the poplar and the aspen ceased to vibrate to the breath of heaven. Every thing seemed to acquiesce in the profound repose of nature. The formidable eighteen-pounders slept in the embrasures of the wooden batteries, seemingly gathering fresh strength to fight the battles of their country on the next fourth of July-the solitary drum on Governor's Island forgot to call the garrison to their shovels-the evening gun had not yet sounded its signal for all the regular, well-meaning poultry throughout the country to go to roost; and the fleet of canoes, at anchor between Gibbet Island and Communipaw, slumbered on their rakes, and suffered the innocent oysters to lie for a while unmolested in the soft mud of their native bank!-My own feelings sympathized with the contagious tranquillity, and I should infallibly have dozed upon one of those fragments of benches, which our benevolent magistrates have provided for the benefit of convalescent loungers, had not the extraordinary inconvenience of the couch set all repose at defiance. his lightning, his rosin, and saltpetre, preparatory to the rising of a ghost, or the murdering of a hero.We will now proceed with our history. Whatever inay be advanced by philosophers to the contrary, I am of opinion, that, as to nations, the old maxim, that “honesty is the best policy," is a sheer and ruinous mistake. It might have answered well enough in the honest times when it was made, but in these degenerate days, if a nation pretends to rely merely upon the justice of its dealings, it will fare something like an honest man among thieves, who, unless he have something more than his honesty to depend upon, stands but a poor chance of profiting by his company. Such at least was the case with the guileless government of the New Netherlands; which, like a worthy unsuspicious old burgher, quietly settled itself down into the city of New-Amsterdam, as into a snug elbow-chair-and fell into a comfortable nap-while, in the meantime, its cunning neighbours stepped in and picked its pockets. Thus may we ascribe the commencement of all the woes of this great province, and its magnificent metropolis, to the tranquil security, or, to speak more accurately, to the unfortunate honesty, of its government. But as I dislike to begin an important part of my history towards the end of a chapter; and as my readers, like myself, must doubthave taken, and the tempest we have sustained-I hold it meet we shut up the book, smoke a pipe, and having thus refreshed our spirits, take a fair start in the next chapter. In the midst of this slumber of the soul, my attention was attracted to a black speck, peering above the western horizon, just in the rear of Bergen steeple--gradually it augments, and overhangs the would-be cities of Jersey, Harsimus, and Hoboken, which, like three jockies, are starting on the course of existence, and jostling each other at the com- less be exceedingly fatigued with the long walk we mencement of the race. Now it skirts the long shore of ancient Pavonia, spreading its wide shadows from the high settlements at Weehawk quite to the lazaretto and quarantine, erected by the sagacity of our police for the embarrassment of commerce--now it climbs the serene vault of heaven, cloud rolling over cloud, shrouding the orb of day, darkening the vast expanse, and bearing thunder and hail and tempest in its bosom. The earth seems agitated at the con CHAPTER VI. PLE OF CONNECTICUT AND THEREABOUTS— fusion of the heavens-the late waveless mirror is FAITHFULLY DESCRIBING THE INGENIOUS PEOlashed into furious waves, that roll in hollow murmurs to the shore--the oyster-boats that erst sported in the placid vicinity of Gibbet Island, now hurry affrighted to the land-the poplar writhes and twists and whistles in the blast-torrents of drenching rain and sounding hail deluge the Battery-walksthe gates are thronged by apprentices, servant-maids, and little Frenchmen, with pocket-handkerchiefs over their hats, scampering from the storm-the late beauteous prospect presents one scene of anarchy and wild uproar, as though old Chaos had resumed his reign, and was hurling back into one vast turmoil the conflicting elements of nature. Whether I fled from the fury of the storm, or remained boldly at my post, as our gallant train-band captains who march their soldiers through the rain without flinching, are points which I leave to the conjecture of the reader. It is possible he may be a little perplexed also to know the reason why Î introduced this tremendous tempest to disturb the serenity of my work. On this latter point I will gratuitously instruct his ignorance. The panorama view of the Battery was given merely to gratify the reader with a correct description of