WORKS OF WASHINGTON IRVING. them of the time when, before the frowning walls of Fort Christina, he had led them on to victory. strove likewise to awaken their confidence, by assurHe ing them of the protection of St. Nicholas, who had hitherto maintained them in safety, amid all the savages of the wilderness, the witches and squatters of the east, and the giants of Merry-land. Finally, he informed them of the insolent summons he had received to surrender, but concluded by swearing to defend the province as long as Heaven was on his side, and he had a wooden leg to stand upon-which noble sentence he emphasized by a tremendous thwack with the broadside of his sword upon the table, that totally electrified his auditors. He then proceeded to speak of his excellency in grandeur of his station, comparing him to Nero. high-sounding terms, suitable to the dignity and Caligula, and those other great men of yore, who are generally quoted by popular orators on similar occa sions; assuring the people, that the history of the world did not contain a despotic outrage to equal the present for atrocity, cruelty, tyranny, and bloodthirstiness-that it would be recorded in letters of fire, on the blood-stained tablet of history! that ages would roll back with sudden horror when they came to view it! that the womb of time-(by the way, your orators and writers take strange liberties with believe that time is an old gentleman)—that the the womb of time, though some would fain have us womb of time, pregnant as it was with direful horrors, would never produce a parallel enormity!With a variety of other heart-rending, soul-stirring tropes and figures, which I cannot enumerateneither, indeed, need I, for they were exactly the same that are used in all popular harangues and patriotic orations at the present day, and may be classed in rhetoric under the general title of RIGMAROLE. The privy counsellors, who had long been accustomed to the governor's way, and in fact had been brought into as perfect discipline as were ever the soldiers of the great Frederick, saw that there was no use in saying a word-so lighted their pipes and smoked away in silence, like fat and discreet counsellors. But the burgomasters, being less under the governor's control, considering themselves as representatives of the sovereign people, and being moreover inflated with considerable importance and selfsufficiency, which they had acquired at those notable finished, the meeting fell into a kind of popular ferThe speech of this inspired burgomaster being schools of wisdom and morality, the popular meet-mentation, which produced not only a string of right ings, were not so easily satisfied. Mustering up fresh spirit, when they found there was some chance of escaping from their present jeopardy, without the disagreeable alternative of fighting, they requested a copy of the summons to surrender, that they might show it to a general meeting of the people. So insolent and mutinous a request would have been enough to have roused the gorge of the tranquil Van Twiller himself-what, then, must have been its effect upon the great Stuyvesant, who was not only a Dutchman, a governor, and a valiant woodenlegged soldier to boot, but withal a man of the most stomachful and gunpowder disposition? He burst wise resolutions, but likewise a most resolute memorial, addressed to the governor, remonstrating at his conduct-which was no sooner handed to him, than he handed it into the fire; and thus deprived poster ity of an invaluable document, that might have served ors of the present day, in their sage intermeddlings as a precedent to the enlightened cobblers and tailwith politics. CHAPTER VII. THE TRUMPETER-AND HOW PETER STUVES- forth into a blaze of noble indignation,-swore not a CONTAINING A DOLEFUL DISASTER OF ANTONY mother's son of them should see a syllable of itthat they deserved, every one of them, to be hanged, drawn and quartered, for traitorously daring to question the infallibility of government-that as to their advice or concurrence, he did not care a whiff of tobacco for either--that he had long been harassed and down a pannier-load of benedictions upon his burgoNow did the high-minded Pieter de Groodt shower thwarted by their cowardly counsels; but that they masters, for a set of self-willed, obstinate, headstrong might thenceforth go home, and go to bed like old varlets, who would neither be convinced nor perwomen; for he was determined to defend the colony suaded; and determined thenceforth to have nothing himself, without the assistance of them or their adher- more to do with them, but to consult merely the ents. So saying, he tucked his sword under his arm, opinion of his privy counsellors, which he knew cocked his hat upon his head, and girding up his from experience to be the best in the world--inasloins, stumped indignantly out of the council cham- much as it never differed from his own. ber-every body making room for him as he passed. omit, now that his hand was in, to bestow some thouNo sooner had he gone, than the busy burgomas-sand left-handed compliments upon the sovereign ters called a public meeting