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Notwithstanding all the diligence of the brothers Howe, in preparing for the embarkation, and the assistance afforded by the crews of more than three hundred vessels, the English could not procure, without extreme difficulty, the articles that were necessary, so that it was not until the twenty-third of July that the fleet and army were able to depart from Sandy Hook. The force that embarked upon this enterprise, consisted of thirty-six British and Hessian battalions, including the light infantry and grenadiers, with a powerful artillery, a New York corps, called the Queen's rangers, and a regiment of cavalry. Seventeen battalions, with a regiment of light horse, and the remainder of the new corps of loyalists, were left for the protection of New York and the neighboring islands. Rhode Island was occupied by seven battalions. It was said that general Howe intended to have taken a greater force with him upon this expedition; but that upon the representation of general Clinton, who was to command in his absence, of the danger to which the islands would be exposed, from the extensiveness of the coasts, and the great number of posts that were necessarily to be maintained, he acknowledged the force of these considerations by relanding several regi

ments.

Thus, England, by the error of her ministers, or of her generals, had in America, instead of a great and powerful army, only three separate corps, from which individually no certain victory could be expected. At this moment, in effect, one of these corps was in Canada, another in the islands of New York and Rhode Island, and the third was on its way by sea, destined to act against Philadelphia. But perhaps it was imagined that in a country like that which furnished the theatre of this war, continually interrupted by lakes, rivers, forests, and inaccessible places, three light armies were likely to operate with more effect separately, than united in a single mass, incumbered by the number of troops, and multitude of baggage. This excuse would, perhaps, be valid, if the English generals, instead of operating as they did, without concert and without a common plan, had mutually assisted each other with their counsels and forces to strike a decisive blow, and arrive together at the same object.

However this may be viewed, the rapid progress of general Burgoyne towards the sources of the Hudson, the apprehension of an approaching attack on the part of general Howe, and the uncertainty of the point it menaced, all concurred to maintain a general agitation and alarm throughout the American continent. Great battles were expected, and no one doubted they would prove as fierce and sanguinary, as they were to be important and decisive.

END OF BOOK SEVENTH, AND VOLUME ONE.

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SECOND EDITION, IN TWO VOLUMES, REVISED AND CORRECTED.

BOSTON:

PUBLISHED BY HARRISON GRAY.

William L. Lewis, Printer.

1826.

DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit:

District Clerk's Office.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the sixth day of March, A. D. 1826, in the fiftieth year of the Independence of the United States of America, GEORGE ALEXANDER OTIS, Esq. of the said district, has deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit:

Second

'History of the War of the Independence of the United States of America. By Charles Botta. Vol. II. Translated from the Italian, by George Alexander Otis, Esq. edition, in two volumes, revised and corrected.'

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, 'An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned,' and also to an act entitled, 'An act supplementary to an act entitled, an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.

JNO. W. DAVIS,

Clerk of the District of Massachusetts.

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