was robbed on the road by three frenchmen. We got to Pisskill about 5 o'clock. It is about 15 miles from fort to fort. There is a bridge on the road 10 miles long.1

30th. Thursday ye 30 we went in the woods to cut logs for bateaux. Pisskill stands on rising ground, and there is a fine block house built. There is a fine prospect of the Lake Erie. This lake is about 70 leagues across.

31. Friday y 31 we went in the woods to cut timber for bateaux.

November 1. November y° 1 we were a cutting of timber for bateaux.

2d. Sunday y 2 we were a making of oars for Major Rodgers" whale boats.

3d. Monday y 3 we were at work at making oars.

4th. Tuesday y 4 we were at work at the bateaux. Major Rodgers set off to Fort Detroit, for to take possession of it, with about one hundred and fifty Rangers, and about one hundred Royal Americans.

5th. Wednesday 5-Thursday yo 6, and Friday yo 7, and Saturday y 8 we were at work at the bateaux.

9th. Sunday and Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday we were making of oars for the bateaux. A party of Major Rodgers' men went off to Fort Detroit with provisions.

Thursday and Friday and Saturday and Sunday and Monday we were at work at the bateaux.

18th. Tuesday yo 18 we launched two bateaux, and they set off to Niagara to fetch provisions, for we had only one day's provisions in the fort. This day we were forced to kill Colonel Cockerill's milk cow, for we had no meat in the garrison. 18th. Tuesday ye 18 set off Colonel Messers and Colonel Cockerill to go to Fort Pitt.

19th. Wednesday 19 we were at work at the bateaux.

20th. Thursday yo 20 I went over to the Peninsula to cut knees. It is a point of land that runs out about 5 miles long,

This was a corduroy road, and existed within the recollection of persons now living.

The well-known Major Robert Rodgers.

Hugh Mercer, afterwards General Mercer.

and about one mile broad. The French have had two large store houses there, and a big dwelling house.

21st. Friday and Saturday we were at work at the bateaux. Sunday and Monday we were at work at the bateaux, and finished of the sixth.

25th. Tuesday y° 25 we made oars for the bateaux. This day we had a fine feast upon a bullock's liver.

Wednesday we set off from Pisskill, and we got to Le Boeuf. It is about 15 miles. There was a Corporal and six men came from Niagara to Pisskill, and they were seven days without any victuals.

Thursday we were a building of two bateaux.

28th. Friday y 27 [28?] we set off from Le Boeuf, and Sunday we came to the Cuscologo1 town, and there we bought venison and bread of them.

December. Monday yo 1 [2?] we got to Venango, and there we drew two days of flour for to take us to Fort Pitt. They had no meat for to give.

Thursday y 4 [5?] we got to Fort Pitt. We were three days coming down.

1 On a manuscript map, in the collections of the Historical Society, the name is given Custalogas. The location of the town was on the west side of the river Le Bouef, or French Creek, about half way between Forts Venango and Le Boeuf.

(To be continued.)

WILLIAM BURNET, M.D.

BY JOSEPH P. BRADLEY, LL.D., JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT UNITED STATES.

(Centennial Collection.)

Dr. William Burnet, of Newark, New Jersey, was elected, by the Legislature of that State, a delegate to the General Congress on the 23d of November, 1780, for the term of one year; it being the practice of the State of New Jersey to have a new election of delegates after every annual State election in October. His associates were Dr. Witherspoon, Abraham Clark, William C. Houston, and William Patterson. Until 1785 the State always sent five delegates. After that only three. Of course it had but one vote in the Congress, and the number of its delegates was in its own option.

