their troubles, the troops from Connecticut, who had been unnecessarily brought to the City of New York -- " the movement seemed to have for its ead to coerce " rather than to defend New York ' " -- who were unemployed, endeavored to make additions to their military pay, by underbidding the local mechanics, for work to be done, in that City : ^ and the Provincial Congress was compelled to seek employment, for both classes, elsewhere;' to establish manufactories for the employment of them ; * and to supply provisions and firewood, to prevent their families from starving or perishing from the cold.* As many as could do so, said to be one-half of the population, abandoned the City of New York, with their families, to find safety and employment and charity, elsewhere ; ° and many, driven by necessity ' and the neglect of the Government to protect them,* as well as for the promised pay

See, also, the Memorial of the Vestry of the City of New York to the Provincial Congress, " May 30, 1776 ;" etc.

1 Bancroft's Jlistory of the United States, original edition, viii., 278 ; the same, centenary edition, v., 185.

- "Till- Kegiuieiit liere, from Connecticut, can turn out many Carpen- " teru, who consent to work upon much more reasonable terms than the "artificer of this City. It would, I imagine, be worth while to pro- "vide, if possible, a suflicient number of tools: when the present work "is done, these tools cannot be considered an idle purchase : they will • 'always be useful," {General Charles Lee to the I^ovincial Congress, '•New-Yoek, February 22, 1776.")