the better and for the worse, did the governor make, of which my time will not serve me to record the particulars; suffice it to say, he soon contrived to make the province feel that he was its master, and treated the sovereign people with such tyrannical rigour, that they were all fain to hold their tongues, stay at home, and attend to their business; insomuch that party feuds and distinctions were almost forgotten, and many thriving keepers of taverns and dramshops were utterly ruined for want of business. Indeed, the critical state of public affairs at this time demanded the utmost vigilance and promptitude. The formidable council of the Amphyctions, which had caused so much tribulation to the unfortunate Kieft, still continued augmenting its forces, and threatened to link within its union all the mighty principalities and powers of the east. In the very year following the inauguration of Governor Stuyvesant, a grand deputation departed from the city of Providence (famous for its dusty streets and beauteous women,) in behalf of the puissant plantation of Rhode Island, praying to be admitted into the league. The following mention is made of this application, in certain records of that assemblage of worthies, which are still extant.* "Mr. Will Cottington and captain Partridg of Rhoode-Iland presented this insewing request to the commissioners in wrighting puted two ambassadors to negotiate with commissioners from the grand council of the league; and a treaty was solemnly concluded at Hartford. On receiving intelligence of this event, the whole community was in an uproar of exultation. The trumpet of the sturdy Van Corlear sounded all day with joyful clangour from the ramparts of Fort Amsterdam, and at night the city was magnificently illuminated with two hundred and fifty tallow candles; besides a barrel of tar, which was burnt before the governor's house, on the cheering aspect of public affairs. And now my worthy reader is, doubtless, like the great and good Peter, congratulating himself with the idea, that his feelings will no longer be molested by afflicting details of stolen horses, broken heads, impounded hogs, and all the other catalogue of heartrending cruelties that disgraced these border wars. But if he should indulge in such expectations, it is a proof that he is but little versed in the paradoxical ways of cabinets; to convince him of which, I solicit his serious attention to my next chapter, wherein I will show that Peter Stuyvesant has already committed a great error in politics; and by effecting a peace, has materially hazarded the tranquillity of the province. CHAPTER III. NEGOTIATIONS-SHOWING THAT A TREATY OF Our request and motion is in behalfe of Rhoode- CONTAINING DIVERS SPECULATIONS ON WAR AND Iland, that wee the Ilanders of Rhoode-Iland may be rescauied into combination with all the united colonyes of New-England in a firme and perpetuall league of friendship and amity of ofence and defence, mutuall advice and succor upon all just occasions for our mutuall safety and wellfaire, &c. Will Cottington, IT was the opinion of that poetical philosopher, Lucretius, that war was the original state of man, whom he described as being primitively a savage beast of prey, engaged in a constant state of hostility with his own species; and that this ferocious spirit was tamed and meliorated by society. The same opinion has been advocated by Hobbes nor have there been wanting many other philosophers, to admit and defend it. There is certainly something in the very physiognomy of this document that might well inspire apprehension. The name of Alexander, however misspelt, has been warlike in every age; and though For my part, though prodigiously fond of these its fierceness is in some measure softened by being valuable speculations, so complimentary to human coupled with the gentle cognomen of Partridge, still, nature, yet, in this instance, I am inclined to take the like the colour of scarlet, it bears an exceeding great proposition by halves, believing, with Horace,f that resemblance to the sound of a trumpet. From the though war may have been originally the favourite style of the letter, moreover, and the soldier-like ig- | amusement and industrious employment of our pronorance of orthography displayed by the noble cap-genitors, yet, like many other excellent habits, so far tain Alicxsander Partridg in spelling his own name, from being meliorated, it has been cultivated and conwe may picture to ourselves this mighty man of firmed by refinement and civilization, and increases Rhodes, strong in arms, potent in the field, and as in exact proportion as we approach towards that great a scholar as though he had been educated state of perfection which is the ne plus ultra of among that learned people of Thrace, who, Aristotle modern philosophy. assures us, could not count beyond the number four. But, whatever might be the threatening aspect of this famous confederation, Peter Stuyvesant was not a man to be kept in a state of incertitude and vague apprehension; he liked nothing