make an effort to disturb the peace of the province.
Bayard was sentenced to death, but a reprieve was granted pending the
pleasure of the King. Before word could be got to England, Lord
Cornbury arrived. Bayard was promoted to a place of honor, and there was
a scattering of the Leislerians, who were now looked upon as enemies of
the Government.

[Illustration: Fort George in 1740.]

CHAPTER XIII

LORD CORNBURY makes HIMSELF very UNPOPULAR

It was in the year that Princess Anne became Queen of England (1702)
that Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury, eldest son of the Earl of Clarendon,
was sent to govern New York. He was a cousin of the Queen, and left
England to escape the demands of those to whom he owed money.

When Lord Cornbury arrived in New York, the Mayor, with much ceremony,
presented him with a box of gold, containing the freedom of the city,
which gave to him every privilege. It was a great deal of trouble and
expense to go to, for the Governor would have taken all the privileges,
even if the Mayor had not gone through the form of giving them.

Governor Cornbury very soon let his new subjects see that he was eager
to acquire wealth, and that he intended to get it without the slightest
regard for their interests or desires.

The Queen had told him that he should do all in his power to make the
Church of England the established church of the land; that he should
build new churches, punish drunkenness, swearing, and all such vices,
and that he should keep the colony supplied with negro slaves.

There was much sickness in the town--so much that it became epidemic.
So the Governor and his council went to the little village of Jamaica,
on Long Island, and carried on the business of the city in a
Presbyterian church building. When the epidemic had passed, he gave the
church to the Episcopalians, because he remembered that Queen Anne had
told him to make the Church of England the established church. There
were riotous times in Jamaica after that, but the Episcopal clergyman
occupied the house, and the Episcopalians worshipped in the church
regardless of all protests.

Not many improvements were made during Lord Cornbury's administration.
He cared little for the good of the city or for anything else except
his own pleasures. The constant fear of war gave the people little time
to think of improvements. They did, however, pave Broadway from Trinity
Church to the Bowling Green. But do not imagine that this pav