DUTCH AND ENGLISH ON THE HUDSON
little over an hour everything in the fort was des-
troyed, the hand-grenades exploding as they
caught fire and spreading destruction in every
direction.
A month later a fire broke out at night near the
Vlei Market. A bucket brigade was formed and
the fire was extinguished. On the same night the
loft in a house on the west side of the town was
found to be in flames, and coals were discovered
between two straw beds occupied by a negro. The
next day coals were found under the coach-house
of John Murray on Broadway, and on the day
following a fire broke out again near the Vlei
Market. Thus the townsfolk were made certain
that an incendiary plot was on foot. Of course
every one's thoughts flew to the negro slaves as
the conspirators, especially when a Mrs. Earle
announced that she had overheard three negroes
threatening to burn the town.
The authorities were as much alarmed as the
populace and at once leaped to the conclusion that
the blame for the incendiarism, of which they
scarcely paused to investigate the evidence, was
to be divided between the Roman Catholics and
the negroes, who without reasonable grounds had
so long constituted their chief terror.