"(This Deponent cannot now recollect which of the two numbers was "mentioned, but rather thinks fourteen.) This Deponent further says, "that the amount of all he heard at New-Rochelle, at the time aforesaid, respecting Joseph Reade, was, that the said Joseph Reade was a "great Tory and very unfriendly to the American cause, and further " this Deponent saith not.

"A. W. D. Peystee. " Sworn before me, this 10th \

Sept., 1776. )

"Abm. Yates, Junk., PresidenV

That Abraham W, De Peyster was an employe of the Convention, in its work of making arrests and conveying the victims into exile, as a copyist, etc. ; and he was evidently anxious for another job, of the same class, when he volunteered this singular testimony. But the Committee of Safety disappointed his evident expectations, by transmitting the Affidavit to the Committee of Westchester-county, ' ' with a letter requesting "them to proceed thereon," (Journal of tlie Committee of Safety, "Die "Martis, 8 ho., A.M., Septr. 10, 1776.")

1* Journal of tlie Committee of Safety, " Die Lunas, 9 ho., A.M., October "7,1776."

15 Ibid.

lG Journal of the Convention, "Wednesday afternoon, July 17, 1776."

w " Resolved : That General Morris be ordered immediately to appre* "hend and secure the persons ordered to be apprehended by this Con- "vention, yesterday, and that he be furnished with a list of those persons "names," (Journal of the Convention, "Die Sabbati, 4 ho.,- P.M., Augt: '■10, 1776." J

As no such Order for the arrest of any one as is recited in the above Resolution appears in the published Journal of the Convention of the preceding day, it is evident that this is one of those instances of arbitrary lawlessness, familiar to despots, of which the records are buried in secrecy.