. Just
as we were setting off Mercer said he would come also. The day was
lovely. The air was so bright and pure and exhilarating that it was a
pleasure alone to breathe it--one of those days of autumn met with in
the northern part of America which go by the name of the Indian summer.
A thin gauze-like mist filled the atmosphere, giving a warm, almost
tropical, look to the landscape; the water looked bluer, the fields
greener, the sands yellower, and the rocks browner than I had ever seen
them; while the tints of autumn, just showing themselves on the more
exposed sides of the trees, gave the woods wonderfully rich and varied
hues. We took a path through orchards and woods and across fields,
meadows, and gardens, which bore evident and sad traces of the advance
of hostile armies. Fences and embankments were levelled, cottages
burnt, fruit-trees and fruit-bushes cut down or uprooted, gardens
trampled over and destroyed, here and there a few fragrant flowers
rearing their heads like guardian angels among the surrounding scene of
havoc, alone showing that the spot might once have been some peaceful
man's earthly paradise.

We at length reached the British lines. They extended in one continuous
encampment from Horen's Hook on the Harlem River for about two miles
directly across the island of Manhattan to the Hudson, both flanks being
guarded by the men-of-war. Commanding the sea, as we did, it was
impossible to hold a stronger position. On the other side of an open
plain, well posted on a succession of rocky heights, appeared the rebel
forces, the advanced sentries of the two armies being within hail of
each other. On our left the enemy occupied a strong fortress called
Fort Washington, which overlooked the Hudson, and two miles north of it
was King's Bridge, the only passage to the mainland across the inlet of
the Hudson I have before mentioned, which joins it to the Harlem River,
called by the Dutch Spyt den Duivel Creek, and which still retains its
unpleasant-sounding name.

The object of our party seemed to be to get possession of Fort
Washington, and so cut off the retreat of the enemy. It was said that
General Howe ought to have sent a strong force up the Hudson and
attacked Washington in the rear, while the rest of the army pressed him
in front; but he did not make the attempt till it was too late, and a
large portion of the American troops had crossed King's Bridge and taken
up a strong position among th