The agitation in New York is described by contemporary writers as “most intense and universal.” It was kept under all possible control; but the coast-guards were doubled, so that no stray boats might pass unchallenged, by night or day, and mounted couriers constantly passed and repassed, to furnish the speediest possible information at British headquarters of any hostile advance. The report published in slips, that “_brick ovens were to be erected in New Jersey, opposite Staten Island, to supply bread rations, daily, for thirty thousand men_,” was encouraged by Washington, and was accepted as true by the country near by, and generally at the north, New Jersey included. When the camps were fully established, and guns were disposed for their best effect, Washington, accompanied by Count de Rochambeau and Generals de Boville and Du Portail, crossed to Jersey Heights, and with a small escort of one hundred and fifty Jersey troops, examined all the New York outposts, as far down as the ocean. Neither was this a mere sham—hollow in substance. The projected attack upon New York was a deliberate alternative; to compel Clinton to withhold reënforcements from the Southern army so that Cornwallis could be overpowered and captured; or, if he ventured to aid that officer, he must lose New York. This reconnoissance in New Jersey was known to Sir Henry Clinton, and he might have been very thankful to General Washington for information that some of “his [Clinton’s] stores were inadequately guarded”; that “at some posts the small garrisons were doing no watchful guard duty”; and that there was “no serious difficulty whatever in seizing or destroying all the stores on Staten Island, without material loss or risk.” A second reconnoissance of the entire British front, from King’s Bridge down the Hudson, and along Hell Gate channel, occurred on the evening of July 21st. This was no feeble “_feeling of the enemy_.” Five thousand choice troops took part in the investigation of the British position. General Chastellux commanded one division, and General Lincoln commanded the second. As early as the eighth of the month, Sir Henry Clinton wrote to Lord Cornwallis, as follows: “As your lordship is now so near, it will be unnecessary for you to send your despatches to the minister; you will therefore be so good as to send them to me in the future.”