This subject was again brought to the attention of the Committee of Safety on the 3d of December, 1776. At that meeting the following letter was prepared and signed by the vice-president and transmitted to Colonel H. B. Livingston:-- "SIR,--The Committee of Safety have received accounts from different towns in Connecticutt, with their demands for transporting stock and effects from Long Island. Some are sent in by private persons, as employed by you for that purpose. I am directed to desire you to send me as particular an account as you can of the stock and other effects you have brought off Long Island, with the number of cattle, sheep, and other stock, the names of the persons to whom they belonged, and in what manner the same was disposed of, and to whom; with such vouchers for the same as you have taken. You will likewise inform us of the number of families brought off by your order, with the names of the heads of each family, as far as in your power, with any other particulars you may think necessary respecting the transportation and disposing of the same." "To COLONEL H. B. LIVINGSTON." In January, 1777, the American prisoners in New York were paroled and billeted on the inhabitants of Kings County, Congress agreeing to pay a weekly stipend of two dollars for each for board.[59] Colonel Graydon, in his memoirs, presents a very vivid picture of the scenes and incidents connected with the sojourn of the prisoners amongst the island farmers. He says that "the officers of Colonel Mayan's and Colonel Sher's regiments were quartered at Flatbush. He, with another officer, was placed in the house of Jacob Suydam." It was a large house, with many additions erected at different times, with doubtless a strange and weird appearance. He states that "they were civilly received, but that their presence was not welcome to the Low Dutch, who did not like to have their regular habits interfered with. Had they been sure of receiving the two dollars a week, it might have reconciled them. They were, however, a people who seemed thoroughly disposed to submit to any power that might be imposed on them; and whatever might have been their propensities at an earlier stage of the contest, they were now the dutiful and loyal subjects of his Majesty George III. Their houses and beds were clean, but their living was extremely poor. A sorry wash, made up of a sprinkling of Bohea and the darkest sugar on the verge of fluidity, with half-baked bread (fuel being amongst the scarcest articles in Flatbush), and a little stale butter constituted our breakfast. At our first coming a small piece of pickled beef was occasionally boiled for dinner, but to the beef, which was soon consumed, there succeeded _clippers_ or clams; and our unvaried supper was supan or mush, sometimes with skimmed milk, but more generally buttermilk blended with molasses, which was kept for weeks in a churn, as swill is saved for hogs.