strated by the attempt they made to seize certain boats at Coriell's Ferry, which, however, was defeated by the vigilance of lord Sterling. To oppose an obstacle to this passage, the commander-inchief directed general Putnam, an engineer of great ability, to draw lines from the Schuylkill to the heights of Springatsburgh. But as the enemy had repaired the bridges below Trenton, and the corps he had at Bordentown were daily re-inforced, the Americans became apprehensive that he would attempt to pass the river at once above them at Coriell's Ferry and below them at Burlington; which would have enabled him to close upon their rear, and thus to shut up their whole army in the point of land formed by the flexure of the Delaware. To obviate this danger, Washington stationed his galleys in places the most proper to observe the motions of the English, and to repulse them if they attempted the passage. The upper parts being the most menaced, he detached his best troops to guard them. Redoubts were erected from distance to distance, and furnished with artillery. Finally, the order was given, in case of misfortune, and if the enemy passed the river, that all the troops should fall back upon Germantown, a large village, but a few miles distant from Philadelphia.

The English generals, seeing the enemy's preparations of defense, and perhaps hoping to be able to pass the Delaware in safety, when it should be frozen, which, as the season was now advanced, might be expected very shortly, instead of following the Americans in their retreat, and of allowing them no time to rally, distributed their troops in winter quarters. Four thousand men took their lodgings upon the very bank of the river, at Trenton, at Bordentown, at Black horse and at Burlington. Strong detachments occupied Princeton and New Brunswick, where were found their magazines of provisions and of munitions. The rest of the troops were cantoned about in the villages of New Jersey.

While the English army was thus arrested upon the banks of the Delaware, either by the negligence or presumption of its chiefs, or by the firmness and prudence of Washington, this general omitted no exertions to re-inforce his army with militia, as well as with regular troops.

Generals Mifflin and Armstrong, who both enjoyed a great influence in Pennsylvania, went through the province, exhorting the people to take arms and fly to the defense of the capital, and of the country. Their exhortations and the approach of danger produced the desired effect. Many of the inhabitants repaired to the republican standard, though without manifesting all of them a very ardent zeal That the regular troops might serve as a nucleus, for the

militia to rally about, Washington ordered general Gates to bring him promptly the best of the troops he coinmanded in Canada, after having posted the militia of New England to guard the most important passes. Gates arrived the twentieth of December at the army of Pennsylvania. General Lee had received the same order; but he executed it with great slowness and a sort of repugnance; whether his ambition led him to prefer the command of a separate army, or that he considered it as more advisable to maintain himself in the upper and mountainous parts of New Jersey, in order to be always ready to annoy the right flank of the British army. He was drawn from this languor by an event which threw him into a painful captivity, and which filled all America with profound regret, where his zeal, his intelligence, and his military skill, were held in the highest consideration.

Being at a place called Baskinbridge, distant about twenty miles from the quarters of the enemy, he thought himself so out of all danger that he neglected the usual precautions. He took up his quarters at a house considerably removed from the main body, where he remained with a slender guard. Colonel Harcourt, who scoured the country with his cavalry, was informed of this circumstance by a loyalist, and immediately galloped towards the place where Lee was so incautiously lodged. The colonel, appearing suddenly, secured the sentinels without noise, and darting into the house, arrested the general. He caused him immediately to mount a very swift horse, and with the same promptness and good fortune conducted him prisoner to New York. This news spread as much consternation among the Americans, as alacrity among the English; who boasted that they had seized the Palladium of America. This capture of general Lee occasioned transports of joy even at the court of Saint James, as if some great victory had been obtained, or as if this incident was more fortunate than the conquest of New Jersey itself, and the fair prospect opened of soon entering the city of Philadelphia. From this time there arose a violent controversy between the chiefs of the two parties, relative to the manner in which general Lee and the other prisoners of war should be treated. General Gage, when he was invested with the command, had always refused to consent to the exchange of prisoners. There resulted from it a deplorable system of cruelty on the one part as well as on the other. But when general Howe appeared at the head of the British army, either because his character was more humane than that of his predecessor or that he had received particular instructions from his government, or, finally, that he was constrained to it by the great number of Englisn who were fallen into the power of the Americans, he had agreed

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ABTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.

from time to time to make exchanges. But when he found himself in possession of general Lee, he refused to fulfill with respect to him the laws of war, and caused him to be closely confined, as if he had been a prisoner of state. He advanced as a reason for his conduct that Lee being invested with the rank of an officer in the English army, he was to be considered as a deserter and a traitor. He had formerly received, it is true, his half pay as a British officer; but upon the breaking out of hostilities, he had resigned his rank in England, to be at liberty to enter the service of America. But this resignation had not perhaps arrived seasonably; or the hatred borne him by the government and British generals having more power over them than the usage of civilized nations, they affected to consider and treat him rather as a prisoner of state than as a prisoner of war. As Washington had no British officer in his power of equal rank with general Lee, he had proposed to general Howe to give six Hessian officers in exchange for him; adding, that in case this offer should not be accepted, he demanded at least that Lee should be treated in a manner suitable to his rank, and this not only in conformity with the laws of nations, but also in reciprocity for the good treatment which the English officers that were prisoners received on the part of the Americans. General Howe persisted in his refusal ; the congress then resorted to reprisals. They ordered that lieutenant-colonel Campbell and five Hessian officers should be imprisoned and treated as general Lee. This order was executed even with more rigor than it prescribed. The lieutenant-colonel, being then at Boston, was thrown into a dungeon destined for malefactors. Washington blamed this excess; he knew that Lee was detained, but not ill treated. He also apprehended reprisals, since there were more Americans in the hands of the English, than English in the hands of the Americans. He wrote with great earnestness to congress upon this subject, but without effect; lieutenant-colonel Campbell and the Hessians were not liberated until general Howe had consented to consider Lee as a prisoner of war.

During these altercations the exchange of prisoners was entirely suspended. Those in the hands of the English at New York had to experience every sort of ill treatment. They were shut up in churches and in other places, exposed to all the inclemency of the air. They were not allowed sufficient nourishment; their fare was scanted even of coarse bread, and certain aliments which excited disgust. The sick were confounded with the healthy, both equally a prey to the most shocking defect of cleanliness, and exposed to the outrages of the soldiers, and especially of the loyalists. Nothing alleviated their sufferings. A confined and impure air engendered