Indian fell sprawling among his companions and in the confusion Anthony completed his run without -injury. About the same time Captain Jeremiah Snyder and Digitized by Microsoft® The Catskill Region 493 his son EHas, of Saugerties, were taken by Tories and Indians while ploughing in a field. They attempted to escape by running, but were captured, and Captain Snyder wounded by a blow from a tomahawk. These captives were conducted by the same general route as that generally taken by marauding bands from Canada —by way of the Delaware, Susquehanna, and Genesee rivers. They were closely guarded by day, and at night a rope, passed around the arms of each and se- curely tied behind, was stretched to pegs on either side, an Indian sleeping upon each rope. The story of the captivity of these men is a romance, but too long for insertion here. The Snyders and Abeels met in Can- ada, and afterwards succeeded in making their escape together, subsequently returning to their homes. The capture of the boy Schermerhorn, known as the "Low Dutch Prisoner," was attended with the hon-or of murder and arson. The old people with whom he lived, Mr. Strope and his wife, were tomahawked, and the house rifled of all of value that it contained before it was finally fired. Like the Snyders and Abeels, Schennerhorn finally returned to his home, but not till he had endured almost inconceivable hardships as a captive, and had afterwards been forced to fight in the British army. Upon his enlistment a bounty of forty Spanish dollars (the customary sum) was 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 was in the patriot army, some serving near home and others offering their lives on distant battle- fields. A man of great influence at that day was Domine Schuneman, whose pastorate of forty years had en- deared him to the people 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 sprving from the German peasant blood of the Palatin- ate 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 Theodoras Prielinghuysen at Albany. His pastorate included Coxsackie as well as Catskill, an arrangement frequently made between neighbouring villages at that day, when congregations were small and ministers few. Schuneman was a strong supporter of the colonial cause, and there is no doubt that to his great influence was due much of the intense patriotism of his neighbours. In common with other great men, the Catskill Domine was the subject of many anecdotes, some of them amusing. There is a story told of an entry Digitized by Microsoft® The Catskill Region 495 made in his minute-book, as follows: "Attended the funeral of ; sold my gray mare; all flesh is grass." When he went abroad to complete his studies he was engaged to the youngest daughter of the wealthy pro- prietor, Martin Van Bergen. On his return he was so pitted with smallpox that she did not know him, but love was strong enough to overlook the disfigurement and the course of their true love ran smooth. After old Martin's death, the Domine became by inheritance a rich man, and built a splendid house, where he passed the remainder of his days. His funeral was in the good old Dutch manner, a medley of grief and junket- ing, of piety and punch. Each comer, man or woman, was met at the outset with a glass of rum, and, after a service in Dutch and a long procession on foot (the coffin upon an open bier leading the way), the assem- bled company returned to the house and, amid clouds of tobacco smoke and deep potations, discussed the merits of the departed pastor and the merits of the last horse sale. One of the traditionary stories of Catskill is told in Barber and Howe's Collections, the author, William Leete Stone, having perhaps added a touch of imag- ination to the original version of the tale. At an old stone house standing at Cairo, about ten miles to the northward of Catskill, there lived in the early part of the eighteenth century a young man of arbitrary, pas- sionate disposition; one whose passions often rose