post prov- ing too strong for the artillery of the besiegers, and the Americans were repulsed with a loss of sixty men. General Wayne succeeded in destroying some boats and capturing a number of cattle, with which •he„j:£- turned to the American lines. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® On the Jersey Shore 85 This affair might have been forgotten as one of the minor incidents of the war, without any particular significance or relation to other events, had not one of the accomplished young officers in his Majesty's serv- ice conceived the idea of making it the subject of a ballad. The officer was the ill-fated Major Andre, whose name is for ever associated with the attempt of Arnold to betray West Point into the hands of the enemy. In his ballad, which he called the Cow Chase, Andr6 gave free rein to his satirical humour. As the poem contains seventy-one stanzas, the reader will excuse its full insertion in this place. But here is a sample of it: All in a cloud of dust were seen The sheep, the horse, the goat. The gentle heifer, ass obscene. The yearling and the shoate. And packhorses with fowls came by Befeathered on each side, Like Pegasus, the horse that I And other poets ride. Sublime upon his stirrups rose The mighty Lee behind And drove the terror smitten cows Like chaff before the wind. And so on, ad infinitum. It is not always clean nor abounding in good taste, nor even clever, except with a variety of wit that suggests the barrack room and the stables, but it contained one remarkable verse, that had a touch of prophecy in it. The verses were Digitized by Microsoft® 86 The Hudson River published in Rivington's Gazette, the last one being as follows: And now I ve closed my epic strain I tremble as I show it, Lest this same warrior-drover, Wayne, Should ever catch the poet. On the day that that appeared in print Major Andrd was arrested as a spy, and the commander of the guard that accompanied him to the scafifold was General Wayne. Digitized by Microsoft® Chapter VII Early Settlers of the Hudson Valley THE original patentees of the lands along the Hudson lived at first in a way that seems to have been a curious compromise between primitive frontier conditions and feudal dignity. Pa- troons and Manor Lords ruled over uncounted acres of wilderness, upon which a sparse and widely scattered tenantry cleared land, raised com and large families, and took daily chances of Indian massacre. To the reply made by Secretary Van Tienhoven to a remonstrance of the colonists, in 1650, we are indebted for light upon the relations between the patentees and their tenants. 'T is moreover, to be borne in mind that the Patroon of the Colonie Rensselaerwyk causes all his tenants to sign, that they will not appeal to the Manhattans, in direct contravention of the exceptions, by which the colonists are bound to render to the director and council at the Manhattans an annual report both of the colony and the administration of Justice. . . 'T would be a very strange thing if the officers of the country could not banish anybody from it, whilst the authorities of the Colonie Rensselaerwyk, who are subordinate to the company, absolutely banish whomsoever they please, for the welfare of the Colonie: 87 Digitized by Microsoft® 88 The Hudson River and they do not allow any person to reside there except at their pleasure and upon certain conditions. The colonists of lower degree held their land only upon a rent lease, beaver pelts being accepted instead of money, which was a very scarce commodity. So little money was there in the country, indeed, that a short time previous to the writing of the report just cited, a law had been passed which legalised the use of the Indian currency — -wampum. The title of Patroon conveys to most modern minds an idea of somewhat exalted rank. We are accustomed to point to those colonial princelings as though they had brought to the New World the inestimable advan- tages of blue blood along with the favour of the sover- eign Lords of Holland. But history shows that land patents were never supposed to imply either birth, breeding, or previous rank of any kind on the part of the recipient. Patroonships, like houses, lands, ships, or peltries, were in the market to be purchased for money. Exactly the requirements insisted upon by the company may be learned from the following ex- cerpt from a bill of "Freedoms and Exemptions," granted by the West India Company in 1 640 : All good inhabitants of the Netherlands and all others in- clined to plant any Colonies in