The stor}' of the captivity of these men is a romance, but too long for insertion here. The Snyders and Abeels met in Canada, and afterw^ards succeeded in making their escape together, subsequently returning to their homes. The capture of the boy Schermerhorn, known as the 'Tvow Dutch Prisoner," was attended with the horror of murder and arson. The old i;)eo|)le with whom he lived, Mr. Stro]:)e and his wife, were tomahawked, and the house rifled of all of \-alue that it contained before it was finall_\- fired. Like the Snyders and Abeels, Schermerhorn finally returned to his home, but not till he had endured almost inconcei\'al)le hardships as a captive, and had afterwards been forced to fight in the British armv. Upon his enlistment a bounty of forty Si^anish dollars (the customary sum) w^as paid to the Indian who had captured him. A bounty was paid by the British for scalps, and women and children as well as men furnished these

494 The Hudson River

horrible trophies, which were to the savages a source of income. Most of the inhabitants of Catskill were ardent

"Whigs," as they were called, and the wrath of their scattered Tory neighbours was roused against them. It is recorded that one sixth of the male population of Catskill were in the patriot army, some serving near home and others offering their lives on distant battlefields. A man of great influence at that day was Domine Schuneman, whose pastorate of forty years had endeared him to the i^eople to such an extent that he was their leader in things temporal as well as spiritual. Mr. Schuneman was not of HoUandish descent, but had sprung from the German peasant blood of the Palatinate settlement. He, however, was a minister of the Dutch Church, and had been in Holland to complete at Leyden the theological education commenced under Domine Theodorus Frielinghuysen at Albany.