that celebrated place, and the parts adjacent-secondly, the storm was played off partly to give a little bustle and life to this tranquil part of my work, and to keep my drowsy readers from falling asleep-and partly to serve as an overture to the tempestuous times that are about to assail the pacific province of NieuwNederlandts-and that overhang the slumberous administration of the renowned Wouter Van Twiller. It is thus the experienced playwright puts all the fiddles, the French horns, the kettledrums, and trumpets of his orchestra in requisition, to usher in one of those horrible and brimstone uproars called melodramas-and it is thus he discharges his thunder, THAT my readers may the more fully comprehend the extent of the calamity, at this very moment impending over the honest, unsuspecting province of Nieuw Nederlandts, and its dubious governor, it is necessary that I should give some account of a horde of strange barbarians, bordering upon the eastern frontier. Now so it came to pass, that many years previous to the time of which we are treating, the sage cabinet of England had adopted a certain national creed, a kind of public walk of faith, or rather a religious turnpike, in which every loyal subject was directed to travel to Zion-taking care to pay the toll-gatherers by the way. Albeit, a certain shrewd race of men, being very much given to indulge their own opinions, on all manner of subjects, (a propensity exceedingly offensive to your free governments of Europe.) did most presumptuously dare to think for themselves in matters of religion, exercising what they considered a natural and unextinguishable right-the liberty of conscience. As, however, they possessed that ingenious habit of mind which always thinks aloud; which rides cock-a-hoop on the tongue, and is for ever galloping into other people's ears, t naturally followed that their liberty of conscience likewise implied liberty of speech, which being freely indulged, soon put the country in a hubbub, and aroused the pious indignation of the vigilant fathers of the church. The usual methods were adopted to reclaim them, I that virtuous indignation with which we always conthat in those days were considered so efficacious in template the faults and errors of our neighbours, and bringing back stray sheep to the fold; that is to say, to exclaim at these well-meaning, but mistaken peothey were coaxed, they were admonished, they were ple, for inflicting on others the injuries they had sufmenaced, they were buffeted-line upon line, precept fered themselves-for indulging the preposterous upon precept, lash upon lash, here a little and there idea of convincing the mind by tormenting the body, a great deal, were exhausted without mercy, and and establishing the doctrine of charity and forbearwithout success; until at length the worthy pastors ance by intolerant persecution. But, in simple truth, of the church, wearied out by their unparalleled what are we doing at this very day, and in this very stubbornness, were driven, in the excess of their ten- enlightened nation, but acting upon the very same der mercy, to adopt the scripture text, and literally principle, in our political controversies? Have we "heaped live embers on their heads." not, within but a few years, released ourselves from the shackles of a government which cruelly denied us the privilege of governing ourselves, and using in full latitude that invaluable member, the tongue? and are we not at this very moment striving our best to tyrannize over the opinions, tie up the tongues, or ruin the fortunes of one another? What are our great political societies, but mere political inquisitions-our pot-house committees, but little tribunals of denunciation-our newspapers, but mere whipping-posts and pillories, where unfortunate individuals are pelted with rotten eggs-and our council of appointment, but a grand auto da fe, where culprits are annually sacrificed for their political heresies? Nothing, however, could subdue that invincible spirit of independence which has ever distinguished this singular race of people, so that rather than submit to such horrible tyranny, they one and all embarked for the wilderness of America, where they might enjoy, unmolested, the inestimable luxury of talking. No sooner did they land on this loquacious soil, than, as if they had caught the disease from the climate, they all lifted up their voices at once, and for the space of one whole year did keep up such a joyful clamour, that we are told they frightened every bird and beast out of the neighbourhood, and so completely dumbfounded certain fish, which abound on their coast, that they have been called dumb-fish ever since. From this simple circumstance, unimportant