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132 HISTORY OF I will communicate it by the first. Scouts are continually kept out in order to guard against surprise. Old Mr. Harper^ to- gether with your other good friends^ desire to be remembered. I am, with great respect, dear sir, Your humble servant, ^aSAAC BOOEET. To Col. Harper, (Superscribed) " On public service, " To Col. J ohn Harper, Fort Harris. " Poughkeepsie, 25th August, 1780. " Dear Cousin : — I embrace this opportunity to inform you I am still in high spirits. We shall see New York this fall. " The second division of the French forces has not arrived, but expected soon. The weather has been so uncommonly hot, that it would have been imprudent to fatigue men in the business of besieging, even were we ready in other respects. The French and Spaniards are masters of the West India seas — have had three engagements with the English this sum- mer in that quarter^ in all of which the latter have come off second best ; and we hourly expect to hear of Jamaica being attacked by our allies, ^^In North Carolina,-no less a body than one thousand tories had the other day formed themselves and set off to reinforce their friends in Charleston, when a Colonel Kutherford dis- patched four hundred militia to watch their movements 3 they drawing near them, and perceiving them employed in feeding their horses, fell upon them, killed seventy, took four hundred prisoners and all their baggage, with seven hundred horses; the remainder of the thieves dispersed through the woods. Our cause gains ground amazingly among the nations of Eu- rope — Russia, Denmark, Sweden, and the States of Holland,