ardon, if concerned; and twenty pounds, freedom, and, if
concerned, pardon to any slave (the master to be paid twenty-five
pounds); and to any free Negro, Mulatto, or Indian, forty-five pounds
and pardon, if concerned. The mayor and the recorder (Horsemanden),
called upon Lieut.-Gov. Clark, and laid the above resolve before him.

The city was now in a state of great excitement. The air was peopled
with the wildest rumors.

On Monday the 13th of April each alderman, assistant, and constable
searched his ward. The militia was called out, and sentries posted at
the cross-streets. While the troops were patrolling the streets, the
aldermen were examining Negroes in reference to the origin of the
fires. Nothing was found. The Negroes denied all knowledge of the
fires or a plot.

On the 21st of April, 1741, the Supreme Court convened.[246] Judges
Frederick Phillipse and Daniel Horsemanden called the _grand jury_.
The members were as follows: Robert Watts, merchant, foreman; Jeremiah
Latouche, Joseph Read, Anthony Rutgers, John M'Evers, John Cruger,
jun., John Merrit, Adoniah Schuyler, Isaac DePeyster, Abraham
Ketteltas, David Provoost, Rene Hett, Henry Beeckman, jun., David van
Horne, George Spencer, Thomas Duncan, and Winant Van Zandt,--all set
down as merchants,--a respectable, intelligent, and influential grand
jury! Judge Phillipse informed the jury that the people "have been put
into many frights and terrors," in regard to the fires; that it was
their duty to use "all lawful means" to discover the guilty parties,
for there was "much room to suspect" that the fires were not
accidental. He told them that there were many persons in jail upon
whom suspicion rested; that arson was felony at common law, even
though the fire is extinguished, or goes out itself; that arson was a
deep crime, and, if the perpetrators were not apprehended and
punished, "who can say he is safe, or where will it end?" The learned
judge then went on to deliver a moral lecture against the wickedness
of selling "penny drams" to Negroes, without the consent of their
masters. In conclusion, he charged the grand jury to present "all
conspiracies, combinations and other offences."

It should be kept in mind that Mary Burton was only a witness in the
burglary case already mentioned. Up to that time there had been no
fires. The fires, and wholesale arrests of innocent Negroes, followed
the robbery. But the grand jury called Mary Burton to testify in
refer