On the nights ol the 14th, IGth and IGth numbers of oflicers and men, (including on two occasions Generals Heath and Clinton) gathered on Tippett's Hill to witness an attempt to destroy these vessels with fire-ships. It was made at midnight on the 17tli. A fiamiiig galley set fire to one of the tenders and consumed her with " horrid flames." At sunrise on the IHth the frigates and remaining tenders fied down stream, and ran through the chevaux-de-frise under a heavy cannonade from the " Blue Bell Fort " ^ and Fort Lee. On the 21st Washington assigned the new engineer Monsieur Martin to the post at King's Bridge and under his direction work was pressed on the fortifications. On the 23d Clinton's brigade was ordered into camp. Colonel Thomas's regiment pitched on the south side of Fort Independence, Colonel Graham's about half a mile farther southward, Colonel Paulding's and Colonel Nicholas' on the Hat below, near Corsa's orchard, and Colonel Swartwout on the southerly end of Tipi)ett's Hill. On the 25th a detachment went down from King's Bridge to Paulus Hook in "the flat-bottomed boat" and brought back a number of gun-carriages, on which cannon were mounted in the new works. Colonel Swartwout's regiment threw up a battery " on the north side of Spuyten Duyvil Creek, at its very mouth," to prevent the enemy from approaching the bridge in boats, and also constructed two additional redoubts on the top of Tippett's Hill, one of which was called " P^ort Swartwout." No "fatigue rum "was allowed to any one engaged on these works, except on certificate that he had been " faithful, obedient and industrious." On the 27th the Provincial Congress, then sitting at Harlem, alarmed by the defeat on Long Island, ordered its records and papers, and the receiver-general's chest to be taken at once to the camp at King's Bridge.