University of Virginia Library

THE BUCCANEERS.

BOOK THE FIRST.
THE LIFE OF A DOUBLE DUTCHMAN.

SECTION I.

The Old Couple.

On the north eastern extremity of the island of Manahadoes,
or New-York, lies a small track of flatland backed
by a hilly country, and bordered by a narrow river, which
seems to have taken its rise from the rapid current of the
sound, flowing between the two shallow channels formed
by the shores of the lesser Barn islands and the mainland.
On this level spot, tradition[1] relates that the gallant Hendrick

Hudson, on his second expedition to the mighty waters
that now bear his name, in the year sixteen hundred
and ten, by order of the Dutch East India Company, in
whose service he sailed, landed and marked out the plan
of a small settlement, which, in honour to a favourite officer
of the Half Moon, (which was the name of the stout
and gallant bark in which the discoverer voyaged) who
had derived his birth in the famous town of Harlæm in the
Low Countries, he called after that place; it was not long,
however, before the disadvantage of forming the colony in
this spot was experienced by the adventurers, who, though
they at that early period could scarcely be supposed to
have dreamt of the gigantic city and immense commerce
which was to spring from the desert and desolate
strand, whereon the roving spirit of enterprize, and the
daring cupidity for wealth and possession, had induced
them to cope with the “wild salvage” in his wilderness,
and the piercing arrows of the northern frost; yet they
soon found great inconvenience from the lowness of the
water that formed their haven, for the larger supply ships
which in the season following their first embarkation, arrived
from Holland, were not able to be brought to the
landing beneath the small palisade which had been erected
to preserve the colonists from the irruptions of the
fierce Maquaas, as the Indian nation who held their hunting
grounds adjacent, were termed: it became therefore, absolutely
necessary for the company's agent to select a new
site for building the intended capital of the stadholder's
dominions in the western world, which should possess a
harbour for receiving and preserving, during the rigours of
the winter, the vessels freighted with stores and other
necessaries for the hardy settlers. The Dutchman is ever
constitutionally slow at motion;—it was, therefore, with
many sighs for the favourite spot they were leaving,
which, with its low marshy plain and beautiful prospect of
water, so much reminded them of the dykes and the
blooming fields of the Hague, that the adventurers removed
to the south-western point of the island, which, projecting
in a spacious bay formed by the confluence of the
Hudson river and the streight or oost vloed[3] between the
Long Island and the northern shore, afforded them every
convenience for a noble haven. They here laid the foundation
of a fort, which was called Amsterdam—and erected
a few log huts: in a short period, however, these hardy
Netherlanders, being undisturbed by the native owners of
the soil, the warlike tribes of savages who dwelt near
them, conquered the stubborn difficulties that nature had
cast in their path of labour. As the new village grew,
the old one decayed; and in a little time, Harlæm had
nearly resumed the appearance of its nativity, ere the arrival
of the fearless navigator and his crew. No voice
broke the gloomy solemnity of neglect that enveloped it;
the sharp hiss of the rattlesnake, and the baying of the
brindled wolf, reigned once more, where so lately, yet for
so short a time, the echoes of civilized life had usurped
the long scream of the monarch eagle as he sailed through
the earth-shadowing clouds towards his mountain throne,
amid the lofty solitude of the towering Kaatskill, stole
on the sleep of midnight that lay upon this scarce trodden
strand; its airy reverberations unbroken by the startling
shout of the hunter, or the shot of the arquebuse: the
mullien stalk and the dock weed grew in the pathways,
while the green and slender creeper climbed up the walls
of the crumbling blockhouse, and the wild sumach shook
its scarlet berries to the wind, where the bright standard
of their high mightinesses the states-general, had first
been unfurled, and floated in the breezes of the new continent.

Years stole away, and glided in the mass of time: the
new city prospered: governors came from the mother
country gifted with powers to reward the deserving, and
to give laws to the new found province: commerce with
the neighbouring settlements of England and Sweden,
opened doors of wealth to the growing colony, which,
like a blooming and healthful child upon its mother's bosom,
glowed with gathering strength and happiness: the
dark and mocassined forester brought his richest furs,
and the fragrant spices of the western Indias found their
way to the rocky banks of the lordly Hudson: the smooth
hand of agriculture and unceasing industry, soon changed
the giant mountain to the smiling garden: the brown and
antlered deer tossed up his head, and springing from his
leafy covert, fled before the face of the European: the
harsh whoop of the Indian, was more seldom heard from
the pinnacle of the spiring crag, or the howl of the fierce
and bloody panther, from the dark pine forest: where the
herds of roaming buffalo had grazed, the jocund harvest
laughed: the white sails of the schuit, like light clouds
upon the bosom of the waters, were now seen daily hovering
o'er the broad expanse of the river of Mountains[4] to
the Taappan Zee, where heretofore none but the bark
pirogue had glided: the mirrored sheet of wave, whose
glass had alone reflected the savage features of the Mohiccan,[5]
and the dancing feathers that adorned his head

as he leaned from his canoe in its birdlike course, now
gave back the floating mantle of the foreigner, and the
flaunting bandrols of a distant nation: honesty, unshaking
virtue and truth, (how different from our times!)
characterised the low country emigrants and their immediate
posterity: they therefore (although the fortune
of these qualities are now reversed, being all three in
miserable bad repute) prospered, and their city spread; by
degrees the black mud hovel and the rough log hut disappeared,
and the brown and glazed tile, and the small
yellow brick, imported from the Vaderlandt,[6] took their
place, and glistened beneath the joyous rays of the golden
sun in Nieuw Amsterdam.

The evident prosperity of the new territory of the
United Provinces, however, unfortunately for that power,
opened the eyes of desire and envy to their European
neighbours, the English; large bodies of whom flying
from the iron hand of persecution, that religious intolerance
had stretched over them in their native country,
had sought the freedom of worship in the boundless deserts
of America; where, forgetful of the misfortunes and
the oppression they had suffered in their own land, (such
is the ungrateful nature of man) as their strength of
population increased, with unheard of cruelties, with fire
and sword, with murder and torture, they wrested the
country from the Indian, who in the hour of their mourning
and distress, who in the bitterness of their exile, had
granted them a refuge and a home; who, when they
could have overpowered and massacred them to a man,
as easy as one might destroy a viper in its egg, held forth
the hand of peace to the destitute, and smoked the calumet
of amity with the stranger;—and the distressed were
succoured, and rested secure among the children of the
wilderness, unharmed by the red tomahawk of war—
when in the country of civilization, they met not the
grasp of brotherhood, but the axe of death and the embrace
of the loathsome prison house; they built their

altar on the wild shore, and its incense rose free as the
untrammelled elements: they planted their feet upon a
foreign strand which clung to their steps in friendship,
receiving them in its bosom like a parent doth its weeping
offspring:—and these men thus received, were the
venom darting snakes that hid amidst the verdant and
beautiful grass of the savanna, whose treacherous poison
concealed within the surrounding loveliness, is the first to
spread its death to the deceived and trusting traveller:
for, unmindful of the vast benefits bestowed in their hour
of nakedness, no sooner were they grown to strength,
than that country in which they were but guests, they
claimed as theirs by right: that spot on which they were
by sufferance, they haughtily deemed as owning by chartered
dominion: the parchment deed of a monarch whose
empire was divided from it by a world, the deep and
turblous ocean, had given a title to the soil that his predecessor
knew not existed in creation—placing their fellow
men merely because art had given a superiority that virtue
wanted, upon the footing of the wild animals of the
woods:—they hunted the red Indian from his home—tore
up the olive stalk that he had planted—drove him from
his cedar wigwam, until at last, treachery, aided by the
deadly inventions of what is termed civilization, left him
not a rood of the land of his fathers; but like the birds,
driven by the approaching winter, he sought another climate
and peace beyond the great lakes; so that in a few
years, throughout the vast country of New England, all
that remained of the wielders of the bow, was here and
there a green and flowery mound, within whose silent bosom
mouldered the skeleton of some warrior, who, happier
than his living brethren, crumbled to dust in the land
of his birth, though his chichung[7] had gone southward to
the unknown paradise, where, never weary of the hunt,
the feast, and the dance, it sported in the shadowy revels
of its fellow heroes. With such lovers of encroachment,
and men so greedy of possession, it was not to be supposed
that the unoffending Netherlanders would remain
long undisturbed—no sooner did the wily puritan become
aware of his power, and see the weakness and the good
nature with which the Hollander bore his approaches, than
no barrier of existing peace, no legal right of boundary,
stopped his covetous advances; that selfish avarice that
lusts after the fruits which the toils of another hath matured,
was awakened, and little by little, by overreaching
cunning and dastard subtlety, was the country snatched
from its first settlers, until at last the mask being entirely
thrown off, the whole territory held by the Dutch, was
seized on by the English crown.