so much as to meet danger face to face, and take it by the beard. Determined, therefore, to put an end to all these petty maraudings on the borders, he wrote two or three categorical letters to the grand council; which, though neither couched in bad Latin, nor yet graced by rhetorical tropes about wolves and lambs, and beetle-flies, yet had more effect than all the elaborate epistles, protests, and proclamations of his learned predecessor put together. In consequence of his urgent propositions, the great confederacy of the east agreed to enter into a final adjustment of grievances and settlement of boundaries, to the end that a perpetual and happy peace might take place between the two powers. For this purpose, Governor Stuyvesant de Haz. Col. State Papers. The first conflict between man and man was the mere exertion of physical force, unaided by auxiliary weapons-his arm was his buckler, his fist was his mace, and a broken head the catastrophe of his encounters. The battle of unassisted strength was succeeded by the more rugged one of stones and clubs, and war assumed a sanguinary aspect. As man advanced in refinement, as his faculties expanded, and his sensibilities became more exquisite, he grew rapidly more ingenious and experienced in the art of murdering his fellow-beings. He invented a thousand devices to defend and to assault-the helmet, the cuirass, and the buckler, the sword, the dart, and the javelin, prepared him to elude the wound, as well as to lanch the blow. Still urging *Hobbes' Leviathan. Part i. chap. 13. + Quum prorepserunt primis animalia terris, Hor, Sat. l. i. 6. 3. on, in the brilliant and philanthropic career of invention, he enlarges and heightens his powers of defence and injury-the Aries, the Scorpio, the Balista, and the Catapulta, give a horror and sublimity to war, and magnify its glory by increasing its desolation. Still insatiable, though armed with machinery that seemed to reach the limits of destructive invention, and to yield a power of injury commensurate even with the desires of revenge-still deeper researches must be made in the diabolical arcana. With furious zeal he dives into the bowels of the earth; he toils midst poisonous minerals and deadly salts-the sublime discovery of gunpowder blazes upon the world-and finally, the dreadful art of fighting by proclamation seems to endow the demon of war with ubiquity and omnipotence! This, indeed, is grand !-this, indeed, marks the powers of mind, and bespeaks that divine endowment of reason which distinguishes us from the animals, our inferiors. The unenlightened brutes content themselves with the native force which Providence has assigned them. The angry bull butts with his horns, as did his progenitors before him-the lion, the leopard, and the tiger seek only with their talons and their fangs to gratify their sanguinary fury; and even the subtle serpent darts the same venom and uses the same wiles as did his sire before the flood. Man alone, blessed with the inventive mind, goes on from discovery to discovery-enlarges and multiplies his powers of destruction; arrogates the tremendous weapons of Deity itself, and tasks creation to assist him in murdering his brother worm! In proportion as the art of war has increased in improvement, has the art of preserving peace advanced in equal ratio; and, as we have discovered, in this age of wonders and inventions, that a proclamation is the most formidable engine in war, so have we discovered the no less ingenious mode of maintaining peace by perpetual negotiations. A treaty, or, to speak more correctly, a negotiation, therefore, according to the acceptation of experienced statesmen, learned in these matters, is no longer an attempt to accommodate differences, to ascertain rights, and to establish an equitable exchange of kind offices; but a contest of skill between two powers, which shall overreach and take in the other. It is a cunning endeavour to obtain, by peaceable manœuvre and the chicanery of cabinets, those advantages which a nation would otherwise have wrested by force of arms: in the same manner that a conscientious highwayman reforms and becomes an excellent and praiseworthy citizen, contenting himself with cheating his neighbour out of that property he would formerly have seized with open violence. In fact, the only time when two nations can be said to be in a state of perfect amity, is when a negotiation is open and a treaty pending. Then, as there are no stipulations entered into, no bonds to restrain the will, no specific limits to awaken the captious jealousy of right implanted in our nature, as each party has some advantage to hope and expect from the other, then it is that the two nations are so gracious and friendly to each other; their ministers professing the highest mutual regard, exchanging billetsdoux, making fine speeches, and indulging in all those diplomatic flirtations, coquetries, and fondlirgs, that do so marvellously tickle the good-humour of the respective nations. Thus it may paradoxically pe said, that there is never