in front of the Stadt- | people; whom he railed at for a herd of poltroons, house, where they appointed as chairman one Dofue who had no relish for the glorious hardships and ilRoerback, a mighty gingerbread-baker in the land and formerly of the cabinet of William the Testy. He was looked up to with great reverence by the populace, who considered him a man of dark knowledge, seeing he was the first that imprinted new-year cakes with the mysterious hieroglyphics of the Cock and Breeches, and such like magical devices. Nor did he lustrious misadventures of battle-but would rather stay at home, and eat and sleep in ignoble ease, than gain immortality and a broken head by valiantly fighting in a ditch. loved city, in despite even of itself, he called unto Resolutely bent, however, upon defending his be This great burgomaster, who still chewed the cud man in all times of emergency. Him did he adjure him his trusty Van Corlear, who was his right-hand of ill-will against the valiant Stuyvesant, in conse- to take his war-denouncing trumpet, and mounting quence of having been ignominiously kicked out of his horse, to beat up the country, night and day. his cabinet at the time of his taking the reins of gov- Sounding the alarm along the pastoral borders of the ernment-addressed the greasy multitude in what is Bronx-starting the wild solitudes of Croton-arouscalled a patriotic speech, in which he informed them ing the rugged yeomanry of Weehawk and Hoboeken of the courteous summons to surrender-of the gov-the mighty men of battle of Tappan Bay*—and ernor's refusal to comply therewith-of his denying the brave boys of Tarry Town and Sleepy Hollowthe public a sight of the summons, which, he had no doubt, contained conditions highly to the honour which boasted a hundred and fifty fighting men. See Ogilby'■ History. A HISTORY OF NEW-YORK. As some lorn together with all the other warriors of the country | fections that grow close around the heart, and are round about; charging them one and all to sling nourished by its warmest current. locks, and dreary night is gathering around, sees their powder-horns, shoulder their fowling - pieces, pilgrim, while the tempest whistles through his and march merrily down to the Manhattoes. Now there was nothing in all the world, the divine stretched, cold and lifeless, his faithful dog--the sole sex excepted, that Antony Van Corlear loved better companion of his journeying, who had shared his So, just stopping to take solitary meal, and so often licked his hand in humble than errands of this kind. a lusty dinner, and bracing to his side his junk bottle, gratitude-so did the generous-hearted hero of the well charged with heart-inspiring Hollands, he issued Manhattoes contemplate the untimely end of his jollily from the city gate, that looked out upon what faithful Antony. He had been the humble attendant is at present called Broadway; sounding as usual a of his footsteps-he had cheered him in many a farewell strain, that rung in sprightly echoes through heavy hour by his honest gayety, and had followed the winding streets of New-Amsterdam.-Alas! never him in loyalty and affection through many a scene and that, too, at a moment when every mongrel cur more were they to be gladdened by the melody of of direful peril and mishap; he was gone for evertheir favourite trumpeter! It was a dark and stormy night, when the good seemed skulking from his side. This-Peter StuyAntony arrived at the famous creek (sagely denomi- vesant-this was the moment to try thy fortitude; nated Hærlem river) which separates the island of and this was the moment when thou didst indeed The glare of day had long dispelled the horrors of Manna-hata from the main land. The wind was shine forth-Peter the Headstrong! high, the elements were in an uproar, and no Charon could be found to ferry the adventurous sounder of the last stormy night; still all was dull and gloomy. brass across the water. For a short time he vapour-The late jovial Apollo hid his face behind lugubrious ed like an impatient ghost upon the brink, and then, clouds, peeping out now and then, for an instant, as bethinking himself of the urgency of his errand, took if anxious, yet fearful, to see what was going on in a hearty embrace of his stone bottle, swore most val- his favourite city. This was the eventful morning orously that he would swim across, en spijt den Duy- when the great Peter was to give his reply to the vel, (in spite of the devil!) and daringly plunged into summons of the invaders. Already was he closeted the stream.