The inhabitants of Nova Belgia had all the peaceable
and substantial qualities, that characterized their merchant
ancestors; the scion, though engrafted in another
soil, showed all the solid virtue of the parent stock—neither
had a climate of increased cold, nor the necessary
bustle attending the settlement of a new country, added
ought to their constitutional activity: their standing
maxim was still the same—that all matters must take
their required time—for that which is finished hastily, is
sure to be executed indifferently;—No! things were not
done in our hurried flimsy way—few men built their
houses in a week, as is proved by the stout dutch walls,
that give our modern improvers of building such trouble
to demolish—however, a frequent breasting of the cold
northern storm, and the cutting winds, which gathered in
their rushing flight strength from the tops of the snowy
mountains, and the ice prisoned lagoons, may have given
to their native phlegm, a testiness of temper and irascibility
in little matters, that is seldom enjoyed by their
fellow traders of the Scheldt,—for in his contests with
the tempest, the New Amsterdamer had acquired a necessary
length of breath or wind, that was aroused on the
slightest occasion, by a helping activity of tongue:—and this
propensity hath descended to this æra in a most admirable
degree—for it is now the mode, as well as then, to
make a great noise about nothing, and to take no notice

of concerns of moment; and indeed from this cause, it may
be that all public undertakings are begun by talking, and
therefore are accustomed to end in smoke: from hence
it is not to be wondered at, that after quietly submitting
to the change, the placable burghers of Nieuw Nederland
remained, with slight variation, in passive subjection
to their new masters. It is true, there might have been
a noisy meddlesome fellow, who was out at the elbows,
and had a hungry eye for preferment, who, like the office
hunter at an election, blustered himself into a passion,
and strived to kick up a dust among peaceable people by
alarming them with a cry that “the nation would be
ruined”—but as his wind was always spent, and his breath
shortened, as his own private object was attained, and it
was found that bread was not dearer, or stock[8] fallen, so
they deemed it prudent to bear the yoke in patience—
they enjoyed the liberty of their native religion, and held
rights of citizenship on an equality with their conquerors:—it
differed in truth, but little to Mienheer, at least in
appearance, if he could sit in the summer's sun, and puff
the swelling cloud from his nose, that gathered from his
long `pyp,' drink his `zoopje,' and see his Holland pinks
and bloemates flourish, whether he obeyed the laws of
`My lords, the High and mighty states-general,'[9] and the
Dutch East India Company, or the arbitrary edicts enacted
at Hempstead, by the deputies of the Duke of York[10]
—And it was not until the country had been many
years in the possession of the English at the opening
of this narration, that the seeds of disaffection took root
against the existing power—and doubtless many of those
dreadful convulsions that soon followed and shook the
province of New-York, (as it was now called) in 1689,
in favour of the Prince of Orange, who was then aiming
to ascend the throne of his father-in-law, the weak and
bigoted James the Second, of England, may be in part
attributed to the popish measures, and high hand used
by Sir Edmond Andross, who, about thirty years before
the revolution in favour of William the Third, was
commissioned as governor of King James' (then Duke of
York) patent in America and is related by history to
have been a man perfectly devoted to the arbitrary views
of his tyrannical and misguided sovereign—so much so,
as to have drawn down upon him the universal odium
and hatred of the people he governed. It was not, however,
until the spring of the year above named, that the
coals of discontent, which had every where been strewn
throughout the wide extent of colony, burst in a flame;
for finding the toleration of his religion, the shrines at
which his fathers had knelt, threatened, the Dutchman
roused him from his torpidity, and joined with the English
follower of Calvin, to withstand the encroachments
of the Church of Rome, and the overbearing arrogance of
their papist rulers. However, even at this early period,
New-York was tainted with some of the corruption and
selfishness, that hath ever been its leading traits—there
were then also, as now, men who were of that careful principle
to know which was the strongest, and the party most
likely to conquer, before they made their choice or espousal—no
matter whether the cause was just or holy—
that hath ever been a minor consideration—and as there
hath since been, men were not wanting who carried their
consciences in their pocket, and were ever ready to
change sides as it suited their own private interest; that
province, therefore, was not the first which roused and
turned the bold face of resistance to the advancing oppressor,
but for awhile stood apart as though weighing
its gain or loss in the opening contest—while the free
spirit which the New Englander appears to have imbibed
from his birth, like a thing breathed for the vital air of
life, and the detestation which he seems to have ever
alike felt for any encroachment on the liberty of man,
here breathed itself forth; and like the field fire, caught
and spread in every place where it could find entrance—
from the halls of the rich, to the naked and smoky caverns
of the poor—from the smiling circle round the
burgher's evening hearth, to the solitary heath, the midnight
resting place of the belated hunter. Like the majestic
tulip-tree, once the giant of the American forest,
towered the pervading flame above all lesser interest, the
deputed tyrant sunk like a stripling beneath the vigorous
arm of manhood before it; he that had stretched
forth the hand of iron above his subject, as though men
were but created for his tyranny, he that had considered
those whom fate and the fragile wax of commission had
given a momentary sway and rule, but as the slaves of
his desires, the tools of his commands—he even in the
day of his grandeur, in the height of his power, quailed,
weak and shivering, before its advances. The investments
of office, the privileges of station granted by the
sovereign, were but as atoms in the wind—the dust of the
desert, the withered remnants of autumnal leaves before
the driving blast. The ruler found himself but as a reed,
the very breath of the people bent him to the earth—
the crafty and overbearing Sir Edmund Andross, met the
due reward of his arrogance and artful machinations, in
a deserved and unpitied imprisonment, and soon found
himself fortunate, in being allowed without scath of life or
limb, to depart from the country where he so late had
been obeyed in terror and disgust, and return to the superstitious
monarch, from whom he had derived his ill
used authority. At length after due interval, encouraged
by the boldness of this resolute and gallant conduct, the
citizen of New-York awoke to the call, which, like a trumpet
clear and shrill, sounded in a note of thunder from
the grey shores of the Atlantic, to the lakes—but it was
as the wearied lion rousing him from his slumber at the
distant echoes of the chace; for at that time, early as it
was, the seed of disunion was rooted, which hath since
flourished to the disgrace of the present day—the rich
were too proud, as now, to mingle or follow even in a
good cause with the poor—and these last were idle and
disunited; for in truth, most men are too selfish to
risk one atom of their convenience, to public safety—
there are indeed but few persons, who do not admire to
be considered as the leaders in matters of importance, and
are vastly tickled as such, at reading their name in print—
but they want all this without trouble—and thus it hath
become the custom to thrust people in the public eye,
who make a great fuss for the newspapers; and then, go
home and set by their fires. At the period in question,
the vulgar were divided, abused and misled by the senseless
arguments, and intrigues of designing knaves and busy
sharpers; who realized to their gaping listeners, the ancient
fable of the dog and the shadow; for our own eyes
have proved to us, that none fatten on the advice of these
characters, except themselves—for while they cajole
the greedy multitude with fine speeches, they, amid all
the disinterested patriotism, which is sure to be placed
uppermost in their sentiments, like froth upon the wave,
and always forms the garb of these deceivers, make out
to juggle them of every right and every gift of power,
from whence a shred may be gained.—Indeed New-York
from such causes, presents a disgraceful spectacle, for
its extent, and population, and resources—its offices of
trust and moment, are mostly held by those whose origin,
whose life, whose actions, befit them better for the gallows,
than the representatives of a majestic state—for if
by chance a man of worth attains station, a thousand
engines, mean and despicable as those who use them,
are set in play by the envious and malignant, to destroy
him, and in reality, such hath become the reputation
of the places, which are showered now alone on those
whom Cromwell hath designated as “waiters upon
providence,” the artful and corrupt office seekers of
the day, (for it is a rare and unprecedented thing to
bestow ought on honest men, who are not unblushing
dust-lickers and hypocrites) that the moral part of the
community, those who hold a pride in themselves of conscious
integrity, have almost considered it a disgrace to
succeed as incumbents—and to take the situations of
those wretches who have concealed the rags and dirt of
their true standard in society, beneath accumulations
from the national purse; or to sit as Judges after men
who sacrifice justice, their consciences—if they ever possessed
any—and their duty to honesty, “to satisfy the feelings”
of some political partisan. After this detail, the
reader will not be surprised, that while the rich, the
powerful, and those whose province, it might have been
supposed from their situations in life, it was to step forward
as leaders in times of distress, turmoil and danger, held
aloof, prudently debating the odds and chances to themselves
in case of success or defeat, and anxiously watched
the aspect of affairs, that they might not be too late
to kiss the feet of the victor, and claim a reward for services
they never performed—that there arose a champion
for the people in one Jacob Leisler; a man in the middle
order of life, though of considerable esteem, and having
a certain popularity attached to him from his descent,
from the Dutch portion of the populace—yet no being
(says history) could be more ill adapted to conduct and
guide a bold and hazardous enterprise, wherein aught of