as it may seem, did first originate that renowned privilege so loudly boasted of throughout this country-which is so eloquently exercised in newspapers, pamphlets, ward meetings, pot-house committees, and congressional deliberations-which established the right of talking without ideas and without information-of misrepresenting public affairs-of decrying public measures-of aspersing great characters, and destroying little ones; in short, that grand palladium of our country, the liberty of speech. The simple aborigines of the land for a while contemplated these strange folk in utter astonishment, but discovering that they wielded harmless though noisy weapons, and were a lively, ingenious, goodhumoured race of men, they became very friendly and sociable, and gave them the name of Yanokies, which in the Mais-Tchusaeg (or Massachusett) language signifies silent men-a waggish appellation, since shortened into the familiar epithet of YANKEES, which they retain unto the present day. Where, then, is the difference in principle between our measures and those you are so ready to condemn among the people I am treating of? There is none; the difference is merely circumstantial. Thus we de nounce, instead of banishing-we libel, instead of scourging-we turn out of office, instead of hanging and where they burnt an offender in propria persona, we either tar and feather or burn him in effigy this political persecution being, somehow or other, the grand palladium of our liberties, and an incontrovertible proof that this is a free country! But notwithstanding the fervent zeal with which this holy war was prosecuted against the whole race of unbelievers, we do not find that the population of this new colony was in any wise hindered thereby; on the contrary, they multiplied to a degree which would be incredible to any man unacquainted with the marvellous fecundity of this growing country. This amazing increase may, indeed, be partly ascribed to a singular custom prevalent among them, commonly known by the name of bundling —a superstitious rite observed by the young people of both True it is, and my fidelity as a historian will not sexes, with which they usually terminated their allow me to pass it over in silence, that the zeal of festivities; and which was kept up with religious these good people, to maintain their rights and privi- strictness by the more bigoted and vulgar part of the leges unimpaired, did for a while betray them into community. This ceremony was likewise, in those errors, which it is easier to pardon than defend. primitive times, considered as an indispensable preHaving served a regular apprenticeship in the school liminary to matrimony; their courtships commencing of persecution, it behoved them to show that they where ours usually finish-by which means they achad become proficients in the art. They accordingly quired that intimate acquaintance with each other's employed their leisure hours in banishing, scourging, good qualities before marriage, which has been proor hanging divers heretical Papists, Quakers, and nounced by philosophers the sure basis of a happy Anabaptists, for daring to abuse the liberty of con-union. Thus early did this cunning and ingenious science which they now clearly proved to imply people display a shrewdness at making a bargain, nothing more than that every man should think as which has ever since distinguished them-and a he pleased in matters of religion-provided he strict adherence to the good old vulgar maxim about thought right; for otherwise it would be giving a "buying a pig in a poke.' latitude to damnable heresies. Now as they (the To this sagacious custom, therefore, do I chiefly majority) were perfectly convinced, that they alone attribute the unparalleled increase of the Yanokie or thought right, it consequently followed, that who- Yankee tribe; for it is a certain fact, well authentiever thought different from them thought wrong-cated by court records and parish registers, that and whoever thought wrong, and obstinately persisted in not being convinced and converted, was a flagrant violator of the inestimable liberty of conscience, and a corrupt and infectious member of the body politic, and deserved to be lopped off and cast into the fire. Now I'll warrant there are hosts of my readers, ready at once to lift up their hands and eyes, with wherever the practice of bundling prevailed, there was an amazing number of sturdy brats annually born unto the State, without the license of the law, or the benefit of clergy. Neither did the irregularity" of their birth operate in the least to their disparagement. On the contrary, they grew up a long-sided, raw-boned, hardy race of whoreson whalers, woodcutters, fishermen, and