so good an understanding between two nations as when there is a little misunderstanding-and that so long as there are no terms, they are on the best terms in the world! I do not by any means pretend to claim the merit of having made the above political discovery. It has, in fact, long been secretly acted upon by certain enlightened cabinets, and is, together with divers other notable theories, privately copied out of the commonplace book of an illustrious gentleman, who has been member of Congress and enjoyed the unlimited confidence of heads of departments. To this principle may be ascribed the wonderful ingenuity that has been shown of late years in protracting and interrupting negotiations. Hence the cunning measure of appointing as ambassador some political pettifogger skilled in delays, sophisms, and misapprehensions, and dexterous in the art of baffling argument -or some blundering statesman, whose errors and misconstructions may be a plea for refusing to ratify his engagements. And hence, too, that most notable expedient, so popular with our government, of sending out a brace of ambassadors; who, having each an individual will to consult, character to establish, and interest to promote, you may as well look for unanimity and concord between two lovers with one mistress, two dogs with one bone, or two naked rogues with one pair of breeches. This disagreement, therefore, is continually breeding delays and impediments, in consequence of which the negotiation goes on swimmingly-insomuch as there is no prospect of its ever coming to a close. Nothing is lost by these delays and obstacles but time, and in a negotiation, according to the theory I have exposed, all time lost is in reality so much time gained-with what delightful paradoxes does modern political economy abound! Now all that I have here advanced is so notori ously true, that I almost blush to take up the time of my readers with treating of matters which must many a time have stared them in the face. But the proposition to which I would most earnestly call their attention, is this-that though a negotiation be the most harmonizing of all national transactions, yet a treaty of peace is a great political evil, and one of the most fruitful sources of war. I have rarely seen an instance of any special contract between individuals, that did not produce jealousies, bickerings, and often downright ruptures between them; nor did I ever know of a treaty between two nations, that did not occasion continual misunderstandings. How many worthy country neighbours have I known, who, after living in peace and good-fellowship for years, have been thrown into a state of distrust, cavilling, and animosity, by some ill-starred agreement about fences, runs of water, and stray cattle. And how many well-meaning nations, who would otherwise have remained in the most amicable disposition towards each other, have been brought to sword's points about the infringement or misconstruction of some treaty, which in an evil hour they had concluded by way of making their amity more sure! Treaties, at best, are but complied with so long as interest requires their fulfilment; consequently, they are virtually binding on the weaker party only, or, in plain truth, they are not binding at all. No nation will wantonly go to war with another, if it has nothing to gain thereby, and, therefore, needs no treaty to restrain it from violence; and if it have any thing to gain, I much question, from what I have witnessed of the righteous conduct of nations, whether any treaty could be made so strong that it could not thrust the sword through-nay, I would hold, ten to one, the treaty itself would be the very source to which resort would be had, to find a pretext for hostilities. Thus, therefore, I conclude—that though it is the best of all policies for a nation to keep up a constant negotiation with its neighbours, yet it is the summit of folly for it ever to be beguiled into a treaty; for then comes on the non-fulfilment and infraction, plots, by which they were to be betrayed, dishonthen remonstrance, then altercation, then retalia-oured, and "brought upon the town." tion, then recrimination, and finally open war. In a word, negotiation is like courtship, a time of sweet words, gallant speeches, soft looks, and endearing caresses; but the marriage ceremony is the signal for hostilities. CHAPTER IV. If any proof were wanting of the truth of these opinions, I would instance the conduct of a certain republic of our day; who, good dame, has already withstood so many plots and conspiracies against her virtue, and has so often come near being made “no better than she should be." I would notice her constant jealousies of poor old England, who, by her own account, has been incessantly trying to sap her honour; though, from my soul, I never could believe HOW PETER STUYVESANT WAS GREATLY BELIED the honest old gentleman meant her any rudeness. BY HIS ADVERSARIES, THE MOSSTROOPERS- Whereas, on the contrary, I think I have several times caught her squeezing hands and indulging