and his command were accepted by the Committee of Safety, as one of the two Companies required from Westchester-county ; ' and it subsequently constituted the Fifth Company of the First Regiment of the New York Line, commanded by Colonel Alexander Mc- Dougal.^ It was said of the Company, afterwards, that the Captain " has deceived the Convention " {the rrovincinl Congress f] " in Enlisting the men " for G & 12 months instead of doing it for the " war ; " ' that the men, who had, also, been deceived by their Captiiin, deserted in large numbers ; * that the Regiment was greatly reduced by the desertions, of which those from this Company were part ; ^ and the Company was thereby disgraced, through all time. Of Captain Hyatt, it was stated that he was "unfit" to be retained in the service,* as " he wants authority "to make a good Officer:"' of the three Subalterns, the same record stated, " These three wish to de- " cline the service ; they will be no loss to it." *

Two days after Ezekiel Hyatt, through the Chairman of the Committee of Westchester-county, had secured a place for himself and his command, in the New York Line of the Continental Army, {April 27, 1776,] Cornelius Steenrod api)eared, personally, before the Committee of Safety, in the City of New York, and informed that Committee " that he can enlist a "complete Company of men for the Continental ser- " vice, in fourteen days ; " and the Committee, after due consideration of the proposal, adopted a Resolution giving to him "full assurance that he and his "Subalterns, with the said Company, will be em- " j)loyed as part of the troops raising for the defence "of this Colony," provided a full and comjjlete Company of able bodied men should be cnli.sted and m.ade ready to join a Regiment, within the designated period of fourteen days."