Possessing His Eternity With whom the like proportion bears, These very meditations are Unto my life: And send me hence, There to be fill'd with that despair, But, oh! my soul, think once again. And oh my God, let me behold Thy Son, With such an eye of faith that may from thence, Derive from Him a gracious influence, To cure my sin and wounded conscience. CADWALLADER COLDEN. CADWALLADER COLDEN, who heads with honor the ranks of the authors of the State of New York, unless we except the previous compositions in the Dutch language, the political tract of Van der Donck, the satire of the Breeden Raedt, and an account of the Maquaas Indians, in Latin, by Megapolensis, was the son of the Rev. Alexander Colden, of Dunse, Scotland, where he was born February 17, 1688. He was prepared, by the private instructions of his father, for the University of Edinburgh, where he was graduated in 1705. He devoted the three following years to medical and mathematical studies, when he emigrated to Pennsylvania and practised physic with great success in Philadelphia until 1715. At that time he visited London, and there became acquainted with Halley, the astronomer, who was so well pleased with a paper on Animal Secretions, written by Colden some years before, that he read it before the Royal Society, by whom the production was received with equal favor. In 1716 he returned to America, having in the meantime married in Scotland a young lady of the name of Christie. He settled in New York in 1718, where he soon abandoned his profession for the service of the State, filling in succession the offices of surveyor-general of the province, master in chancery, member of the council, and lieutenant-governor. In 1756 he removed with his family to a tract of land on the Hudson, near Newburgh, which he named Coldenham. He was appointed lieutenantgovernor of the province in 1760, and retained the office until his death, September 21, 1776, having been several times called upon to act as governor in consequence of the death or retirement of various occupants of the oflice. Cadwallador Colden Adrian Van der Donck, a graduate of the University of Leyden, was appointed by the patroon of Rensselaerwick sheriff of his colony, and came to New Netherlands in 1642. In 1048 we find a grant of land made to him as Yonker Van der Donck, at Yonkers on the Hudson, Yonker being the usual title of gentleman. His name appears as one of the eleven signers of a tract of Afty pages quarto, published at the Hague in 1650, entitled, Verfoogh van Nieuw Nederlandt; Representation from New Netherland, concerning the situation, fruitfulness, and poor condition of the same. It is addressed to the West India Company as a petition for changes in the government of Kieft and Stuyvesant. It has been translated by Mr. Henry C. Murphy for the New York 1Historical Society, and published by them and also by Mr. James Lenox of this city, in quarto edition for privato circulation. In consequence of its attacks on the government Van der Donck was denied access to the colonial records during the preparation of his Description of New Netherlands, a work the translation of which occupies 106 pages of the New York Historical Society's Collections, 1841. It contains an account of the rural products, animals, and inhabitants of the Colony. The date of the fist edition is unknown. The second appeared at Amsterdam in 1656, by Evert Nieuwenhof, who introduces the work with a poetical preface. The Breeden-Raedt (Broad Advice to the United Netherland Provinces, by J. A., G. W. C., Antwerp, 1649), is a coarse but to some extent amusing satire, growing out of the disaffection to the Colonial Government. The Rev. Johannes Megapolensis, the "Dominie" of the colony of Rensselaerwick, where he officiated from his arrival in New Nether lands August, 1642, wrote in 1644, and published in 1651, a tract on the Maquaas Indiana, translation of which was pub Hshed in Hazard's Historical Collections (Phila 1792), vol. 1. p. 517, where it occupies eight quarto pages. Megapolensis's Activity as a missionary among the Indians furnished him with excellent opportunities for observing their pecu. Harities. In 1649 he became pastor of the Church of New Amsterdam. His name appears frequently in the city annals down to the time of the surrender to the English His Colden was the author of the History of the Fice Indian Nations.* The object of this work was to call attention to the importance of Indian affairs in reference to cominerce. It contains a brief history of the intercourse between the aborigines and the Europeans from the settlement of the country to the period of its publication in 1727. It was reprinted at London in 1747, with the addition of a number of treaties and other documents, and the remarkable transfer by the London publisher of the dedication from Governor Burnet to General Oglethorpe,† a liberty at which Colden was justly indignant. A third edition, in two neat 12mo. volumes, appeared at London in 1755 He also wrote a philosophical treatise, published in 1751, entitled, The Principles of Action in Matter. He printed in 1742, a tract on a fever which had recently ravaged the city of New York, in which he showed how greatly the deadly effects of disease were enhanced by filth, stagnation, and foul air, pointing out those portions of the city which most needed purification. The