ConlinenttU Congress, " New ToEK, 27 June, mt>," postscript dated "June " 28th."]

On the following day. General Washington wrote thus: "I suppose "the whole fleet will be in, within a day or two." [It all arrired on thit day,^ "I am hopeful, before they are prepared to attiick, that I "shall get some reinforcements. Be that as it m.ay, I shall attempt "to make the best disposition I can of our troops, in order to give them "a proper reception, and prevent the ruin and destruction they are " meditating against us," (General Washington to the President of the Con' linenlal Congress," tfEW York, 29 June, 1776.")

A few days after General Washington had thus conveyed the intelligence of the weakness of his command, to the Continental Congress, the .\ijjutant-general of the .\rmy is said to have written to a member of the same Congress, on the same subject, in these words: "With an "Army of force, before, and a secret one, behind, we stund on a point "of land with six thousand old troops, if a year's service of about half "can entitle them to the name, and about fifteen hundred new levies, "of this Province, many disaffected and more doubtful. In this situ- " ation we are; every man in the Army, from the General to the Pri- "vate, acquainted with our true situation, is exceedingly discouraged. "Had I known the true posture of affairs, no consideration would have "tempted me to have taken an active part of this scene ; and this sen- *'timent is univei'sal," [Adjutant-general Joseph Peed "to a Member of " Congress," "New Yoek, July 4, 177(i," quoted by Dr. Gordon, in his History of the Pise, Progress and Establishment of the Independence of the United States of America, Edition, London : 1788, ii., 278.)