Without was therefore that of the most expeditious possible escape. of the evening the By arrangements. his make to began he delay 29th all the available craft in the surrounding waters had been colThe night was lected and brought to the Brooklyn end of the ferry. fortunately dark, and not a, ship of the enemy's had yet appeared in the vicinity, while Howe's army lay before our works in complete One by one the ignorance of the design of the American general. regiments left their posts and were safely transferred to the New At dawn the business was still unfinished, but, happily, York side. Nevertheless the last boata heavy fog obscured river and land. loads had scarcely left the Brooklyn shore when the British appeared on the scene, and, indeed, their arrival was in time to capIt was a narrow escape for the patriot ture some of the stragglers. army from the jaws of certain destruction, made possible only by a It is told combination of circumstances which seems providential. Rapelje, living near the ferry, as that the wife of a Tory named began after nightfall, dispatched soon as the retreating movement a negro with information of it to the British camp, but that the mesthe American lines, senger, after safely making his way through had the ill luck to stumble upon an outpost of Hessian mercenaries, who were unable to understand a word of his language, and, not apprehending that he was a person of any importance, did not turn The battle of Long Island, him over to the British until morning. a terrible defeat, Americans the to although in its immediate result followed by the abandonment of Long Island and of New York City also, was, if thoughtfully reflected upon, a defeat of prodigious ultiIf Washington had triumphed in that battle, or mate advantage. even if ils outcome had been comparatively indecisive, his generals would almost certainly have insisted on standing their ground, and in that event he would almost inevitably have suffered a miserable It was the completeness of his defeat alone end on Long Island. by leaving no course of action open exarmy which preserved the Although the loss of New York City also cept immediate retreat. was involved, that, from the American point of view, was more a Without a fleet, Washington never could relief than a catastrophe. have held the city, which, as a base absolutely indispensable for the British, to acquire, would have been taken by them in the end, even An attempt to hold it could have at the cost of reducing it to ashes. troops, and in nothing but a futile sacrifice of energies, resulted