-Luckless Antony! scarce had he buf- with his privy council, sitting in grim state, brooding feted half-way over, when he was observed to strug-over the fate of his favourite trumpeter, and anon gle violently, as if battling with the spirit of the boiling with indignation as the insolence of his recwaters-instinctively he put his trumpet to his reant burgomasters flashed upon his mind. While haste from Winthrop, the subtle governor of Conmouth, and giving a vehement blast, sunk for ever in this state of irritation, a courier arrived in all to the bottom! necticut, counselling him in the most affectionate and disinterested manner to surrender the province, and magnifying the dangers and calamities to which a refusal would subject him. What a moment was this to intrude officious advice upon a man who never took advice in his whole life! -The fiery old governor strode up and down the chamber, with a vehemence that made the bosoms of his counsellors to quake with awe-railing at his unlucky fate, that thus made him the constant butt of facetious subjects and jesuitical advisers. the waves. The potent clangour of his trumpet, like the ivory horn of the renowned Paladin Orlando, when expiring in the glorious field of Roncesvalles, rung far and wide through the country, alarming the neighbours round, who hurried in amazement to the spot. Here an old Dutch burgher, famed for his veracity, and who had been a witness of the fact, related to them the melancholy affair; with the fearful addition (to which I am slow of giving belief) that he saw the duyvel, in the shape of a huge moss-bonker, seize Just at this ill-chosen juncture, the officious burgothe sturdy Antony by the leg, and drag him beneath Certain it is, the place, with the adjoining promontory, which projects into the Hudson, has masters, who were now completely on the watch, been called Spijt den duyvel, or Spiking Devil, ever and had heard of the arrival of mysterious despatchsince; the restless ghost of the unfortunate Antony es, came marching in a resolute body into the room, still haunts the surrounding solitudes, and his trump- with a legion of schepens and toad-eaters at their et has often been heard by the neighbours, of a stormy heels, and abruptly demanded a perusal of the letter. night, mingling with the howling of the blast. No- Thus to be broken in upon by what he esteemed a body ever attempts to swim over the creek, after" rascal rabble," and that, too, at the very moment dark; on the contrary, a bridge has been built, to guard against such melancholy accidents in futureand as to moss-bonkers, they are held in such abhorrence, that no true Dutchman will admit them to his table, who loves good fish and hates the devil. Such was the end of Antony Van Corlear-a man deserving of a better fate. He lived roundly and soundly, like a true and jolly bachelor, until the day of his death; but though he was never married, yet did he leave behind some two or three dozen children, in different parts of the country-fine, chubby, brawling, flatulent little urchins, from whom, if legends speak true, (and they are not apt to lie,) did descend the innumerable race of editors who people and defend this country, and who are bountifully paid by the people for keeping up a constant alarm -and making them miserable. Would that they inherited the worth, as they do the wind, of their renowned progenitor! The tidings of this lamentable catastrophe imparted a severer pang to the bosom of Peter Stuyvesant, than did even the invasion of his beloved Amsterdam. It came ruthlessly home to those sweet af was too much for the spleen of the choleric Peter. he was grinding under an irritation from abroad, He tore the letter in a thousand pieces*--threw it in over the head of the next-hurled his spitting-box at the face of the nearest burgomaster-broke his pipe an unlucky schepen, who was just making a masterly retreat out at the door, and finally prorogued the whole meeting sine die, by kicking them down-stairs with his wooden leg. As soon as the burgomasters could recover from the confusion into which their sudden exit had thrown them, and had taken a little time to breathe, they protested against the conduct of the governor, which they did not hesitate to pronounce tyrannical, unconstitutional, highly indecent, and somewhat disrespectful. They then called a public meeting, where they read the protest, and addressing the assembly propriate colouring and exaggeration, the despotic in a set speech, related at full length, and with apand vindictive deportment of the governor; declar ing that, for their own parts, they did not value a Smith's History of New-York. straw the being kicked, cuffed, and mauled by the timber toe of his excellency, but they felt for the dignity of the sovereign people, thus rudely insulted by the outrage committed on the seat of honour of their representatives. The latter part of the harangue had a violent effect upon the sensibility of the people, as it came home at once to that delicacy of feeling and jealous pride of character, vested in all true mobs; who, though they may bear injuries without a murmur, yet are marvellously jealous of their sov-ereign dignity—and there is no knowing to what act of resentment they might have been provoked against the redoubtable Peter, had not the greasy rogues been somewhat more afraid of their sturdy old governor, than they were of St. Nicholas, the English -or the D-1 himself. CHAPTER VIII. HOW PETER STUYVESANT DEFENDED THE CITY While all these woful struggles and dissensions were prevailing in the unhappy city of New-Amsterdam, and while its worthy, but ill-starred governor was framing the above-quoted letter, the English commanders