In a word, Washington, after receiving Mifflin's report in regard to the approaches of the enemy, and probably other reports from Grayson, Reed, and others in regard to the general condition of the troops (for instance, Colonel Shee's uneasiness, referred to by Graydon), found that the moment had come for decision. That decision was to retreat that night; and during the forenoon, several hours before the council met, he issued secret orders for the concentration of boats at the ferry, as described in the text.] The first thing necessary was to provide all the transportation available in order to accomplish the retreat in the shortest time possible after beginning it. There were boats at the Brooklyn ferry and across at New York, but these were too few for the purpose. Accordingly, on the forenoon of the 29th, Washington sent an order through Mifflin to General Heath at King's Bridge to the following effect: LONG ISLAND, August 29th, 1776. DEAR GENERAL--We have many battalions from New Jersey which are coming over to relieve others here. You will please therefore to order every flat bottomed boat and other craft at your post, fit for transporting troops, down to New York as soon as possible. They must be manned by some of Colonel Hutchinson's men and sent without the least delay. I write by order of the General. I am Affectionately Yours MIFFLIN. At about the same time, Colonel Trumbull, the commissary-general, was directed to carry a verbal order to Assistant Quartermaster Hughes at New York, "to impress every kind of water craft from Hell Gate on the Sound to Spuyten Duyvil Creek that could be kept afloat and that had either sails or oars, and have them all in the east harbor of the City by dark."[165] These two orders were carried out with great energy, promptness, and secrecy by all who had any part in their execution. Heath "immediately complied" with what Mifflin had written, and sent down all his boats under Hutchinson's men from Salem, who, like Glover's from Marblehead, were, many of them, the best of sailors. He brooked the less delay, perhaps, because he saw at once that Washington's "real intention" was, not to be reinforced from New Jersey, but to retreat from Long Island.[166] Hughes, on his part, was untiring, and rendered the greatest service. He would have been mistaken this day rather for the master of a military school, than for what he had been--the master of a classical one. For twenty-two hours, as his biographer tells us, he never dismounted from his horse, but superintended the collection of the vessels from all points, and at evening had them ready for their purpose.[167] [Footnote 165: Memorial of Colonel Hugh Hughes. Leake's Life of General Lamb.] [Footnote 166: Heath's Memoirs.]