in certain amorous oglings with that sad fellow Buonaparte-who all the world knows to be a great despoiler of national virtue, to have ruined all the empires in his neighbourhood, and to have debauched every republic that came in his way-but so it is, these rakes seem always to gain singular favour with the ladies. IF my pains-taking reader be not somewhat perplexed, in the course of the ratiocination of my last chapter, he will doubtless at one glance perceive that the great Peter, in concluding a treaty with his eastern neighbours, was guilty of a lamentable error and heterodoxy in politics. To this unlucky agreement may justly be ascribed a world of little in- But I crave pardon of my reader for thus wanderfringements, altercations, negotiations, and bicker-ing, and will endeavour in some measure to apply ings, which afterwards took place between the irre- the foregoing remarks; for in the year 1651, we are proachable Stuyvesant, and the evil-disposed council told, the great confederacy of the east accused the of Amphyctions. All these did not a little disturb immaculate Peter--the soul of honour and heart of the constitutional serenity of the good burghers of steel-that by divers gifts and promises he had been Manna-hata; but in sooth they were so very pitiful secretly endeavouring to instigate the Narrohiganin their nature and effects, that a grave historian, sett, (or Narraganset) Mohaque, and Pequot Indians, who grudges the time spent in any thing less than to surprise and massacre the Yankee settlements. recording the fall of empires, and the revolution of" For, as the council slanderously observed, “the worlds, would think them unworthy to be inscribed Indians round about for divers hundred miles ceron his sacred page. cute, seeme to have drunke deep of an intoxicating cupp, att or from the Manhatoes against the English, whoe have sought their good, both in bodily and spirituall respects." The reader is, therefore, to take it for granted, though I scorn to waste in the detail that time which my furrowed brow and trembling hand inform me is invaluable, that all the while the great Peter was occupied in those tremendous and bloody contests that I shall shortly rehearse, there was a continued series of little, dirty, snivelling skirmishes, scourings, broils, and maraudings, made on the eastern frontiers, by the mosstroopers of Connecticut. But, like that mirror of chivalry, the sage and valourous Don Quixote, I leave these petty contests for some future Sancho Panza of a historian, while I reserve my prowess and my pen for achievements of higher dignity. Now did the great Peter conclude, that his labours had come to a close in the east, and that he had nothing to do but apply himself to the internal | prosperity of his beloved Manhattoes. Though a man of great modesty, he could not help boasting that he had at length shut the temple of Janus, and that, were all rulers like a certain person who should be nameless, it would never be opened again. But the exultation of the worthy governor was put to a speedy check; for scarce was the treaty concluded, and hardly was the ink dried on the paper, before the crafty and discourteous council of the league sought a new pretence for re-illuming the flames of discord. History does not make mention how the great council of the Amphyctions came by this precious plot; whether it was honestly bought at a fair mar ket price, or discovered by sheer good fortune--it is certain, however, that they examined divers Indians, who all swore to the fact as sturdily as though they had been so many Christian troopers; and to be more sure of their veracity, the sage council previously made every mother's son of them devoutly drunk, remembering an old and trite proverb, which it is not necessary for me to repeat. Though descended from a family which suffered much injury from the losel Yankees of those timesmy great-grandfather having had a yoke of oxen and his best pacer stolen, and having received a pair of black eyes and a bloody nose in one of these border wars; and my grandfather, when a very little boy tending pigs, having been kidnapped and severely flogged by a long-sided Connecticut schoolmaster-yet I should have passed over all these wrongs with forgiveness and oblivion-I could even have suffered them to have broken Evert Ducking's head, to have kicked the doughty Jacobus Van Curlet and his ragged regiment out of doors, carried every hog into captivity, and depopulated every hen-roost on the It seems to be the nature of confederacies, repub-face of the earth, with perfect impunity.-But this lics, and such like powers, that want the true masculine character, to indulge exceedingly in certain feminine panics and suspicions. Like some good lady of delicate and sickly virtue, who is in constant dread of having her vestal purity contaminated or seduced, and who, if a man do but take her by the hand, or look her in the face, is ready to cry out, rape! and ruin!