dearly bought conquest. On the 18th of June the British
troops, twelve thousand in number, were ferried across the Delaware,
under the supervision of the Navy, and began their hazardous march to
New York. The next day the transports began to move down the river;
but, owing to the intricate navigation, head winds, and calms, they
did not get to sea until the 28th of June. On the 8th of July, ten
days too late, d'Estaing anchored in the mouth of the Delaware. "Had a
passage of even ordinary length taken place," wrote Washington, "Lord
Howe with the British ships of war and all the transports in the river
Delaware must inevitably have fallen; and Sir Henry Clinton must have
had better luck than is commonly dispensed to men of his profession
under such circumstances, if he and his troops had not shared at least
the fate of Burgoyne."

Had Howe's fleet been intercepted, there would have been no naval
defence for New York; the French fleet would have surmounted the
difficulties of the harbour bar at its ease; and Clinton, caught
between it and the American army, must have surrendered. Howe's
arrival obviated this immediate danger; but much still needed to be
done, or the end would be postponed only, not averted. A fair wind
carried the fleet and the whole convoy from the Delaware to Sandy
Hook in forty-eight hours. On the morning of the 29th, as Howe was
approaching his port, he spoke a packet from England, which not only
brought definite news of d'Estaing's sailing, but also reported that
she herself had fallen in with him to