If the latter, they will immediately send in a light ship, or one will come out to them." In this letter he also expressed apprehension that Forman's expresses from Monmouth might be intercepted by small parties of the enemy, and directed that ;i new and less exposed route for them be established. It is well known that Washington, as soon as he decided on the move to Virginia, took pains to have certain decoy dispatches fall into the hands of the enemy, in order that Clinton should credit him with no other intention than to fall upon New York. His care in altering the route of

HISTORY

WESTCHESTER

COUNTY

Forinan's expresses so as to provide for their security shows how perfectly serious were his calculations with reference to cle Grasse's possible advent at Sandy Hook as late as the 5th of August. Conclusive proof on this point is also afforded by the following item in his "Accounts with the United States," dated August, 1781: "To Cash advand Cap Pobbs & other Pilots, to carry them to Monmouth City to await the arrival of the French Fleet -- hourly expected, £18 13s Id [lawful currency]." As he relates in his Journal, under date of August 1, Washington, while encamped at Dobbs Ferry, made arrangements for bringing down to that place from points on the upper Hudson some two hundred boats, to be used doubtless for transporting a large part of his forces through the Spuyten Duyvil Creek and landing them at points on Manhattan Island. " By this date," he says, " all my boats were ready, viz.: One hundred new ones at Albany (constructed under the direction of General Schuyler), and the like number at Wapping's Creek, by the quartermaster-general; besides old ones, which have been repaired." On the 6th of August he supplemented the grand reconnoissance of the 22d of July by carefully reconnoitering the country from Dobbs Ferry to Yonkers.