It was, indeed, true that New York was setting what was in the eyes of the Tories a most dangerous example to her neighbours. Most of the people of this colony were descendants of those who had come from the Dutch Republic, where the taxation without consent had been resisted for centuries, and where resistance to monarchy and feudal ideas had been exalted into a principle. It was this determined spirit, reinforced by the lovers of liberty, whether of Huguenot, Irish, Scottish, or Welsh blood, or men from the mother country who believed that the rights of Englishmen were still theirs, that made New York lead all the thirteen original colonies in outgrowing the colonial spirit. New Yorkers first took the steps which must logically and actually lead to separation from the transatlantic country, whose language was indeed spoken in America, but by colonists who had continued the institutions not of monarchical England, but of republican Holland. ----- [5] I visited the site of Fort Massachusetts, March 12, 1891. Though long ago levelled by the plough, the spot has been marked by Prof. Arthur Latham Perry, of Williams College, who planted the handsome elm-tree which now flourishes there. The sword, watch, and many other interesting relics of Colonel Williams, moulded or rusted, from Fort Massachusetts, from the battle-grounds of Lake George, Bloody Pond, and other places famous in colonial warfare, are carefully preserved in the college cabinet. A monument with the names of the garrison should mark the site of Fort Massachusetts. CHAPTER VI. A TYPICAL FRONTIER FIGHT WITH INDIANS. TO REORGANIZE the demoralized militia of the northern counties, Governor Clinton in November offered the command of the entire frontier to Johnson, who after due consideration accepted. Besides having the confidence of the people, among whom he was personally popular, Johnson, being backed by the Executive Council, was able to do the work expected of him, and bring about much needed reform, especially in improving the quality of the officers and the general discipline. The able-bodied men of the Mohawk Valley, mostly Dutch and German, with a few English, Irish, and Scots, were organized into nine companies of militia. Each village or settlement had its company of one hundred men, the most westward being at German Flats. Schenectady had two companies, and at Albany there were several; while all the farmers living in the open country, between forts or palisaded villages, were likewise enrolled.