It provided for the removal of the women, children, and infirm, and that of the poor, from the City of New York, in some instances into Westchester-county ; " and the care of the public records also received its careful attention. 6 When the enemy's shipping threatened the shores of Suffolk, it appealed for help from Connecticut, in view of its own inability to afford protection ; ' when the Army retreated from Long Island, wisely foreseeing that the Horses, Cattle, Hogs, and Sheep, within the County of New York and the lower portions of Westchester-county, would become exposed to the depredations of the enemy, the Committee of Safety ordered them to be, forthwith, driven into the interior parts pf the State, and requested General Washington to make that order public, and to give all possible assistance in carrying it into execution ; 8 and, subse-

"Haerlem, 24 September, 1776," may be referred to, as a specimen of all of them.

1 The correspondence of John Adams with his wife, which has been published, will show the anxious uncertainty which prevailed in the Congress.

2 [Hall's] History of the Civil War in America, i., 201 ; Stedman's History of the American War, i., 210.

8 General Howe to Lord George Germaine, " New-York. Island, 25 Sept., " 1776 ; ' ' Annual Register for 177 6 : History of Europe, *176 ; [Hall's] History of the Civil War in America, i., 201 ; Stedman's History of the American War, i., 209, 210 ; etc.