pedlers, and strapping corn fed wenches; who by their united efforts tended marvellously towards populating those notable tracts of country called Nantucket, Piscataway, and Cape Cod. CHAPTER VII. HOW THESE SINGULAR BARBARIANS TURNED OUT -- toons of dried apples and peaches. The outside remaining unpainted, grows venerably black with time; the family wardrobe is laid under contribution for old hats, petticoats, and breeches, to stuff into the broken windows, while the four winds of heaven keep up a whistling and howling about this aerial palace, and play as many unruly gambols, as they did of yore in the cave of old Æolus. The humble log hut, which whilome nestled this TO BE NOTORIOUS SQUATTERS HOW THEY improving family snugly within its narrow but comBUILT AIR CASTLES, AND ATTEMPTED TO INI-fortable walls, stands hard by, in ignominious conTIATE THE NEDERLANDERS IN THE MYSTERY OF BUNDLING. IN the last chapter I have given a faithful and unprejudiced account of the origin of that singular raec of people, inhabiting the country eastward of the Nieuw Nederlandts; but I have yet to mention certain peculiar habits which rendered them exceedingly obnoxious to our ever-honoured Dutch ancestors. trast, degraded into a cow-house or pig-sty; and the who'e scene reminds one forcibly of a fable, which I am surprised has never been recorded, of an aspiring snail, who abandoned his humble habitation, which he had long filled with great respectability, to crawl into the empty shell of a lobster-where he would no doubt have resided with great style and splendour, the envy and hate of all the pains-taking snails in his neighbourhood, had he not accidentally perished with cold, in one corner of his stupendous The most prominent of these was a certain rambling propensity, with which, like the sons of Ish-mansion. mael, they seem to have been gifted by Heaven, and which continually goads them on, to shift their residence from place to place, so that a Yankee farmer is in a constant state of migration; tarrying occasionally here and there; clearing lands for other peopie to enjoy, building houses for others to inhabit, and in a manner may be considered the wandering Arab of America. Being thus completely settled, and, to use his own words, "to rights," one would imagine that he would begin to enjoy the comforts of his situation, to read newspapers, talk politics, neglect his own business, and attend to the affairs of the nation, like a useful and patriotic citizen; but now it is that his wayward disposition begins again to operate. He soon grows tired of a spot where there is no longer any room His first thought, on coming to the years of man- for improvement-sells his farm, air castle, petticoat hood, is to settle himself in the world-which means windows and all, reloads his cart, shoulders his axe, nothing more nor less than to begin his rambles. puts himself at the head of his family, and wanders To this end he takes unto himself for a wife some away in search of new lands-again to fell treesbuxom country heiress, passing rich in red ribands, again to clear corn-fields-again to build a shingle glass beads, and mock tortoise-shell combs, with a palace, and again to sell off and wander. white gown and morocco shoes for Sunday, and Such were the people of Connecticut, who bordeeply skilled in the mystery of making apple sweet-dered upon the eastern frontier of Nieuw Nedermeats, long sauce, and pumpkin pie. landts; and my readers may easily imagine what obHaving thus provided himself, like a pedler, with noxious neighbours this light-hearted but restless a heavy knapsack, wherewith to regale his shoulders tribe must have been to our tranquil progenitors. through the journey of life, he literally sets out on If they cannot, I would ask them, if they have ever the peregrination. His whole family, household fur-known one of our regular, well-organized Dutch niture, and farming utensils, are hoisted into a cov-families, whom it hath pleased Heaven to afflict with ered cart; his own and his wife's wardrobe packed the neighbourhood of a French boarding-house? The up in a firkin-which done, he shoulders his axe, honest old burgher cannot take his afternoon's pipe takes staff in hand, whistles " 'Yankee Doodle," and on the bench before his door, but he is persecuted trudges off to the woods, as confident of the protec- with the scraping of fiddles, the chattering of women, tion of Providence, and relying as cheerfully upon his and the squalling of children-he cannot sleep at own resources, as did ever a patriarch of yore, when night for the horrible melodies of some amateur, who he journeyed into a strange country of the Gentiles. chooses to serenade the moon, and display his ter