management, mind or resolution, were required—his fortune
was moderate, and he was destitute of every
qualification that could gain him adherents; for however
great his personal courage, he was proverbially ignorant,
and dependant on the guidance of others—yet with all
these imperfections, he succeeded in his most extraordinary
attempt of overthrowing the established government
of greater part of the colony—for fired at the same time
by ambition of power, and inflamed by revenge—for during
the administration of Andross in the province, he had
been an object of persecution, from his turbulence of spirit
to the government—he formed the perilous design of seizing
the city for the aspiring William, who was now contending
for the throne of his father-in-law. To accomplish
this, Leisler, urged to haste by the success of the
eastern country, and aided by one Milbourne, an Englishman
related to him by marriage, brought over and armed
in his league, a small body of citizens, who had been
enrolled under his command, for the purpose of patroling
at night through the different out wards and skirts of the
town. At the head of these, by a sudden and unexpected
attack, he surprised the royal garrison who protected the
fort—the troops were easily overcome, making but a
slight defence, and without difficulty submitted to the
views of the insurgents, who, by this blow, found themselves
undisputed masters of the counties of New-York
and East Chester. Accordingly, they lowered the standard
of the Stuarts, and administered the oath of allegiance
to their Protestant successor:—and at the same
time, taking advantage of the ambiguous wording of a
despatch that arrived from England, Leisler assumed to
himself the title of Lieutenant Governor, and instituted a
council, the regular heads of authority having sought safety
in flight; in the meanwhile he sent home an agent to
London, who might early on the succession of the Stadtholder,
claim the expected rewards and favours due to
the signal devotion that he had shown to his cause. But
Leisler's new dignity sat uneasy on him—it has been
often seen that a rise to unbounded power, from comparative
insignificance and dependence, is sure to bring
on a man's destruction—it is not alone that he may act
indiscreetly, and bear with unbecoming pride his new
gotten consequence—yet he has more to fear from those
whom he trusts—from those whom he heaps his friendship
on, his partisans, than the open hostility of his foes; the
flower that grows to perfection in a day, veins not the
earth with its roots—so on the very foundation on which
he hath risen, he will totter.—The investiture of supreme
authority over the province, and the prospect of the
new king's approbation of his proceedings, could not but
excite the jealousy of those who had not joined in the
revolution, and hence, together with the impossibility to
satisfy the insatiable demands of needy adherents, arose
the aversion which was shown to the man and his measures
by many individuals; however, finding it in vain at
first to stem the current of Leisler's influence, Nicholas
Bayard and Van Kortlandt, the late mayor of the city, who
were the leaders of the opposition, retired hastily to Beverwyck,
which is now called Albany, and urged the
rulers of that city to refuse communication with the
revolutionists, and with such industrious hatred and animosity,
fomented the misunderstanding, that the affairs
of the public became greatly embarrassed. The safety
of the country itself, was also extremely endangered by
the ill will and vexatious conduct of the rival parties,
who, occupied with their own jarring, respectively sought
to injure each other, until they came to open rupture of
arms—of course, to this internal enemy of civil war, was
sacrificed the defences necessary by the convulsions of
the times, against a formidable and foreign adversary;
for while the one was inebriated by new and unaccustomed
greatness, and the other could not brook, from their
former standing, submission to a man mean in his abilities,
and inferior in degree, the drum was sounding,
and the sword and spear were glittering on the frontiers.
France had taken the part of the dethroned and
exiled sovereign, and hostilities had commenced against
England:—an officer of courage and talent, (the Count
De Frontenac,) well acquainted with the situation of
the disturbed and distracted province, held the command
of the Canadas; who, with an unceasing industry, seeking
to add to the distress of the English, early in the
contest; contrived to stir up the savages against them;
for angered by numerous wrongs, they were ever ready
to wreak deserved vengeance on the white oppressors
of their fathers; all was in alarm—the tomahawk and
scalping knife found numerous victims, and the lily of
the Bourbons was crimsoned in blood. At the same
period, the broad seas were swarmed with rovers of the
most desperate character, whose whole thirst seemed
rapine and cruelty; and whose boldness and temerity
was much augmented, by the apparent insufficiency of
the authorities to suppress them:—scarce a sail could
plough the waters, without her decks becoming the stage
of slaughter and of robbery—the trade of the Indian
islands and the Spanish main, was nearly destroyed; and
such was the audacity of this maritime banditti, that
neither disparity of force daunted, nor laws human or
divine, restrained them from the most wicked and savage
atrocities. The numerous inlets and coves of shallow
water, where they could neither be pursued or attacked
to advantage, that line the Long Island and the entrances
of the New-York harbour, afforded these desperadoes
convenient concealment and lurking places for depositing
their plunder, or hiding their swift craft, when chaced by
a superior force, or while watching the departure of some
outward bound trader, who, from its rich cargo, was
worthy of making prize. The city itself, gave by its countenance
to the buccaneers, an excellent market for the
disposal of the booty accumulated by their bloody expeditions—it
is of indifference to most persons, so as they
gain by the bargain, how, or by what deed, he of whom
they purchased, became an owner; the honest winkelier
cared not, so as he could dispose of them at three
times the rate of cost, to some vain and greedy dame—that
the Spanish silk, the tissue, or the brocade, that adorned
his shelves, were not yet dry of the gore of their last
wearers,—the klopliediew, as he gloated over treasures
of ingots and golden moidores that now swelled his coffers,
and as his daughter simpered as she hung to the
yellow beads that enchained her neck, the glittering
cross of silver that had adorned the soft bosom of some
Peruvian beauty, gave not a thought of the raging ball
that had been ruthlessly buried in the hearts of the unfortunates
who had once delighted in their possession.
So far indeed did the evil extend, and such was the
weakness of the laws, which have not as yet been improved—that
as at present, the murderer, the robber and
the rogue, walked the streets without fear of punishment,
if they had but wealth, or were but sticklers to a
party—for justice is not made for these; and many of
the principal inhabitants, were known to be in open connexion
with this illicit trade. Every retailer of the laws,
was, as now, fearful of offending some powerful character,
or a sputtering and noisy partisan; and therefore, though
edict after edict was promulgated, the penalties were
scarcely enforced—for they were but as Corporation ordinances—mere
dead letters—to be left on the shelf as
soon as enacted, hereafter for the wonder of the antiquary[11]
—affording no good, except to the printer or the paper
maker, whose profits never have been known to make a
retrenchment in a city feast. At times, I will allow, the
records commemorate the vigilance of some pettifogging
attorney, who was the king's prosecutor for the
day—who with extraordinary eagerness, and with inflexible
impartiality, had laid hold of some poor devil whom
nobody cared about, who had ignorantly sinned against
the statute, and verily skinned him to the bone in terrorem,
for the wonder of the gaping multitude—who were
always mightily pleased at such stern proofs of the unimpeachable
purity of the criminal code of the Nieuw
Nederlandts: but, mutatis mutandis, did some low mongrel,
without influence or money, presume to whisper to Mr.
attorney, that such a burgomaster had been seen smuggling
contraband goods into the Stadt, and such an echevin
was concerned in certain unlawful transactions, be
assured the affair was very differently looked upon—the
wily lawyer would find out the proof was insufficient, or
it was a matter of too little consequence to trouble the
court withal, or it was a dangerous precedent to meddle
with persons of respectability, or as it was only the
fourth complaint, that he would speak with Mynheer, that
he might be warned for the future; or that he was too
busy in waiting the result of the election,[13] and could not
spare time from public matters to attend to the business
at present, but would hereafter examine into the affair—
or that the law did not exactly provide for the offence;
and remedy against such things, in future would be had
by application to the next assembly—or in final, that it
could not be expected, that his time was to be taken up
in listening to every body's malice; that as the person
who sought redress for the people was unknown, the
whole subject was unworthy of notice, and no indictment
could be drawn without a flaw.—But to resume my
subject:—as it hath often appeared that a man can see
the mote in the eye of his neighbour, much quicker than
he can perceive the fault in his own, so it was in this
case,—for the Spanish, backed by other friendly powers,
made heavy charges to the court at Whitehall, against
these frequent aggressions on their property, which were so
openly committed by the subjects of a nation then at peace
with them, and who pretended to maintain an amicable
intercourse and relation, while they were encouraging
despoilation; all this appeared to the citizens of New-York,
as very unreasonable, and a very impertinent interference
in the government of a country, the riches of
whose inhabitants they were daily seizing on with the
strong hand; whose officers they were accustomed to insult,
in the very mouths of their cannon, with impunity;
and who, in short, they considered as their prey, from
their riches and indolence: and who, owing to circumstances,
was then the weakest power; and therefore,
without grumbling, it was thought they ought, as marks
of regard and deference for the strongest, allow themselves
to be drubbed, robbed and bearded. As is customary
on occasions of excitement, a self-formed “committee
of three,” having all things cut and dried for fear
of a mistake in the performance, called a public meeting,
in the name of all the citizens, through the medium of
