Page:The Life of George Washington, Volume 1.djvu/311

 INTRODUCTION. 281 disease appears to have raged about the same chap.vh. time in several other seaport towns, and was 1703. probably the same which has since produced such fatal effects under the name of the yellow fever. In the same year lord Cornbury, a needy and profligate nobleman, was appointed governor of the province, and embraced, without re- serve, the anti-Leislerian party, which was then the strongest in the colony, and in the legislature. On meeting the assembly, in a speech highly flattering to the members, he urged the necessity of providing money for the exigencies of the public, and, as he had arranged himself with the dominant party, the vote of supplies was liberal. It was soon perceived that the confidence in the governor had been misplaced. Fifteen hundred pounds raised for the purpose of erecting two batteries at the Narrows, and near one thousand pounds levied for the pro- tection of the frontiers, were applied by him to his private use. The system prevailing at that time in New York for collecting and keeping public money, was well calculated to favour this peculation. The colony having no treasurer, the money came into the hands of the receiver general for the crown, from whence it was drawn by a warrant from the contests J of the governor. Conflicts soon arose between hisjj^^ rk lordship and the legislature, on the subject of combSy. vol. i« o o