General Howe sailed from Halifax on the tenth of June with one hundred and twenty square-rigged vessels besides smaller craft; and on the fifth day of July the entire force, amounting to nine thousand two hundred men, was landed upon Staten Island, in the lower bay of New York. During the voyage two transports were captured by American privateers, and General Sir William Erskine, with a part of the seventy-first Highland Regiment, were made prisoners. The incident is worthy of notice as materially affecting the correspondence between Washington and General Howe, shortly after the event. General Howe reached Sandy Hook in the despatch frigate “Greyhound,” on the twenty-fifth of June, and held a secret conference with Governor Tryon, on shipboard. His fleet first cast anchor at Gravesend Cove, July 1st, but after conference with Governor Tryon, he changed his purpose. He would be too near Washington. He wrote to Lord Germaine on July 8th as follows: “He declined to land, as being so near the front of the enemy’s works. It would be too hazardous, until the arrival of the troops with Commodore Holtham, daily expected. He was also waiting for the return of General Clinton, and deemed it best to defer the possession of Rhode Island until the arrival of the second embarkation from Europe, unless Carleton should penetrate early into this province [New York].” The letter thus closes: “As I must esteem an impression upon the enemy’s principal force collected in this quarter to be the first object of my attention, I shall hold it steadily in view without losing sight of those which may be only considered collateral.” Admiral Lord Richard Howe arrived on July 12th with a powerful squadron and one hundred and fifty transports filled with troops. On the thirteenth a communication was despatched to George Washington, _Esqr._, on behalf of the Brothers Howe, Commissioners, proposing terms of peace. Washington, in a letter to Schuyler, facetiously styled these gentlemen “Commissioners to dispense pardon to repenting sinners.” Howe’s Adjutant-General, Patterson, called upon General Washington, on the twentieth of July, respecting the exchange of prisoners, especially General Erskine, and, “purely to effect, the exchange of these prisoners,” addressed Washington by his military title. Generals Clinton and Cornwallis, repulsed at Charleston, arrived August first, and Commodore Holtham, having arrived on the twelfth, landed twenty-six hundred British troops, eight thousand four hundred Hessians, and camp equipage for the entire army. On the fifteenth Sir Peter Parker arrived with twenty-four sail from the south. The British army thus encamped on Staten Island numbered, all told, thirty-one thousand six hundred and twenty-five men. The effective force, for duty, was twenty-six thousand nine hundred and eight, of which number twenty thousand accompanied General Howe to the attack upon Brooklyn Heights. This was the largest army under one command during the war.