Cooper. A distinguished clergyman" gives the following very graphic picture of Westchester County in those days: -- a July 4th, 1770.

& Stafford's (iazetteer of N. Y. Upon the evacuation of New York by the British forces, Nov. 25, 1 7S3, the Governor of the State and Commander-in-chief were escorted by a body of H'»/.7.'.ff - r I,, <il.' hoi-si , commanded by Captain Delavan," -- JSdUor. c Dr. Timothy D wight's Travels, 3d vol.

INTRODUCTION.

xiii

" In the autumn of 1777, I resided for some time in this County. The lines of the British were then in the neighborhood of King's Bridge, and those of the Americans at Byram River. The unhappy inhabitants were, therefore, exposed to the depredations of both. Often they were actually plundered, and always were liable to this calamity. They feared every body whom they saw, and loved nobody. It was a curious fact to a philosopher, and a melancholy one to hear their conversation. To every question they gave such an answer as would please the inquirer ; or, if they despaired of pleasing, such a one as would not provoke him. Fear was, apparently, the only passion by which they were animated. The power of volition seemed to have deserted them. They were not civil, but obsequious; not obliging, but subservient. They yielded with a kind of apathy, and very quietly, what you asked, and what they supposed it impossible for them to retain. If you treated them kindly, they received it coldly ; not as a kindness, but as a compensation for injuries done them by others. When you spoke to them, they answered you without either good or ill nature, and without any appearance of reluctance or hesitation ; but they subjoined neither questions nor remarks of their own; proving to your full conviction, that they felt no iuterest eitiier in the conversation or yourself.