The apparent inactivity of the two opposing Armies, during several weeks after the occupation of the City of New York, was not understood, even by the Congress, and created some uneasiness;' but both were actively employed, the Royal Army in throwing up a line of defences, on the high grounds overlooking the Harlem-plains, from the South, in order to protect the City from an attack from the landside, when the main Army should be put in motion, for other operations;- and the American Army in not only throwing up defences on the high grounds overlooking the Harlem-plains, from the North, in order to protect itself from any attack which might be made on it, in that remarkably strong position,' but in throwing up defensive works, in its rear and at distant points, in order to guard against any surprise, by the enemy, of either of those points.*

During that long interval of apparent inactivity in the two Armies, the Convention of New York and its Committee of Safety were not idle nor inattentive to the interests of the country. It provided for the removal of the women, children, and infirm, and that of the poor, from the City of New York, in some instances into Westchester-county ; ^ aud the care of the public records also received its careful attention.* When the enemy's shipping threatened the shores of Suffolk, it appealed for help from Connecticut, in view of its own inability to afford protection ; ' when the Army retreated from Long Island, wisely foreseeing that the Horses, Cattle, Hogs, and Sheep, within the County of New York and the lower portions of Westchester-county, would become exposed to the depredations of the enemy, the Committee of Safety ordered them to be, forthwith, driven into the interior parts of the State, and requested General Washington to make that order public, and to give all possible assistance in carrying it iuto execution ; * and, subse-