the Post-boy,[14] which was the popular journal of the
day; and published by a long necked, lanthorn jawed.
Connecticut runaway schoolmaster,[15] at the extravagant
price of two coppers a number; which sum however,
when one takes in mind the talents of the editor, was
not out of the way; seeing that once a week he enlightened
his readers with an account of the secret plans and
the private thoughts of the cabinet of the great Cham
of Tartary, whom he honoured by a particular notice,
and who it was believed, was then about going to war;
and as the writer was also accustomed to cut up and
slap at a terrific rate, the policy of the king of the
Hottentots, who was very unpopular through these sharp
attacks, and no doubt must have felt extremely sore at
perusing them. However, the above mentioned “committee
of vigilance and public safety,” as they styled
themselves in the advertisement, being greatly interested—as
probably the characters most in danger should
the business become serious,—finding their call well
attended, before commencing business, proposed adjourning
the assemblage to the fields[16] —which was of course,
unanimously carried into effect; and a little man being elbowed
on the shoulders of the mob, commenced with
a weak and whining note, a very philippic—“the most
eloquent specimen of modern oratory,” as was announced
by the Post-boy next morning; the editor of which paper,
by the by, having received a corrected copy of the speech
a week before it was delivered, for publication: the diminutive
speaker, after exhausting his lungs, storming
against the audacity of the lazy and haughty dons—and
to the very top of his voice, calling on each honest man
present and absent, to oppose every attempt of governmental
proceeding; and concluding with a flowery and glowing
description of his own patriotism, and “that he was no
friend of tyrants, even before he was born,” sat down exhausted
and panting for breath, amid repeated shouts of applause
from his audience, very few of whom had heard a
word that he had said;—his silence was followed by a long
string of resolutions, flaming with determinations which
in a week were forgot; but which were all appropriate,
being ready made to suit the occasion, and brought in
the pocket of a stormy pot-bellied burgher, who read
them off in a snuffling tone, puffing and labouring at every
word, as if his entrails were coming through his
throat—and then all was adjourned by motion in order
by the chairman—every body departing “with the greatest
regularity and decorum,” not excepting a dozen ragamuffins,
who had been busied in emptying the pockets of
the attending crowd—and who, together with one or two
particular friends, who were the public thief catchers,
hand in hand retreated to the neighbouring taverns to
divide gains, and determine what would be befitting
conduct for the nation in its emergency. However,
the very great scandal brought on an English province
by this unblushing perseverance in wrong, at last
succeeded in bringing the Board of Admiralty, after various
delays, to concur in the fitting out of a private
armament—the command of which was given to one
[17] Richard Kid, who had been recommended by an ancestor
of the Livingston family, as a man who was well
acquainted with the customs, manœuvres and rendezvous
of the pirates. But Kid, in setting out on this cruise,
was moved by the same motives which guide most of
our own brawling bullies, and swearing politicians—self-interest—and
therefore soon betrayed his trust; for, like
a certain hypocritical time server, who by his shifting,
servile and corrupt conduct in office, has become as contemptible
as the crawling vermin, whom in his character
he resembles, and whose custom it hath been
as it were by instinct, to preserve a station which he has
for years disgraced—to change his party on the very last
day of an election, to that which his shrewd judgment
foreboded would be the conqueror—so that, though a
dozen principles have had their sway, it hath mattered fittle
to him—he was always among the victors. Kid eagerly
seized upon the opportunity thus fortuitously thrown in
his way, and sought to use the armament and advantage
he possessed, in the furtherance of his own purpose,—
for having burnt the frigate he commanded, he leagued
with the buccaneers; and at the period of the narration,
the commencement of which follows, his savage actions
and desperate exploits, had filled the country with horror
and amazement. To such an alarming extent had
grown the terror of his name, that the parts of the province
where it was supposed and reported that his lawless
crew used to frequent or land, either for the sake of
concealing the booty acquired by their robberies, or to
carouse after some murderous and successful expedition,
were avoided with fear and superstition, by all except
his associates, who, however, were numerous; and although
even by them he was hated for his barbarity,
yet he seldom found want of stores and assistance, when
necessitated to put in port: indeed the fear that he inspired,
not only pervaded the breasts of those whose
callings were to plough the deep and weltering seas, but
many far distant, at least in appearance, from his revenge,
dared scarcely breathe a threat: encouraged, and
hourly emboldened in his unbridled course, the hand of
justice was too weak to wield the avenging sword; formidable
and unrestrained, his audacious emissaries were spread
in every quarter of the coast, and countless were the
deeds acted, that would harrow up the soul, and chill the
blood's free flowing in the hearer's veins, at the relation:
and often when the storm from the north, howled bleak and
dismal, and swept from the trackless ocean with mournful
voice, and like a funeral dirge sung round the snug cabin
of the fisherman, its inmates would fearfully whisper,
that the spirits of the murdered had risen from their
watery graves, where they had been darkly tombed, to
shriek their curses on the pirate; such is ever the
idea of man; for there is a secret and natural abhorrence
against great crimes, instilled upon our minds from birth,
that however prosperous guilt may be for awhile, yet as
the terrible and just sentence denounces `blood will have
blood,' so a late though a sure punishment, must attend
upon the guilty, and their most hidden actions:—thus
many believe, but the ways of providence are inscrutable,
or how can we account for the evident long during
of the rogues of the day? yes, we have seen to all appearance,
men raising their fortunes on the tears of
the poor, unpunished; every stride they take to wealth,
trampling on the hearts of the unfortunate—and like the
reckless warrior, in the crowded flight of the vanquished,
spurning the prostrate body of his falling comrade,
they base the fabric of their prosperity, upon the hopeless
ruin and blasted happiness of others; and have we not
beheld the iron-hearted landlord go down to the grave,
leaving behind unto his offspring a mint of riches, gathered
by grinding and extortion?—he hath enjoyed a long
life, and ease and luxury—and round his plumed hearse,
are marshalled troops of weeping friends—and to his
burial place, the mournful pomp of sorrow and respect,
accompanies him—while, mark the reverse, the generous
noble hearted creature, whose whole soul was charity
and friendship for his species, spends his life, even as a
lingering death; want, poverty and famine, his companions;
and ends it either in the common alms-house,
the lazaret or the prison, happy if there be a roof above
him, that he die not by the way-side untended and unpitied;
and his uncoffined limbs be not cast into some
loathsome pit dug for carrion:—the one like several examples
now in view, is the great, the good, the worshipped,
the every thing, with the world; possessing its confidence
and its honours;—and the other is always a poor
mad besotted foolish fellow, whose witless brains and extravagant
courses in relieving the distressed, and allowing
every body to cheat him that pleased, never gave him
a chance to gather up a single dollar in his whole life;
and who has come to that which it was expected, since
he allowed himself to be so sadly shaved by the bro
kers, and endorsed for a friend who made it his pride,
after getting free by the act, to insult the poverty and misfortune
that he had caused.—As is the case just cited,
with the prosperous, whose slightest notice is more acceptable
than the cordial smile of the thriftless; so,
though horror and disgust followed the deeds wherein he
gained them, yet the spoils of Kid introduced themselves
into the favour, and the purchase of the good burghers of
the city; and it is even asserted by tradition, but how
veritably one knows not, that at the grand festival of St.
Nicholas, which might perhaps assimilate to a twenty-fifth
of November dinner of our own modern Corporation,
that not only the Chief Scout, but the lordly and substantial
burgomasters, and the well fed Schepens of the honest
city of Nieuw Amsterdam, or New-York, all appeared
arrayed in certain calico morning gowns, which
were adorned in lieu of bloemates, with orange trees and
singing birds: the which material, had formed part of
the cargo of a Spanish galleon which Kid had lately captured,
and openly sent into the bay,[18] consigned, as usual
in these cases to some respectable trading firm;
much in a like manner as our late uncommissioned privateer
captures of the ships of a friendly nation; and
for which an agent of the original owners had instituted
a suit of recovery before the above mentioned Scout, who
acted as Judge, together with his other municipal capacities;
and as might be expected, the said suit shortly after the
aforesaid festival of St. Nicholas, was decided peremptorily
against the Spanish merchants: from this, discerning
reader, it is evident that the custom is of singular ancient
derivation, that the “mayor, aldermen and commonalty”
of a certain large city, have, time out of mind, been in
the habit of `acceptation,' or receiving presents; which
may have a partial reference to the present fashion, of
taking a dozen bottles of excellent Madeira from each of
the wine venders in the city, before a public dinner;
none of which are returned, though the apparent purpose
was only to taste them; when it is certain to have
the mind made up determinately about the purchase,
which must perforce be from a nabob of the same side
at the last election, before the arrival of a single flask, or
the drawing of a cork; tradition hath, it is understood,
for the sake of elucidation, farther related, that ever since
the afore cited banquet of St. Nicholas, corporations have
fallen greatly in the knack of winking at all rascals, even
though they break their own last enactions; provided they
can give presents, which are in these days, read offices,
or can gratify in any way the least selfish wish of a burgomaster,
but `si populus vult decipi decipiatur.'

