It appears that one, Anderson, had proposed a scheme to the Continental Congress for destroying the British fleet, then lying in the harbor of New York, with fire-ships ; and he had been officially recommended to General Washington, by the President of the Congress, with a request that the experiment should be made. 3 The General had, accordingly, employed Anderson in constructing two fire-vessels; and, on the eighth of August, they were sent up the river,* for the purpose of destroying a portion, at least, of the squadron which seems to have continued to occupy its anchorage, off Tarrytown, although, by some, it is said to have dropped down the river, to the vicinity of the Lower Yonkers. One of these vessels was commanded by Captain Fosdick, the other by

2 The Pennsylvania Journal; and the Weekly Advertiser, No. 1757, Philadelphia, Wednesday, August 7, 1776.

For other accounts of this early naval action, see an Extract of a letter from New York, dated August 4, 1776, iu Force's American Archives.Vifth Series, i. 751 ; GeneralWushingtoti to the President of Congress, " New- York, 5 "August, 1776 ; " The Pennsylvania Evening Post, Volume II., No. 241, Philadelphia, Tuesday, August 6, 1776 ; The Connecticut Gazette and Universal Intelligencer, Vol. II., No. 666, New-London, Friday, August 16, 1776 ; [Hall's] History of the Civil War in America, i., 186, who said " most of the galleys were ran on shore, and taken ; " Memoirs of General Heath, 51 ; Ramsay's History of the American Revolution, Edit. London, 1791, i., 298, a mero montion ; Allen's History of live American Revolution, Edit. Baltimore, 1822, i., 429 ; Wilson's History of the American Revolution, Ed. Baltimore, 1843, 157; Force's American Archives, V., i., 751 ; Irving's Life of Washington, Edit. New York, 1856, ii., 299.