Colonel Waterbury, who commanded the Regiment whom General Lee had mustered into the Continental service -- himself, as was subsequently seen and heard, in the City of New York, as fine a specimen of the same class as was needed to perpetuate it '' -- under the direct sanction of the General and with his orders, but without the slightest authority, legal or revolutionary, of either the local or the general Committees or of either of the Congresses, forced his way into every house he reached, ransacked them, and carried away, without even a memorandum of the names of those from whom they were taken, everything which bore the semblance of Arms,^ leaving his victims, as far as he could possibly do so, entirely without the means of defense, easy prey for whomsoever might next appear, on an errand of similar pillage and outrage.

An amusing instance of the consequential airs assumed by the petty local Town-commiltees, in Westchester-county, in whom had been vested such extraordinary powers over the persons and properties of those who lived within the several Towns in which

' Vide pages 305, 3(i8, ante.

2The associations and conduct of Colonel Waterbur)', while he was in the City of New York, to say nothing of his acknowledged thefts in Westchester county, afford ample evidence of his rufflunly pei-sonal character.

3 Vide page 322, ante.

See, also, Jmimnl nf the Prnrineinl Cnngref, "Die Sabbati, 10 ho., "A.M., Feb. 17, 1776;" and the same, "Die Veneris, 10 ho., A.M., " Febry. 23, 1776."