It is said that the country on the borders of the little
river, or rather creek, the description of which begins
this work, was a favourite haunt of the sea robber, that
there he landed after his successful piracies, and that
when time or the pursuit of fresh plunder would not permit
his lavishing his ill gotten treasures in the accustomed
debaucheries on the beach of this stream, and its wild
and desolate neighbourhood, with many superstitious ceremonies,
he was wont to bury them:—strange are the fearful
tales men tell, that to the keeping of infernal spirits
were given these mines of hidden riches, and even within
a few years past it was whispered abroad that the unearthly
guardians, which he had charged with these concealments,
by the cruel butchery of a prisoner, wandered
still true to their unhallowed task about the spot
where his gold lies yet unearthed. In these times, as it
becomes apparent, people have to fear nothing more
wicked than their own evil minds, the place hath been
less regarded, as the other portions of the island are more
closely settled; but in the days of the pirate Kid, the sole
representative of the famous town of Harlaem in the new
world, consisted of one broad long roofed cottage, which
indeed, in the consequence of its owner, might have
vied with its rival `in den bosch,'—for suiting to its lofty
pretensions, though the building was of one story, and
the eaves almost kissed the ground, yet the gable ends

soared steeply up like a pyramid, and were both ornamented
by points or stairs, in the true style of the Keysar
Graft, the Harring Vliet, and the Bompies; from the
centre of the mansion arose a sort of structure that appeared
like a pigeon house, containing one huge long door,
used for the reception of goods, and although at the top
of the edifice, was the place of transacting business, when
the occupant was so inclined—above all, mounted on a
sea of lead, sailed a small tin Dutch built boat or schuit,
which served the double purpose of a weather cock and
a ferry sign,—at least so intended, but the architect who
had taken the model of the little vessel from the best in
the town of Termunderzyl, at which place he had driven
the careful craft of a brick maker, found after its completion
that what would do in the winds of Holland was not
at all fitted for those of America, for a spanking vexatious
broad bottomed figure of one of the Dutch graces, which
filled up the poop by way of ornament, with all the obstinacy
of the sex, who seem to flourish best when most
contradictory, always swung around whenever the wind
carried the ship in one direction to that point of the compass
which was completely opposite; the sapient clay
moulder, to whom the mystery did not explain itself, after
having smoked several pipes in profound deliberation on
the failure of his plan of telling the wind, felt, however,
nowise put out, being possessed of true Dutch mettle
and considering himself another Quintin Matsys;[19] and
therefore with immense sagacity, he determined, that as
all the trouble had been taken to make it serve, it was of
no use beginning the business over anew, for the spectator,
by a very slight reversion, if ingenious enough, could
at most periods guess aright, the more easy if a Nederlander,
for he could not then be so ignorant of navigation
as not to know that his countrymen used both the stern
and the bows for the same purpose, and to the same advantage.
This saving principle of leaving things remain
in the situation they were first designed, whether right
or not, seems to be the leading maxim of modern economists,
if one might draw the conclusion from a grave body
corporate, who, whenever they calculate erroneously,
which, by the bye, unless one of their own members is
interested, is commonly in their own favour, take certain
pains that it shall not be easily remedied: for instance,
it is to be remarked, they allotted to themselves an
uncommon space of time to repay a certain wrongful assessment,
but when they, “in their wisdom,” assess the
property of others who individually cannot protract, they
do not wait to petition, but will have their demand at once,
nolens volens. However, the dwelling whose top was
thus tastefully adorned, was, to all appearance, a comfortable
domicile, which, as it snugly nestled between two
rising hillocks like an egg in the nest, seemed protected
from every danger—indeed it bore no resemblance to any
tall, gaunt, disproportioned mansion, that now casts its
clumsy shadows across the narrow lanes of the city, showing
the nature of the owner, who selfishly means to take
the jolly face of the sun from the passers by, or to astonish
the beholder with his magnificence and aspiring imagination
in erecting a wind tower, which generally repays
him for his trouble by an assignment to some relation
or friend in trust, while he pays the honest carpenter for
his labour and plan, by taking the benefit of the two-third
sweeping clause, which is receiving a full and fashionable
receipt;—☞ don't look wise reader, you are not here
thought of—yet there is a Latin saying very applicable,
`qui capit ille facit.'

Be all this as it may, the home of Sporus Vanderspeigl,
for such was the wordly designation of the occupant of
the ferry house, had been the work of years; for it was
spread out something like a crab, or its owner's hand,
which it hath been truly stated exceeded in the breadth,
the length from the wrist to the end of the fingers; but
as this tradition comes direct from the wife's side of his
family, implicit confidence should not be given to it:—

for as Sporus was a little man, he was like a small bottle
brimful of spirit tightly corked, and apt at times to make
a mighty explosion, or in other words get into a great
passion, particularly when his kitchen chimney smoked,
which like the contract built chimneys of the present day,
was very apt to cut up such capers whenever there was
any breeze abroad, and it is said, by whom it is not accurately
known, that before he removed from the city of
Nieuw Amsterdam, his vrouw having on a windy Monday
purchased at the Zmidts Vly,[20] at the extravagant rate
of four stuyvers, a fat Kalkoensche hen from a broad
mouthed Long Island negro, he was so enraged at her prodigality,
that as every honest burgher was used when the
goed vrouw went astray, he gently corrected the spendthrift
quean with the said Kalkoensche hen; but which
fact her relations, after the common fashion of all such
meddling persons, flatly deny—vilely reporting that Sporus
had basely beat the good woman with his hand; for
which atrocious slander the honest and learned Dutch
Schepen or Assistant Alderman, who in those days held
about the same dignity as those of our own times, being
equally as thick headed and consequential—though possessing
in addition a kind of authority resembling our police
magistracy—ordered, that both the party slandered,
and Jan Van Schroper and Derrick Tunesse Snedigher,
relations to the aforesaid vrouw Vanderspeigl, the slanderers,
should pay fifty schellings to the poor; and further,
that Garret Van Hoorn, the `konstabel,' should discharge
the costs:—now though no reasonable creature
will deny the uprightness and profundity evinced by this
decision—and that all parties should be punished for the
disturbance of the peace, and wilful annoyance of the calm
and quiet of the tranquil province of Nieuw Nederlandt—
yet who could suppose that the villanous breath of slander
would have dared to whisper that the worthy and immaculate
Schepen deposited the mulct in an inner drawer
of his lessenaar; and being plagued with a shortness of
memory, peculiarly in matters of this kind, he neglected to
render in his general monthly return to the vroedschap,
the afore-mentioned sum of fifty schellings;—nevertheless,
though true, this might have been an accident, for it is now
no uncommon thing for a public officer to become a defaulter
to a round amount, and then, on account of the hardness
of his case, apply to government to let him clear of debt,
giving as a reason that he does not know what has become
of the money. However, from the transaction just
detailed, the patient magistrate acquired the surname of
den Springer, or the Hopper, owing to the badness of
his eyesight, which forced him to jump over the afore-mentioned
item of fifty schellings.

In the present instance Sporus seemed determined not
to be outdone by any Dutch farmer in the convenience
and costliness of his tenement, and he was therefore, while
debating the design, extremely particular, slow, and cautious,
as all wise Dutchmen are invariably in affairs of moment
and emergency; which is no doubt the reason why
their ideas are so weighty and profound; for like city
feasts—great thoughts are not to be digested in a minute,
and, as the adage teaches, Rome was not built in a day;
so it might be repeated of the residence of this Hollander
—for it cost him four years of smoking, planning, and reflection
to begin the structure, two more to lay the foundation,
and twice that time ere the first apartment, which
was the pronk room, was finished to his liking. Do not
consider, expeditious reader, that all this period was
spent in projecting and finishing off any thing like the
tawdry gingerbread finery of one of the four story barns,
which are the unrivalled specimens of the improved architecture
of these days—no, Sporus was a man of prudence,
and his mind and desires were only bent on obtaining a
modest Dutchman's comfort; and indeed though all the
materials were of the best, the only extravagance known
in the building, and that was the boast and pride of Mynheer's
heart, was the monstrous width of the chimney
place—whose great mantel piece jutted boldly from the
wall like the blackened jaw of some huge and cavernous
den, while each side was variegated with neat glazed
china tiles, which at the enormous cost of a stuyver a
piece, had been imported from the manufactory at Rotterdam;

and whereon was delineated in a masterly manner
a whole Bible history—the life of the patriarch Joseph
and the dreams of Pharaoh, which however were interpreted
after the artist's own fashion, for not having an
ox as a model at hand, he had, in the frenzy of the moment,
by an excusable graphic license, made both lean
and fat kine resemble the acute quadruped called the
jackass, as near as any other animal in creation, although
at the same time he could not have been accused of violating
the commandment of Scripture, as it would have
been difficult to have ascertained an exact similitude of
the creatures figured, in earth, air, or in any other
element. As soon as the exterior of the building was
completed, Sprous moved bag and baggage into the
mansion, and that all his valuables might be secured from
spoilers, which commonly appeared in those times in the
shapes of thieving Indians or pilfering and wandering
pedlars from the New England provinces—who under
the name of trading, but in reality for the sake of sharping,
inundated the country of the inactive and ease loving
Meinheers, elbowing them out of their quiet and cheating
them out of their very eyes, much in the same manner
as in these latter years have emigrated from the same
part those brazen herds of adventurers—most of whom
first come begging as itinerant preachers and schoolmasters,
without any other qualifications than conceited and
assured impudence, ready for any employment that presents,
they push themselves in the crowd, jostling on
one side honest and better men, (for it is no hard matter
for rogues to tread down virtue) and soon they either transform
themselves for the sake of novelty as well as bread,
to crazy political journalists—characters which certainly
are arduous ones, as they want true adepts in slander,
untruth, and hypocrisy, places which are to be only filled
by such as will lick, dog like, the feet of a rascal in authority,
or care not how they bring themselves to be despised,
contemned, and disgraced;—or ambitious of a
better standing as speculators, they start into the world
usurping the desk of the merchant, lacking honour, honesty,
and name—without any other capital than the low
and despicable cunning of their nature, which is ready
ever to seize on petty, dishonourable advantages—without
any other credit than an inherent knavery, a quick and palpable
tongue, and a lying and specious appearance can obtain
for them. Perhaps as much for the sake of comfort
and convenience, as that all might be under his own observation,
as it is well known there is nothing like the
master's looking to what is going on in his house—and as
the careful Nederlander did not often desire to extend
either his imagination or his exercise he introduced under
the same roof and within the same enclosure, most
of his moveable property—the principal items consisting
of his wife and kind, his negro, his tobacco pipe, his
snickersnee, his hogs,[21] his flask of Hollandts, his goats,[22]
(in the raising of which animals he hugely delighted,) his
`kist' of guilders, together with an old spavined, wind
dried blind mare, and a lean, lank, bare ribbed skeleton of
a snarling mastiff; for with all the slackness of movement
that Vanderspeigl was famous for, he had by some
means or other amassed considerable wealth; and as he
was too lazy to seek fortune, it really seemed as if the
fickle divinity determining that he should not be indifferent
about her embraces, had therefore with open arms
ran to him, for she appears to have her humours like all
females, and the best way oftentimes to obtain her favours
is to treat her with indifference, and not to trouble
one's head about her; now in this the prudence and
foresight of Sporus cannot be too much commemorated;
and indeed he was not only worth money, but he knew
how to keep it; he was not one of those eager, avaricious
hazarders, who anxious to make themselves rich or to
add to that which was already an independence, would
jeopardise all upon one single chance—leaving their happiness
or destruction to the changing of a breeze:—for
once, being offered by old Conraedt Goelet, a tight,
crabbed dealing Nieuw Amsterdamer—but who was
something given to dress, a whole tract of woodland
situated in the neighbourhood of Spring Garden and the
Holy Ground,[23] in exchange for a beaver hat, whose
fashion was the latest worn in the Hague—Vanderspeigl,
who well knew he could sell an article of such demand
for at least ten stuyvers, could not help wondering at such
a foolish idea as that Goelet could suppose he was to be
taken in that way—so after hearing patiently all the fine
arguments that were used to induce him to close the
bargain, he shook his head in a knowing manner, and
placing his finger by the side of his nose he only answered
“dat Meinheer Goelet dont drick beobles mit hish
dalking out vrom dere geldt.” As may be expected from
such amazing shrewdness and knowledge of the world,
Sporus might have been called in the expressive idiom of
the moderns a warm man; and doubtless, had banks been
chartered at so early a period, judging by the great and
efficient personages of this era concerned in the controlling
of such institutions, Meinheer Sporus Vanderspeigl
would have been a capital character for the president of
one; for as he was a cunning man with all his phlegm, he
would have taken precious care to feather his own nest,
though the public suffered thereby;—and in truth who
are the public, every body?—then surely it is a safe
maxim, that being such it cannot feel a loss or injury like
an individual; it does not therefore surprise that so many
shave the every body for a private advantage; and besides
all must perceive the many cannot be harmed by
that which is taken to enrich a single person.

