8 "The question being asked Major Austin, whether he had any " orders for burning said houses, he confessed that he had no orders "for it; but he alleged, as an excuse, his being in company with " some of the General Officers, just before the houses were burnt on the "Plains," [those containing the forage, etc., which had been burned when the Army evacuated the lines, on the evening of the thiity-first of October,} " and heard General Putnam say he thought it would be best to burn "all the houses, etc.; and finding; there was houses burnt on the "Plains, soon after, he thought it his duty to burn the said houses, "as he did." -- (Defence of Major Austin, before the Court-martial, "Phil- " ipsburo, November 12, 1776.")

°The render will remember the unauthorized raids of the banditti,, under Isaac Sears, David Waterbury, David Wooster, and other "pa- "triotic" New Englanders, during which the most barefaced robberies of the fanners' properties, throughout Westchester-county, had been perpetrated by large bodies of armed men, from Connecticut, against whom the isolated and unarmed farmei-s had been powerless.

io"Tho enemy havo retreated from the White Plains. It was a happy " thought, the burning of a few houses, upon our retreat from thence. "The measure convinced them they had little to expect from penetrat- •' lug the country. They saw how much we would sacrifice," [of Die property of othtrs,] "to the safety of our Army and disadvantage of " theirs ; at the same time, it must have struck terrour into the Tories "and influence in our favour, from the strong motive of interest, as "they perceive their dwellings, etc., depend on our success."-- (Colonel Jed. Huntington to Governor Trumbull, " Camp, Nobth-Castle, 7th No- "vember, 1776.")