ening of the
29th of September, Lord Cornwallis was cheered by the arrival of an
express, bringing despatches from Sir Henry Clinton, dated the 24th,
informing him that by the 5th of October a fleet of twenty-three sail of
the line, three of which were three-deckers, with 5,000 men, rank and
file, would start for his assistance. The auxiliary forces at New York
were ready and eager to depart by the 5th of October; but the ships were
delayed by the slowness and obstinacy of Admiral Arbuthnot. Sir Henry
Clinton writes: "We had the misfortune to see almost every succeeding
day produce some naval obstruction or other to protract our departure;
and I am sorry to add, that it was the afternoon of the 19th before the
fleet was fairly at sea. This was the day of Lord Cornwallis's
capitulation. Five days afterwards the fleet with the 5,000 troops
arrived off the Chesapeake, when they received the news of the surrender
of Lord Cornwallis, and sailed back to New York. Had these auxiliary
forces started from New York at the time promised, the siege of Yorktown
would have been raised, the allied army defeated, and Lord Cornwallis
and his little army would have been victors instead of prisoners."]

[Footnote 53: Lord Mahon's History of England, etc., Vol. VII., Chap.
lxiv., pp. 177, 178.

"The officers were to retain their side arms and private property of
every kind, but all property obviously belonging to inhabitants of the
United States to be subject to be reclaimed; the soldiers to be supplied
with the same rations as were allowed to soldiers in the service of
Congress. Cornwallis endeavoured to obtain permission for the British
and German troops to return to their respective countries, under no
other restrictions than an engagement not to serve against France or
America. He also tried to obtain an indemnity for those of the
inhabitants who had joined him; but he was obliged to recede from the
former, and also to consent that the loyalists in his camp should be
given up to the unconditional mercy of their countrymen. His lordship,
nevertheless, obtained (from Washington) permission for the _Bonetta_
sloop of war to pass unexamined to New York. This gave an opportunity of
screening such of the loyalists as were most obnoxious to the
Americans." (Dr. Ramsay's History of the United States, Vol. II., Chap.
xxv., pp. 454, 455.)

"The regular troops of France and America, employed in this siege,
consisted of about 7,000 of the forme