VALENTINE'S MANUAL

leased to John Arsen for 140 pounds a year, and what
was easier than to borrow 106 pounds on a revenue of
140 pounds. The Mayor at the time was A. DePeyster,
Esq. He was authorized to devise means to purchase
the loving cup, and he reported a plan to mortgage the
ferry receipts.

The aldermen of those days were just as willing to
spend borrowed money as those of today, and in formal
session on July 20, 1693, they adopted resolutions accord-
ingly.

Mortgaging the ferry receipts proved to be such an
easy way to raise money that the city fathers soon had
recourse to it again. Early in 1694 they decided that the
city needed a battery for its defence. Accordingly they
resolved to place a platform and battery at the "point of
rocks," probably the point now known as the Battery.
But it fook money to buy cannon, and to get it they again
turned to the ferry. Notwithstanding that the mortgage
for the loving cup had not been satisfied, the Council re-
solved to mortgage ferry receipts three years in advance
to raise the funds. Here an entry teUing of the trans-
action, dated April 13, 1694, is in the minutes of the
Council.

In due course of time Alderman Merrett became Mayor,
and profiting by the financiering of Mayor DePeyster,
pursued a liberal policy of public improvement which he
financed by again mortgaging the ferry. At a meeting of
the Council on June 26, 1696, it was decided to build a
new city hall and a powder house, presumably to store the
ammunition for the battery built out of the first ferry
mortgage. After deciding on these improvements the
followjng action was taken, as shown by the minutes:
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