24 



in the aforesaid useful capacity, sometime in the 

 Winter of 1796. No matter however circuitous or dis- 

 tant the chase, ahvays a foot, he was at hand on every 

 emergency, before one half of the riders in general made 

 their appearance. 



So confident were the members of the Club, in his 

 ability to execute whatever he undertook in the pedes- 

 trian way, that they were at all times willing to hazard a 

 wager on his performance. When about forty-five or fifty 

 years of age, he was backed in a trial of speed and bottom 

 against an Indian runner, to go from Mount Holly to 

 Woodbury, New Jersey, a distance of twenty-two miles, 

 he was the victor, and entered the town about two hundred 

 yards only ahead of his competitor. Shortly afterwards 

 a small purse an few hundred dollars was subscribed, 

 and staked in a wager, that Jonas would go on foot from 

 Woodbury to Cape Island a distance of about eighty 

 miles in one day, deliver a letter and return the next 

 with an answer, he performed the feat without the least 

 distress, notwithstanding heavy sandy roads, and was 

 ready to repeat it the same week if requested, on a wager. 

 This extraordinary man, is tall, i-ising six feet one inch 

 high, and athletic in form; bony and muscular, and en- 

 dowed with uncommon strength and activity. He seem- 

 ed in younger days, altogether tireless, or at least appa- 

 rently never fatigued, when the riders, horses and hounds 

 were jaded. It is true he did not go over the same quan- 

 tum of ground, because his accurate knowledge of the 



