On the second of July,* General Howe and the army which he commanded, whose entrance into the harbor of New York, a few days before, has been already noticed,' occupied Stateu-Island -- Richmondcounty -- with the military and naval forces which ho had brought from Halifax, say seven thousand, five hundred, and fifty-six, rank and file, including those

* Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Sabbati, A.M., June 15 " 1776."

5 Vide page 338, ante.

"General Howe's Observations on a pamphlet entitled Lettei-s to a Xoblenian, 47.

See, also, General Hoice to Lord George Gennain, " Staten Islanh, 7th "July, 177G; " General Washington to the President of the Coutinentul Congress, "New- York, July 3, 1776."

' Vide pages 339, 340, aute.

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

who were sick ; ^ and, as has been already stated, the inhabitants of that beautiful island, remembering the sentence of outlawry which had been pronounced against them, by the Provincial Congress, and the multiplied outrages to which they had been subjected, on warrants of the same body, by those who claimed to be the special defenders of the Rights of Man ; and being, also, relieved from apprehensions of a renewal of their sufferings, "testified their " loyalty by all the means in their power," furnishing the new-comers with " fresh Provisions, Carriages, " Horses, etc.," ^ and meriting, from him, the high praise which General Howe awarded to them, in his despatches to the Home Government.'

It is proper that we shall say, in this connection, that General Howe, on his arrival at Sandy-hook, on the twenty-fifth of June, had been met by Governor Tryon and many others, " fast friends to Govern- "ment," from whom he had received "the fullest " information of the state of the rebels," and of their situation and defences, in the City of New York and. on Long Island.