Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in his journal:
Sylvan could go wherever woods & waters were & no man was asked for leave. Once or twice the farmer withstood, but it was to no purpose,—he could as easily prevent the sparrows or tortoises. It was their land before it was his, & their title was precedent. S. knew what was on their land, & they did not; & he sometimes brought them ostentatiously gifts of flowers or fruits or shrubs which they would gladly have paid great prices for, & did not tell them that he took them from their own woods.
Moreover the very time at which he used their land & water (for his boat glided like a trout every where unseen,) was in hours when they were sound asleep. Long before they were awake he went up & down to survey like a sovereign his possessions, & he passed onward, & left them before the farmer came out of doors. Indeed it was the common opinion of the boys that Mr T. made Concord.
(The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 13:187)
