HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 301

deigned to conceal their contempt for the newly-found loyalty of the 99 red rags,” as they were termed, and in less than three months the scarlet emblems were doffed by all except a few negroes who courted distinction.

The protection afforded to the people by the royal authorities, was paternal only in its severity. Long Island, New York city, Staten Island, and Westchester, during their whole subsequent occupation by the British, were kept under the most rigorous military rule. Elections were not allowed; voting, except at annual town meetings, was prohibited; the civil courts were suspended, and their functions arbitrarily dispensed either by a king's justice or a military officer. A sort of police court was, after a while, opened in New York city at the mayor's office; and at length, in 1780, a similar court was established at Jamaica, for the greater convenience of the Long Island people. The old “Fly Market,” at the foot of Maiden Lane, New York, was protected by a guard of soldiers, with sentinels on the ferry stairs; and no farmer or other person was permitted to carry any goods or provisions to or from the city without a written pass, obtained either from the mayor's office or from Col. Axtell, at Flatbush, for which a charge of 2s. was exacted. The owner of every market-boat had to obtain a yearly license for the same, wherein the name of each person coming to the city was entered; and these boats and licenses were frequently examined, to prevent the passage of unlicensed travellers. Officers of the British army and navy were alone exempt from this military examination at the ferry stairs. The price of wood, and of all kinds of farm produce, was regulated by proclamation, and the farmers themselves, their horses, wagons, and servants, could be at any time impressed into the king's service, at a stipulated price.1 Woodland and brushwood was also remorselessly cut down by the British, to be used for fuel

1 When the British were preparing, in 1777, to enter Pennsylvania and take Philadelphia, the farmers of Kings and Queens counties were required to furnish horses, wagons, and drivers for the use of the army. They were designated by officers, tinder command of a (refugee) Captain Beman, of the Quartermaster's Department, and were ordered to appear, on specified days, at Bedford, where the value of horse and wagon was appraised and recorded in a book kept for the purpose. After their return from Philadelphia, where many were lost or damaged, a day was set apart for the owners to present their claims ; and these claims were paid, it was asserted, from a false record,