5
The passes read:
Headquarters,
Robinson House,
Sept. 20, 1780.
Permission is given to Joshua Smith, Esquire, a gentleman, Mr. John Anderson,
who is with him, and his two servants, to pass and repass the guards near King's Ferry
at all times.
B. Arnold, M. Gen'l.
Headquarters,
Robinson House,
Sept. 21, 1780
Permission is granted to Joshua Smith, Esq., to go to Dobbs' Ferry with three
men and a Boy with a Flag to carry some letters of a private Nature for Gentlemen in
New York, and to return immediately.
B. Arnold, M. Gen'l.
N. B. He has permission to go at such hours and times as the tide and his
business suits. B. A.
To protect him still further he was given a letter to Beverly Robinson,
who had previously written Arnold for an interview on the subject of his con-
fiscated property:1
'' This will be delivered to you by Mr. Smith, who will conduct you to a place of
safety. Neither Mr. Smith nor any other person shall be made acquainted with your
proposals. If they (which I doubt not) are of such a nature that I can officially take
notice of them, I shall do it with pleasure. I take it for granted that Colonel Robinson
will not propose anything that is not for the interest of the United States as well as
himself.''
The start was made at about midnight of Thursday, the 21st. By Arnold's orders the oars were muffled with pieces of sheepskin. As the moon did not
rise until six o'clock Friday morning, the flag of truce could not have been seen,
had it been used that night—a fact which had an important bearing on the results of the trip. The countersign, to pass the American guard-boats, that night, was " Congress."2 The boat was allowed to come alongside, or seems to have done so almost unperceived by the sentinel, and Smith got aboard by a convenient rope, only to be received—as he says—with threats from the watch-
6 Major and Quartermaster William Kiers (Kierse Or Kierce), seems to have been in charge at Stony Point.
It is to be presumed he was of Livingston's regiment, though the only record of 1-iitn in the State's
archives is as a captain of the Haverstraw militia, in 1778. ' This regiment was commanded by Colonel
Hay. I have found it impossible to find his descendants, or to obtain any definite information about
him.
7 Samuel had previously refused to row Smith to the Vulture on the twentieth, and Smith sent him on
horseback to Arnold, with a letter to that effect, which brought the traitor at once to Haverstraw.
1 On the seventeenth, when Washington and Arnold were together at Smith's house, Arnold showed the Chief
a letter from Robinson about his confiscated estates, addressed to General Putnam, or the officer com-
manding at West Point. The writer requested an interview, which Washington discouraged, adding that
Arnold might send a trusty representative if he chose. In telling the story to Luzerne he added: " I had
no more suspicion of Arnold at the time than of myself." 2 The question of, page 6.
