General Howe, in his first despatch on the matter, informed the Home Government that he had ■'submitted to Admiral Shuldham's consideration the " propriety of sending a naval force up the North- " river, above the Town of New York, with a view to "distress the rebels on that Island, by obstructing " supplies coming down the river, and other good " consequences dependent upon that measure, which " meeting with his approbation, orders are given for " two ships, one of forty and another of twenty guns, " to proceed upon that service, the first favorable op- " portunity ; and I flatter myself that these ships, "more than which cannot be spared at present from " the protection of the transports, will prove of suffi- "cient force to support themselves against all at- " tempts of the enemy, from the upper river, and to " answer the purposes for which they are intended," ^ from which it will be seen that it was a naval movement made for a ])urely military purpose, originated by the General-in-chief of the Army ; and, it is said, unwillingly acquiesced in, by the Admiral."

It was said by General Howe, as we have seen, that the purpose was to cut off the supplies, for the City, which were brought down the river ; but he also said, it will be remembered, there were "other good "consequences dependent upon that measure," of the character of which " consequences " he prudently said nothing. If, among those " other good consequences," it was intended to cut oft" the communication, by water, between New York and Albany and, therefore, between the Army on the northern frontier and the main Army, at the former place, as General Washington suspected,' that would have been a well-devised