country waggon without a cover, with straw under their feet and wooden chairs for seats. Two gentlemen on horseback, in their company, finding that we were going to Saratoga, offered to accompany us to the scene of the battle of Behmus Heights, and thither we proceeded after visiting, Cohoes. We dined in the house which was General Burgoyne's head- quarters in 1777 and one . of the females who attended us was there during the battle. Mr. Stone, in a footnote, corrects this statement, averring that General Burgoyne's headquarters were "on high ground, the present [1875] farm of Mr. Wil- bur." But the account of Mrs. Dwight is circumstan- tial. She [the woman referred to] informed us of many particulars, and showed us a spot upon the floor, which was stained with the blood of General Frazer, who, she added, when brought in mor- tally wounded, was laid upon the very table at which we were seated. During the funeral, she also stated, the American troops, who had got into the rear of the British on the opposite side of the river, and had been firing, over the house, on discover- ing the cause of the procession up the steep hill, where Frazer had requested to be interred, not only ceased firing, but played a dead -march in complement to his memory. On leaving the battleground for Saratoga Lake . . . the country we had to pass over, after leaving the Hudson, was very uninviting and almost uninhabited. The road lay through a Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Above Tide- Water 557 forest and was formed of logs [The road cut by General Schuyler in 1783.] We travelled till late in the afternoon before we reached a house, to which we had been directed for our lodging. It stood in a solitary place in an opening of the dark forest, and had so comfortless an appearance that, without approaching to take a nearer view, or alighting, we determined to proceed farther. . . One of the gentlemen rode up to take a nearer view. Standing up in his saddle, he peeped into a square hole which served as a window, but had no glass or shutter, and found the floor the bare earth, with scarcely any furniture to be seen. Nothing remained but to proceed and make our way to the Spring as fast as possible, for we knew of no human habitation nearer. We were for a time extremely dispirited, until the gentleman who had joined us at Hudson came forward (still in his ball dress) and endeavoured to encourage us, saying that if we would but trust to his guidance he doubted not that he should be able to conduct us safely and speedily to a more comfortable habitation. This raised our hopes, and we followed him cheerfully, though the day was now at its close and the forest seemed thicker and darker than before. When the last light had disappeared, and we found ourselves in the deepest gloom, our guide confessed that he had encouraged us to keep us from despair, and as to any knowledge of the road, he had never been there before in his life. One would give much to have seen this cheerful "gentleman from Hudson" at that moment: He . . . dismounted, tied his horse behind our chair, and taking the bridle of our own began to lead him on, groping his way as well as he was able, stepping into one mud hole after another, without regard to his silk stockings, sometimes up to his beauish knee buckles. At length one of the gentlemen de- clared that a sound which we had heard for some time at a dis- tance could not be the howl of a wolf, but must be the barking of a wolf dog, and indicated that the habitation of his master was not very far off, proposing at the same time to go in search of Digitized by Microsoft® 558 The Hudson River it. . . We found our way to a log house, containing but one room and destitute of everything except hospitable inhab- itants . there was no lamp or candles, light being supplied by pine knots stuck in crevices in the walls. The conver- sation of the family proved that wild beasts were very numerous and bold in the surrounding forests and that they sometimes, when hungry, approached the house. . . On reaching the springs at Saratoga we found but three habitations and those but poor log houses, on the high bank of the meadow, where is now the eastern side of the street on the ridge near the Round Rock. This was the only spring then visited. The log cabins were almost full of strangers, among