corporation voted him their thanks, and carried out many of his sanitary suggestions with good effect. Colden took a great interest in the study of botany, and was the first to introduce the Linnean system in America, a few months after its publication in Europe. acquaintance with Kalin, the Swedish traveller, a papil of the great naturalist, may have aided him in the prosecution of his inquiries. His essay On the Virtues of the Great Water Dock led to a correspondence with Linnæus, who included an account of between three and four hundred American plants, furnished by Colden, and about two hundred of which were described for the first time in the Acta Upsala, and afterwards bestowed the name of Coldenia on a plant of the tetrandrous class, in honor of his American disciple. Colden maintained an active correspondence from the year 1710 to the close of his life, with the leading scientific inen of Europe and America. Franklin was among the most constant as well as celebrated of these correspondents, and it was to this friend that Colden communicated one of his most valuable inventions, that of the art of stereotyping. The letter is dated October, 1743. It is probable that Franklin may have conversed on the subject in France, and that thus the hint of the process was communicated to the German, Herhan, who in the commencement of the present century carried it into successful practice in Paris, and obtained the credit of being its originator. The History of the Five Indian Nations of Canada, which are dependent on the Province of New York in America, and are the Barrier between the English and the French in that part of the world, with particular accounts of their religion, manners, customs, laws, and forms of government; their several battles and treaties with the European nations; their wars with other Indians; and a true account of the present state of our trade with them. In which are shewn the great Advantage of their Trade and Alliance to the British nation, and the Intrigues and attempts of the French to engage them from us; a subject nearly concerning all our American Plantatlons, and highly meriting the attention of the British nation at this juncture. To which are added, Accounts of the several other Nations of Indians in North America, their numbers, strength, &c., and the Trenties which have been lately made with them. 8rd edit., London, 1755. Rich, Bibl. Amer. The additions seem also to have been without the author's sanction. “I send you herewith," Franklia writes to Coldea from Philadelphia, Oct. 1, 1747, “The VOL. 1.-6 In the correspondence of Jefferson there is a letter, in which, writing to Francis Hopkinson, he says, "Many years ago Cadwallader Colden wrote a very small pamphlet on the subjects of attraction and impulsion, a copy of which he sent to Monsieur de Buffon. He was so charmed with it, that he put it into the hands of a friend to translate it, who lost it. It has ever since weighed on his mind, and he has made repeated trials to have it found in England.”* The unpublished Colden Papers.† embracing a large Correspondence and a number of treatises and notes on historical and philosophical topics, now form part of the valuable manuscript Collections of the New York Historical Society. The value of these papers as records of the anterevolutionary period has been tested by Mr. Bancroft, who acknowledges his indebtedness to this source in the preface to the sixth volume of his History. THOMAS PRINCE THOMAS PRINCE, a grandson of John Prince, of Hull, who emigrated to America in 1633, was Thomas Prince. born in Sandwich, Massachusetts, May 15, 1687. He graduated at Harvard in 1707, and in 1709 visited Europe, and preached for several years at Combs in Suffolk. He was urged to remain longer, but returned to Boston in July, 1717, and was ordained pastor of the Old South Church, as colleague of his class-mate, Dr. Sewall, October 1, 1718, where he remained until his death, October 22, 1758. He commenced in 1703, and continued during his life, to collect documents relating to the history of New England. He left the valuable collection of manuscripts thus formed, to the care of the Old South Church. They were deposited in an apartment in the tower, which also contained a valuable library of the writings of the early New England Divines, formed by Mr. Prince, where they remained until the manuscripts were destroyed by the British, during their oocupation of the city in the revolutionary war. The books were preserved, and are now deposited in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Mr. Prince was the author of a Chronological History of New England, in the form of annals, the first volume of which was published in a duodecimo form in 1736, and two numbers of the second in 1755. He unfortunately commenced with an epitome of history from the creation, on which he bestowed much time, which might have been better employed on his specific object, that of presenting a brief narrative of occurrences in New England, from 1602 to 1780. His work unfortunately does not come down later than the year 1633. In 1692, a charter was obtained from the Government in England, through the agency of the Rev. James Blair, and the assistance of Nicholson, the lieut.-governor of the colony.