THE TOWN' OF HARRISON. 369 



"better ; for that to my certain knowledge they might have had a patent had they 

 not rejected it ; and that it was so far from being done in haste or in the Dark, 

 that not a boy in the whole Town, nor almost in the County, but must 

 have heard of it ; and that I must always be a witness against them, not only of 

 the many messages they have had from the Government about it, but likewise 

 from myself. At which they began to be divided amongst themselves, some say- 

 ing, It was true ; others, that those the Crown had employed had proved false to 

 'em. After a great deal of time spent in argument on this and other subjects, I 

 endeavored to make them sensible of ye risque they run in this affair. But they 

 seemed Deaf to all I could say, arguing that the Government of Connecticut had 

 taken them under their Protection, and shewed me a blind sort of a Paper from 

 under Kemblell's « hand to yt effect. When I found I could do no good with 

 the herd, I talked separately with some of ye Hottest of 'em ; which seemed to 

 take some Impression ; and I desired them to talk with their neighbors, and lett 

 me know their minds against I came y l way again, that I might be able to serve 

 them before it was run so far that it would be out of my Power. 



' I told them as to the last purchase, wherein I was concerned, if that gave 

 them any dissatisfaction, I would not only quit my claim, but use my interest in 

 getting them any part of it they should desire. Their answer was, they valued 

 not that ; it was Harrison's patent that was their ruin. 



'I intend, God willing, before my return to Yorke, to throw one journey more 

 away upon them, tho' I despair of Successe therein. However my utmost En- 

 deavors shall not be wanting therein. I am, Gentlemen, in much sincerity, your 

 most obed' and affect te serv* 



Caleb Hbathoote.' & 



The inhabitants of Rye obtained no redress. For four years they en- 

 joyed the happiness of belonging once more to the ' land of steady 

 habits.' And then in 1700, the king's order in Council placed them 

 back within the jurisdiction they had renounced, 'forever thereafter to be 

 and remain under the government of the Province of New York.' The 

 people acquiesced in this decision ; and the following action of the town is 

 the record of the last protest made against an unrighteous procedure to 

 which they were obliged in the end to submit: — 



'At a lawful towne meeting held in Rye, September the 29, 1701, Deliverance 

 Browne, senior, is chosen to goe down to New York to make the town's aggriev- 

 ances knowne unto the Governor and Council, and alsoe to make inquiry con- 



clared, on arriving here, that the titles of the colonists to their lands were of no value at all. 

 Indian deeds, he said, were no better than the scratch of a bear's paw. ' Not the fairest pur- 

 chases and the most ample conveyances from the natives,' remarks Trumbull, • no dangers, 

 disbursements, nor labors in cultivating a wilderness, and turning it into orchards, gardens, 

 and pleasant fields, no grants by charter, nor by legislatures constituted by them, no declara- 

 tions of pretending kings, nor of his then present majesty, were pleas of any validity or con- 

 sideration with Sir Edmund and his minions. The purchasers and cultivators, after fifty and 

 sixty years' improvement, were obliged to take out patents for their estates. For these, in 

 some instances, a fee of fifty pounds was demanded. Writs of intrusion were issued against 

 persons of principal character who would not submit to such impositions, and their lands wer& 

 patented to others.' (History of Connecticut, i, 3T3.) 



a I.e., Kiniberlifs; see page.94. 



b N. Y. Col. MSS., Albany : vol. xli. p. 36. 



