nearly to Narragansett Bay.  The latter, being a fine anchorage, entered also into the British scheme of operations, as an essential feature in a coastwise maritime campaign.  Long Island Sound and the upper Bay of New York are connected by a crooked and difficult passage, known as the East River, eight or ten miles in length, and at that time nearly a mile wide[15] abreast the city of New York.  At the point where the East River joins New York Bay, the Hudson River, an estuary there nearly two miles wide, also enters from the north,—­a circumstance which has procured for it the alternative name of the North River.  Near their confluence is Governor’s Island, half a mile below the town, centrally situated to command the entrances to both.  Between the East and North rivers, with their general directions from north and east-north-east, is embraced a long strip of land gradually narrowing to the southward.  The end of this peninsula, as it would otherwise be, is converted into an island, of a mean length of about eight miles, by the Harlem River,—­a narrow and partially navigable stream connecting the East and North rivers.  To the southern extreme of this island, called Manhattan, the city of New York was then confined.

As both the East and North rivers were navigable for large ships, the former throughout, the latter for over a hundred miles above its mouth, it was evident that control of the water must play a large part in warlike operations throughout the district described.  With the limited force at Washington’s disposal, he had been unable to push the defences of the city as far to the front as was desirable.  The lower Bay was held by the British Navy, and Staten Island had been abandoned, necessarily, without resistance, thereby giving up the strong defensive position of the Narrows.  The lines were contracted thus to the immediate neighbourhood of New York itself.  Small detached works skirted the shores of Manhattan Island, and a line of redoubts extended across it, following the course of a small stream which then partly divided it, a mile from the southern end.  Governor’s Island was also occupied as an outpost.  Of more intrinsic strength, but not at first concerned, strong works had been thrown up on either side of the North River, upon commanding heights eight miles above New York, to dispute the passage of ships.

The crucial weakness in this scheme of defence was that the shore of Long Island opposite the city was much higher than that of Manhattan.  If this height were seized, the city, and all below it, became untenable.  Here, therefore, was the key of the position and the chief station for the American troops.  For its protection a line of works was thrown up, the flanks of which rested upon Wallabout Bay and Gowanus Cove, two indentations in the shores of Long Island.  These Washington manned with nine thousand of the eighteen thousand men under his command.  By the arrival of three divisions of Hessian troops, Howe’s army now numbered over thirty-four thousand men, to which Clinton brought three thousand more from before Charleston.[16]