Life of Count Rumford. 133 



Mr. Onderdonk makes the following extract from 

 Rivington's Royal Gazette, of August 7, 1782, a 

 journal printed in New York while it was occupied by 

 the British army : 



" Presentation of colors, Thursday, August I, to the King's 

 American Dragoons, under Colonel Benjamin Thompson, at 

 camp, about three miles east of Flushing, consisting of four 

 complete troops mounted, and two dismounted. The regiment 

 was formed on advantageous ground in front of the encamp- 

 ment, having a gentle declivity to the south, with two pieces of 

 light artillery on the right. About sixty yards in front of the 

 regiment was a canopy twenty feet high, supported by ten pil- 

 lars. East of which was a semicircular bower for the accom- 

 modation of spectators. The standards were planted under the 

 canopy. 



" At one o'clock the Prince, with Admiral Digby, General 

 Birch, Hon. Lieutenant-Colonel Fox, of 38th, and Lieutenant- 

 Colonel Small of 84th, and other officers of distinction, came 

 on the ground, and received the usual salutes (the trumpets 

 sounding and the music playing 'God save the King!'), and 

 posted themselves in the canopy. The regiment passed in 

 review before the Prince, performing marching salutes. They 

 then returned, dismounted, and formed in a semicircle in front 

 of the canopy. Their chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Odell, delivered 

 an appropriate address. After which the whole regiment, offi- 

 cers and men, kneeled and laid their helmets and arms on the 

 ground, held up their right hands, and took a most solemn oath 

 of allegiance to their sovereign and fidelity to their standard, the 

 whole repeating the oath together. The chaplain then pro- 

 nounced a solemn benediction. The regiment rose, and returned 

 to their ground, and fired a royal salute. They then mounted, 

 and saluted the standard together. As soon as the consecrating 

 and saluting the standard was over, the Prince came forward to 

 the centre of the regiment, received the colors from Admiral 

 Digby, and presented them with his own hand to Lieutenant- 

 Colonel Thompson, who delivered them to the eldest cornets. 



