From the master of this slooj) they ascertained that on his weekly passages to the city ho was sonietimea hailed from the guardship, and re quested to sell them fresh jirovisions, such as eggs, chickens, vegetables Ac, for which, to insure their delivery, he was liberally jiaid. These Connecticut whale-boatmen, to the number of ten or twelve, armed concealed themselves in the hold of the sloop. Their leader however remained on deck, and forced the owner to lay his craft alongside the sloop, as if for the purpose of furnishing the usual sujiplies. It was early in the morning, before daylight, and the moment the two vessels touched, the boatmen rushed up from below, boarded the British vessel and took the crew prisoners before they were fairly awake. They then comiwUed some of the prisoners to help navigate the vessel, and making sail on the prize, ran her into the port of New Loudon."

There are two persons still living, one in I'elliam who witnessed and the other in New Rochelle' who

1 The Sound opposite New Bocbelle and Polbani ia a ticklish place, even

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

heard the sound of the cannonade between the British men-of-war and tlie American gun-boats, which took place oflF New Eochelle and Pelham in the month of August, 1814. After the British had bombarded Stonington (August 9th), two of their vessels^ a frigate and a sloop-of war, made their appearance near Mamaroneck. The government, or perhaps the people of New York, had prepared a fleet of thirteen gun- boats, each armed with a thirty-two-pounder gun, for the protection of the harbors along the Sound. One sultry morning in August the ships of war moved down the Sound and attacked these gunboats, which had been ordered to rendezvous near Huckleberry Island and along the shores of Long Island.