Governor Cosby was accused of having
brought about this unequal match, although Lord Augustus said that it
was the lady's winning ways and pretty face.
Cosby, after the Zenger trial, did what he could to check the liberty
of the citizens, but was soon stricken with a fatal illness. On his
death-bed he called together the members of his council, and suspended
his old enemy, Rip Van Dam, who would have been his successor until
another Governor was appointed. And having done this he died, on March
10, 1736, leaving a quarrelsome state of affairs behind him.
CHAPTER XVII
CONCERNING the NEGRO PLOT
The citizens were so far from being pleased when they learned that Rip
Van Dam was not to act in the Governor's place, that, for a time, it
looked very much as though there would be a riot. There was a member of
the Assembly named George Clarke, and when his fellow-members chose him
for the place that Rip Van Dam should have had, there was more
grumbling. But as no Governor came from England for seven years, Clarke
looked after the province all that time. He was an easy-going man, who
tried by every possible means to make friends. There was one happening
in particular by which he is remembered.
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