University of Virginia Library

LETTER II.

I received your letter, marred and soiled from
the distance and difficulty of the way; but it contained,
safe and sound, the printed enclosure that
I sent for, by which I learn my prospect of promoion,
and the chance of shifting my quarters. Oh!
if my good luck should send me, a military traveller,
among the unexplored regions west of the
Mississippi! what a book! and in military style
too! will I make! What a chance to make a fortune
did Lewis and Clark let slip; and what a
chance for immortality did Commodore Porter
lose, when he suffered his attention to be withdrawn
from his book by so slight a matter as an
action from the Phœbe and Cherub. In expectation
of such a chance, I have already prepared my
travels in part, as I presume is often the case with
travellers of zeal and industry; for all the figures
of speech, poetic quotations, and descriptions of
the sky and weather, (whereof we have here a fac
simile of all sorts,) may as well be done in preparatorio,
as any other way—so that I shall find little
else remaining than to fill up the blanks, as a
lawyer does a writ.

You claim the slight attention of a little incident
here in digging up some mutilated papers, as
a promise from me to send you a connected summary
of the Braddock Manuscript. Alas! these
documents are so sadly rubbed and worn, that it is
with difficulty I can join them. The dates of
months and years, as is common in most old letters
and papers, were worn out, and without books, as
I am here, what a figure I should make in supplying
the chronology. The mess at Sacket's Harbour,
you know, used to laugh at me, because I
could never remember the year when America was

discovered; and I cannot tell to this day, without
cyphering, the year when I was born—and yet I
must attempt an order in the connexion, and of
course to supply dates. I do not mean to compare
my efforts to any thing great; but you remember
laughing when we were at Philadelphia, at the ribs
and bones of good new white oak, that were supplied
in the skeleton of the mammoth. My materials
are in the style of Mather's Magnalia—what
think ye of such new wine as mine in such old bottles?
But to the matter in hand—you are pleased
to express curiosity, which I write only to gratify.

The course of the mail, and the state of the
roads, postage, distance, &c. must excuse any want
of punctuality in my communications, But I
think I may say, you shall in time have what little
there is of it. The conclusion of this fragment I
ean hardly make out myself, and some spots, as
you will notice, are a little obscure. An antiquary
would be assisted, no doubt, by an old muster
roll, which I found among the papers, many of the
names on which are marked “D'd;” and his conjectures
might be aided by an examination of the
skeletons dug up about here, in the very bones of
which are the heads of Indian arrows.

Among other things in the old box, was a sword
belt, worked in crewel, with the name of Miles
Standish, which I mean to send to Squantum, at
the next celebration of the landing at Plymouth—
or perhaps wear it myself at a meeting of the Tammany
Society, in the face and eyes of the Sachems
and Sagamores, of whom this great Indian-hunter
killed so many. To give the thing somewhat an
air, I shall now and then quote a line or so of modern
poetry—not to show my learning, for the subalterns
of those days were as much more learned
than the same grade in Uncle Sam's late army, as

the clergy of those days surpassed, in the same
particular, their worthy successors in these degenerate
and money-saving times.

I shall now make out the story as near as I can,
and send it from time to time, as the best opportunities
offer. Please to give me your undivided attention.

THE BRADDOCK MANUSCRIPT.

More than a century ago, in the evening of a
day in September, three students in the college
which was then at Saybrook, and which is now
known at New-Haven by the name of Yale College,
were seated in a room in the only building
which that institution had then to boast of. Something
like a commencement was at hand, and these
young men had parts to perform at the approaching
public exhibition, when they were to receive
the honours of that infant seminary. The Rev.
Mr. Devonport, with his cap and band had already
arrived in town; the rector, Williams, was expected
from Wethersfield, in the first boat down the
Connecticut river; the Rev. Mr. Saltonstall, the
Clergyman at New-London, afterwards the Ambassador
to the Dutch settlement at Manhattan,
now New-York, and shortly after the Governor of
this colony, was expected to accompany his Excellency
Governor Winthrop, from New-London;
and most of the clergy from the churches then
gathered, it was thought would attend. The word
splendid is a relative term—it was used by our ancestors,
and was good English as long ago as the
time of Richard the lion-hearted. They expected
a splendid commencement at Saybrook. The native
stock of female beauty for which that town,

