324 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

1783. In January of this year General Carlton appointed Mr. Ernest de Diemar major of the fort at Brooklyn.

“Subscription assembly at Loosely’s, Brooklyn Hall, every other Thursday, during the season, for the gentlemen of the army and navy, public departments, and citizens. Half a guinea each night, to provide music, tea, coffee, chocolate, negus, sangaree, lemonade, etc.”—Gaine, Feb. 24, ’83.

“Race at Ascot Heath. A purse of 100 guineas, on April 9, between Calfskin and Fearnought, the best of 3 one-mile heats.”—Rivington, April 5, ’83.

But the state of things had changed. No longer did the newspapers teem with festive advertisements and loyalist literature. The war was virtually ended by the provisional treaty of peace, signed November 30, 1782, and the British were about to leave the land where, for nearly seven years, their presence had rested like a hideous nightmare upon the people whom they sought to subdue. The “King’s Head Tavern” blazed no more with festive illuminations, nor echoed to the sound of revelry. The raps of the auctioneer’s hammer resounded through the halls where once the gay officers of the British army and their “toady” loyalist friends of Kings County had feasted, and sung, in harmonious revelry, loyal ballads to their sovereign. The sound of preparation for departure was everywhere heard, and the papers (significant indices of every passing breeze of popular events) were now occupied with advertisements such as the following:

“At auction at the King’s Naval Brewery, L. 1., 60 or 70 tons of iron-hoops, and 70,000 dry and provision-casks, staves, and heading, in lots of 10,000.”—Rivington, May 26, ’83.

“Auction at Flatbush.—The WALDECK STORES viz.: soldiers’ shirts; blue, white, and yellow cloth; thread-stockings, shoe-soles, heel-taps, etc., etc.”—Rivington, July 2, ’83.

“Saddle-horses, wagons, carts, harness, etc., at auction every Wednesday, at the wagon-yard, Brooklyn.”—Gaine, Sept. 8, ’83.

“King’s draft and saddle horses, wagons, carts, and harness for sale at the wagon-yard, Brooklyn.”—Rivington, August 27, ’83.

Desertions also became frequent among the Hessians, who preferred to remain in this country. Tanis Bennet of Brooklyn was