* The new institution took its name from the royal grantors, who appropriated funds, land, and a revenue duty on tobacco for its support. Build He also prepared, in 1727, an account of the English Ministers at Martha's Vineyard, which was annexed to Mayhew's Indian Converts, and published a large number of funeral and other sermons. He was pronounced by Dr. Chauncy the most learned scholar, with the exception of Cotton Mather, in New England, and maintained a high reputation as a preacher, and as a devoutings were erected, and Blair became its president. and amiable man. Six of his manuscript sermons were published after his death, by Dr. John Erskine, of Edinburgh. WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE. Ar an early period in the settlement of Virginia attempts were made to establish an institution of learning. In 1619, the treasurer of the Virginia company, Sir Edmund Sandys, received from an unknown hand five hundred pounds, to be applied by the company to the education of a certain number of Indian youths in the English language and in the Christian religion. Other sums of money were also procured, and there was a prospect of being able to raise four or five thousand pounds for the endowinent of a college. The king favored the design, and recommended to the bishops to have collections made in their dioceses, and some fifteen hundred pounds were gathered on this recommendation. The college was designed for the instruction of English as well as Indian youths. The Company appropriated ten thousand acres of land to this purpose at Henrico, on the James river, a little below the present site of Richmond. The plan of the college was to place tenants at halves on these lands, and to derive its income from the profits. One hundred tenants was the number fixed upon, and they calculated the profits of each at five pounds. George Thorpe was sent out with fifty tenants, to act as deputy for the management of the college property; and the Rev. Mr. Copeland, a man every way qualified for the office, consented to be president of the college as soon as it should be organized. Mr. Thorpe went out in 1621, but had hardly commenced operations when, with nearly all his tenants, he was slain by the Indians in the great Massacre of 1622, and the project of a college was abandoned.* The early American colleges grew out of the religious feeling of the country, and the necessity of a provision for a body of educated clergy. We have seen this at Harvard, and it was the prevalent motive for a long time at Yale. In the act of the Assembly of Virginia, in 1660, previous to the foundation of William and Mary, express allusion is made to the supply of the ministry and promotion of piety, and the lack of able and faithful clergy. The attempt at this time to found a college failed from the royal governor's discouragement to the enterprise. It was the state policy. In his Answers to Questions put by the Lords of Plantations in 1671, Sir William Berkeley "thanks God that there are no free schools nor printing" in the colony, and hopes "there will not be these hundred years."† Stith's list. of Va. 109. ↑ Answers of Sir William Berkeley to the Inquiries of the Lords of the Committee of Colonies. From Virg. Pap. 75 B. p. 4. Printed in Chalmers's Political Annals, p. 825, paragraph 98 The first building erected at Williamsburgh was burnt in 1705. By the bounty of Queen Anne, and the assistance of the House of Burgesses, and the exertions of Governor Spotswood, it was not long after restored. In the square in front of this building still stands, in a mutilated condition, though with evidence of its old elegance, a statue 1771, in gratitude for his administration of the of Lord Botetourt, ordered by the colony, in government. William and Mary College. In 1718, a thousand pounds were granted to the college for the support (as the grant runs) of as many ingenious scholars as they should see fit. A part of this was laid out for the Nottoway estate, out of the income of which several scholars were supported who were designated students on the Nottoway foundation. estate was sold in 1777. The remainder of the grant supported the Assembly scholarship. This Robert Boyle, the philosopher, who died in 1691, left his whole estate, after his debts and legacies should be disposed of by his executors, for such pious uses as in their discretion they should think fit, but recommended that it should be expended for the advancement of the Christian religion. The executors, who were the Earl of Burlington, Sir Henry Ashurst, and John Marr, laid out £5,400 for the purchase of the property known as the Brafferton estate, the yearly rent of which was to be applied towards "the propagating the Gospel among infidels." Of this income, £90 was appropriated to New England "28. The same course is taken here, for 4nstructing the people, as there is in England: Out of towns every man instructs his own children according to his own ability. Wo have forty-eight parishes, and our ministers are well paid, and by my consent should be better, if they would pray oftener, and preach less. But as of all other commodities, so of this the worst are sent us, and we have few that we can boast of, since the persecution in Cromwell's tyranny drove divers worthy men hither. Yet, I thank God, there are no free schools nor printing; and I hope we shall not have these bundred years For learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects, Into