Chapter 20 - Page 2

residence of Madam
Schuyler, the lady I have already had occasion to mention, and to whom I
had given the letter of introduction procured by my mother, the Mordaunts
visiting her with great assiduity, and frequently taking me with them. As
for Lord Howe, himself, he almost lived under the roof of excellent Madam
Schuyler; where, indeed, all the good company assembled at Albany, was, at
times, to be seen.

Our party was a large one; and, it might have passed for a small corps of
the army itself, moving on in advance; as was the case with corps, or parts
of corps, now, almost daily. Herman Mordaunt had delayed our departure,
indeed, expressly with a view to render the country safe, by letting it
fill with detachments from the army; and our progress, when we were once in
motion, was literally from post to post; encampment to encampment. It may
be well to enumerate our force, and to relate the order of our march, that
the reader may better comprehend the sort of business we were on.

Herman Mordaunt took with him, in addition to the ladies, a black cook, and
a black serving-girl; a negro-man, to lake care of his horses, and another
as his house-servant. He had three white labourers, in addition--men
employed about the teams, and as axe-men, to clear the woods, bridge the
streams, and to do other work of that nature, as it might be required. On
our side, there were us three gentlemen, Yaap, my own faithful negro, Mr.
Traverse, the surveyor, two chain-bearers, and two axe-men. Guert Ten Eyck
carried with him, also, a negro-man, who was called Pete; it being contrary
to _bonos mores_ to style him Peter or Petrus; the latter being his true
appellation. This made us ten men strong, of whom eight were white, and two
black. Herman Mordaunt mustered, in all, just the same number, of which,
however, four were females. Thus, by uniting our forces, we made a party of
twenty souls, altogether. Of this number, all the males, black and white,
were well armed, each man owning a good rifle, and each of the gentlemen a
brace of pistols in addition. We carried the latter belted to our bodies,
with the weapons, which were small and fitted to the service, turned
behind, in such a way as to be concealed by our outer garments. The belts
were also hid by the flaps of our nether garments. By this arrangement, we
were well armed without seeming to be so; a precaution that is sometimes
useful in the woods.

It is hardly necessary to say, that we did not plunge into the forest in
the attire in which we had been accustomed to appear in the streets of
New York and Albany. Cocked hats were laid aside altogether; forest caps,
resembling in form those we had worn in the winter, with the exception that
the fur had been removed, being substituted.