Observing by the papers that you have been collecting informa tion relative to tlie early occupation of this country by the French, I take the liberty of sending you a copy of the inscription on the corner stone of the barracks at this place, (called I beheve Fort Presentation,) and Avhich was found at the base of one of the stone buildings.

My father was one of the early settlers here (about 1800) and it was given to him as being the " oldest inhabitant." The stone is now in my possession, and corroborates your history.

Cr^x, /?Ti ^ryn u?y^ 'T "^^i- Orri-Tr^f) Hotels

-^ro^rs^. C^iccuet //j^f

Yours respectfully,

LOUIS HASBROUCK.

INTRODUCTORY.

Jacob Leisler of •' Frankfort," as he is designated in the Dutch Records, came originally to this Country a soldier in the West India Company's service, in the year 1660. He sailed from Amsterdam in the " Otter," about the 1st of May of that year. After the colony passed into the hands of the English, he became a Trader, and we find him in 1672 subscribing 50 guilders " in Goods" towards the repairs of Fort James. Two years afterwards he was appointed one of the Commissioners for the forced loan levied by Colve, when his property was valued at 15,000 gl. on which the assessment was 1,060 gl. In 1678. hf, made a voyage to Europe when, with several other New-Yorkers, he was taken prisoner by the Turks, to whom he paid a ransom of 2,050 pieces of eight a 5s. each for his freedom. His fellow sufferers' liberty was purchased by a public subscription, taken up throughout the Colony. He was appointed, in 1683, by Gov. Dongan, one of the Commissioners of a Court of Admiralty, and in 1689 purchased for the Huguenots the tract called New Rochelle, in Westchester Co.