We now return to the evacuation of America by the British. Four days after the British troops had left New York, Long Island and Staten Island were given up. The whole sea-coast was thus once more wholly American; but the western frontier-posts of Oswegatchie, Oswego, Niagara, Presque Isle (now Erie), Sandusky, Detroit, and Mackinaw, were still held by British garrisons. [Illustration: WASHINGTON TAKING LEAVE OF THE ARMY.] Henry Laurens, it will be remembered, had caused the insertion of an article in the treaty of peace, to prohibit the carrying away of slaves under the protection of the British. This referred principally to Virginia and the Carolinas, where great numbers of slaves had joined the British, under promise of protection. Sir Henry Clinton, however, was not disposed to pay attention to this prohibition; and when Washington reminded him of it, he replied that it would be highly dishonourable to the British flag to surrender any who had taken refuge under it. Accordingly he sent off all such negroes in the first embarkation, in order that their safety might be secured. They were taken to Nova Scotia, and thence many of them emigrated to Sierra Leone, where their descendants, as merchants and traders, now constitute the wealthiest and most intelligent population of that African colony.[57] There had also been an attempt, on the part of Britain, to provide for the safety and indemnification of the loyalists, in the treaty of peace. Little, however, could be done for them by this mere _recommendation_ of justice and humanity. The difficulty of finding transports for the removal of the loyalists, who had crowded into New York with their families, delayed the evacuation of that city considerably. The penalty of the American laws compelled them to abandon their country, although at the sacrifice of wealth and property. Many of them, however, spite of the confiscations, possessed considerable wealth, which had been made during the war by privateering and as sutlers to the British army. Those from the Northern States settled principally in Nova Scotia or Canada; 450 sailed to Nova Scotia in the month of October, from New York, under a strong convoy. They were furnished by the British with provisions for a year; rations for a passage of twenty-one days; clothing; tools for husbandry, together with arms and ammunition. They were to receive also grants of land. The greater number of them, however, gradually returned to the United States, when a few years had worn away the inveteracy of the hatred felt against them. Those from the Southern States found refuge in the British West India Islands. The feeling against the loyalists was very strong in the South, where the sufferings of the people had been severe and more recent. In reestablishing the State government of South Carolina, none were allowed to vote who had taken British protection. Among the very earliest proceedings of the assembly,