WILLIAM GREEN sworn, deposes: That about three weeks ago, I was in company with one Gilbert Forbes, a gunsmith, who lives in Broadway, and we fell into a conversation on politics; I found Forbes' pulse beat high in the Tory scheme; I had repeated conversations with Forbes afterward, and he was always introducing politics and hinting against the impossibility of this country standing against the power of Great Britain; he invited me to dine with him one day, and a day or two afterward asked me if I would not enlist in the king's service; I asked him where the money was to come from to pay me for the service; Forbes replied the major would furnish money; I was pleased with the notion of getting some money from the Tories, and agreed to the scheme, with a view to cheat the Tories and detect their scheme; I mentioned the matter to several, and among others to Hickey, the prisoner; I told him the principle I went upon, and that we had a good opportunity of duping the Tories; Hickey agreed to the scheme, but did not receive any money, except two shillings, which I gave him; Forbes left it with me to enlist and swear the men; Forbes swore me and one Clark on the Bible to fight for the king, but I swore Hickey to fight for America; after the prisoner was engaged, I proposed to him to reveal the plot to the general, but Hickey said we had better let it alone till we had made further discoveries; all that Forbes proposed to me was that when the king's forces arrived, we should cut away King's Bridge, and then go on board a ship of war which would be in the East River to receive us; I enlisted ten or a dozen, and told them all my plan; the prisoner wrote his name upon a piece of paper, with five others, which I gave to Forbes, and this was all the enlistment that I knew of the prisoner's signing.

GILBERT FORBES: A night or two after Gen. Washington arrived in New York from Boston, Green fell into company where I was; we were drinking, and Green toasted the king's health, and I did so too; a day or two afterwards Green called upon me; said, that as I had drank his majesty's health, he supposed I was his friend, and immediately proposed to enlist some men

into the king's service, and told me he could procure considerable numbers to join him; I put him off, and declined having any hand in the business; but in repeated applications from him I at last fell into the scheme; Green was to enlist the men, in which I was not to be concerned, nor have my name mentioned; in a day or two, Green gave me a list of men who had engaged, among whom was the prisoner, Hickey; soon after Hickey asked me to give him a half a dollar, which I did, and this was all the money that Hickey ever received from me; Green received eighteen dollars, and was to pay the men who enlisted, a dollar a piece, and we were to allow them ten shillings per week subsistence money; I received upward of a hundred pounds from Mr. Matthews, the mayor, to pay those who should enlist in the king's service; who, after enlisting, were to go on board the king's ships, but if they could not get there, were to play their parts when the king's forces arrived; that he knows one - Silk; that he was left by Cap. Aidy to wait upon his wife, who lives on Long Island, somewhere near Hampstead; that he is often in town, frequently at Mrs. Oiry's and Mrs. Brandon's; has the air of a soldier; wears a short brown hunting coat, and a double-breasted jacket of the same color; that he used to wait on a Mr. Miller, who lives or lodges in Mr. Gouverneur's house, on Rotten Row; that Sergeant Graham (an old soldier, discharged from the royal artillery) was employed by Governor Tryon to speak to examinant about enlisting men for the king's service, and told this examinant from the governor, that if this examinant exerted himself in that business, and raised a number of men, he should have a company; that the said sergeant also informed him, that at the request of the governor, he had surveyed the grounds and works about the city, and on Long Island, in consequence of which he had concerted a plan for an attack, which he had given to Governor Tryon, and of which the governor approved; which was as follows, viz.: That the men-of-war should cannonade the Battery at Red Hook, and that while that was doing, a detachment of the army, with some cannon, etc., should land below or about Red Hook, and

march round so as to come upon the back of the batteries near the Swedeland House; that a small part of the detachment should make a feint of marching up the road leading directly to the battery, but that the main body were to make a circuitous march so as to reach the battery while our attention was engaged by the feint aforesaid; that if they carried that battery, which they expected to take by storm, they were immediately to attack the battery on the hill near the ferry, which the sergeant said would be easily done, as no embrasures were made or cannon fixed on the back side of it; that this latter battery, when in their possession, would command the works on Gouvernour's Island, which they would keep between two fires, viz.: the battery last mentioned, on the one side, and the shipping on the other; that then the shipping, with the remainder of the army, were to divide; one division was to run up the North River and land at or near about Clarke's farm, and march directly to Enclenbergh Hall and fortify there; the other division was to run up the East River and land in such a manner as to gain Jones' Hill, from whence they expected to command and silence the battery on Bayard's Hill; that should they gain possession of the places above mentioned, their next object would be the grounds adjacent to King's Bridge, where they intended to erect strong works, so as to cut off the communication between the city and the country.

