Il8 WINTER SKETCHES. 



The people hereabouts are " champion 

 liars " as to the events of the Revolution. 

 This propensity of theirs has been serviceable 

 in giving Fenimore Cooper many hints, which 

 he has judiciously woven into a thread of 

 fiction, more resembling truth than the alleged 

 truths themselves. It was from a citizen of 

 Bedford that he heard of one Enoch Crosby, 

 who had the reputation of having been an 

 American spy. Crosby grew into Harvey 

 Birch, and Harvey Birch became a reality. 



War began at an early day on the borders 

 of New York and Connecticut, long before 

 the Revolutionary struggle in which the bat- 

 tles of White Plains and Ridgefield were 

 fought. The Dutch and the English enter- 

 tained the same views of the Indian question 

 that are prevalent among their descendants. 

 The latter gave for the land all along Long 

 Island Sound, extending sixteen miles inland, 

 tvv^elve coats, twelve hoes, twelve hatchets, 

 twelve glasses, twelve knives, two kettles, and 

 five fathoms of wampum. There was a treaty 

 ** reserving the liberty of hunting and fishing 

 for the Indians." 



But our ancestors came to loggerheads with 

 the Indians on the ** fishery question," as we 