Having buried himself in the wilderness, he builds rible proficiency in execution, on the clarionet, the himself a log hut, clears away a corn-field and pota- hautboy, or some other soft-toned instrument-nor to-patch, and Providence smiling upon his labours, can he leave the street door open, but his house is is soon surrounded by a snug farm and some half defiled by the unsavoury visits of a troop of pug dogs, score of flaxen-headed urchins, who, by their size, who even sometimes carry their loathsome ravages seem to have sprung all at once out of the earth, like into the sanctum sanctorum, the parlour ! a crop of toad-stools. But it is not the nature of this most indefatigable of speculators to rest contented with any state of sublunary enjoyment-improvement is his darling passion, and having thus improved his lands, the next care is to provide a mansion worthy the residence of a landholder. A huge palace of pine boards immediately springs up in the midst of the wilderness, large enough for a parish church, and furnished with windows of all dimensions, but so rickety and flimsy withal, that every blast gives it a fit of the ague. By the time the outside of this mighty air castle is completed, either the funds or the zeal of our adventurer are exhausted, so that he barely manages to naut finish one room within, where the whole family burrow together-while the rest of the house is devoted to the curing of pumpkins, or storing of carrots and potatoes, and is decorated with fanciful fes If my readers have ever witnessed the sufferings of such a family, so situated, they may form some idea how our worthy ancestors were distressed by their mercurial neighbours of Connecticut. Gangs of these marauders, we are told, penetrated into the New-Netherland settlements, and threw whole villages into consternation by their unparalleled volubility, and their intolerable inquisitiveness-two evil habits hitherto unknown in those parts, or only known to be abhorred; for our ancestors were noted as being men of truly Spartan taciturnity, and who neither knew nor cared aught about any body's concerns but their own. Many enormities were committed on the highways, where several unoffending burghers were brought to a stand, and tortured with questions and guesses, which outrages occasioned as much vexation and heartburning as does the modern right of search on the high seas. WORKS OF WASHINGTON IRVING. Great jealousy did they likewise stir up, by their Intermeddling and successes among the divine sex; for being a race of brisk, likely, pleasant-tongued varlets, they soon seduced the light affections of the simple damsels from their ponderous Dutch gallants. Among other hideous customs, they attempted to introduce among them that of bundling, which the Dutch lasses of the Nederlandts, with that eager passion for novelty and foreign fashions natural to their sex, seemed very well inclined to follow, but that their mothers, being more experienced in the world and better acquainted with men and things, strenucusly discountenanced all such outlandish innovations. But what chiefly operated to embroil our ancestors with these strange folk, was an unwarrantable liberty which they occasionally took of entering in hordes into the territories of the New-Netherlands, and settling themselves down, without leave or license, to improve the land, in the manner I have before noticed. This unceremonious mode of taking possession of new land was technically termed squatting, and hence is derived the appellation of squatters; a name odious in the ears of all great landholders, and which is given to those enterprising worthies who seize upon land first, and take their chance to make good their title to it afterwards. All these grievances, and many others which were constantly accumulating, tended to form that dark and portentous cloud, which, as I observed in a former chapter, was slowly gathering over the tranquil province of New-Netherlands. The pacific cabinet of Van Twiller, however, as will be perceived in the sequel, bore them all with a magnanimity that redounds to their immortal credit-becoming by passive endurance inured to this increasing mass of wrongs; like that mighty man of old, who by dint of carrying about a calf from the time it was born, continued to carry it without difficulty when it had grown to be an ox. CHAPTER VIII. HOW THE FORT GOED HOOP WAS FEARFULLY HE FINALLY EVAPORATED. By this time my readers must fully perceive what an arduous task I have undertaken-collecting and collating, with painful minuteness, the chronicles of past times, whose events almost defy the powers of research-exploring a little kind of Herculaneum of history, which had lain nearly for ages buried under