so far into the interior of a new settlement, it may not be amiss here
to observe, that the sale and purchase of lands in Vermont at this
period constituted one of the principal matters of speculation among
men of property, not only those residing here, but those residing in
the neighboring colonies, and especially in that of New York; and that
the frequent controversies, arising out of disputed titles, made up
the chief business of the court, which, on the erection of a new
county by the legislature of New York, embracing all the south-eastern
part of the _Grants_, and known by the name of Cumberland, had here,
several years before, been established. And it was business of this
kind, and the personal, in addition to the political, interest they
had in sustaining a court, the judges of which were themselves said to
be engaged in these speculations, and therefore expected to favor, as
far as might be decent, their brother speculators, that led to the
journey of the present company of loyalists, consisting as before
seen, of Haviland, a large landholder of Bennington; Peters, an
unconscientious speculator in the same kind of property, belonging to
a noted family of tories of that name, residing in Pownal, and an
adjoining town in New York; and Jones, the agent of Fanning, from the
vicinity of Fort Edward; the fated Miss McRea, of sad historical
memory, from the same place, having been induced to come on with her
lover, at the previous solicitation of her friend, Miss Haviland, to
join her, her father, and Peters, to whom she was affianced in their
proposed excursion over the mountains to court.




CHAPTER II.