NATHAN HALE 



IIS 



The battle of Long Island had been disastrous, and a hasty retreat 

 had been made to Manhattan Island. The outlook was discour- 

 aging. Men were ill and were dying in appalling numbers; deser- 

 tions were many; the army was being rapidly decimated. Lack 

 of food and the failure to receive pay were breeding insubordina- 

 tion, and not more than fourteen thousand men were fit for duty. 

 Across the East River was a British army of about twenty-five 



'The Locusts" 



thousand seasoned troops, and in the Lower Bay a powerful navy 

 lay stripped for action. 



For the first time since Washington had taken the field, he 

 was worried and depressed. On every side he saw a choice of 

 difficulties confronting him. In a letter to the President of Con- 

 gress, he writes : 



"It is evident, the enemy mean to close us on the island of 

 New York, by taking post in our rear, while the shipping secures 

 the front, and thus, by cutting off our communication with the 

 country, oblige us to fight them on their own terms, or surrender 

 at discretion ; or by a brililant stroke endeavor to cut this army 



