This service, for several reasons, the commander of the legion was now enabled to perform with much greater success than before. His force amounted to almost two hun-dred men, a numerical strength which it probably never after- ward attained--about one third consisting of cavalry; he had become better acquainted with the country; many of his re-cruits came from the immediate vicinity; and two amuzettes or wall-pieces which carried balls of one pound and a half each to an extraordinary distance, were attached to the corps. Toward the end of October he formed a plan to surprise and carry off major Bearmore, the celebrated commander of the Westchester Refugees, who was then quartered at the house of alderman Leggett, below Westfarms. Bearmore was a native of Throg's Neck, of humble parentage, but nature had given him a fine person, with great activity both bodily and mental, and the kind and liberal rector of St. Peter's, in the borough town of Westchester, had furnished him with a good education. Brought up in the church of England and trained in a school conducted by her clergy, he was inclined, when the revolutionary troubles commenced, to espouse the Royal cause, and accordingly, when in the autumn of 1776, the Brit-ish light-infantry first appeared on Throg's Neck, he joined them as a volunteer. His general intelligence, knowledge of the country, and intrepidity soon attracted notice, and when the loyal refugees of Westchester, Dutchess and Connecticut were collected and embodied in the neighbourhood of Morris-

22 THE MCDONALD PAPERS