JUSTIN MORGAN 33 



"FISHKILL, Oct. 19. Last week Lieut. Weight Carpenter and 

 two others, went down to Col. James De Lancey's quarters, and lay in 

 wait for his appearance, he, accordingly came, and having tied his 

 horse at the door, went in the house; upon which Carpenter seized 

 the horse and mounted ; when De Lancey discovered him, immediately 

 alarmed his men who pursued to White Plains, but in vain. This 

 horse is one of the finest in America, he cost De Lancey 2Oo 

 Carpenter was offered 150^ as soon as he brought him in The 

 cowboys had plundered Carpenter of all his cattle, some time 

 before ; when Mr. Carpenter went down with a flag, and com- 

 plained of the cruelty of taking his cattle, and told De Lancey 

 that he would have his horse by way of retaliation ; upon which 

 De Lancey sneeringly replied, 'You may if you can catch 

 him'". 



Col. James De Lancey's quarters were near Kings Bridge, so 

 that the above contemporaneous account differs from that of John 

 Morgan only in the name of the man that captured the horse, and as it 

 states that several were concerned in this capture, very probably 

 one of them was named Smith. 



In this contemporaneous account of his capture there is no name 

 given to the horse, and it is not known by what name De Lancey 

 called him. He may have called him True Briton, but it is possible 

 that both names by which he is known were given him after his 

 capture. That the horse was one of the finest on the continent, as 

 stated by the Fishkill correspondent, goes without question. He 

 was raised by a man that for many years had had the finest on the 

 continent and dealt in no other. Col. De Lancey had long been the 

 leading connoisseur of thoroughbred stock in America, and we may 

 be very sure that a horse that so discriminating a breeder kept 

 entire, was not only thoroughbred, but bred in the most approved 

 lines. And we may be equally sure that the horse that De Lancey 

 kept for his own use was an animal of the highest individual excel- 

 lence. 



The statements of the Fishkill reporter of what Mr. De Lancey 

 gave for the horse, or what Carpenter was offered for him, are in the 

 natural line of embellishment to such a story, and without much sig- 

 nificance. The information about the horse obtained by Norton 

 was, doubtless, got with far more care, and, therefore, far more 

 accurate, than any that came to the reporter. The two state- 

 ments, however, do not necessarily collide. For though the sugges- 

 tion of Mr. Norton's advertisement is that De Lancey bred the horse, 



