Poughkeepsie, 19 January, 1777.
There is too much ice in Hudson's River to cross it in ferry-boats, and
too little to cross it without, in most places, which has given us the
trouble of riding up the Albany road as far as this place, where we
expect to go over on the ice; but if we should be disappointed here, we
must go up as far as Esopus, about fifteen miles farther.
This, as well as Fishkill, is a pretty village. We are almost wholly
among the Dutch, zealous against the Tories, who have not half the
tranquillity here that they have in the town of Boston, after all the
noise that has been made about New York Tories. We are treated with the
utmost respect wherever we go, and have met with nothing like an insult
from any person whatever. I heard ten reflections and twenty sighs and
groans among my constituents to one here.
I shall never have done hoping that my countrymen will contrive some
_coup de main_ for the wretches at Newport. The winter is the time. Our
enemies have divided their force. Let us take advantage of it.