80 THE HORSE IN AMERICA 



cide that any was correct. According to these sto- 

 ries the first Morgan was anything from a Thor- 

 oughbred to a Canadian pony. Recently Col. 

 Joseph Battell, of Middlebury, Vermont, himself 

 a breeder of Morgans and the editor and pub- 

 lisher of the " Morgan Horse and Register," has 

 re-examined all the records extant as to the owner 

 of the first Morgan horse, and he announces, with 

 a thorough belief in his conclusions, that the 

 horse was a Thoroughbred, got by Colonel De 

 Lancey's True Briton (also called Beautiful Bay 

 and Traveler) out of a daughter of Diamond, 

 also a Thoroughbred. According to the Battell 

 pedigree, Justin Morgan had many infusions of 

 the blood of the Godolphin Barb, the Darley 

 Arabian, and the Byerly Turk, and was worthy 

 to be registered in the stud book established by 

 the Messrs. Weatherby, in England. Indeed, 

 Colonel Battell personally told me that he thor- 

 oughly believed in the accuracy of this pedigree, 

 adding, however, "that while the evidence is 

 strong enough to transfer property on, it would 

 not hang a man." 



As I said before, none of the evidence seems 



