The embarkation, so long delayed, began with hurry and confusion at four o’clock in the morning. The harbor of Boston soon presented a striking and tumultuous scene. There were seventy-eight ships and transports casting loose for sea, and eleven or twelve thousand men, soldiers, sailors, and refugees, hurrying to embark; many, especially of the latter, with their families and personal effects. The refugees, in fact, labored under greater disadvantages than the king’s troops, being obliged to man their own vessels, as sufficient seamen could not be spared from the king’s transports. Speaking of those “who had taken upon themselves the style and title of government men” in Boston, and acted an unfriendly part in this great contest, Washington observes: “By all accounts there never existed a more miserable set of beings than these wretched creatures now are. Taught to believe that the power of Great Britain was superior to all opposition, and that foreign aid, if not, was at hand, they were even higher and more insulting in their opposition than the Regulars. When the order issued, therefore, for embarking the troops in Boston, no electric shock—no sudden clap of thunder,—in a word, the last trump could not have struck them with greater consternation. They were at their wits’ end, and conscious of their black ingratitude, chose to commit themselves, in the manner I have above described, to the mercy of the waves at a tempestuous season, rather than meet their offended countrymen.”[55] While this tumultuous embarkation was going on, the Americans looked on in silence from their batteries on Dorchester Heights, without firing a shot. “It was lucky for the inhabitants now left in Boston, that they did not,” writes a British officer; “for I am informed every thing was prepared to set the town in a blaze, had they fired one cannon.”[56] At an early hour of the morning, the troops stationed at Cambridge and Roxbury had paraded, and several regiments under Putnam had embarked in boats, and dropped down Charles River, to Sewall’s Point, to watch the movements of the enemy by land and water. About nine o’clock a large body of troops was seen marching down Bunker’s Hill, while boats full of soldiers were putting off for the shipping. Two scouts were sent from the camp to reconnoitre. The works appeared still to be occupied, for sentries were posted about them with shouldered muskets. Observing them to be motionless, the scouts made nearer scrutiny, and discovered them to be mere effigies, set up to delay the advance of the Americans. Pushing on, they found the works deserted, and gave signal of the fact; whereupon, a detachment was sent from the camp to take possession.