did not remain idle. They had agents secretly employed to foment the fears and clamours of the populace; and moreover circulated far and wide, through the adjacent country, a proclamation, repeating the terms they had already held out in their summons to surrender, and beguiling the simple Nederlanders with the most crafty and conciliating professions. They promised that every man who voluntarily submitted to the authority of his British Majesty, should retain peaceable possession of his house, his vrouw, and his cabbage-garden. That he should be suffered to smoke his pipe, speak Dutch, wear as many breeches as he pleased, and import bricks, tiles, and stone jugs from Holland, instead of manufacturing them on the spot. That he should on no account be compelled to learn the English language, or keep accounts in any other way than by casting them up on his fingers, and chalking them down upon the crown of his hat; as is still observed among the Dutch yeomanry at the present day. That every man should be allowed quietly to inherit his THERE is something exceedingly sublime and mel- father's hat, coat, shoe-buckles, pipe, and every other ancholy in the spectacle which the present crisis of personal appendage, and that no man should be our history presents. An illustrious and venerable obliged to conform to any improvements, inventions, little city-the metropolis of an immense extent of or any other modern innovations; but, on the con uninhabited country-garrisoned by a doughty host trary, should be permitted to build his house, follow of orators, chairmen, committee-men, burgomasters, his trade, manage his farm, rear his hogs, and educate schepens, and old women-governed by a deter- his children, precisely as his ancestors did before him mined and strong-headed warrior, and fortified by since time immemorial. Finally, that he should have mud batteries, palisadoes, and resolutions-block-all the benefits of free trade, and should not be readed by sea, beleaguered by land, and threatened quired to acknowledge any other saint in the calwith direful desolation from without; while its very endar than St. Nicholas, who should thenceforward, vitals are torn with internal faction and commotion! as before, be considered the tutelar saint of the city. Never did historic pen record a page of more complicated distress, unless it be the strife that distracted the Israelites during the siege of Jerusalem-where discordant parties were cutting each other's throats, at the moment when the victorious legions of Titus had toppled down their bulwarks, and were carrying fire and sword into the very sanctum sanctorum of the temple. DINT OF THE STRENGTH OF HIS HEAD. These terms, as may be supposed, appeared very satisfactory to the people, who had a great disposition to enjoy their property unmolested, and a most singular aversion to engage in a contest where they could gain little more than honour and broken heads hideous misadventures; and did not hesitate to speak their minds freely, and abuse him most heartily-behind his back. the first of which they held in philosophic indifference, the latter in utter detestation. By these insidious means, therefore, did the English succeed in Governor Stuyvesant, having triumphantly, as has alienating the confidence and affections of the popubeen recorded, put his grand council to the rout, and lace from their gallant old governor, whom they conthus delivered himself from a multitude of imperti-sidered as obstinately bent upon running them into nent advisers, despatched a categorical reply to the commanders of the invading squadron; wherein he asserted the right and title of their High Mightinesses the Lords States General to the province of NewNetherlands, and, trusting in the righteousness of his cause, set the whole British nation at defiance! My anxiety to extricate my readers and myself from these disastrous scenes, prevents me from giving the whole of this gallant letter, which concluded in these manly and affectionate terms: "As touching the threats in your conclusion, we have nothing to answer, only that we fear nothing but what God (who is as just as merciful) shall lay upon us; all things being in His gracious disposal, and we may as well be preserved by him with small forces, as by a great army; which makes us to wish you all happiness and prosperity, and recommend you to his protection. My lords, your thrice humble and affectionate servant and friend, "P. STUYVESANT." Thus having resolutely thrown his gauntlet, the brave Peter stuck a pair of horse-pistols in his belt, girded an immense powder-horn on his side-thrust his sound leg into a Hessian boot, and clapping his fierce little war hat on the top of his head-paraded up and down in front of his house, determined to defend his beloved city to the last. Like as a mighty grampus, who, though assailed and buffeted by roaring waves and brawling surges, still keeps on an undeviating course; and though overwhelmed by boisterous billows, still emerges from the troubled deep, spouting and blowing with tenfold violence-so did the inflexible Peter pursue, unwavering, his determined