-so these squeamish governments are perpetually on the alarm for the virtue of the country; every manly measure is a violation of the constitution-every monarchy or other masculine government around them is laying snares for their seduction; and they are for ever detecting infernal wanton attack upon one of the most gallant and ir reproachable heroes of modern times is too much even for me to digest, and has overset, with a single puff, the patience of the historian, and the forbearance of the Dutchman. Oh, reader, it was false !-I swear to thee, it was false! if thou hast any respect to my word—if the undeviating character for veracity, which I have endeavoured to maintain throughout this work, has its due weight with thee, thou wilt not give thy faith to this tale of slander; for I pledge my honour and my immortal fame to thee, that the gallant Peter Stuy vesant was not only innocent of this foul conspiracy, A HISTORY OF NEW-YORK. but would have suffered his right arm, or even his-and stopping occasionally to eat pump wooden leg, to consume with slow and everlasting dance at country frolics, and bundle with the flames, rather than attempt to destroy his enemies in teous lasses of those parts-whom he rejoiced any other way than open, generous warfare-beshrew ceedingly with his soul-stirring instrument. those caitiff scouts, that conspired to sully his honest name by such an imputation! But the grand council, being composed of considerate men, had no idea of running a tilting with such a fiery hero as the hardy Peter on the contrary, they sent him an answer couched in the meekest, the most mild, and provoking terms, in which they assured him that his guilt was proved to their perfect satisfaction, by the testimony of divers sober and amiable paragraph-"For youre confidant denialls of the Barbarous plott charged will waigh little in balance against such evidence, soe that we must still require and seeke due satisfaction and cecurite, so we rest, Sir, Peter Stuyvesant, though he perhaps had never heard of a knight-errant, yet had he as true a heart of chivalry as ever beat at the round table of King Arthur. There was a spirit of native gallantry, a noble and generous hardihood diffused through his rugged manners, which altogether gave unquestion-respectable Indians, and concluding with this truly able tokens of a heroic mind. He was, in truth, a hero of chivalry, struck off by the hand of Nature at a single heat, and though she had taken no farther care to polish and refine her workmanship, he stood forth a miracle of her skill. But, not to be figurative, (a fault in historic writing which I particularly eschew,) the great Peter possessed, in an eminent degree, the seven renowned and noble virtues of knighthood, which, as he had never consulted authors in the disciplining and cultivating of his mind, I verily believe must have been implanted in the corner of his heart by dame Nature herself-where they flourished among his hardy qualities like so many sweet wild flowers, shooting forth and thriving with redundant luxuriance among stubborn rocks. Such was the mind of Peter the Headstrong, and if my admiration for it has, on this occasion, transported my style beyond the sober gravity which becomes the laborious scribe of historic events, I can plead as an apology, that though a little gray-headed Dutchman arrived almost at the bottom of the down-hill of life, I still retain some portion of that celestial fire which sparkles in the eye of youth, when contemplating the virtues and achievements of ancient worthies. Blessed, thrice and nine times blessed be the good St. Nicholas-that I have escaped the influence of that chilling apathy, which too often freezes the sympathies of age; which, like a churlish spirit, sits at the portals of the heart, repulsing every genial sentiment, and paralyzing every spontaneous glow of enthusiasm! Youres in wayes of Righteousness, &c." I am aware that the above transaction has been differently recorded by certain historians of the east, and elsewhere; who seem to have inherited the bitter enmity of their ancestors to the brave Peterand much good may their inheritance do them. These declare, that Peter Stuyvesant requested to have the charges against him inquired into, by commissioners to be appointed for the purpose; and yet, that when such commissioners were appointed, he refused to submit to their examination. In this artful account, there is but the semblance of truth-he did, indeed, most gallantly offer, when that he found a deaf ear was turned to his challenge, to submit his conduct to the rigorous inspection of a court of hon. our-but then he expected to find it an august tribunal, composed of courteous gentlemen, the governors and nobility of the confederate plantations, and of the province of New-Netherlands; where he might be tried by his peers, in a manner worthy of his rank and dignity-whereas, let me perish, if they did not send to the Manhattoes two lean-sided bungry petti foggers, mounted on Narraganset pacers, with saddlebags under their bottoms, and green satchels under their arms, as though they were about to beat