the rubbish of years, and almost totally forgottenraking up the limbs and fragments of disjointed facts, and endeavouring to put them scrupulously together, so as to restore them to their original form and connexion-now lugging forth the character of an almost forgotten hero, like a mutilated statue-now deciphering a half-defaced inscription, and lighting upon a mouldering manuscript, which, after now painful study, scarce repays the trouble of perusal. In such case, how much has the reader to depend upon the honour and probity of his author, lest, like a cunning antiquarian, he either impose upon him some spurious fabrication of his own, for a precious relic from antiquity-or else dress up the dismembered fragment with such false trappings, that it is scarcely possible to distinguish the truth from the fiction with which it is enveloped! This is a grievance which I have more than once had to lament, in the course of my wearisome researches among the works of my fellow-historians, who have strangely disguised and distorted the facts respecting this country; and particularly respecting the great province of New-Netherlands; as will be perceived by any who will take the trouble to compare their romantic effusions, tricked out in the meretricious gauds of fable, with this authentic history. ter, in those parts of my history which treat of the I have had more vexations of this kind to encountransactions on the eastern border, than in any other, in consequence of the troops of historians who have infested those quarters, and have shown the honest people of Nieuw-Nederlandts no mercy in bull arrogantly declares, that "the Dutch were always their works. Among the rest, Mr. Benjamin Trummere intruders." Now to this I shall make no other reply than to proceed in the steady narration of my history, which will contain not only proofs that the Dutch had clear title and possession in the fair valleys of the Connecticut, and that they were wrongfully dispossessed thereof-but likewise, that they have been scandalously maltreated ever since by the misrepresentations of the crafty historians of NewEngland. And in this I shall be guided by a spirit of truth and impartiality, and a regard to immortal fame-for I would not wittingly dishonour my work dice, though it should gain our forefathers the whole by a single falsehood, misrepresentation, or prejucountry of New-England. vious to the arrival of the renowned Wouter, that the appointment of this ugly little man of war as a Curlet proceeded as became a prompt and valiant men, one and all, to be of good cheer-shut the gate of the fort, smoked three pipes, went to bed, and awaited the result with a resolute and intrepid tranquillity that greatly animated his adherents, and no doubt struck sore dismay and affright into the hearts of the enemy. Such extraordinary speed did he make, that he arrived at Fort Amsterdam in little less than a month, though the distance was full two hundred pipes, or about a hundred and twenty miles. The courier chosen to bear these alarming despatches was a fat, oily little man, as being least liable to be worn out, or to lose leather on the journey; and to insure his speed, he was mounted on the fleetest wagon-horse in the garrison, remarkable for his length of limb, largeness of bone, and hardness of trot; Now it came to pass, that about this time the re- and so tall, that the little messenger was obliged to nowned Wouter Van Twiller, full of years and hon-climb on his back be means of his tail and crupper. ours, and council dinners, had reached that period of life and faculty which, according to the great Gulliver, entitles a man to admission into the ancient order of Struldbruggs. He employed his time in smoking his Turkish pipe, amid an assembly of sages equally enlightened and nearly as venerable as himself, and who, for their silence, their gravity, their wisdom, and their cautious averseness to coming to any conclusion in business, are only to be equalled by certain profound corporations which I have known in my time. Upon reading the protest of the gallant Jacobus Van Curlet, therefore, his excellency fell straightway into one of the deepest doubts that ever he was known to encounter; his capacious head gradually drooped on his chest, he closed his eyes, and inclined his ear to one side, as if listening with great attention to the discussion that was going on in his belly; which all who knew him declared to be the huge court-house or council chamber of his thoughts; forming to his head what the House of Representatives do to the Senate. An inarticulate sound, very much resembling a snore, occasionally escaped him-but the nature of this internal cogitation was never known, as he never opened