the army, and this was the arrival of the enemy. It
was full time for them to make their appearance. Nearly three months
and a half had elapsed since the evacuation of Boston; the spring and
a whole month of summer had gone; the best season for active movements
was passing rapidly; and unless the British began operations soon,
all hope of conquering America "in one campaign" would have to be
abandoned. Rumors of their coming took definite shape in the last week
of June, when word reached camp that an American privateer had
captured a British transport with more than two hundred Highlanders as
prisoners. On the 25th and 26th three or four large ships arrived off
Sandy Hook, one of which proved to be the Greyhound, with Sir William
Howe on board; on the 29th a fleet of forty-five sail anchored off the
same point, and four days later the number had increased to one
hundred and thirty.[68] This was the fleet from Halifax with Howe's
Boston veterans. Preparations were made to land them on the Long
Island coast near the Narrows; but on being informed that the
Americans were posted on a ridge of hills not far distant, Howe
disembarked his troops opposite on Staten Island,[69] and there went
into camp to wait the arrival of the reinforcements from England under
Admiral Howe. The middle of July saw these also encamped on the
island, with the fleet increased to nearly three hundred transports
and ships of war. On the 1st of August there was an unexpected arrival
in the shape of the discomfited expedition under Generals Clinton and
Cornwallis, that was to gain a foothold in the South;[70] and last of
all, on the 12th of August came the British Guards and De Heister's
Hessians, after a tedious voyage of thirteen weeks from Spithead,
completing Howe's force, and swelling the fleet in the Narrows to more
than four hundred ships. England had never before this sent from her
shores a more powerful military and naval armament upon foreign
service.

[Footnote 68: "For two or three days past three or four ships have
been dropping in, and I just now received an express from an officer
appointed to keep a lookout on Staten Island, that forty-five arrived
at the Hook to-day--some say more; and I suppose the whole fleet will
be in within a day or two."--_Washington to Hancock, June 29th._]

[Footnote 69: Extract of a letter from an officer in the Thirty-fifth
Regiment at Staten Island, July 9th, 1776: "Our army consisted of 6155
effectives,