career, and rise, contemptuous, above the clamours of the rabble. But when the British warriors found, by the tenor of his reply, that he set their power at defiance, they forthwith despatched recruiting officers to Jamaica, and Jericho, and Nineveh, and Quag, and Patchog, and all those towns on Long Island which had been subdued of yore by the immortal Stoffel Brinkerhoff stirring up the valiant progeny of Preserved Fish, and Determined Cock, and those other illustrious squatters, to assail the city of New-Amsterdam by land. In the meanwhile, the hostile ships made awful preparation to commence an assault by water. The streets of New-Amsterdam now presented a scene of wild dismay and consternation. In vain did the gallant Stuyvesant order the citizens to arm, and assemble in the public square or market-place. The whole party of Short Pipes in the course of a single night had changed into arrant old women-a | lace, moves slowly to the governor's dwelling, bearmetamorphosis only to be paralleled by the prodigiesing the capitulation. Here they found the stout old recorded by Livy as having happened at Rome on the approach of Hannibal, when statues sweated in pure affright, goats were converted into sheep, and cocks turning into hens ran cackling about the streets. The harassed Peter, thus menaced from without, and tormented from within-baited by the burgomasters, and hooted at by the rabble, chafed and growled and raged like a furious bear, tied to a stake and worried by a legion of scoundrel curs. Finding, however, that all further attempts to defend the city were vain, and hearing that an irruption of borderers and mosstroopers was ready to deluge him from the east, he was at length compelled, in spite of his proud heart, which swelled in his throat until it had nearly choked him, to consent to a treaty of sur render. hero, drawn up like a giant in his castle, the doors strongly barricadoed, and himself in full regimentals, with his cocked hat on his head, firmly posted with a blunderbuss at the garret-window. There was something in this formidable position that struck even the ignoble vulgar with awe and admiration. The brawling multitude could not but reflect with self-abasement upon their own pusillanimous conduct, when they beheld their hardy but de serted old governor, thus faithful to his post, like a forlorn hope, and fully prepared to defend his ungrateful city to the last. These compunctions, however, were soon overwhelmed by the recurring tide of public apprehension. The populace arranged themselves before the house, taking off their hats with most respectful humility.--Burgomaster Roerback, who was of that popular class of orators described by Sallust as being "talkative rather than eloquent," stepped forth and addressed the governor in a speech of three hours' length; detailing in the most pathetic terms the calamitous situation of the province, and urging him in a constant repetition of the same arguments and words to sign the capitulation. Words cannot express the transports of the people, on receiving this agreeable intelligence; had they obtained a conquest over their enemies, they could not have indulged greater delight. The streets resounded with their congratulations-they extolled their governor, as the father and deliverer of his country-they crowded to his house to testify their gratitude, and were ten times more noisy in their plaudits, than when he returned, with victory perched The mighty Peter eyed him from his little garretupon his beaver, from the glorious capture of Fort window in grim silence-now and then his eye Christina. But the indignant Peter shut his doors would glance over the surrounding rabble, and an and windows, and took refuge in the innermost re-indignant grin, like that of an angry mastiff, would cesses of his mansion, that he might not hear the ig-mark his iron visage. But though he was a man of noble rejoicings of the rabble. In consequence of this consent of the governor, a parley was demanded of the besieging forces to treat of the terms of surrender. Accordingly, a deputation of six commissioners was appointed on both sides; and on the 27th August, 1664, a capitulation highly favourable to the province, and honourable to Peter Stuyvesant, was agreed to by the enemy, who had conceived a high opinion of the valour of the Manhattoes, and the magnanimity and unbounded discretion of their governor. One thing alone remained, which was, that the articles of surrender should be ratified, and signed by the governor. When the commissioners respectfully waited upon him for this purpose, they were received by the hardy old warrior with the most grim and bitter courtesy. His warlike accoutrements were laid aside-an old India night-gown was wrapped about his rugged limbs, a red night-cap overshadowed his frowning brow, and an iron gray bread, of three days' growth, gave additional grimness to his visage. Thrice did he seize a little worn-out stump of a pen, and essay to sign the loathsome paper-thrice did he clinch his teeth, and make a most horrible countenance, as though a pestiferous dose of rhubarb, senna, and