Still with all that he was blessed, Vanderspeigl had to
contend with foul breaths and evil tongues. Never have
men congregated together, no matter in how small a portion,
but what they have envied each other, and sought to
destroy that which they themselves were unworthy of and
unable to attain; what I have not, none other shall have, is
the maxim under which most act; and whence hath arisen
so much sorrow, misery and destruction: scandal, with its
cold and blighting wing, freighted with self swoln intelligence,
was busy with his fame; and there were whispered
hard stories about the guilders that this Dutch owner
of Harlaem Ferry had collected in the safe depository of
his home—and much was said of a great chest which had
been seen in the Hollander's house, and which as reported
he watched with unceasing caution; now there was
nobody who could tell who had a glimpse of this mystery,
or give an account in the least connected—yet all agreed
that the chest, whatever was in it or whatever it was—if
indeed after all it was a chest—had not been fairly come
by; and then the speakers would shrug their shoulders and
wofully turn up their eyes in an awful and meaning manner.
Thus from the busy brains and quicker mouths of
jealous knaves or fools is the peace of even the innocent
destroyed; for every communication that harmeth another,
is given to all except the object of the rumour—
and like the flames from lightning borne that in the dried
forest rages swifter than wind, it hurries on, gathering in
its blasting flight new vigour—thus are our lives a torment—thus
by insidious lies are we pierced to the marrow—and
like one stabbed by some coward bravo in the
back, we see not the arm that darts the blow, and die
unable to avenge—for the victim is the last to know the
extent of the calumny:—is not this persecution worse
than the sword or the axe? doth it not blast the brain
and sear the heart with hopeless misery?—truly it turneth
our souls to gall and bitterness, and man becomes
companionless, a phantom among his fellows, and moves
through life solitary, suspicious, and hating, like a lonely

and stormy cloud that blots the visage of a summer
heaven. Indeed, many were the mischief-fraught tales
told in all the pride of conscious importance by those notable
tea-table housewife gossips, whose time is passed in
the busy and saving duty of looking after every body's affairs
except their own, that were not much to the credit
of the honest scouw steerer:—there were dark hints of
pirates—of murdered travellers—such as a certain person
on a certain gloomy night stopping at the ferry house and
asking for a night's lodgings, and the certain person being
never seen to depart.

Whether it be that sudden accumulation of wealth
alone creates envy and desire, or it is engrafted in the
very nature of humanity to pluck a hole in the garment
of a fellow creature who is not even a stumbling stone in
our path of prosperity, cannot be solved; but while Sporus
(and such had been the case) could not enumerate
more than one pair of `broeks' in his wardrobe, and his
home was nothing but a miserable hovel of rude unplaned
logs, scantily thatched with bark, whose only aperture
besides the low entrance was a small hole in the roof,
which admitted faintly the light of the heavens, and afforded
a void for the smoke—then there was none who
thought him worthy scarce of a passing word, for he was
looked upon as one of those wretched outcasts who in
the freaks of unpropitious fate had been cast upon this
world of wo as a very model of misery—but now the picture
was reversed, things were entirely changed, and
though the good dames who have been mentioned were
never weary behind his back as has been stated, at denouncing
him “a gruff, cross creature, who knew more of
some things than he should do for his conscience sake,”
yet in his presence, no man in the whole island of Manathan
was more belarded and beflowered with compliments
—the Dutch language itself was wasted and exhausted
in culling sentences fruitful in respect, and instead of
plain Sporus as it had been, “Mynheer Sporus Vanderspeigl,”
and “hoe vaart u Mynheer,” were now the current
pass words. Had it been in the present day that
this was enacted, Sporus would certainly have stood an

excellent chance for being elected a congressman, and
probably a governor, for from a natural taciturnity he was
much averse to speaking, which would have looked very
wise and sapient, and as long as it did not interfere with
his own interest, he doubtless would have `drout broper'
to vote always as his constituents directed, particularly
when on the strongest side, and by this means, placing
honour and virtue out of the question, he would have
been long able to keep his place, which is now the only
aim of a politician—and though one would suppose it no
easy matter to humour the whims of the crowd, yet the
practice and improvement of the times have reduced it
to a simple maxim;—take care of yourself, get all you
can, and do all you can for those who elected you; which
does not mean the multitude, but a certain intriguing few,
the demagogues of caucus[24] nomination, to whom both
the people and their representatives are but tools, and
with whom no honest man can thrive. But Mynheer
Vanderspeigl was born a philosopher—he heard little and
cared less what the world (which expressive word usually
includes no more than the circle of one's immediate acquaintances,)
said of him—and that which would have
fairly turned the brain of another, scarcely disturbed his
accustomed quietude, or roused him more than a summer
zephyr would the sluggard waters of the Zuyder Zee.
Indeed he was a person of experience—early he had left
behind him the miserable and comfortless hut, and wandered
unpitied away—to what course not even the sharpest
guesser could imagine:—time rolled by and had
nearly obliterated his memory, for the poor and miserable
are soon forgotten—few are the kind remembrancers
that recall with pleasure or with pity that they have once
been—No! to them the only words that speak their ha
ving existed are, “poor fellow, I am glad he is out of his
misery;” probably from the very lips that selfishly had
hastened the fate they thus commemorate; truly, there
are not many who will believe that the poor, the sick, and
the unfortunate have as fair a claim to life and the sovereignty
which man holds on earth, as the most rich and
powerful that breathe the wanton airs of heaven. However,
as most strange and extraordinary things have happened,
so the eyes of the burghers of Nieuw Amsterdam
lightened as it were of a sudden, on a well filled winkel
that occupied the upper story or rather garret of the
weduwe Yokupminshe Van Schaik's new house, in the
pleasant straat called der Mayhden Paetje,[25] or the virgin's
path—a street then as now, one of the most fashionable
for ladies to saunter in, and spend their money out
of mere pastime, under the name of shopping—a word
which carries with it the meaning of bargains, gained by
a whole day's waste of time—and necessary purchases,
which were only necessary for the salesman to get rid of;
but besides this for business, the Mayhden Paetje had
other advantages, as it was the most public place of resort
in the mighty stadt of Nieuw Amsterdam, as the very
first young women of the place, after milking the cows on
a summer afternoon, walked up its crooked paths for the
sake of taking an airing and hearing the love sighed tales
of the gallant Mynheers. In the long door of the loft
aforesaid on such occasions could be distinguished sundry
big-bellied Flemish jars, on which might be plainly read
in splendid letters of Dutch mettle the delightful words of
der goold water and der zilver water; and there too, enveloped
in the smoke of his pipe, might be observed the
master of these liquids, the lofty Mynheer Sporus Vanderspeigl,
contentedly viewing in the looking-glasses[26] on
the outside of his dwelling all that passed by—or laughing
as he listened to the merry jokes of his buxom landlady.
As things moved on, aided by considerable custom
and close and economical living, the industrious Nederlandter
was enabled to shut up shop; not in the modern
fashion by breaking at full credit, and leaving the unfortunate
creditors to whistle for their demands, and then
setting up a carriage—but in a strait forward strict Dutchman-like
manner, paying and being paid; so having closed
his affairs and wound up his business, Vanderspeigl (for
the heart even though hardened turneth fondly with the affection
of a child for its mother, to the green spot of earth
whereon in youth we gamboled,) once more hastened to
seat himself by the side of his native river, determined to
grow fat on Esopus beer, to smoke his pipe in peace, and
to cultivate to his heart's content, sun flowers, holly
halks and cabbages. But alas! how short sighted are
human plans of happiness—how have the most knowing
been deceived,—for attracted by the seeming ever cheerful
temper of dame Van Schaik—her merry chatting and
her gleesome jokes—and then too what Dutchman of susceptibility
could behold without emotion the forlorn state
in which the weduwe dwelt in her new house of the best
Holland brick, without wishing to console her in her loneliness—and
then too, to think what an enticing hand she
was at pickling cucumbers, smoking red herrings, drying
peaches, potting preserves, and tossing slapjacks—
and then to behold her neatness as she overlooked the
scrubbing of the side walks of her dwelling, and sanded
the white floor of the zaal, carefully marking out
pretty tasteful Dutch figures on the boards—and then
too, to listen to the spiteful jingle of that great bunch of
keys that adorned her side, and know of the flask of ancient
genever, of precious delft, and of cracked china
milk pots, that paraded the ample shelves of the cupboard;—considering
these moving circumstances, where is
there a man who boasts the least Holland spirit but might
be led astray; and is it to be wondered at that wisdom
itself was triumphed over by such charms?—but alas, it
is useless—a mere waste of time which is fleeting and
precious, to sum up any more evils when the understand
ing reader is informed, that this miserable little Dutchman
was involved in the utmost trouble, with all his
riches and contentment—he had taken a wife; so it
was—not all the phlegm which the capacious stomach of
Vanderspeigl contained was able to keep his rib in subjection,
or all the weight and power of his broad hand to
allay her “skipping spirit” as the poet terms it:—not
even the pride of the burgher's return to his former
home—not even the goodly satisfaction of showing to the
astonished boors his new and high fashioned garb from
Nieuw Amsterdam, which had been cut by Snhyder Ketteltas
in the latest mode of the beaux of the Vyverberg
fuyten-hoft—no, though his broad and ample leathern
broeks might have vied in magnitude with a common
sized beer barrel—though his flat shoes bore as sharp a
point and glistened and shone with silver buckles, whose
broadness and brilliancy were equal to those of the Dominie
Van Niewenhyt,[27] the great pastor at Beverwyck—
though in brief his whole appearance bespoke the man of
wealth and consequence; whether it was from the fineness
of the `goud' that glittered in the large round buttons
of his colopeye, which from their hugeness might
have rather passed for plates than the necessary loops of
wearing apparel—or from the broadness of the brim that
decorated the bowl shaped hat that crowned his head—
not all these could give him a quiet house, or change his
situation one jot from being the most put out, pestered,
plagued and hen-pecked Hollander in the whole country.
The throne of his happiness was demolished—the very
seat of his comfort was destroyed—the strong hold and
citadel of his enjoyments were stormed—there gathered
no domestic peace about his hearth—but all was strange
and cheerless around him.

