ental force, and this, from your own
observation, is totally inadequate to our safety. The exigency calls
loudly on the states to carry all the recommendations of the committee
into the most vigorous and immediate execution; but more particularly
that for completing our batteries by a draught with all possible
expedition."

[Sidenote: June 18.]

[Sidenote: Sir Henry Clinton returns to New York.]

In this precise state of things, he received intelligence of the
return of Sir Henry Clinton from the conquest of South Carolina.

The regular force in New York and its dependencies was now estimated
at twelve thousand men, great part of whom might be drawn into the
field for any particular purpose, because Sir Henry Clinton could
command about four thousand militia and refugees for garrison duty.

In communicating to congress the appearance of the British fleet off
the Hook, General Washington observed, "a very alarming scene may
shortly open, and it will be happy for us if we shall be able to
steer clear of some serious misfortune in this quarter. I hope the
period has not yet arrived, which will convince the different states
by fatal experience, that some of them have mistaken the true
situation of this country. I flatter myself, however, that we may
still retrieve our affairs if we have but a just sense of them, and
are actuated by a spirit of liberal policy and exertion equal to the
emergency. Could we once see this spirit generally prevailing, I
should not despair of a prosperous issue of the campaign. But there is
no time to be lost. The danger is imminent and pressing; the obstacles
to be surmounted are great and numerous; and our efforts must be
instant, unreserved, and universal."

On the arrival of Sir Henry Clinton, the design of acting offensively
in the Jerseys was resumed; but, to divide the American army,
demonstrations were made of an intention to seize West Point. To be in
readiness for either object, General Greene was left at Springfield
with two brigades of continental troops, and with the Jersey militia;
while, with the greater part of his army, General Washington proceeded
slowly towards Pompton, watching attentively the movements of the
British, and apparently unwilling to separate himself too far from
Greene. He had not marched farther than Rockaway, eleven miles beyond
Morristown, when the British army advanced from Elizabethtown towards
Springfield in great force. General Washington detached a