The Convention of the State, during that period of suspense, removed back from the White Plains to Harlem, occupying the old Church-building of the Reformed Dutch Church;' and, nearer to the scene of the expected troubles, it provided for the protection of the Hudson-river and Long Island Sound, where the enemy was expected to make a landing, in force, by ordering the entire Militia of Westchestercounty to appear, with five days' provisions, to take possession of such points, on the river and Sound, as General Morris should regard as most exposed to the enemy ; to remain in service during ten days ; to receive Continental pay and subsistence ; and iliat each man who should not have arms should bring with him a shovel, spade, or pickaxe, or a scythe straightened and fixed on a pole^" -- the latter, not easily to
* General Hoice to Lord George Germaine, " Staten Island, 15 Au- "gust, 1776;" Annual Register for 1776: History of Europe,* 169 ; Memoirs of General Heath, 53 ; Gordon's Histirry of the American Sevolulion, ii., 304, 305.
5 General Hove to Lord George Germaine, " Staten Island, 15 August, "1776;" Governor Tryon to the same, "Ship Di chess of Gordon, off "ST.iTEN Island, August 14, 1776," postscript, dated "August 15, '' 1776 ; " Gordon's History of the American Revolution, ii., 306 ; etc.
'Jones's History of Sew York during the Revolutionary War, i., 103.
' General Howe lo Lord George Germaine, " Staten Island, I5th "August, 1776."