ABSTRACT

By time honoured tradition, not to mention force of necessity, military a airs come to rest during winter, the truth of which in January 1780 allowed Surveyor of Post Roads Hazard the opportunity to rest comfortably and compose largely when he sat to write an epistle in response to Belknap’s of the ‘28th ult.’, 28 December 1779.1

Whereas Belknap had merely a vague, eeting acquaintance with Ethan Allen of Vermont, Hazard knew him, and outlined his character in detail:

A more succinct and accurate picture of Allen could not be drawn. To be sure, Allen’s attempt at Deist philosophy and activities as a Vermont patriot indicated the potential yet inconsistency of his character. A ‘son of science’ as Hazard meant it required diligence, patience, caution, erudition and curiosity. Hazard found the progeny of science to rest rmly in Belknap’s character and behaviour. Hazard had asked his friend for an opinion about a New York Law about which he himself was quite decided. It was a law enforced by Patriot militias to intimidate those who harboured Tories (and others) who plundered innocent farmers.

Hazard thanked Belknap for his assistance furnishing hints of good literary sources of information for his proposed Geography, but admitted that ‘though books may assist me in my enquiries, my principal sources of information will be gentlemen of learning and abilities in the several States’ – men such as Belknap – ’to whom I intend to write upon the subject’.2