the world, and printing has divnlged them and libels against the best governinent; God keep us from both! one half for the support of two missionaries among the Indians, and the other to be given “to the President and Fellows of Harvard College for the salaries of two ministers to teach the said natives, in or near the said college, the Christian religion." The remainder of the income of the estate was given to the College of William and Mary, on condition of supporting one Indian scholar for every fourteen pounds received. A house was built for this purpose on the grounds at Williamsburgh, as a school for Indian boys and their master, which still bears upon it the date of 1723. It was called, after the estate, Brafferton-the title of the incumbent was Master of the Indian School. The experience with the Indians of the south does not appear to have varied much from that of Eliot and his friends in the north. Indians, however, were taught in it as late as 1774. Hugh Jones, the chaplain of the Assembly, who was also mathematical professor at the college, in his volume entitled, "The Present State of Virginia," says of this attempt "The young Indians, procured from the tributary or foreign nations with much difficulty, were formerly boarded and lodged in the town, where abundance of them used to die, either through sickness, change of provision and way of life; or, as some will have it, often for want of proper necessaries and due care taken with them. Those of them that have escaped well, and been taught to read and write, have, for the most part, returned to their home, some with and some without baptism, where they follow their own savage custoins and heathenish rites. A few of them have lived as servants among the English, or loitered and idled away their time in laziness and mischief. But 'tis a great pity that more care is not taken about them after they are dismissed from school. They have admirable capacities when their humors and tempers are perfectly understood." Colonel William Byrd, in 1728, laments the "bad success Mr. Boyle's charity has hitherto had towards converting any of these poor heathens to Christianity. Many children of our neighboring Indians have been brought up in the college of William and Mary. They have been taught to read and write, and have been carefully instructed in the principles of the Christian religion till they caine to be men. Yet, after they returned home, instead of civilizing and converting the rest, they have immediately relapsed into infidelity and barbarism themselves." Of the efforts of Colonel Spotswood in this behalf, Byrd preserves the following epigram: P. 92. The whole title of this work sufficiently describes its contents:-The Present State of Virginia: giving a partienlar and short account of the Indian, English, and Negro inhabitants of that colony. Showing their Religion, Manners Government, Trade, Way of Living, &c., with a description of the Country, from whence is inferred a short View of Maryland and North Carolina. To which are added, Schemes and Propositions for the better Promotion of Learning, Religion, Inventions, Manufactures and Trade in Virginia, and the other Plantations For the Information of the Curious and for the Service of such as are Engaged in the Propagation of the Gos pel and Advancement of Learning, and for the Use of all Persons concerned in the Virginia Trade and Plantation. Gen. ix. 27, God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his Servant. By Hugh Jones, A.M., Chaplain to the Honourable Assembly, and lately Minis ter of James-Town, &c., in Virginia London: Printed for J. Clarke, at the Bible, under the Royal Exchange, MDOOXXIV, 8vo. pp. 152. Long has the furious priest assayed in vain, The old story of the fading race, and pretty much the same whether related by South American Jesuits, Virginia cavaliers, or New England zealots. Philip Freneau has pointed the moral in his poem of the Indian Student, who, laid his Virgil by To wander with his dearer bow. Though little good may have been effected for the Indians, the scheme may have brought with it incidental benefit. The instruction of the Indian was the romance of educational effort, and acted in enlisting benefactors much as favorite but impracticable foreign missions have done at a later day. It was a plan of a kindred character with this in Virginia which first engaged the benevolent and philosophic Berkeley in his eminent services to the American colleges. One of these institutions, Dartmouth, grew out of such a foundation. sors. The first organization of the college was under a body of Visitors, a President, and six ProfesThe Visitors had power to make laws for the government of the college, to appoint the professors and president, and fix the amount of their salaries. The Corporation was entitled The President and Master, or Professors of William and Mary College. There were two Divinity Professorships-one of Greek and Latin, one of Mathematies, one of Moral Philosophy, and Boyle's Indian professorship was a sixth. The college had a representative in the General Assembly. In its early history it was a subject of complaint that it was too much a school for children, the rudiments of Latin and Greek being taught there. The old colonial administration lent its picturesque dignity to the college. As a quit-rent for