The vigilance with which the AVestchester-shore of the river was generally watched and the extreme backwardness of even those who had been outraged by the County and Town Committees, to abandon their fsimilies and their homes, even in retaliation or because of their honorable loyalty t(» their Sovereign, were so painfully evident, however, that (reneral Howe became convinced that if " the Militia of Westchester-county "could not be depended on," in the revolutionary interest, it was equally untrustworthy, in the interest of the King; that the farmers of Westchester-county were reliable, mainly, in their love of their respective homes; that they desired nothing more than a peaceful occupation of their respective fiirms; and that he need not expect any military co-operation from them. He learned the lesson, faithfully ; and no one who reads what he subsequently wrote,^ no one who studies

1 General Washingtvn to John Augustine Washington, "N"!W-YoRK, 22 "July, 1776."

2 Ibid.

3 In his piiblislied Despatclies to tlie Home Government, while he held the chief commund of the .\i my in .\nierica, and in his Xurnilive in a Committee of tke House of Commons, relative to his Conduct, etc., especially in bis Obsenitlioiis upon a pam]ih!et entUled Lettei'S to a Nobleman, Oeneral Howe told the story of his great exi)ection of active cooperation, ill Ihejifld, from those who favored the Koyal ca\ise ; of the

what he subsequently did, concerning the alleged loyal element of the country, will fail to trace the spirit of both his words and his actions, back to the teachings of that not unprofitable expedition of the Plucnix and the Hose into the western waters of Westchestercounty.