256 OFFICERS REMOVED TO LONG ISLAND. tenor, and still more its consequences, could not but have been both offensive and mortifying to them; and their feelings were entitled to the attention of Sir William Howe, whose protection they had sought. In addition to this, it is probable that in other respects we did not sufficiently conform to the state of humiliation, in which it was the policy to place us. We took the full latitude of our parole, traversing the streets in all directions with a good deal of assurance; and once when the Teawater pond was frozen over and covered with British officers, who thought themselves skaters, a few of us were audacious enough to mingle in the exercise, from the malicious pleasure, more than any thing else, of showing them what arrant bunglers they were. But to whatever cause it might be owing, it was to the generality of us a most unwelcome step. It was placing another river between us and our homes; and though, in fact, we should be as visible to the eyes of Congress on Long Island as at New York, we could not but consider the measure as unpropitious to an exchange; and we regarded our transportation across the East river as a consignation to "dumb forgetfulness," where, no longer thought of by friends or foes, we were destined to waste the best of our days in a state of hopeless captivity. OFFICERS REMOVED TO FLATBUSH. 257 CHAPTER X. Situation of the Officers at Long Island-Society and Manners-Hardships of Captivity-The Author's Mother unexpectedly arrives at New York-Narrative of her Excur sion-Procures the Author's Liberty on Parole. FLATBUSH was the place assigned for the officers of our regiment, as well as those of Magaw's. Here also were stationed Colonels Miles, Atlee, Rawlins, and Major Williams, the indulgence of arranging ourselves agreeably to our respective circles of acquaintance having been granted by Mr Loring, of whom, for my own part, I have nothing hard to say. It is true he laboured under that "curse of great ones," in having the "forked plague" fixed on him by Sir William: Yet as there is little doubt, that he considered himself amply indemnified by his office, he was not "robbed at all." Mr Forrest and myself were billeted on a Mr Jacob Suydam. His house was pretty large, consisting of buildings which appeared to have been erected at different times, the front and better part of which was in the occupation of Mr Theophilact Bache and his family from New York. Though we were in general civilly enough received, it cannot be supposed that we were very welcome to our Low Dutch hosts, whose habits of living were extremely parsimonious, and whose winter provision was barely sufficient for themselves. Had they been sure of receiving the two Ꭱ 258 STATE OF LONG ISLAND. dollars a week, it might have reconciled them to the measure; but payment appeared to them to depend on the success of our cause, (Congress or ourselves being looked upon as the paymasters,) and its failure, in their eyes, would in both cases induce a stoppage of payment. They were, however, a people who seemed thoroughly disposed to submit to any power which might be set over them; and whatever might have been their propensities or demonstrations at an earlier stage of the contest, they were now the dutiful and loyal subjects of his Majesty George the Third; and entirely obedient to the behests of their military masters in New York. As it was at the instance of these that we were saddled upon them, they received us with the best grace they could put on. Their houses and beds we found clean; but their living extremely poor, and well calculated to teach the luxurious, how infinitely less than their pampered appetites require, is essential to the sustentation of life. In the apostrophe of Lucan, O prodiga rerum Luxuries, nunquam parvo contenta paratu, Thus translated by Rowe: Behold! ye sons of luxury, behold! SOCIETY AT FLATBUSH. 259 A sorry wash, made up of a sprinkling of bohea, and the darkest sugar on the verge of fluidity, with half baked bread, fuel being among the scarcest articles at Flatbush, and a little stale butter, constituted our breakfast. At our first coming, a small piece of pickled beef was occa sionally boiled for dinner, but, to the beef, which was soon consumed, succeeded clippers or clams, and our unvaried supper was supon or mush, sometimes with skimmed milk, but more generally with buttermilk blended with molasses, which was kept for weeks in a churn, as swill is saved for hogs. I found it, however, after a little use, very eatable; and supper soon became my best meal. The table company consisted of the mas ter of the house, Mr Jacob Suydam, an old bachelor, a young man, a shoemaker of the name of Rem Hagerman, married to Jacob's niece, who, with a mewling infant in her arms, never failed to appear. A black boy too was generally in the room; not as a waiter, but as a kind of enfant de maison, who walked about, or took post in the chimney corner with his hat on, and occasionally joined in the conversation. It is probable, that, but for us, he would have been placed at the table, and that it had been the custom before we came. Certain it is, that the idea of equality was more fully and fairly acted upon in this house of a British subject, than ever I have seen it practised by the most vehement declaimers for the rights of man among ourselves. It is but fair, however, to mention, that I have never been among our transcendent republicans of Virginia and her dependencies. But notwithstanding some unpleasant circumstances in our establishment, every member of the family, the black fellow, to whom we had been the cause of some privations, excepted, was exceedingly 260 MANNERS OF THE PEOPLE. courteous and accommodating. Rem Hagerman, and Yonichy his wife, gave themselves no airs; nor was our harmony with uncle Jacob ever interrupted, but on a single occasion, when, soured a little by I know not what provocation, he made a show of knocking down Forrest with a pair of yarn stockings he had just drawn from his legs, as he sat in the chimney corner one evening preparing for bed. It was, indeed, but an offer, though it might, for ought I know, have amounted to an assault in law, as Jacob was not so far from the person menaced, but that the feet of the stockings, if held by the other extremity, and projected from an extended arm, might possibly have reached him; and a pair of long worn yarn stockings might, from daily alluvion, have acquired somewhat of the properties of a cudgel. But moments of peevishness were allowable to our host; since, though we had for some time been consuming his provisions, he had never seen a penny of our money, and it was somewhat doubtful, to say the truth, whether he ever would; for, considering the contractors for our boarding liable for it, we never thought of paying it ourselves. As the Low Dutch are a people little known in Pennsylvania, and more especially, as it is my avowed intention to advert to the character of the time, this sketch of their domestic economy and manners may not be thought impertinent. In a word, from what I saw of them on Long Island, I was led to consider them as a people, quiet and inoffensive beyond any I had seen; such, from whom no enthusiastic efforts, either of good or evil tendency, were to be looked for; who were neither prolific of Catos nor Catilines; and who, had they been the sole occupants of this great continent of ours, would still have been colonists, and never known what it |