COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY JTEW YORK. 127 



who were choice in their selections. It may amuse the present generation to 

 peruse the history of one such horse, spoken of in the letter of Rip Van Dam 

 of New York, in the year of 1711, which I have seen. He states the fact of the 

 trouble he had taken to procure him such a horse. He was shipped from Rhode 

 Island in a sloop, from which he jumped overboard when under sail, and swaui 

 Ashore to his former home. Having been brought back he arrived in New York, 

 in thirteen days' passage, much reduced in flesh and spirit. He cost thirty-two 

 pounds and his freight fifty shillings. This writer, Rip Van Dam, was a great 

 personage, he having been president of the Council in 1731, and on the death of 

 Governor Montgomery that year, he was governor, ex-officio, of New York. His 

 mural monument is now to be seen in St. Paul's Church." 



As New England saddle horses were only worth forty dollars 

 in 1650, and this horse cost more than four times as much, when 

 horses were more plentiful, we must conclude that he was a fine 

 specimen of the breed, and was, probably, bought for stock pur- 

 poses. The date of this transaction is a significant fact that 

 should not be forgotten, as 1711 is the same year in which the 

 first of the two great founders of the English race horse, Darley 

 Arabian, was brought to England. 