the land granted by the Crown, two copies of Latin verses were every year presented to the Royal Governor. This was done sometimes with great ceremony, the students and professors marching in procession to the palace, and formally delivering the lines. At the Revolution, the endowments of the college underwent great changes. The war put an end to the colonial revenue taxes for the college support; the Brafferton fund in England disappeared; and after the peace the loss of the old Church and State feeling was shown in an act of the visitors abolishing the two Divinity Professorships, and substituting others for them. On the breaking out of the Revolution, one half of the students, among whom was James Monroe, entered the army. The French troops occupied the College building, or a part of thein, after the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, and while they had possession, the president's house was burnt. The French • Westover Manuscripts, 86-7. government promptly paid for rebuilding it. The college building was occupied as a hospital at the same time, and much damaged and broken up, but the United States government has never made any remuneration. The following is a complete list of the college Presidents, in the order of their succession, with the periods of their incumbency:-The Rev. James Blair, from the foundation to his death, in 1743; the Rev. William Dawson till 1752; William Stith till 1755; Thomas Dawson till 1761; William Yates till 1764; James Horrocks till 1771; John Cam till 1777; James Madison, till his death, in 1812; John Bracken till 1814; John Augustine Smith till 1826; the Rev. W. H. Wilmer, till his death, in 1827; the Rev. Adam Empie till 1836; Thomas R. Dew, till his death, in 1846; Robert Saunders till 1848; Benjamin S. Ewell till 1849; Bishop John Johns till 1854; aud Benjamin S. Ewell, the present occupant. James Blain Dr. Blair was a Scotchman by birth, was educated in Scotland, and took orders in the Scottish Episcopal Church. He went to England towards the close of the reign of Charles II., and was persuaded by the Bishop of London to emigrate to Virginia about the year 1685, and was probably employed as a missionary, as there is no record of his having been connected with any parish till as late as 1711, when he was made Rector of Bristow parish in Williamsburgh. In 1689, the Bishop of London appointed him his Commissary in the colonies of Virginia and Maryland, which office he continued to hold till his death. In virtue of this office, he had a sent in the Council of State, and received £100 per annum as Councillor. Through his exertions, a subscription of £2,500 was raised towards the endowment of a college, and he was sent to Eng land by the General Assembly in 1692, for the purpose of soliciting a charter. The charter was obtained, and he appointed President in the charter itself. This office he held till the day of his death, a period of fifty years. He died in March, 1748, in the eighty-eighth year of his ago. He appears to have been a man of great energy and perseverance. He had to contend with great Dr. Blair has left behind him three volumes of Sermons, from texts selected from the Sermon on the Mount. They are written in a lucid and simple style, and are remarkable for their good sense and practical character. Waterland edited the Third Edition of these Sermons, printed in London in 1741, and wrote a preface containing a brief sketch of the author's life. Ile highly commends the Sermons as both sound in doctrine and felicitous in style. Such a commendation from such an author is no small praise. There is still extant another small work, which Dr. Blair took part in compiling. It is entitled The State of his Majesty's Colony in Virginia; by Hartwell, Blair, and Chilton: and gives an account of the soil, productions, religion, and laws of the colony, with a particular account of the condition of Willian and Mary College. It was printed in 1727, but it bears strong internal marks of having been drawn up about the year 1699. Dr. Blair was more than sixty years a clergyman, fifty-eight of which he spent in Virginia. He was Commissary fifty-four years, and President of the college fifty years. His remains were deposited in the churchyard at Jamestown, and an inscription, alluding to his life and services, was engraved on his tombstone. But the stone has been broken, and the inscription is so damaged that it cannot now be deciphered. He left the whole of his library, consisting mostly of works on divinity, to the college. These books are still in the college library, and many of them contain notes in his handwriting. Of the successor of Dr. Blair but little is known, further than that he was educated at Oxford, and was accounted an able scholar. Stith is only known from the History of Virginia, which he began, but carried down no further than to 1624. Thoinas Dawson, the fourth President, was also the Commissary of the Bishop of London. Yates was a clergyman in the colony when he was called to the Presidency of the college. James Horrocks, if we may judge from certain papers of his, drawn up in consequence of a disputo between the Visitors and the Faculty, in relation to the extent of their powers respectively, was an able and vigorous writer. Soveral clergymen of the province succeeded Stith in the Presidency. Lord Botetourt, who |