* It is Tory evident that this letter was written at half-past two o'clock in the morning of the tenth of October, since it was received, at King's Bridge, and answered, by General Heath, on that day ; and the Colonel and his command, pursuant to Orders thus conveyed, countermarched to King's Bridge, where they arrived " At Night," of the same day.-- (General Heath's Orders to Colonel Sargent, " Kinos Bridge, October 10, 1776 ;" David How's Diary, 10 October, 1776 ; Memoir of General Heath, 69.)

" secure the passes, prevent insurrections, and over- " awe the disaffected. We suppose your Excellency " has taken the necessary steps to prevent their land- " ing of any men from the ships, should they be so " inclined, as no reliance at all can be placed on the "Militia of Westehester-county." 3 Two days afterwards, Robert R. Livingston, himself a member of the Committee of Safety and present when the letter from which we have quoted was written, addressed a personal letter, appealing to General Washington to do, for the protection of the Highlands -- behind which all the immense estates of the Livingston family were, then, very securely situated -- and for that of the State, what he, therein, elaborately described ; although he must have known, when it was written, that General Washington could not, possibly, comply with a single one of the many requests which that letter contained. 4

In the same connection, and in order that the reader may understand the temper of the great body of the people, beyond the limits of Duchess and Westchester-counties, we find room for the reply of the Colonel commanding the Militia of Orangecounty, below the mountains, to the requisition which was made, by the Committee of Safety, for men enough to protect that portion of the western bank of the river, to which reference has been made.