The Return of Eunice Campbell Reid [1777]

When on our way home from Burgoyne’s camp we stopped several days at John McNeil’s. Whilst there a a large party of Brunswickers, to the number of 30 or more, came and went into Mister McNeil’s potato field and dug a considerable part of the crop. Each of them had three knapsacks or bags which they filled with potatoes and carried off, on knapsack on the back of each and a bag or knapsack under each arm. Two of them had but one knapsack each but they took some pairs of tow-cloth trousers that were hanging out to dry, tied up the bottoms of the legs then filled them with potatoes, tied them up, and taking one under each arm went off with the trousers as well as their contents.