ipecacuanha, had been offered to his lips; at length, dashing it from him, he seized his brass-hilted sword, and jerking it from the scabbard, swore by St. Nicholas, he'd sooner die than yield to any power under heaven. in vain was every attempt to shake this sturdy resolution-menaces, remonstrances, revilings, were exhausted to no purpose-for two whole days was the house of the valiant Peter besieged by the clamorous rabble, and for two whole days did he partake himself to his arms, and persist in a magnanimous refusal to ratify the capitulation. most undaunted mettle-though he had a heart as big as an ox, and a head that would have set adamant to scorn-yet after all he was a mere mortal:— wearied out by these repeated oppositions and this eternal haranguing, and perceiving that unless he complied, the inhabitants would follow their own inclinations, or rather their fears, without waiting for his consent, he testily ordered them to hand up the paper. It was accordingly hoisted to him on the end of a pole, and having scrawled his name at the bottom of it, he anathematized them all for a set of cowardly, mutinous, degenerate poltroons-threw the capitulation at their heads, slammed down the window, and was heard stumping down stairs with the most vehement indignation. The rabble incontinently took to their heels; even the burgomasters were not slow in evacuating the premises, fearing lest the sturdy Peter might issue from his den, and greet them with some unwelcome testimonial of his displeasure. Within three hours after the surrender, a legion of British beef-fed warriors poured into New-Amsterdam, taking possession of the fort and batteries. And now might be heard from all quarters the sound of hammers, made by the old Dutch burghers, who were busily employed in nailing up their doors and windows, to protect their vrouws from these fierce barbarians, whom they contemplated in silent sullenness from the garret-windows, as they paraded through the streets. Thus did Col. Richard Nichols, the commander of the British forces, enter into quiet possession of the conquered realm, as locum tenens for the Duke of York. The victory was attended with no other outrage than that of changing the name of the prov ince and its metropolis, which thenceforth were denominated NEW-YORK, and so have continued to be At length the populace, finding that boisterous called unto the present day. The inhabitants, acmeasures did but incense more determined opposi-cording to treaty, were allowed to maintain quiet tion, bethought themselves of an humble expedient, possession of their property; but so inveterately did by which, happily, the governor's ire might be soothed, and his resolution undermined. And now a solemn and mournful procession, headed by the burgomasters and schepens, and followed by the popuVOL. II.-7 they retain their abhorrence of the British nation, that in a private meeting of the leading citizens, it was unanimously determined never to ask any of their conquerors to dinner. CHAPTER IX. his domestic empire he maintained strict discipline, and a well-organized, despotic government; but, CONTAINING THE DIGNIFIED RETIREMENT AND though his own will was the supreme law, yet the MORTAL SURRENDER OF PETER THE HEAD- THUS, then, have I concluded this great historical enterprise; but before I lay aside my weary pen, there yet remains to be performed one pious duty. If, among the variety of readers that may peruse this book, there should haply be found any of those souls of true nobility, which glow with celestial fire at the history of the generous and the brave, they will doubtless be anxious to know the fate of the gallant Peter Stuyvesant. To gratify one such sterling heart of gold, I would go more lengths than to instruct the cold-blooded curiosity of a whole fraternity of philosophers. good of his subjects was his constant object. He watched over, not merely their immediate comforts, but their morals and their ultimate welfare; for he gave them abundance of excellent admonition, nor could any of them complain, that, when occasion required, he was by any means niggardly in bestowing wholesome correction. The good old Dutch festivals, those periodical demonstrations of an overflowing heart and a thankful spirit, which are falling into sad disuse among my fellow-citizens, were faithfully observed in the mansion of Governor Stuyvesant. New-year was truly a day of open-handed liberality, of jocund revelry, and warm-hearted congratulation-when the No sooner had that high-mettled cavalier signed bosom seemed to swell with genial good-fellowship the articles of capitulation, than, determined not to-and the plenteous table was attended with an unwitness the humiliation of his favourite city, he ceremonious freedom, and honest, broad-mouthed turned his back on its walls, and made a growling merriment, unknown in these days of degeneracy and retreat to his Bouwery, or country-seat, which was refinement. Pas and Pinxter were scrupulously obsituated about two miles off; where he passed the served throughout his dominions; nor was the day remainder of his days in patriarchal