374 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



the charter of William and Mary ; and therefore recommended to 

 the people of that province, to proceed to the establishment of a 

 new government, by electing a governor, assistants, and house of 

 assembly, according to the powers contained in their original char- 

 ter. 



Our limits will not permit us to relate all the particulars of this 

 war. We can only mention some of the most important trans- 

 actions. On the 17th of June, 1775, a bloody action took place at 

 Bunker's Hill, near Boston, in which the king's troops had the ad- 

 vantage, but with the loss of 226 killed, and more than 800 wounded, 

 including many officers. After this action, the Americans immediate- 

 ly threw up works upon another hill, opposite to it, on their side of 

 Chariestown neck ; so that the troops were as closely invested in that 

 peninsula as they had been in Boston. About this time congress ap- 

 pointed George Washington, esq. a gentleman of large fortune in 

 Virginia, of great military talents, and who had acquired considera- 

 ble experience in the command of diffei'ent bodies of provincials 

 during the preceding war with France, to be general and commander 

 in chief of all the American forces. They also published a declara- 

 tion, in which they styled themselves " The Representatives ot the 

 United Colonies of North America," and assigned their reasons for 

 taking up arms. A second petition to the king was likewise voted 

 by the congress, which petition was presented by Mr. Penn, late 

 governor, and one of the proprietors of Pennsylvania, through the 

 hands of lord Dartmouth, secretary of state for the American depart- 

 ment ; but Mr. Penn was soon after informed, that no answer would 

 be given to it. An address now also was published, by the congress, 

 to the inhabitants of Great Britain, and to the people of Ireland. 



But as no conciliatory measures were adopted, hostilities still con- 

 tinued; and an expedition was set on foot by the Americans against 

 Canada, to which they were induced by a commission given to general 

 Carleton, the governor of Canada; by which he was empowered to 

 embody and arm the Canadians, to march out of the country for the 

 subjugation of the other colonies, and to proceed even to capital 

 punishments against all those whom he should deem rebels and op- 

 posers of the laws. The American expedition against Canada was 

 chiefly conducted by Richard Montgomery, a gentleman of consider- 

 able military skill, on whom the congress conferred the rank of bri- 

 gadier-general. On the 31st of December, Montgomery attempted 

 to gain possession of Quebec by storm, but was killed in the first fire 

 from a battery, as advancing in the front of his men : Arnold was also 

 dangerously wounded; about 60 of their men were killed or wounded, 

 and 300 taken prisoners. The besiegers immediately quitted their 

 camp, and retired about three miles from the city, and the siege was 

 for some months converted into a blockade. On general Carleton's 

 receiving considerable reinforcements and supplies of provisions from 

 England, in May, 1776, Arnold was obliged to make a precipitate re- 

 treat : Montreal, Chamblee, and St. John's, were retaken, and all 

 Canada recovered by the king's troops. 



During these transactions, the royal army at Boston was reduced 

 to great distress for want of provisions : the town was bombarded by 

 the Americans ; and general Howe, who now commanded the king's 

 troops, which amounted to upwards of seven thousand men, was 

 obliged to quit Boston, and embark for Halifax, leaving a considera- 



