On learning that it was Brant, who was stopping at a tavern near by, he sent an invitation to the chief to come and dine with

HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.

him. The late war became the topic of conversation. The Colonel had once chased Brant, and had been conscious that Indian sharpshooters had attempted to kill him while he was leaning against a tree. When the Colonel spoke of this, Brant replied, "I ordered one of my best marksmen to pick you off but you seemed bullet-proof."

The eminent George Whitefield once preached eloquently to Van Cortlandt's assembled tennants from the veranda of the manor-house. Dr. Franklin rested there when he was returning from his fatiguing mission to Canada, late in the spring of 1776, journeying from Albany to New York in Gen. Schuyler's post-chaise. Washington was many times at the mansion, while the American army lay on the shores of the Hudson. There Col. Henry B. Livingston had his quarters while watching the Vulture, off Teller's (now Croton) Point, at the time of the treason of Arnold. There Lafayette, and Rochambeau, and the Duke de Lauzun, were entertained; and the manor-house was always open as a resting place of some of the most eminent of the Methodist preachers, such as Asbury and Garretson, in the early days of the American branch of that church.

He who extended these hospitalities for the period of half a century or more, was Pierre Van Cortlandt -- who was a member of the New York Provincial Congress, chairman of the New York Committee of Safety, and for eighteen successive years from the organization of the State Government, in 1777, was Lieut. Governor of the Commonwealth. He espoused the cause of the patriots at the beginning. Crowr officers in America tried to win him to the Tory side.