We learn from the records of the " Governor and Council, or Conimit- " teo of War," of Connecticut, tha; the Whiting and the Crane were owned by the State of Connecticut, and were, probably, those which were loaned to General Washington ; that the Whiting was a new vessel, commanded by Captain John McCleave, was manned with fifty men, including her officers, and armed with four cannon, taken from theafiiimia, eight swivels, and five muskets; and that the Crane was also a new vessel, commanded by Captain Jehial Tinker, was manned with fifty men, including her officers, and armed with two Continental nine-pounders, two three-pounders, eight swivels, and ten muskets.

SSparks's Writings of George Washington, iv., 19, note.

* Memoirs of General Heatli, 51.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

Captain Thomas, both of them volunteers from the Army ; and they must have succeeded in passing up the river and in being concealed, without having been seen by the enemy ; and no one, ashore, appears to have given the slightest information concerning them.

We are told these vessels were sloops, ' probably such as ordinarily sailed on the North-river ; and that the night of the fourteenth of August was appointed for the attempt to burn the ships ; but, from some unexplained cause, without having aroused any suspicion, however, the attempt was not, then, made. 2 Two nights later, thatof the sixteenth of August, it was " pretty dark,'' and the tide was also favorable ; and the mischief-laden sloops were unmoored, and allowed to drift with the tide, silently, up the river, toward their proposed victims. The Rose's tender is said to have been anchored as a look-out, ahead of the ships; 3 and Captain Thomas, without having been discovered by the enemy, steered his sloop alongside of her ; grappled her ; and lighted his fires.