316 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

was planted a buttonwood-tree, which afterwards attained a very large size. The barracks were very substantially constructed. In front of the fort, on the line of the present Fulton street, between Pierrepont and Clark streets, stood a row of small mud huts, erected by the British army sutlers.1 The fortification was not completed in July, 1781, at which time it had only eighteen cannon mounted.2

On June 14, 1780, citizens of Brooklyn thanked the 76th Regiment, commanded by the Earl of Caithness, and afterwards by Capt. Bruce, for their constant good order and decorum during their residence at Brooklyn.3

Gaine’s Mercury, of July 2d, 1780, contains the following advertisement, issued by Loosely and Elms: “Pro bono publico. Thursday next, bull-baiting at Brooklyn ferry. The bun is remarkably strong and active; the best dogs in the country expected, and they that afford the best diversion will be rewarded with silver collars.” Such were the elegant and refined amusements with which the aristocracy of the British army whiled away their leisure!

A few days later, July 17th, an address was presented to Gov. Robertson, on the occasion of his accession, in behalf and at the request of the inhabitants of Kings County, signed by Wm. Axtell, Rutgert Van Brunt, Richard Stillwell, Jeromus Lott, Ab. Luquere, M. Cowenhoven, Rem Cowenhoven, Maj. Jeromus V. D. Belt, Adrian Van Brunt, Leffert Lefferts, and Johannes Bergen, who Òconcur with His Excellency in ascribing to the ambitious and self-interested views of a few who conceal from the multitude the offers of Great Britain, that our countrymen, once so happy, are brought to feel the miseries held up to their fears, to seduce them from the felicity they once enjoyed, subjected, as they now are, to a usurpation that has annihilated their commerce, shed their blood, and wasted their property, and is now dragging the laborious husband- man from the plough to the field of battle, to support their unauthorized combinations with designing popish and arbitrary powers. They cannot sufficiently applaud His Excellency for affording them the means of

1 Farman’s MS. Mem., ix., 376, on anthority of Mr. Jamb Hicks, an old resident of Brooklyn..

2 Onderdonk, Rev. Incid., 101.

3 Onderdonk, Kings Co, p. 187.