his lips on the subject to man, woman, or child. In the meantime, the protest of Van Curlet laid quietly on the table, where it served to light the pipes of the venerable sages assembled in council; and in the great smoke which they raised, the gallant Jacobus, his protest, and his mighty Fort Goed Hoop, were soon as completely beclouded and forgotten as is a question of emergency swallowed up in the speeches and resolution of a modern session of Congress. The extraordinary appearance of this portentous stranger would have thrown the whole town of NewAmsterdam into a quandary, had the good people troubled themselves about any thing more than their domestic affairs. With an appearance of great hurry and business, and smoking a short travelling pipe, he proceeded on a long swing trot through the muddy lanes of the metropolis, demolishing whole batches of dirt pies, which the little Dutch children were making in the road; and for which kind of pastry the children of this city have ever been famous. On arriving at the governor's house, he climbed down from his steed in great trepidation; roused the grayheaded door-keeper, old Skaats, who, like his lineal descendant and faithful representative, the venerable crier of our court, was nodding at his post-rattled at the door of the council chamber, and startled the members as they were dozing over a plan for establishing a public market. At that very moment a gentle grunt, or rather a deep-drawn snore, was heard from the chair of the governor; a whiff of smoke was at the same instant observed to escape from his lips, and a light cloud to ascend from the bowl of his pipe. The council of course supposed him engaged in deep sleep for the good of the community, and, according to custom in all such cases established, every man bawled out silence, in order to maintain tranquillity; when, of a sudden, the door flew open, and the little courier stradThere are certain emergencies when your pro- dled into the apartment, cased to the middle in a pair found legislators and sage deliberative councils are of Hessian boots, which he had got into for the sake mightily in the way of a nation; and when an ounce of expedition. In his right hand he held forth the of hairbrained decision is worth a pound of sage ominous despatches, and with his left he grasped doubt and cautious discussion. Such, at least, was firmly the waistband of his galligaskins, which had the case at present; for while the renowned Wouter unfortunately given way, in the exertion of descendVan Twiller was daily battling with his doubts, and ing from his horse. He stumped resolutely up to the his resolution growing weaker and weaker in the governor, and with more hurry than perspicuity, decontest, the enemy pushed farther and farther into livered his message. But fortunately his ill tidings his territories, and assumed a most formidable ap-came too late to ruffle the tranquillity of this most pearance in the neighbourhood of Fort Goed Hoop. tranquil of rulers. His venerable excellency had Here they founded the mighty town of Piquag, or, just breathed and smoked his last-his lungs and as it has since been called, Weathersfield, a place his pipe having been exhausted together, and his which, if we may credit the assertion of that worthy historian, John Josselyn, Gent., "hath been infamous by reason of the witches therein.”—And so daring did these men of Piquag become, that they extended those plantations of onions, for which their town is illustrious, under the very noses of the garrison of Fort Goed Hoop-insomuch that the honest Dutchmen could not look toward that quarter without tears in their eyes. peaceful soul having escaped in the last whiff that curled from his tobacco-pipe. In a word, the renowned Walter the Doubter, who had so often slumbered with his contemporaries, now slept with his fathers, aud Wilhelmus Kieft governed in his stead. BOOK IV. WILLIAM THE TESTY. CHAPTER I. This crying injustice was regarded with proper CONTAINING THE CHRONICLES OF THE REIGN OF indignation by the gallant Jacobus Van Curlet. He absolutely trembled with the amazing violence of his choler, and the exacerbations of his valour; which seemed to be the more turbulent in their workings, from the length of the body in which they were agi- SHOWING THE NATURE OF HISTORY IN GENERAL; tated. He forthwith proceeded to strengthen his redoubts, heighten his breastworks, deepen his fosse, and fortify his position with a double row of abattis; after which valiant precautions, he despatched a fresh courier with tremendous accounts of his perilous situation CONTAINING FURTHERMORE THE UNIVERSAL WHEN the lofty Thucydides is about to enter upon his description of the plague that desolated Athens, |