George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 7, 4th edition.

[101]

In June there had been a review of the Boston

Chap. VIII.} 1774. Aug.

regiment. The patriots speculated on the total number of the militia. After searching the rolls of the several towns, the population of the province was estimated at four hundred thousand souls, and the number of men between sixteen and sixty years of age, at about one hundred and twenty thousand, most of whom possessed arms, and were expert in their use. There could be no general muster; but during the summer, the drum and fife were heard in every hamlet, and the several companies paraded for discipline. One day in August, Gage revoked Hancock's commission in the Boston cadets; and that company resented the insult by returning the king's standard and disbanding.

Putnam, of Connecticut, famous for service near Lake George and Ticonderoga, before the walls of Havana, and far up the lakes against Pontiac, a pioneer of emigration to the southern banks of the Mississippi, the oracle of all patriot circles in his neighborhood, rode to Boston with one hundred and thirty sheep, as a gift from the parish of Brooklyn. The ‘old hero’ became Warren's guest, and every one's favorite. The officers whom he visited on Boston Common bantered him about coming down to fight. ‘Twenty ships of the line and twenty regiments,’ said Major Small, ‘may be expected from England in case a submission is not speedily made by Boston.’ ‘If they come,’ said the veteran, ‘I am ready to treat them as enemies.’

The growing excitement attracted to New England Charles Lee, the restless officer whom the Five Nations had named the Boiling Water. As aide-de-camp