the hoof from one county court to another in search of a law-suit. No sooner, then, did this scoundrel imputation on his honour reach the car of Peter Stuyvesant, than The chivalric Peter, as might be expected, took no he proceeded in a manner which would have re- notice of these cunning varlets; who, with profesdounded to his credit, even though he had studied sional industry, fell to prying and sifting about, in for years in the library of Don Quixote himself. He quest of ex parte evidence; perplexing divers simple immediately despatched his valiant trumpeter and Indians and old women, with their cross-questioning, squire, Antony Van Corlear, with orders to ride until they contradicted and forswore themselves night and day, as herald, to the Amphyctionic coun- most horribly. Thus having fulfilled their errand to cil, reproaching them, in terms of noble indignation, their own satisfaction, they returned to the grand for giving ear to the slanders of heathen infidels, council with their satchels and saddle-bags stuffed against the character of a Christian, a gentleman, full of villainous rumours, apocryphal stories, and outand a soldier-and declaring, that as to the treach-rageous calumnies,-for all which the great Peter erous and bloody plot alleged against him, whoever did not care a tobacco-stopper; but, I warrant me, affirmed it to be true, lied in his teeth!--to prove which, he defied the president of the council and all his compeers, or, if they pleased, their puissant champion, captain Alicxsander Partridg, that mighty man of Rhodes, to meet him in single combat, where he would trust the vindication of his innocence to the prowess of his arm. had they attempted to play off the same trick upon William the Testy, be would have treated them both to an aerial gambol on his patent gallows. The grand council of the east held a very solemn meeting, on the return of their envoys; and after they had pondered a long time on the situation of affairs, were upon the point of adjourning without This challenge being delivered with due ceremony, being able to agree upon any thing. At this critical Antony Van Corlear sounded a trumpet of defiance moment, one of those meddlesome, indefatigable before the whole council, ending with a most horrific spirits, who endeavour to establish a character for and nasal twang, full in the face of Captain Partridg, patriotism by blowing the bellows of party, until the who almost jumped out of his skin in an ecstasy of whole furnace of politics is red-hot with sparks and astonishment at the noise. This done, he mounted cinders-and who have just cunning enough to know a tall Flanders mare, which he always rode, and that there is no time so favourable for getting on the trotted merrily towards the Manhattoes-passing people's backs as when they are in a state of turmoil, through Hartford, and Piquag, and Middletown, and and attending to every body's business but their own all the other border towns-twanging his trumpet-this aspiring imp of faction, who was called a great like a very devil, so that the sweet valleys and banks politician, because he had secured a seat in council of the Connecticut resounded with the warlike melody | by calumniating all his opponents-he, I say, con ceived this a fit oppo:tunity to strike a blow that | to render a country respected abroad, it was neces should secure his popularity among his constituents sary to make it formidable at home-and that a nawho lived on the borders of Nieuw-Nederlandt, and tion should place its reliance for peace and security were the greatest poachers in Christendom, except- more upon its own strength, than on the justice or ing the Scotch border nobles. Like a second Peter good-will of its neighbours. He proceeded, therethe Hermit, therefore, he stood forth and preached fore, with all diligence, to put the province and meup a crusade against Peter Stuyvesant, and his de-tropolis in a strong posture of defence. voted city. He made a speech which lasted six hours, according to the ancient custom in these parts, in which he represented the Dutch as a race of impious heretics, who neither believed in witchcraft, nor the sovereign virtues of horse-shoes-who left their country for the lucre of gain, not like themselves, for the enjoyment of liberty of conscience-who, in short, were a race of mere cannibals and anthropophagi, inasmuch as they never eat cod-fish on Saturday, devoured swine's flesh without molasses, and held pumpkins in utter contempt. Among the few remnants of ingenious inventions which remained from the days of William the Testy were those impregnable bulwarks of public safety militia laws; by which the inhabitants were obliged to turn out twice a year, with such military equipments-as it pleased God; and were put under the command of very valiant tailors, and man-milliners, who though on ordinary occasions the meekest, pippin-hearted little men in the world, were very devils at parades and courts-martial, when they had cocked hats on their heads, and swords by their sides. Under the