With the losses sustained at Quebec, Three Rivers, the Cedars, the consequent retreat from Canada, together with the deaths and desertions which have happened since the first of April, the northern army has been diminished upward of 5000, exclusive of 3000 sick. Till these were separated, and sent off to Fort George, at the head of Lake George, where the general hospital has been established, the camp itself had the appearance of a general hospital rather than an army. The small-pox had infected every thing belonging to it, the cloths, the blankets, the air, the very ground the men walked on. Gen. Gates exerted all his powers to prevent this pestilence from fixing at Skeensborough, to which place the militia ordered to reinforce him, were directed to repair. The army is now at Crown-Point, for a council of general officers unanimously determined to retire from thence, and take post at the strong ground opposite to the east point of Tyconderoga. By the end of the month affairs began to wear a less gloomy aspect. The fleet upon Lake Champlain increased rapidly. The militia began to come to Skeensborough. On the 6th of August the general was joined by 600 from New-Hampshire; but many, both officers and soldiers, were detained on their march by inoculating, contrary to orders, through fear of being infected with the small-pox in the natural way. While the army was in Canada, regularity was dispensed with, or neglected; and the ruin of affairs there was ascribed by some members of congress to the want of regular returns. Who was general, who quarter-master, who pay-master, who commissary, were important secrets, which all their penetration was never able to discover. Gates has sent them a return, the most systematical they have seen. The utmost exertions are applied in building galleys and gondolas, to continue a naval superiority upon the lake, whereby to prevent Sir Guy Carleton’s penetrating into the United States by way of Ty. The post opposite to it, occupied by the army, has been called Mount Independence, since the declaration of independence reached them; for that was received with the usual applause.