The New York government by peaceful means tried to bring them back, but in vain, and this secession continued for about three years, until King William by a sharp " Order in Council," made on the 28th of March, 1700, ordered them back to the old jurisdiction, in the words of the order "forever thereafter to remain under the Government of the Province of New York." * That government in the beginning had even tendered them a Patent, and Colonel Heathcote, who was one of the Governor's Council, at the request of the latter, in 1697 went to Rye, and personally endeavored to settle the controversy. His letter to the Governor and Council describing his visit and its failure, gives the facts of the case very clearly, and they prove that their own folly lost the Harrison lands to the people of Eye. "I asked them" he says, "why they did not take out a patent when it was tendered them. They .said they never heard that they could have one. I told them that their argument might pass with such as knew nothing of the matter, but that I knew better; for that to my certain knowledge they might have had a patent had they not rejected it; and that it was so far from being done in haste or in the dark, that not a boy in the whole Town, nor almost in the County, but must have heard of it ; and that I must always be a witness against them, not only of the many messages they have had from the Government about it, but likewise from myself " * * * * " I told them as to the last purchase wherein I was concerned, if that gave them any dissatisfaction, that I would not only quit my claim, but use my interest in getting them any part of it they should desire.