BOSTON EVACUATED. 277 Percy took them to the castle, intending to make the attack after dark. A violent easterly storm such as frequently visits Boston in March, set in, and prevented the attempt for several days, and then a council of war advised Howe to evacuate Boston immediately. He was in a dilemma. He had in his dispatches scouted the idea of his being in any danger from the "rebels," and had expressed a desire that they would attack him. In the autumn he had said that he could not change the seat of war, because he had insufficient transports. Now he had fewer, and a larger army. However, he made the most hurried arrangements to embark, and the Tories who had felt unbounded confidence in the British power, hastened to crowd themselves into the close quarters of the transports. Of the Tories, Washington wrote that when the order for embarking the troops in Boston was issued, "No electric shock, no sudden clap of thunder, in a word, the last trump could not have struck them with greater consternation. They were at their wits' end, and, conscious of their black ingratitude, chose to commit themselves, in the manner I have described, to the mercy of the waves, in a tempestuous season, rather than meet their offended countrymen." * Thus, with undignified haste, the British forces evacuated Boston and set sail for Halifax sev Six vessels laden with refugees arrived in England early in June, bringing "R. Lechmere, I. Vassall, Col. Oliver, Treasurer Gray, etc. Those who bring property here may do well enough, but those who expect reimbursement for losses, or a supply for present support, will find to their cost, the hand of charity very cold. 'Blessed is he (saith Pope) that expecteth nothing, for he shall never be disappointed;' nor a more interesting truth was never uttered.” — Curwen's Journal. enty-eight ships and transports, with some twelve thousand men, including the sympathizers with the royal cause. All the time not a shot was fired by the Americans, and on the morning of Sunday, March 17, the work of embarkation was complete. Howe sailed away for Halifax, that he might get "refreshment" and have room for "exercising his troops," at the same time that Putnam entered. from Cambridge, and other American troops from Roxbury. The next day Washington entered with Mrs. Washington, by the road which now bears his name, amid the joyful plaudits of the few of the inhabitants who remained. He said that the destruction of stores after the defeat of Braddock was nothing in comparison with what he saw in Boston. Congress ordered a gold medal to be struck and presented to him, bearing the words, Hostibus primo fugatis, Bostonum recuperatum, xvii Martii, MDCCLXXVI. Washington lost no time in sending troops to New York, expecting the city to be attacked by the troops which had disappeared in the ships, and he left Cambridge himself on the fourth of April, reaching New York on the thirteenth. General Lee had arrived there on the fourth of February, with orders to resist all efforts to get possession of the Hudson River, and to "keep a stern eye upon the Tories." While Washington had been busy about Boston, the enterprise against Canada had been entered upon. Scarcely had Schuyler taken command at New York before Congress instructed him (June 27th, 1775) to protect Fort Ticonderoga, and take possession of Montreal, and to "pursue any other measures in Canada" that he might consider to the advantage ` SUCCESS IN CANADA. 279 of the Colonies. The patriot cause was menaced by the Johnson family of Central New York, one of whom, Colonel Guy Johnson, was "Indian Agent," and used his great influence over the Six Nations in favor of the royal cause, to which he was attached. Another of the family was in Montreal endeavoring to stir up the Caughnawaga Indians to rise against the Americans.* Illness forced Schuyler to give up the command to General Richard Montgomery, an Irish officer who had been with Wolfe at the capture of Quebec. He was connected by marriage with the Livingston family. Aided by Ethan Allen, and by John Brown of Pittsfield, Mass., he invested St. John's, and it capitulated to him in November, with the greater portion of the British forces in Canada; but Allen and Brown planned a premature attack upon Montreal, in which Allen was made prisoner, and sent to England. After taking St. John's the way was open to attack Montreal, and this was successfully done on the thirteenth of November. Meantime Arnold, with very particular instructions from Washington, who placed great confidence in him, started across the district of Maine to join Montgomery in an attack upon Quebec. On the ninth of November, 1775, he arrived at Point Levi, opposite Schuyler put an end to trouble from this family, on the nineteenth of January, 1776, by laying siege to Johnson Hall, in which Sir John Johnson had fortified himself, and forcing him to capitulate. There was no outbreak until the massacre of Cherry Valley in November, 1778. The orderly book of Sir John Johnson during the Oriskany campaign (1776-77), has been published (1883), and in the introduction, Mr. J. W. de Peyster makes a vigorous plea for Johnson and the other Tories of the time. Quebec, intending to surprise the fortress, but having a month before committed a letter to Schuyler to an untrustworthy Indian, his designs had become known. An inhabitant of the city writing of the sudden appearance of the little troop, said, "Surely a miracle must have been wrought in their favor. It is an undertaking above the common race of men in this debauched age. They have travelled through woods and bogs, and over precipices, for the space of one hundred and twenty miles, attended with every inconvenience and difficulty." This was done at the most inclement season of the year. If Arnold had attacked the city immediately, he would probably have been successful, but the enterprise was delayed until the last day of the year, when a number of misadventures, and the fact that the British had been reënforced, caused it to result in failure. Montgomery was killed when bravely leading his men, and Arnold was wounded. The forces were subsequently commanded by Generals Wooster, Thomas and Sullivan; but no success attended any of them, and the campaign was abandoned in June, 1776. It was a favorite plan of George the Third to carry on the war in the South, and he sent seven regiments under Generals Sir Henry Clinton, and Charles, Earl Cornwallis, who had opposed the measures which led to the war, aided by a fleet under Admiral Peter Parker, to attack Charleston. The Governor of Virginia had attempted to excite the slaves to rise, and had exasperated the people. The Governor of North Carolina had issued a proclamation shortly after the news of the failure at Quebec had been received, and before the evacuation of Boston, urging |