In these first days of steam naviTHE "CLERMONT. gation on the Hudson intense prejudice was h a r b o r e d against the " Clermont " by the owners of trading sloops, who feared that the successful operation of steamboats would render their property worthless; and it is recorded that attempts were repeatedly made to sink or disable her, which caused the legislature to pass an act prohibiting such practices under serious penalties. It is not improbable that some of the market sloops plying between New York and the Westchester villages were engaged in these reprehensible enterprises against Fulton's boat. Allison, in his History of

GENERAL

COUNTY

HISTORY

Yonkers, says that as late as 1823 lk no steamboat had ever slowed ii]) to take Yonkers passengers aboard," but that some three years later one John Bashford began to row out intending passengers to put them on board the steamers for the consideration of eighteen pence per person. In 1810, as determined by the federal census, the population of Westchester County was 30,272; but according to an enumeration made in 1811 it had declined in the latter year to 20,307, a shrinkage of nearly 4,000. This loss is easily accounted for. Our county responded with especial alacrity to the calls of the national and State governments for troops to serve in the second war with England. The decline in population was indeed considerable in almost every township. The figures are so interesting and present a record so honorable that it is very fitting to set them down in detail here. TOWNS