There must, therefore, have been " other good consequences dependent on " that measure ;" and we are not inclined to admit that any Arms were aboard the ships, for the equipment of Westchester-county Loyalists, nor that any design against the Highland passes was on the programme of their proposed operations -- we incline, rather, to the belief that only ostensibly were those ships sent up the river to cut off the supplies ; and that, really, they were sent up to sound, not only the river but the inhabitants of the Philipsborough and the Cortlandt Manors, on the eastern bank of the river, and, to some extent, those of Orange-county, below the mountains, on the western bank, as to their disposition to declare themselves favorable to the Royal cause.
The vigilance with which the Westchester-shore of the river was generally watched and the extreme backwardness of even those who had been outraged by the County and Town Committees, to abandon their families and their homes, even in retaliation or because of their honorable loyalty to their Sovereign, were so painfully evident, however, that General Howe became convinced that if "the Militia of Westchester-county " could not be depended on," in the revolutionary interest, it was equally untrustworthy, in the interest of the King; that the farmers of Westchester-county were reliable, mainly, in their love of their respective homes ; that they desired nothing more than a peaceful occupation of their respective farms ; and that he need not expect any military co-operation from them.
He learned the lesson, faithfully ; and no one who reads what he subsequently wrote, 3 no one who studies