retirement. of St. Nicholas suffered to pass by without making There he enjoyed that tranquillity of mind which he presents, hanging the stocking in the chimney, and had never known amid the distracting cares of gov-complying with all its other ceremonies. ernment; and tasted the sweets of absolute and uncontrolled authority, which his factious subjects had so often dashed with the bitterness of opposition. No persuasions could ever induce him to revisit the city-on the contrary, he would always have his great arm-chair placed with its back to the windows which looked in that direction; until a thick grove of trees, planted by his own hand, grew up and formed a screen that effectually excluded it from the prospect. He railed continually at the degenerate innovations and improvements introduced by the conquerors-forbade a word of their detested language to be spoken in his family-a prohibition read-master's jokes, as became a faithful and well-disciily obeyed, since none of the household could speak any thing but Dutch-and even ordered a fine avenue to be cut down in front of his house, because it consisted of English cherry-trees. The same incessant vigilance that blazed forth when he had a vast province under his care now showed itself with equal vigour, though in narrower limits. He patrolled with unceasing watchfulness around the boundaries of his little territory; repelled every encroachment with intrepid promptness; punished every vagrant depredation upon his orchard or his farm-yard with inflexible severity-and conducted every stray hog or cow in triumph to the pound. But to the indigent neighbour, the friendless stranger, or the weary wanderer, his spacious doors were ever open, and his capacious fire-place, that emblem of his own warm and generous heart, had always a corner to receive and cherish them. There was an exception to this, I must confess, in case the ill-starred applicant was an Englishman or a Yankee, to whom, though he might extend the hand of assistance, he never could be brought to yield the rites of hospitality. Nay, if peradventure some straggling merchant of the cast should stop at his door, with his cart-load of tin-ware or wooden bowls, the fiery Peter would issue forth like a giant from his castle, and make such a furious clattering among his pots and kettles that the vender of "notions" was fain to betake himself to instant flight. His handsome suit of regimentals, worn threadbare by the brush, was carefully hung up in the state bed-chamber, and regularly aired on the first fair day of every month-and his cocked hat and trusty sword were suspended in grim repose over the parlour mantel-piece, forming supporters to a full-length portrait of the renowned Admiral Van Tromp. In Once a year, on the first day of April, he used to array himself in full regimentals, being the anniversary of his triumphal entry into New-Amsterdam, after the conquest of New-Sweden. This was always a kind of saturnalia among the domestics, when they considered themselves at liberty, in some measure, to say and do what they pleased; for on this day their master was always observed to unbend, and become exceeding pleasant and jocose, sending the old gray-headed negroes on April fool's errands for pigeon's milk; not one of whom but al lowed himself to be taken in, and humoured his old plined dependant. Thus did he reign, happily and peacefully, on his own land-injuring no man-envying no man-molested by no outward strifes-perplexed by no internal commotions; and the mighty monarchs of the earth, who were vainly seeking to maintain peace, and promote the welfare of mankind, by war and desolation, would have done well to have made a voyage to the little island of Mannahata, and learned a lesson in government from the domestic economy of Peter Stuyvesant. In process of time, however, the old governor, like all other children of mortality, began to exhibit tokens of decay. Like an aged oak, which, though it long has braved the fury of the elements, and still retains its gigantic proportions, yet begins to shake and groan with every blast-so was it with the gal lant Peter; for, though he still bore the port and semblance of what he was in the days of his hardihood and chivalry, yet did age and infirmity begin to sap the vigour of his frame-but his heart, that most unconquerable citadel, still triumphed unsubdued. With matchless avidity would he listen to every article of intelligence concerning the battles between the English and Dutch-still would his pulse beat high, whenever he heard of the victories of De Ruyter-and his countenance lower, and his eyebrows knit, when fortune turned in favour of the English. At length, as on a certain day he had just smoked his fifth pipe, and was napping after dinner in his arm-chair, conquering the whole British nation in his dreams, he was suddenly aroused by a fearful ringing of bells, rattling of drums, and roaring of cannon, that put all his blood in a ferment. But when he learnt that these rejoicings were in honour of a great victory obtained by the combined English and French fleets over the brave De Ruyter and the |