Dr. Burnet was born at Lyon's Farms, a small hamlet between Newark and Elizabethtown, N. J., Dec. 2d (O. S.), 1730. His father was Dr. Ichabod Burnet, a physician of much eminence, who died at Elizabethtown in 1774, at the great age of ninety years, being one of the most venerated and distinguished citizens of that town. Ichabod was a grandson of Thomas Burnet, who emigrated from Lynn, Massachusetts, to Southampton, Long Island, prior to 1643. The family tradition is that he was collaterally related to the famous Dr. Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury in William and Mary's time; but the connection, if any existed, is lost in the obscurity of the past. Ichabod Burnet emigrated with his father to Elizabethtown in 1700, then only sixteen years old. He received his education in Edinburgh, and settled first at Lyon's Farms, and afterwards returned to Elizabethtown. He was one of the associates representing the early settlers, who claimed title to the lands of that town by grant from Governor Nichols, adverse to the claim of the general proprietors of the province; and having been a Puritan, and

then a Presbyterian, he naturally took the popular side in all the political controversies of the period. Under such auspices it is not wonderful that his son William, the subject of this sketch, became a warm partisan of the rights of the colonies, and an enemy of prerogative. He had a second son, Ichabod, who also studied medicine, but died at an early age, unmarried.

William Burnet received his academical training in the College of New Jersey, then located at Newark, under the presidency of the Rev. Aaron Burr, and graduated in 1749. Having studied medicine under the direction of Dr. Statts in New York City, he settled in Newark, and in 1753 married Mary, daughter of Captain Nathaniel Camp, a substantial citizen of the town. He was one of the founders of the New Jersey Medical Society, was long an elder in the Presbyterian church, and early became a prominent and leading man in that part of New Jersey. The records of the New Jersey Medical Society, which have been published, contain two addresses delivered by him, which give a very favorable view of his qualifications as a writer.

At the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, Dr. Burnet took an active part in organizing the elements of opposition to British authority. In May, 1775, he was appointed deputy chairman' of the Committee of Safety of the town of Newark, formed to support the Continental Congress, and carry out the measures of the proposed Provincial Congress. The burden of management came principally on Dr. Burnet and his two associates, Capt. Joseph Hedden and Major Samuel Hayes, who for a considerable period exercised complete power of local government in Newark and its vicinity, keeping the Tories and disaffected in awe. Dr. Burnet was also appointed chairman of the Essex County Committee of Safety, and in that capacity exercised a large executive control. In March, 1776, at the call of Lord Stirling, he superintended the organization and dispatch of several military companies in aid of the defence of New York.

'Lewis Ogden, on account of his family influence, being made chairman.

His eldest son, William, who had also studied medicine, and was then but little over twenty-one years old, went as surgeon of one of the regiments organized under the Doctor's directions. His second son, Ichabod, who was only in his twentieth year, acted as secretary of the County Committee. At a later period, in 1777, the latter became aid-de-camp to General Greene, and attended him in that capacity with the rank of major, to the end of the war, being one of the most efficient and trusted officers of his staff. At the battle of Germantown, during the retreat, a musket ball took off his queue. "Burnet," said the general, " if you have time, you had better jump down and pick up your queue." "And your curls, too, general," responded the aid, observing that another ball had taken off his commander's curls. Greene laughed, but I do not learn that they stopped for the lost ornaments. Dr. Burnet's third son, John, who was sixteen at the breaking out of the war, was unfortunately lame, or he would also, without doubt, have entered the service of his country. As Paine justly said, "those were the times that tried men's souls." The real patriots of that day were in dead earnest, and Dr. Burnet was not alone in giving himself and all the male members of his family to the cause.

The province of New Jersey was situated in the centre of the contest, and although the majority of her people were on the patriotic side, there were very many, and these often persons of wealth and influence, who were either on the fence or outspoken royalists. The old General Assembly sympathized with the people, but were prevented from adopting any effective measures by the activity of the governor, William Franklin, a son of Dr. Franklin, who was a zealous Royalist. Of course the Whigs had to strain every nerve to keep the State in line, and to furnish its quota of aid to the Continental cause. A Provincial Congress was improvised, and regulated public affairs for more than a year; but adopted a provisional constitution on the 2d of July, 1776, under which a State government was organized. One of the first necessities to be provided was money of some sort or other. The Legislature had no other resource than to issue bills of credit. An issue of