We, therefore [continued the letter], ardently wish to remain in peace for a little time, and doubt not we have assigned sufficient reasons for avoiding at present, a dilemma, in which the entrance of a large body of troops into the city, will almost certainly involve us. Should you have such an entrance in design, we beg at least the troops may halt on the western confines of Connecticut, till we have been honoured by you with such an explanation on this important subject, as you may conceive your duty may permit you to enter upon with us, the grounds of which, you may easily see, ought to be kept an entire secret.

General Lee's reply was intended to be reassuring. He disclaimed any intention of provoking strife or commencing hostilities, but he threw in such lurid hints of funeral pyres and the like that New York merchants were panic-stricken. On the 4th of February, 1776, Lee arrived in New York on the same day that the squadron from Boston, with Sir Henry Clinton in command, arrived in the harbour. Such a coincidence threw the already agitated city into a ferment. An exodus of the more timid inhabitants commenced, and even through the succeeding hours of darkness it is said " were there carts going and boats loading, and women and children crying, and distressed voices heard in the roads in the

dead of night. ' '

The Island and the River in 1776 165

But nothing came of Clinton's visit. He protested that he had simply called to pay his respects in a friendly way to Governor Tryon, a proceeding that Lee reported as " the most whimsical piece of civility I ever heard of. ' ' The British fleet sailed south and the inhabitants of New York, relieved from their fears for the time, began to settle down to quiet.