When about three quar-ter's of a mile from Miller's Hill, they wheeled to the left, crossed the Bronx, and advanced northwesterly, for the purpose of taking possession of Travis' Hill. This was emin-ence opposite Colonel Glover's position which it commanded. When they were preparing to ascend the hill, Colonel Glover unmasked his battery and surprised his adversaries by an animated fire, which at first threw them into confusion. They ascended the hill, however, with a party of dragoons and a field-piece; which latter they hastily discharged four times

58 THE MCDONALD PAPERS and then retreated. No loss was sustained upon this occa-sion by Glover's men. A Hessian cannonier and an artillery horse were found dead upon Travis' Hill, but what other loss the enemy met with, if any, remains unknown. In the after-noon the British forces withdrew to their former encampment. General Howe perceiving that Washington meant to avoid an engagement, and knowing that any attempt to force his lines would be attended with great loss of life and uncertain results, determined after the reconnaissance of the 1st of November, to close his campaign upon another theatre. He accordingly made no other movement against the Americans while he remained at Whiteplains. "The two armies," says General Heath in his memoirs, "lay looking at each other, and within long cannon-shot. In the night time, the British lighted up a vast number of fires, the weather growing pretty cold. These fires, some on the level ground, some at the foot of the hill, and at all distances to their brows, some of which were lofty, seemed to the eye to mix with the stars, and to be of different magnitudes. The American side, doubtless, exhibited to them a similar appearance." Washington now, with his utmost energy, proceeded to fortify the hills along the summit, of his new position.