1696.] MILITARY INEFFICIENCY. 409 



sioned governor of New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, 

 and captain-general, during the war, of all the forces of those col- 

 onies, as well as of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. 

 The close of the war quickly ended this military authority; but 

 there is no reason to believe that, had it continued, the earl's re- 

 quisitions for men, in his character of captain-general, would have 

 had more success than those of Fletcher. The whole affair is a 

 striking illustration of the original isolation of communities, which 

 afterwards became welded into a nation. It involved a military 

 paralysis almost complete. Sixty years later, under the sense of a 

 great danger, the British colonies were ready enough to receive a 

 commander-in-chief, and answer his requisitions. 



A great number of documents bearing upon the above subject 

 will be found in the New York Colonial Documents, IV. 



