him well, and occasionally rendered him a favor by preparing his horse bills. On one of these occasions, at my house, he gave a full and particular statement of the whole affair. Some of the details have escaped me, but the essential facts are distinctly recollected. The owner, with Engineer in possession, was met at some public place and the purchase completed, and this statement then made, ‘that he had become involved in debt, and that his creditor had begun a prosecution, with a view to levy on the horse, the only property he possessed, and he was determined not to lose all.’ This was certainly enough to arouse their suspicions with regard to his history. He declared the horse was bred and raised in Pennsylvania and that he was got by imported Messenger. Whether any further pedigree was given is not recollected. He was at this time (1814) a horse considerably advanced in years and perfectly white. Mr. Tappan also told me that he had afterward traced the horse, and was entirely satisfied of the former owner’s veracity. I will not apologize for the length of this statement, being desirous of giving you all the information here possessed and probably all that can now be obtained.” I am not aware that in the past sixty years any question has ever been raised as to the truth of the universally accepted statement that Engineer was a true son of Messenger, and I would not have disturbed it now, nor thought of doing so, had it not been for that remarkable advertisement discovered in the obscure Long Island paper. That was contemporaneous history, however, and it must either be explained or accepted. The question has been examined down to the bottom by one of the most conscientious and capable men of his generation, in this department of knowledge. His verdict has been accepted as the truth by all parties of that day, and I cannot reject it. It is not known that any of his immediate progeny attained distinction on the trotting turf. Several of his sons bore his name in the stud and while their blood seemed to be helpful in the right direction, only one of them made any mark as a sire of speed, and that was the horse known as Lewis’ Engineer, the sire of the world beater, Lady Suffolk. Burdick’s Engineer, another son, was taken to Washington County, New York, and got the dam of the famous Princess, which produced the great Happy Medium. In all these instances there was commingling with other strains from Messenger.