Strong assurances were " also received from Long Island and the neighboring "parts of New Jersey, of the favorable disposition of ''the people to the Royal Cause," it was said; and those who had been harried from their homes, and who had sought refuge in the swamps and thickets of the country, victims of the rapine and outrages of lawless and ruthless "patriots," their own countrymen, quite reasonably, hastened to seek the protection of those by whom, under a more judicious policy, they would be enabled to occupy their own homes and to pursue the ordinary routine of their peaceful lives, in quietude and safety. A large and well-provided force, for the reinforcement of General Howe's command, was known to be on the ocean and not distant, convoyed by a strong naval force, under the command of Admiral Howe -- the latter a brother of the General and, with him, a half brother of the King -- and it was already known that, thenceforth, New York would be the base of all the military and naval operations, on the Atlantic seaboard, in the next campaign.

On the day after the King's forces came into the harbor, l_June 30, 1776,] after it had provided for the removal " of a'l and singular the public papers and "money" which were then in the possession of its Secretary and its Treasurer, to the White Plains, the Provincial Congress was hastily adjourned to that place, as has been already stated, in order that it might escape from the possibly sudden attack on the City, by the Royal forces -- an attack by them, on the seat of the local Government of the Rebellion in the Colony of New York, and that at an early day, having evidently been a feature in the pre-constructed plans of General Howe.