Budd further says that it is reported that "those tories say they a-re determined to defend them- " selves ; and that if any body came to their houses to "take away their Arms, they would fire upon them." The Congress appears to have been in one of its temperate moods when that delegation from the chivalry of Oolonial Westchester-county, bearing the missive from the Committee of that County and its kindred Affidavit, approached its doors ; and for that reason, unless it was because of the shallowness of the several accusations and requests which were in the papers or of the poltroonery of those who bore them the Congress did no more than to order the letter and affidavit and examination to be filed; to charge all who knew of " this matter," " to keep the whole of it "a secret;" and to transmit a letter to the Committee of Westchester-county -- the latter, the most noteworthy

1 Samuel Townsend represented the Town of Bye, in the County Committee of 1776-'7.

2 On the twenty-ninth of August, 1776, "one Lounsherry of Westchester " County who had headed a party of about 14 Tories was killed by a Per- " son named Flood on his refusal to surrender himself Prisoner • That in "his Pocket book was found a Commission signed by Gonl. How to " Major Rogers empowering him to raise a Battalion of Rangers with the " Bank of Lieut Col Commandant. That annexed to this was a Warrant " to this Lounsberry signed by Major Rogers appointing him Captain in " one of these Companies k a Muster Boll of the men already enlisted " {Letter from the Committee of Safety to General Washington, "In Commit- "tee of Safety, Harlem, Augt 30th, 1776.")