monstration, so interesting to those of Westchestercounty who lived near the line of the Hudson-river, neither of the great opposing powers, in the City of New York and on Long Island, on the one side, and on and around Staten Island, on the other, did any thing else than to strengthen their respective forces and prepare for the rapidly approaching contest. General Washington continued to strengthen his defences, both in the City of New York and on Long Island ; but the backwardness of the distant States, in sending reinforcements to the Army, not only caused a constant anxiety, at Head-quarters, but an alarm which extended beyond the lines of the Camp.'-'

in full, what General Heath, in his Memoirs, under the date of the sixteenth of August, 1776, hid said of the attempt to destroy these ships, which is the subject of the narrative, in the text. (History of Westehestereonitty, original edition, ii., 4.59, 460 ; the same, second edition, ii., 627, 628.)

As it is more than probable that the ships, when they were attacke<l, were off Tarrytown, instead of below Y'oukere; as Yonkers, in 1777, was within the British lines, and so conld not have alTorded a rendezvous, in the Saw-Mill-river, for .\mericttn gun-boats and fireships, during that year ; as the Pha nij- and the Hose had dropped down to the anchorage of the Royal Fleet, off .Staten Island, on the eighteenth of August, 17'6, two days after the engagement des< ribed in the text ; .and as the autliiirity whom be quoted, in full, descriiied the engagement, of which he was an eye-witness, as having taken place on the sixteenth of August, 1771!, it will be evident to the reader that the historian of Westchesterciuiuty, as well us his posthumous Editor, blundered.