HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 387

authorized to establish and regulate a “Guard, or Night-Watch. within the Fire District, by and with the consent of the majority of the inhabitants.”

Previous to this time the stages from Flushing came to Brooklyn, via Jamaica, a distance of seventeen miles, and the people of Newtown and Bushwick came here by the roundabout way of Bedford. About 1802, a Mr. William Prince, of Flushing, procured the incorporation of the “Flushing Bridge and Road Company,” by which route the distance from that town to Brooklyn was shortened about four miles. Seeing the practicability of lessening the distance to Brooklyn Ferry about three miles more, Mr. Prince, in the year 1805, procured the incorporation of the “Wallabout and Brooklyn Toll-bridge Company.” The road was laid out from the Cripplebush road to the easterly side of the Wallabout Mill-Pond, over which a bridge was built to Sands street in Brooklyn.1 Through Mr. PrinceÕs exertions, therefore, the travelling distance between the two towns was lessened by seven miles; an improvement, in those days of hard roads and rough travelling, fully entitling him to the gratitude of Kings and Queens Counties, and undoubtedly contributing in many respects to the material interests of Brooklyn.

1806. In the columns of The Long Island Weekly Intelligencer, published by Robinson & Little, Booksellers and Stationers, corner of Old Ferry and Front streets, October 9tb, vol. i., No. 15, we find the advertisements of Thomas Langdon, dealer in boots and shoes; Henry Hewlet, general merchandise, near the Old Ferry; John Cole,

ble, for the Òmoral effectÓ of the thing, to expose the prisoners, the cage was moved to the corner of Fulton and Front street, where it undoubtedly attracted the attention of those passing to and from the ferries, very much as the bulletin-board of the “Union” office now does. Its usual stand, however, was on the shore (now Water street) near Birbeck‘s foundry, and its most frequent use latterly—for it existed within the recollection of some now living—was to confine Sabbath-breaking sailors. It was finally tumbled off into the river.

1 Act of Incorporation dated April 6, 1805. The following gentlemen composed the first Board of Directors, viz.: John Jackson, Pres.; John Hicks, Treas. ; Peter Sharpe, Sec.; Jeremiah Johnson, William Prince, Richard M. Malcolm, and Samuel Sackett. The bridge was originally designed to be 1,400 feet long and 24 feet broad; but Furman says, in 1823 (MSS., iii. 41), that it was only 768 feet in length, the remaining Part being made into solid causeway. The causeway at the easterly end of the bridge was about 340 feet long; in addition to which there was another at the westerly end, of considerable length.