Gilbert Forbes being further examined, saith: That some time before the man-of-war removed from the town to the narrows, one Webb, a burr-millstone maker, told examinant that if he had any rifles to sell, he could get a good price for them by sending them on board the man-of-war, and that a young man who lived with James Rivington told him the same; that this examinant had then nine rifles which he made, but they were bad and would not shoot straight, and eleven smooth, narrow-bored guns; that he sent some of them to Mrs. Becks, a tavern keeper, near the Fly Market, with orders to send them on board, which she accordingly did, and that the said Webb carried the remainder; that the said Webb told this examinant that Governor Tryon would give him three

guineas apiece for them; that at the same time when an exchange of prisoners took place with the man-of-war, and Tiley was, among others, exchanged, the mayor, viz., David Matthews, Esq., sent for this examinant and told him that he was going on board the governor's ship, and that he would get the money due from the governor to this examinant for the rifles aforesaid; that on his return the mayor told this examinant he would pay him in a few days; that this examinant never did receive any money from him for the said fire-arms; that this examinant told Charles Benson that he was about enlisting men, and that he told this examinant it would do.

WILLIAM WELCH: Between a fortnight and three weeks ago, I met the prisoner on the street; he asked me to go with him to a grog shop; when we got there he told me he had something to tell me of importance, but insisted on my being sworn before he would communicate it; I accordingly swore on the Bible to keep secret what he should tell me; he then said, that this country was sold; that the enemy would soon arrive, and that it was best for us old countrymen to make our peace before they came, or they would kill us all; that we old countrymen should join together, and that we would be known by a particular mark, and if I would agree to become one of them, he would carry me to a man who would let me have a dollar by way of encouragement; I did not relish the project and we parted.

ISAAC KETCHUM: Last Saturday week the prisoner was committed to jail, on suspicion of counterfeiting the Continental currency, and seeing me in jail, inquired the reason of it; I told him, because I was a Tory; on this, a conversation ensued on politics; in different conversations he informed me that the army was become damnably corrupted; that the fleet was soon expected, and that he and a number of others wero in a band to turn against the American army when the king's troops should arrive, and asked me to be one of them; the plan he told me, was, some were to be sick, and others were to hire men in their room; that eight of the general's guard were concerned, but mentioned only Green by name; he fur

ther told me, that one Forbes, a tavern keeper, was to be their captain, but that the inferior officers were not yet appointed, lest the scheme should be discovered.

The prisoner here being called upon to make his defence, produces no evidence, but says "he engaged in the scheme at first for the sake of cheating the Tories, and getting some money from them, and afterward consented to have his name sent on board the man-of-war, in order that, if the enemy should arrive and defeat the army here, and he should be taken prisoner, he might be safe."

WILLIAM FORBES, of Goshen Precinct, in Orange County, tanner and currier, being examined, saith: That he knows Gilbert Forbes, of the city of New York, gunsmith; that the first time he saw him was in this city, between the brick meeting and the jail; that he heard somebody call him Mr. Forbes; this examinant accosted him, and told him that his name was Forbes also; that thereupon they went into Houlding's tavern, and drank together; that he has been at the house of the said Gilbert Forbes, on an invitation from him. That he knows a sergeant in General Washington's Guards, but cannot recollect his name; that he became acquainted with him at Corby's (an inn-keeper), near General Washington's; that this examinant went to Corby's in company with one James Mason, of Ringwood, who was at work in Corby's garden; that the sergeant was a middle-sized, fair-complexioned man-an Englishman; that examinant became acquainted with James Mason at Duchess County; afterward saw him at Goshen, and from thence came in company with him to this town; that he told Mason he had been on board the man-ofwar last winter, while she lay in the East River; that he never was on board the Duchess of Gordon; that he never said he was on board the Savage when she fired on Staten Island; that he had heard, and, among others, from the said Mason, that two hundred acres of land were offered by Governor Tryon to each man who would go in the king's service, and one hundred to the wife, and fifty to each child; that examinant borrowed twenty odd shillings of Mason, and