On the same second of July, and while the Riyal Army was thus occupying Staten Island, the Continental Congress, at Philadelphia, was considering the subject of Independence.

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It will be remembered by the reader that, in 1774, when the County of Westchester was invited, by the Committee of Fifty-one, in the City of New York, to

iCommodure Hotham did not reach New York until the twelfth of August, as will be seen, hereafter.

2 General Howe to Lord George Germain, " Staten Island, 7th July, " 1776."

See, also, [Captain Hall's] History of the CiviL War in America, i., 174 ; Stedman's History of the American War, i., 190, 191.

Stedman said, " the troops thus landed," [on Staten Island,\ " consisted "of two Battalions of Light Infantry; two of Grenadiers; the Fourth, " Fifth, Tenth, Seventeenth, Twenty-second, Twenty-third, Twenty-sev- " enth, Thirty-fifth, Thirty-eighth, Fortieth, Forty-second, Forty-third, " Forty-fourth, Forty fifth, Forty-ninth, Fifty-second, Fifty-sixth, Sixty- " third, and Sixty-fourth Begiments of Foot ; parts of the Forty-sixth " and Seventy-first Begiments ; and the Seventeenth Eegiment of Light " Dragoons. There were, besides, two Companies of Volunteers, raised " at New-York, consisting of one hundred men each. The total amount " was nine thousand men" -- in which latter statement, in general terms, he is contradicted by General Howe, in his Observations, {vide pages, 191, 192, ante.) although he gave the aggregate, including the Officers and Staff, while General Howe included only "the Bank and File of his command.