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

1 General Washington to John Augustine Washington, "N^-w-York, 22 "July, 1776."

2 Ibid.

a In his published Despatches to the Home Government, while he held the chief command of the Army in America, and in his Narrative in a Committee of the House of Commons, relative to his Conduct, etc., especially in his Observations upon a pamphlet entitled Letters to a Nobleman, General Howe told the story of hia great expection of active cooperation, in the field, from those who favored the Royal cause ; of the

what he subsequently did, concerning the alleged loyal element of the country, will fail to trace the spirit of both his words and his actions, back to the teachings of that not unprofitable expedition of the Phcenix and the Rose into the western waters of Westchestercounty.