even to the present day, is famous, was to be increased
on the occasion by the great-grandmothers
of the present generation, then in the bloom of
youth, who came, some on foot and some in canoes,
from the shores of the river. The more highborn
and wealthy came on horseback, and generally
rode double; they were dressed in cloth of their
own manufacture, made up by themselves in the
fashion of the day, with long waists, short sleeves,
&c. their stockings were blue, and their shoes were
not morocco. Yet the manuscript speaks of bright
eyes, rosy cheeks, smiling lips, pearly teeth, and
all the witchery of female charms. This sad taste
on the part of the writer, considering the unimproved
state of the female costume, can only be accounted
for by the fact, that these classic beaux
themselves wore, (except on public days,) checked
shirts and butternut-coloured coats, with long
backs, full skirts, and large pewter buttons. It is
even said that in those days of simplicity, one of
the lay members of the corporation rode with beetle
rings in the place of stirrups.

At the meeting I have mentioned, this display
was in expectancy. The conversation of these
young men related in part to their approaching
separation, and the course of life they would pursue.
They read to each other several compositions.
One of them by the name of Dudley, from
the vicinity of Boston, whom his parents had always
intended for a military man, and who was
soon to enter into the small but active naval service
of the times, had prepared an oration in Greek
upon civilizing the Indians.

Another, whose name was Van Tromp, whose
Dutch parents had owned the very spot where Fort
Braddock now stands, and had lived in its vicinity,
had written a piece of pastoral poetry on the

pleasures of retirement, which, as he was quite
homesick for this charming retreat, was said to be
very feeling. His parents were dead, and he was
to return with a considerable property and much
family influence to his large but wild estate, which
was then known by the Dutch name of Hardzscoggin.
At the early age of twenty he was to be master
of his own conduct—and with ample means
for the times, was to be the head man among servants
and dependants, and the new settlers in his
neighbourhood.

The remaining member of the trio, was a reserved
youth, who had formed no intimacy during his
stay at the college, but with these two companions.
He had never, until now, spoke of his origin or his
prospects; his name was Du Quesne. He made,
upon this occasion, rather a melancholy disclosure
to his companions, that he knew little or nothing of
his parentage; that he had been constantly supplied
by a gentleman in New-York, with a quarterly
payment of money, which was remitted from
France by some unknown hand, accompanied by
letters not signed, which directed the plan of his
education. He was to return to New-York and
attempt the study of law. He had always been
better dressed than the other students, and wore,
by express direction, one of the most rare and extravagant
ornaments of the day—a large gold
watch of curious and expensive workmanship.—
Great care had been taken to supply him with additional
books and private instructions upon several
branches of science not professedly taught in
the college. A turn of mind rather melancholy,
inclined him to study, and made him a scholar.—
He not only learned the dead languages, which
were then better understood than at present, but he
spoke French, and had a good acquaintance with

polite literature. He read, in his turn a little essay,
which he proposed to speak, on the uncertainty
of fortune, and the vicissitudes of human life,
some of which, it afterwards appeared, he was
doomed to experience. The unsettled state of this
new country, and their approaching separation for
a distance of time and space which they could not
determine, was then the topic of conversation;
they spoke of their pilgrimage as lonely, and
dwelt with the enthusiasm of young men upon the
great benefits that might result from union and mutual
assistance. They seemed each to feel the want
of support, and expressed their confidence; this
ended, before their separation for the night, in solemn
pledges for future friendship, which they engaged
should be of so serious and practical a kind
that if any one of them should at any time in their
lives be involved in difficulty, or need assistance,
the others should immediately, on notice, be bound
to render it, at the expense of every hazard, whether
of person or of property. Upon the strength
of this compact, they parted in better spirits.

It is said that the commencement was celebrated
with more parade than was expected—for, in addition
to the dignities of church and state, whose attendance
was as punctual as usual, the celebrated
Captain Mason, on his return from an Indian victory,
on his way to Stonington, stopped at the
town and honoured the company with his presence.
It is of this very occasion he speaks in a manuscript
account of his campaign, which is still extant,
in which he commends the good conduct of
Lt. Gardiner, who then commanded the garrison
on the platform, where, to use his own language,
he was “formally received and nobly entertained
with many great guns.”