8 "The question being asked Miyor Austin, whether he had any " orders for burning said houses, he confesseii that he had no orders "for it; but he alleged, as an excuse, his being in company with " some of the General Officers, just before the houses were burnt on the "Plains," [those containing the forage, etc., which had been burned when the Army ei'acnated the lines, on the evening of the thirty Jirst of October,] "and heard General Putnam say he thought it wonld be best to burn *'all the houses, etc.; and finding there was houses burnt on the "Plains, soon after, he thought it his duty to burn the said housi'S, "as he did." -- {Defence of Major Austin, before the Conrt-marti-d, "Phii,- " ii"SBURO, November 12, 1776.")

9 The reader will remember the unauthorized raids of the banditti,, under Isaac Sears, David Waterbury, David Wooster, and other "p»- "triotic" New Englanders, during which the most barefaced robberies of the fanners' projierties, throughLiut Westchester-county, had been perpetrated by large bodies of armed men. from Connecticut, against whom the isolated and unarmeii farmers had been powerless.

K'-'The enemy have retreated from the Wliite Plains. It was a happy "thought, the burning of a few houses, upon our retreat from thence. "The measure convinced them they had little to expect from pcnetrat- •' ing the country. They saw liow much we would Kftcriflce," [»/ the property of olh rs,] "to the safety of our Army and disiulvantJtge of " theii'S ; at the sjime time, it must have struck terrour into the Tories "and influence in our favour, from the strong motive of interest, as " they i)erceive their dwellings, etc., depend on our success." -- {Cohmel Jed. Huntington to Governor Trumbull, " Camp, Noiith-Ca.stle, 7th No- "vember, 1776.")