It will be seen, from General Washington's anxiety concerning his supplies and concerning the lines of communication between the Army and the country, and from other evidence, that he was becoming convinced that the enemy intended to take New Eochelle for the base of his proposed operations, and, from that place, by way of the White Plains, to form his command, in a line, to the Hudson-river, 1 at Tarrytown-- a plan of operations, as we have already stated, 2 which was. formed, after due consideration, before General Howe had left the City of New York, as will have been seen in the disposition of the Phcenix, the Roebuck, and the Tartar, off Tarrytown, to cover the objective point, the right of the proposed new line, of the Army, 3 and in the selection of Mill's-creek, or New Rochelle-harbor, as the base of his operations, the left of the proposed line, 4 and, because of that new-born conviction, as early as noon, on the

1 See, also, General Washington, through hie Secretary, to the President of the Continental Congress, "King's Bridge, October 20, 1776, half-after one " o'clock, P. M."

2 Vide page 231, ante. 'Vide page 229, 230, ante.

We are not insensible that Bancroft, (History of the United States, original edition, ix. 177 ; centenary edition, 1876, v., 441,) said it was as early as his fifth day on Throgg's-neck, that General Howe "gave up the hope of "getting directly in Washington's rear;" and that, in consequence of that disappointment and at that time, " he resolved to strike at White *• Plains." Little credit is given to General Howe and the very able Officers whom he commanded, by any one who can really suppose they would open a Campaign, or even a series of important movements, without having, previously, formed a plan, as carefully and as intelligently constructed as possible, for the general guidance of the operations of the Army ; and if from nothing else, the selection of Tarrytown and New Rochelle-harbor, as the two extremes of the proposed line, while the Army was yet unknown on Throgg's-neck, might have indicated to a less experienced reader than the venerable ex-Secretary of War, that the proposed line from New Rochelle, by way of the White Plains, to Tarrytown, was vastly more, in the military operations of the Royal Army, than a sudden inspiration which sprung up to cheer the disappointed General, when, on the sixteenth of October, the latter is alleged to have given up all hope of getting in the rear of the Americans -- the whole of it a finely constructed creation of the venerable historian's peculiarly lively and poetical imagination.