When M Mathews comes up I will write to you at Our friend Mathews yesterday Surprized me with an Accot That on Saturday Evening last You were Suspended from your Office of Survey Gen" If it be true, 'twas done in Such privacy, that I knew not one Syllable of it It could hardly be done in Council for I believe there were not at that time a Sufft number in Towne with me & there was no Council in the Evening that I heard of & I'm Sure 'twas not done in the morning for we all broke up & went away together: If this be true (& I have long found that all the Secrets Transacted there Soon come to Light) You no doubt will Determine to goe home the first Opportunity In order to Doe yourself Justice & now two or 3 Ships are going. A Particular friend of yours has ever Since you went been most Importunate wth me for the Drt of the Bill in Chancery, his Scheme opens to me plainer every Day: Great fraud & Collusion is Charged upon the Agreem 1725 To wch he himself is a party; for wch Reason I have likewise made him one to the Bill; I asked him, between him & myself, how he came to come in to it if 'twas Such as he seems now so grossly to explode, he sd he believed he was bewitcht: 'tis most ungratefull task to me, to have it fall within the Duty of my profession that I am obliged even in a Bill of Equity to Charge my friend whom I am Bsuaded of being a man of Sence & Honour with Epithets that are odious to him & myself But you know they are words of Course in Such Cases, thrown in at the will of the Clyent or in Complyance with the comon forms, & you are in very Good Company. Mr Clarke Kennedy A. V. Horne, Vincent Mathews Alexander & Smith &c. who will have a Share with you: But I am suaded That f your good Sence & Experience of Business you will be of Opinion that you cannot take the thing amiss at my hands in the manner it Shall pass from me & I do assure you it Shall not have my Consent to undergoe any alterations wch may be calculated to thro' other Dirt or Scandall than the common suggestions wch by men of no experience in Business of that Nature, may be thot to do: But if this matter be true That you are actually Suspended: I am aware of ano Drift of your Adversarys in pressing & hastening this Bill So much woh if the Design be as I Surmise will be in Effect Tying up your hands to cut your throat (i. e.) If the Bill Shod be filed time enough, & you Shod be preparing for England To endeavour to Stop you by a Ne exeat; for wh Reason I do assure you I will stay my hand as long as possible, & if there is any Danger in that, you Shall not fail of knowing it: & 'tis but keeping over at Hoebuck whilst your Son by your Directions prepares your things here & so to go on Board from thence: This, nothing less than the Sacred Tyes of friendship & the Value I have for you & the Confidence & Trust I repose in you could have prevailed on me to Communicate for I cannot be so calm & cool a friend as to Secrete fm you Such Villainous attempts & you may be assured: That whatever I can Imagine hear or think of wch may be for your Service to know Consistent with my honour & Consience to impart you Shall have from me. For I shall always endeavour to approve myself Your Sincere & Faithfull Friend DAN HORSMANDEN. [Indorsed] To CADWALLADER COLDEN Esq Theses Dear Sir, From Daniel Horsmanden. N. YORK Novr ye 27th 1734. I could not omit writing by Mr Mathews whereby I can depend upon Security but am sorry I've been disappointed in my Expectations of answer to my 2 or 3 last Lres. Since my writing last A Certain worthy good friend of y" in Conjunction wth ye Secry has propos'd a Scheme for Granting away all the Remaining Vacant Lands in Evans Grant, & in order to make it goe down the better some of the Council were offer'd to be Lett in for 2000 a peice, And tho' I am not well pleas'd to see it going in this manner Yet I could (as I otherwise wod) have Refused for Several Reasons. The Gov Seeming pleas'd with the thing is one & others you may easily guess at, But I am apprehensive of many Difficultys attend it & Law Suits not the least of them, But a pet" has been presented & Granted & Warrt of Survey ready to Sign & Directed to y'self woh was more than I expected But I am in hopes the Report concerning You is Groundless: The Bill in Chancery I shall keep in my hands as long as possible tho' I'm teazed to Death abot it & when it goes from me The Attorney must pass it woh will take him no little time. I am in great hast just going to Council & In expectation the Assembly will be up today So must Conclude with humble Service to all the family Dr St Your most Sincere Fa & Obliged hble Seryt DAN HORSMANDEN. I shod be glad to hear w you've any news fm Mr Perry by the Beaver. [Indorsed] To CADWALLADER COLDEN Esq' Theses. Sir/ From John Chambers. NEW YORK March 23d 1734/5. Mr Collins tells me he has not as yet Received the Warrant of Survey to Kettelhuyn and others for a Tract of Land in Albany which I gave you when you were last in Town and I think you promist to give it to Mr Collins this winter I therefore desire you will please to Send it to him or some other of your Deputys at Albany by the first Opportunity otherwise it is ten to one but some great Cain man or other will get the Land from us. Your fees shall be punctually paid you; I am with my humble Service to Mr. Colden, Sandy and Miss Betsie Sr Your most Humble Servant I was taken so ill with a Violent Purging some time after I had the hon' to Deliver Dr Coldens Letter to your Lordship that I have not been able sooner to Comply with your Lordships comands in Furnishing you with some hints that might be of use to the Doctor and Enable your Lordship to Say or do Something in his favour as Occasion might offer. The Doctor is Surveyor Generall of the Province of New York the duty of that officer is not only to Survey and truely Set out and Bound such Lands as are from time to time Granted by the Crown to the Subject and take care that the Grantees take to themselves only the Lands intended to be granted and not others but there is a farther trust reposed in him that he Set out and Survey all Lands in such manner as the King has directed by his instruction to his Governor so that by the Nature of his Office he is not only a check upon the people to prevent them from imposing upon the Crown but also a Check upon the Governours to prevent them from granting of Lands in other manner than the Crown intended they should be granted which Governours (with whom Avarice is too often the most Darling Passion) can be some times prevaild upon to do, he is farther a Check upon the Governour by being one of His Majesties Council for that Province which makes an honest and bold man who Strickly adheres to his duty Obnoxious to the resentment of a Governour who would be free from all restraints in the pursuits of Wealth, this being his case he has reason to fear the resentments of a Person who can beare no Opposition whatever and thinks himself Secure by the great interest of the Dukes of New Castle, Mountague and Lord Halifax to be protected in the doing of Every thing he Judges most conducive to his purposes and tho' I believe those Noble Lords will be far from using any endeavours to Support Mr Cosby in any unwarrantable or even unkind Action and should he displace or Suspend the Doctor would rather try to get him restor❜d and check the Governour for so rash and imprudent a procedure than use their power and interest with the King to Justifye the Governour Yet the Very Displacing or Suspending of such an Officer (Should he be afterwards restored) is not only taking at once from him all the benefitts of his Office the only Support he has for a Large Familly but adding to the injury a necessity of bearing it rather than Engage in the plague and Expence of a Solicitation to get himself restor❜d againe a Sufficient discouragement this to prevent any Officer from Opposing a Governour so remote from England tho' the officer should in so doing be doing his indispensable duty. When I last heard from the Doctor he was not then displaced but Apprehended he would be as soon as the Ships intended for this place had left New York. I faintly |