Tilghman to the committee, October 11.-- We have no Intelligence of any Troops, either Horse or Foot, going round long Island into the Sound. Duer to Tilghman, October 12.-- Notwithstanding the Enemy had, agreeable to your last Advices, sent no Yessells tip the Sound, depend upon it they will endeavor to make an Attack upon your Flanks by means of Hudson's and the Fast River. Several Examinations wh we have taken mention this as their intended Operation: and indeed it is the only one wh can give them any Probability of Success. If we may give Credit to Intelligence procur d of the Tories, Thursday next is tix'd upon for them to make their Channell the for through ... their Partisans in this State to Cooperate with them. Attack, and You will now have an Anxious Task to watch both the Rivers, and I am afraid all your Vigilance will not be altogether effectual.

Three facts stand out very distinctly front this correspondence -- first, that the protection of the Hudson River was the thing ofofforethe most concern to the Americans, even a tentative intrusion imof enemy above Fort Washington causing the direst forebodings pending preparations for seizing the Westchester river bank as a principal factor of the new British campaign about to be inaugu-of rated; second, that the superior availability of the Sound shore Westchester County as a departing point for the main body of Howe's army was well appreciated, although there were but vague notions as to Howe's probable intentions in that direction; and third, that Howe's slowness in developing his plans was supposed to indicate that they were much more elaborate than they eventually proved to be, and that they contemplated ultimate connecting operations between river and Sound. As late as the 11th of October (the very day before Howe's complete disclosure of his project) Colonel Tilghman, writing to the committee of Hie State convention from the American cam]), with full knowledge of such informal ion as Washington himself possessed, made this peculiarly malapropos statement: "We have no intel igence of any troops, either horse or foot, going round Long Island into°thc Sound." Thus up to the last moment Washington was not apparently reonly quite unsuspicious of the impending blow, butfrom the Sound garded the possibility of a movement against him as a still remote eventuality, to be considered for the time only in relation to the rumored departure of an expedition around Long Island (that is, around the eastern extremity of the island ami thence through the Sound).