It was not pretended that any of the proposed victims, in the instance under notice, had said or done anything, in opposition to the Rebellion, which had made them amenable to the unbridled caprices of those who were in rebellion ; and it was evident that, had those proposed victims thus transgressed against the " Associations " or the " rec- " ommendations " or the " Resolutions " of the revolutionary authorities, the local Committee in Westchester-county, or the Provincial Congress in the City of New York, or the Committee of Safety of the last-named body, and not an improvised and selfconstituted power, in another Colony, was the proper tribunal to take cognizance of such an offence. But in such a party, led by such a ruffian, only the law of the will of the stronger possessed any authority or secured any respect; and that law of "the pirate " and the banditti," unfortunately, prevailed in the instance now under notice.
The expedition evidently moved slowly, on its way to New York ; * and, especially after it had passed the Byram-river, it undoubtedly foraged on those who were unfortunate enough to live on the line of its march. It pillaged the farm-houses ; and, at Mamaroneck, it burned a small sloop which belonged to one who was assumed to have been a friend of the Government. 5 A detachment of about forty men, under a Captain Lothrop, appears to have been pushed forward to the Town of Westchester, where, on Wednesday, the twenty-second of November, it seized the person of Nathaniel Underhill, the Mayor of that Borough, and that of the Rev. Samuel Seabury, who, as we have said, was the Master of