Although, as has been told, Sporus was a man of few
words himself, yet he was a great admirer of eloquence in
others; indeed he would have made a wonderful jury

man, for long speeches acted by way of a soporific on
him—and having this quality, he would have served to
sleep out the frothy, windy, sounding, and matterless declamations
of certain of our modern advocates, who always
take care to breathe forth sentences so very fine
and poetical that no one can understand them.—Truly,
Sporus enjoyed company, an it were only to amuse his
eyes; and he had been with exceeding honour to himself,
a useful and active member of the ancient association
of burghers who were accustomed to meet in the centre
of Coentjes Slip, under the wide spreading shade of a
lofty button-wood tree, and within sight of Dow Cregier's
sign of the Dog's head in the Porridge-pot,[28] on a bright
and shiny Sunday afternoon; for the purpose of debating
and deciding on the aspect of the times, smoking their tobacco,
and quaffing wholesome draughts of beer—and had
even smoked himself to be one of the first men among
them, though he had several doughty rivals to contend
with,—in particular, Burgomaster Wyckoof, Mynheir
Kipp, and Krygsman Van Zaandt: the first of whom
being an echevin, and a heavier man, of course it was natural
should have the advantage over him, not only in deep
and instinctive views of public matters, but in puffing and
blowing—a prerogative of great men; the second was very
near his equal in wisdom; but then the last being a tall,
straight, fighting character, could beat all hollow at a story,
—and easily run a-head in shuffle-board, nine pins, quoits,
cock and hens, and dominoes; in all of which games and
manly exercises, his descendants have been most wonderfully
proficient, owing doubtless to their inheriting his
scientific and military attainments. Of all these instructive
amusements and improving companions, Vanderspeigl
was now deprived; he had never dreamt of their
not being an estaminet at Harlæm—and when the first
novelty of his landhuis was passed away, and when he
had sufficiently admired the fiery visages of his marigolds
and the huge jolly faces of his sunflowers, and was somewhat
wearied at the scarce ever ceasing music of the bullfrog
and the cat-bird, and had become accustomed once
again to all such rustic melodies and comforts—he was surprised
and awe-struck to find that the shrill and harsh
notes of his loving spouse predominated, and kept his ears
busy, and his household in a clatter and confusion the whole
day long. As is customary with most husbands in his
desperate and melancholy situation, he became dogged,
sullen, and weary of the combat, in which as he grew
fainter, the more severely he was urged by his opponent;
and as might be expected from such matters, he shortly
gave in to his wife—who was one of those damsels who
knew no modesty in triumph, but pushed her conquest
to the utmost with a high and tyrant hand. Whether
from this or not, it is impossible to ascertain; yet on settling
in their neighbourhood, Vanderspeigl on his part
avoided the dwellers of East Chester as much as they
had formerly shunned him, and though the goed vrouws
made frequent attempts at sociability with his dame, yet
as she was possessed of one of those save-all dispositions
(and which was also in unison with her lord and master,
as the world would style him) that characterize many of
the hospitable ladies of the present century,—she soon
taught them, though with perfect high-dutch politeness,
that as she was lineally descended from a hoogduisch
family of Amsterdam in the Low Countries, her father
having been a skipper on the Amstraccan canal, (and by
the by, of this parental dignity she often reminded Mienheer
to his cost) she could not condescend to encourage
an intimacy with persons, who, if they had been aboard
of her father's trekschuit, would scarce have been allowed
to look at the roef; and who knew nothing of the accomplished
civilities of the beauties who frequent the
Cingel; it was soon therefore discovered that neither oley
koeks, katrinshe or smoked sausages, were to be feasted
on by them at Vanderspeigl's—and this added, in all probability,
to sharpen the wits of the disappointed masticators
against the insensible ferry owner; as soon after offence
had been taken, it was noticed (for when women are determined
to find out something ill, they are lynx-eyed,
and far beyond the watchfulness of men) that Sporus,
with all his guilders, was but a paltry miserly nasty little
fellow; and having laid down this broad foundation
of character, it became no hard task to raise a more
certain structure: nor was the poor man's wife suffered
to pass without reputation, for Vrauw Clopper, who was
a shrewd knowing woman, and always just in her strictures,
thought it hard that he, abused creature, should
bear all the blame, when he merely deserved a small
portion,—and therefore, to put the saddle on the right
horse, she gave the dame of Barent Fonda a morning
call,—and in the tide of important converse, she ventured
to hint that she was convinced that Sporus, (unfortunate
being,) bad as he was, would never have been so
outrageously mean, were it not for his helpmate—who
without mincing matters—and this the emphatic lady assured
her hearers, she did not mind telling the person of
whom she was discoursing, to her very teeth; (of which,
nevertheless, she took prudent care, as she was no promoter
of mischief) that she was a low, spiteful, pride-becrazed
wretch—who would one day live to know her
betters; for it was a true proverb, that those who ride
a high horse, must take care they have not a sad fall.
From this situation of things, it is not to be wondered at,
that, what otherwise might have been considered a mere
whim, was now metamorphosed into a real peccadillo:
and it was very earnestly descanted on, that our Dutchman
was seldom or ever in the habit of attending his
family (though Vrauw Yockupminshie was extremely
devout, pious and sincere, and in all spiritual things mightily
godly given) either to the neighbouring conventicle
of master Baregrace Trebletext, or to the high Hollandsche
sermons of Dominie Van Gieson; which he
snuffled forth weekly out of a huge and mighty book,
bound in parchment splendidly stamped, with thick brass
clasps, and other brazen ornaments; the whole of which
had been manufactured at Leyden, at the sign of De Ruyter's
Head; and which, from its ponderous weight and
compactness, was a most awful specimen of antique superiority,
and the flimsiness of all modern publications:
and it was further reported about this persecuted Nederlander,
that when questioned—however, during the absence
of his wife,—on those subjects which most pertain
to the good opinion of the world, (though you be a great
rogue otherwise) charity in public and church going,
that he would ruefully, at the interruption, take his long
pipe from his mouth, and after deliberately clearing his
throat and puffing away the smoke from his nose, which
rose in volumes from his lungs, would answer with rapidity;
for as has been related, he was prone to slowness
in action, and by no means garrulous, yet he delivered
quickly whatever few words he chose to honour his hearers
with. “Mein got—got tam!—would u hab ik von
breacher? Ik vill hab none of dien zottigheid—dien
nonzensh—de breaching be vrouws wark—vivers wark—
op myn ziel! Ik hab der vrouws breaching t'huis van
den ogtend tot den avond—got tam! vrom der buttoning
ob myn broek dill myn eysh are closhd—mein got!”

