river falls into the Rhine. The district of which Hanau
was the capital was at this time governed by the
heir-apparent of the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, as an
independent county. The prince was not on good terms
with his father, and was unwilling to send his troops
through the territories of the latter, for fear of desertion.
The soldiers were therefore shipped on boats
and sent down the Rhine. The three spiritual
electorates, the lands of the Elector of the Phalz, the free
city of Cologne, and other less important districts
bordered on that stretch of the river which the modern
tourist passes in his steamboat between breakfast and
dinner-time. Any one of the little states might make
trouble if its permission for the passage of troops were
not obtained, and after running the gantlet of them
all, there was danger of still more serious hinderance
when the flotilla came to Rhenish Prussia. Difficulties
had already arisen between the local authorities and
the English recruiting officers, and although the first
regiment from Hanau, in the spring of 1776, was
allowed to pass unmolested, trouble was brewing.
A detachment of chasseurs and recruits started from Hanau on March 7th, 1777. On the 8th the boats were stopped at Mainz, and eight men were taken from them. The archbishop claimed these either as his own subjects or as deserters from his service. The English government refused to interfere, and the complaints of the Prince of Hanau were unheeded. On March 25th, at S'Gravendael, in Holland, seven men sprang overboard, and three of them escaped, with the help of sympathizing peasants.
Meanwhile, two regiments of Anspach and Bay-
