302 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

and the building of fortifications; and when at length the wood was exhausted, and the inhabitants began to be straitened for want of it, the Hessians dug up the meadows for peat, in spite of the expostulations of the astonished and indignant Dutch farmers.1 During the summer months, the fields, from Red Hook to the heights of Cripplebush, were white with tents faced with scarlet; and before their removal to New York, nearly all the fences were taken up and burned. The whole district occupied by the troops was a common, and most of the land remained unfenced till the British left the country. In the winter season every village was filled with British soldiers, wagons, etc., billeted in private houses or cantoned in temporary huts. This quartering of officers and billeting of troops among the people, was a serious annoyance. The first notice generally given of such occupation was an abrupt “Well, madam, I’ve

and at about thirty per cent less than the real valuation. Protest was futile, the unlucky farmers were told to take what was offered them, or go without. As if to add insult to injury, they were graciously told by the commissioners, “Friends, there is a barrel of rum in the entry—help yourselves!” To which two of the indignant sufferers retorted: “We don’t want your rum—give us our own—we can treat ourselves;” an answer which subsequently cost them their woodlands, which were specially designated to the barrack-masters, and cut down for the use of the army.

1 Furman, in his MS. notes, vol. ix., p. 376, preserves this fact relative to the dis covery and use of peat in Kings Co.:

“My father, who is now fifty-eight years old, says that previous to the Revolutionary War, the existence of peat in Kings County, and in the town of Newtown, Queens County, was unknown to the inhabitants; and that the same was discovered by the British soldiery who were then and there encamped, in those places where wood had become scarce in consequence of its having been all cut off. They instructed the inhabitants in the art of preparing this valuable article of fuel-which was found on land formerly considered as comparatively worthless—but which is now highly esteemed. It was on the land of my great uncle, William Furman, at the head of the ÔVlie,Õ in Newtown, that the first turf was thus cut. He remonstrated with the British officers, believing that they would ruin his land, and told them that they might cut all his wood, but should leave his meadow. They replied that all his wood would not serve the British troops about New York for a single month; but that there was turf enough on his land to serve as fuel for the whole British army in America. So they cut it, regardless of his objections, and without paying him for it, as lie was known not to be a loyalist, and had relatives in the American army. They also told him that the deeper it was cut, the better it was—which my great-uncle found to be true, and always afterwards used turf for fuel, from preference. It was truly a providential discovery for the Long Island people, who were beginning to be distressed for want of wood, which had nearly all been cut off by the British troops.”