t and put him immediately in prison. When they seized him at Achter
Kol the armed boats had gone home, and the seizure was accomplished
through treachery. Two of the head men of Carteret immediately took
possession of his papers, such as were of importance to him, and
travelled, one to Maryland, and the other, crossing the upper part of
the North River, to Boston overland, and both to England, in order to
remonstrate. The governor sent immediately to Achter Kol, took
possession of the place, posted up orders, and caused inquiries to be
made for the man who had set Carteret over the river, but without
success.

[Footnote 390: Edward Randolph, the famous royal agent, arrived in New
York December 7, 1679.]

While Carteret was in prison he was sick, very sick, they said, in
regard to which there were various surmises. Meanwhile a court of
assizes was convened, to which on every occasion the governor was
conducted by three trumpeters in advance of him. Carteret was brought
before the same court, after him. The governor had caused a seat to be
erected in the court room high up above all the others, and higher
than usual on which he sat. Governor Carteret, as a criminal, was in
the middle. The court being seated, the governor presented Carteret as
guilty of misusing the king's name, power, and authority, and usurping
the government of New Jersey; that he was only the head of a colony,
etc. Whereupon Carteret, having the right to speak, said it was far
from his intention to seek to defend his case before that court; he
did not acknowledge it as a court having power to decide his case,
because in the first place the question could not be determined in a
court of assizes, as it did not concern a private right, but the right
of the king; in the next place, if such a question could be disposed
of in such a court, this nevertheless could not act, because he was
not subject to its jurisdiction; and thirdly, because it was a court
of one party, and he said this without wishing to offend any of the
individual members of the court; yet notwithstanding all this he was
content that he and his case should be brought before them in order
that they might be witnesses of what was done and to be done. As to
what the governor of New York alleged, he said it was wonderful to him
that he should be thus treated, and that they should dispute a matter
which neither the governor of New York, nor his court, nor any one in
the world had ever disputed