instructions of these periodical warriors, the This speech had the desired effect, for the coun- gallant train-bands made marvellous proficiency in cil, being awakened by the sergeant-at-arms, rubbed the mystery of gunpowder. They were taught to their eyes, and declared that it was just and politic face to the right, to wheel to the left, to snap off to declare instant war against these unchristian anti-empty fire-locks without winking, to turn a corner pumpkinites. But it was necessary that the people without any great uproar or irregularity, and to at large should first be prepared for this measure; march through sun and rain from one end of the and for this purpose the arguments of the orator town to the other without flinching-until in the end were preached from the pulpit for several Sundays they became so valorous, that they fired off blank subsequent, and earnestly recommended to the con- cartridges, without so much as turning away their sideration of every good Christian, who professed | heads—could hear the largest field-piece discharged, as well as practiced the doctrines of meekness, char- without stopping their ears, or falling into much conity, and the forgiveness of injuries. This is the first fusion-and would even go through all the fatigues time we hear of the "drum ecclesiastic" beating up and perils of a summer day's parade, without having for political recruits in our country; and it proved their ranks much thinned by desertion! of such signal efficacy, that it has since been called into frequent service throughout our Union. A cunning politician is often found skulking under the clerical robe, with an outside all religion, and an inside all political rancour. Things spiritual and things temporal are strangely jumbled together, like poisons and antidotes on an apothecary's shelf; and instead of a devout sermon, the simple church-going folk have often a political pamphlet thrust down their throats, labelled with a pious text from Scripture. CHAPTER V. HOW THE NEW-AMSTERDAMMERS BECAME GREAT True it is, the genius of this truly pacific people was so little given to war, that during the intervals which occurred between field days, they generally contrived to forget all the military tuition they had received; so that when they reappeared on parade, they scarcely knew the butt-end of the musket from the muzzle, and invariably mistook the right shoulder for the left--a mistake which, however, was soon obviated by chalking their left arms. But whatever might be their blunders and awkwardness, the sagacious Kieft declared them to be of but little importance-since, as he judiciously observed, one campaign would be of more instruction to them thin a hundred parades; for though two-thirds of them might be food for powder, yet such of the other third as did not run away would become most experienced veterans. The great Stuyvesant had no particular veneration for the ingenious experiments and institutions of his shrewd predecessor, and among other things held the militia system in very considerable contempt, which he was often heard to call in joke-for he BUT, notwithstanding that the grand council, as I was sometimes fond of a joke-governor Kieft's have already shown, were amazingly discreet in their broken reed. As, however, the present emerproceedings respecting the New-Netherlands, and gency was pressing, he was obliged to avail conducted the whole with almost as much silence himself of such means of defence as were next at and mystery as does the sage British cabinet one hand, and accordingly appointed a general inspec of its ill-starred secret expeditions-yet did the ever- tion and parade of the train-bands. But oh! Mars watchful Peter receive as full and accurate informa- and Bellona, and all ye other powers of war, both tion of every movement as does the court of France great and small, what a turning out was here!of all the notable enterprises I have mentioned. He Here came men without officers, and officers without accordingly sat himself to work, to render the machi-men-long fowling-pieces, and short blunderbusses nations of his bitter adversaries abortive. I know that many will censure the precipitation of this stout-hearted old governor, in that he hurried into the expenses of fortification, without ascertaining whether they were necessary, by prudently waiting until the enemy was at the door. But they should recollect that Peter Stuyvesant had not the benefit of an insight into the modern arcana of politics, and was strangely bigoted to certain obsolete maxims of the old school; among which he firmly believed, that -muskets of all sorts and sizes, some without bayonets, others without locks, others without stocks, and many without either lock, stock, or barrelcartridge-boxes, shot-belts, powder-horns, swords, hatchets, snicker-snees, crow-bars, and broomsticks. all mingled higgledy piggledy-like one of our continental armies at the breaking out of the revolution. This sudden transformation of a pacific commu│nity into a band of warriors, is doubtless what is |