Nothwithstandiug "all these difficulties, we are determined to combat every obstacle and "to strain every nerve in defense of the rights and liberties of America, " which we conceive to be most materially interested in the safety of this "State. By our Rescdutions for ordering the several drafts made in the "Counties of Suffolk, Queens, Kings, AVestchester, Duchess, Ulster, and " Orange, to the environs of New Y'ork, we hope, in about six days, to "add near three thousand men to your Army.

" We lament, exceedingly, that we should have occasion to complain " of the languid efforts which the neighbouring States have made for " our assistance. From the zeal they professed for the public cause ; " from the vicinity of some of them to this invaded country ; ami from " the dangerous situation in which Connecticut, Massiichusetis, Penn- " sylvania, and Jersey must be in, should the enemy succeed in their "designs against this State, we expected the most strenuous and expe- '•ditious exertions. How great our concern [is] at finding so considera- " ble a deficiency in the establishment of this Army, your Excellency "may easily judge from the feelings of a patriotic bosom, on the im- " portance of the cause and the dangers to which it is, by these means, " exposed.

" We flatter ourselves, however, that this supineness will not be of

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

General Howe, on the coiitnirv, had been strengthened, on the twelfth of July, by the arrival of his brother, Admiral Lord Howe, with the long expected reinforcements for the Royal Army and he brought, also, a Commission from the King, appointing his brother. General Howe, and himself '^ to be Commissioners for granting pardons to those of the Americans who should ask for the clemency of the Sovereign.' On the twelfth of August, the two fleets, under the convoy, respectively, of Commodore Hotham and the Repulse, met ofl" Sandy-hook, and entered