It is perhaps less to be wondered at, from the forced
solitude of his life, and that, as must be perceived, he
was withal, much addicted to the unrighteous vice of
interlarding his conversation with divers metaphors and
vivid illustrations, which the gued wives set down as
rank staring oaths, these numerous, disagreeable, disadvantageous
and tough rumours, remained uncontradicted
in circulation; nor was Sporus a person disposed to stop
their progress; for they were of no moment to him; they
neither sickened him, nor took away his daily food: he
consumed his allowance with as hearty a stomach, as
though no one troubled themselves about him: and he
could shrug his shoulders with all people's talking: still
he had sufficient to employ the brief space, he exercised
his mind and his tongue at home, with a stirring
wife and a thriving farm: for while the former filled his
house with a whole short-legged tribe of chubby clumsy
Dutch urchins, with bright and pleasure dancing eyes
and rosy cheeks, that vied with the cherry ere it burst
in its summer ripeness, and who with their loud and

cheerful halloos as they sportive gambolled round his
hearth with hose scarce gartered, drove away the little
silence that their `moeders taal' might be pleased to allow
him; the latter ever greeted his sight with increasing
stores; on his domain, the sweet sad warbling of the
reaper's voice, floated through long fields fresh and beautiful
with luxuriant ripeness: here the tender buckwheat's
gay and snowy fruit, shook to the gentle southern breeze,
like the white tops of a turbaned host; there the yellow
beard of the Indian corn, glistened to the sun like threads
of brightest amber, or sparkling nets of gold that form
the silk-worm's summer palace, and many a gallant drake
gave amorous call to his speckled mate on the blue waters
that softly glided in the front of his cheerful mansion,
and though `silently across the aspect of terrestrial
things, a chilling change had pennoned its wide flight,'
and the hoarse winds raved, and the clouds hung heavy
o'er the unsheltered earth, while the cold winter's ice
covered his grounds, and the white snow piled itself
before his door; yet rich stores of grain filled his ample
barns, and within his dwelling the crackling log sent
forth its life sustaining warmth; season after season,
seemed merely to revolve within the circle of unending
time—adding to his coffers and extending his comforts:
could then unhappiness disturb him? day followed
day to him with scarce a change; he possessed all; that
all wherein is comprised the ideal contentment and enjoyment
of this world—wealth!—no matter how gained,
how accumulated—it is still “the high imperial type of
this earth's glory;” and he that hath its sway, as is daily
proved beyond contradiction, holds a shield invulnerable;
against whose brazen breast, the breath of fame, the
giant strength of justice, equal with the poisoned dart of
envy, wither hurtless as a reed slung by the arm of infancy:—but
by this time, the reader must be impatient for
a more intimate acquaintance with the Hollander, than
mere description; he must therefore be referred to the
succeeding section, with which the story whereon this
history treats, is more properly commenced.

SECTION II.

Myles Couper.

THE BEGINNING OF A STRANGE STORY.

It was late in the fall of the year; the gloomy shades
of night were fast approaching, rendered darker by the
impending tempest; the wind howled low and mournfully
through the dried and ice fringed branches of the
trees; and as it shook their bare and unclad arms, it
seemed to moan like a wailing spirit, that is restless with
the knowledge of coming evil: the wild forest wore a
cheerless livery, and where a lonely sallow leaf hung
quivering on the drooping spray, the last of its once
green brotherhood, it clung faintly and fearfully to its
hold, as an aged man to life, when all his friends are
gone; a melancholy emblem of the changes of the earth—
speaking how passing is the pomp and vanity of all created
things: the waves of the usually quiet creek were
agitated, and drove sullenly on, dashing heavily and
roughly against the beach, crested with clear and sparkling
coronets of foam, that gathered on their tossing
heads like white flowers upon a dark and trembling
bush; here and there the brown backed tortoise showed
himself on the waters as he swam along—while the
white mews, with wailing shriek, on slow pinions dropt
downward to the sea, and the long winged wild duck
hied to its oozy nest amid the sedge, whose lank spears

sank beneath the flowings of the breaking waves; detached
masses of dense and misty clouds, chased each other
along the still and stirless heavens, seeming like the
fearless bands of a mighty army gathering to the conflict;
and now and then a white and straggling snow-drop, as
pure as its home, fell languidly through the air—a token
of the coming drift: the sun, as is in northern climates,
long ere the joining of night and day, could be scarcely
traced on the stormy horizon, except by a sickly circlet of
dim and ghastly light, that at intervals broke through the
thick haze and rolling clouds, that covered the blackened
visage of the lowering sky: from the depth of the brake,
was heard the hideous howlings of the wolf, who, frightened,
sought his den; and the piteous cries of the tameless
and prowling panther, swelled the passing blast: the
lithe brambles of the tangled copse and the deep hedge,
were verdureless; and shook in the nakedness of their
desolation: while their seared and decaying fruitage,
lay stricken on the dried earth, silent and deserted—sad
memorials of the departed beauties, and the loneliness of
nature. Yet on the hill side the strait and lordly pine
towered upwards, its green boughs beprankt with foliage
dark—as hung with votive wreaths by some sylvan worshipper,
flourishing in bloom amid the cheerless and
desolate scene, like the spirit of the good, which neither
misfortune, sickness nor poverty, can bend,—while
around was the season of man's decay, when all of hope
hath fled and perished, and every thought and prospect
of futurity, are frowning and bleak with storms.

Upon the ground in front of the ferry house, a large
chesnut lay outstretched like some fallen giant, torn up
by its massive roots, the victim of some late and appalling
hurricane. Its branches, which had once shot their
blossomed spires of silver upwards, and within the arbour
of whose pleasant shade, whole flights of summer
birds had nestled, were now crushed and broken: and
the countless foliage that had decked them in the hour of
pride and majesty, lacerated, torn and dank with rottenness,
were strewed in decayed heaps about the scathed
tree, or were driven to dust by the unsparing wind along

the uneven beach:—composedly seated on the trunk of
this o'erthrown pillar of the wilderness, and contented as
though he had been a burgomaster, while drawing the essence
of the tobacco which he was smoking from his pipe,
was placed the lordly Mynheer Sporus Vanderspeigl;
gazing with vacant eye at times on the heavy aspect of the
clouds, and on the labours of a stirring, sturdy, grey wooled
negro; whom it is proper to introduce to the reader
by the nominal of Yonne, or rather without disparagement,
Mynheer Yonne Vanderspeigl: by which sounding
designations, he modestly chose to be addressed. Now
as names have become mere optional matters in latter
years, wanting neither law nor estate, to be changed or
modelled as the user chooses to wear them; for a different
address is often a passport to credit—and an advantageous
cover, under whose disguise a foreign vagabond
adventurer, and escaped convict, may pretend to
the part of an honest man: therefore Yonne's right to
these innocent additions, was beyond question; the more
so, as the only sinister design apparent in their adoption,
was a little pride—excusable, since now the rage for a
great appellation, is much more ridiculous than it was in
the simple black: and though there is known of no existing
kindredship between Yonne and his proprietor—and to
which, were it not that modern example and philosophy
had exploded all doctrines that could be advanced, in an
insuperable difference of complexion, feature and race,
one might be inclined to suppose, from this bearing of
title;—yet nevertheless, he had more right to a respectable
surname, than nine out of ten of our great men
have, to that of honesty; or one of a thousand of our
cheating, shallow-brained, purse-proud, would-be nabobs,
to that of gentlemen. Indeed Yonne was the right hand
man of his master; his confidant—his ever ready assistant
and adviser in all business of importance: garrulous
in consultation, and active in execution, he was, in
truth, after Ya Vrouw, the person of most consequence
on the Nederlander's domain; and with all his Dutch breeding,
one could not look without a deal of satisfaction upon
his open, good humoured visage; for though he could not
be estimated as having an uncommon share of beauty in
his dark countenance—for his eyes, which were of extraordinary
magnitude, and bolted out from the sockets
like the same organs in the head of a beetle, appeared but
as huge white orbs, owing to his rolling the balls under
their lids;—his nose likewise, an admirer of correct proportion,
might not have considered fit for a model—it
being extremely flat and large at the nostrils; though to
make amends for a broad red under lip, that like a jutting
cliff o'erhung his chin—his huge mouth, which was
always widened by a grin, discovered a row of teeth white
as milk itself; added to these advantages, his cheeks were
decorated by sundry scars and seams, and his ears hung
with a pair of copper rings, which as ornaments, he
greatly prized: and though the fastidious might have
deemed his outward man unprepossessing, yet he owned
that simple purity of heart—that virtuous truth of soul,
that rendered him worthy of every trust with which he
was encharged; and Vanderspeigl gave him sufficient to do,
and keep his blood stirring; for while the Hollander took
his ease and rested from an hour's labour—an exertion
that required for the heavy moulded Dutchman on an average,
ten hours out of twelve, of inaction and recovery of
wind—and oftentimes a day to come to his proper stamina,
Yonne, during such lapses of time, was the very
game-cock of the fields—bustling in the cabbage garden,
and strutting among the Holland pinks and tulips, with
all the dimensions of a monarch; for while the mistress
made matters stir within doors, he pushed things on merrily
without; delving, weeding, and driving away the crows
from the corn—or making the shores of the creek resound
with his loud and hearty laugh, as he joked the
traveller or the pedlar, while he schouwed him across
the rivulet; for Yonne's nature was as comely as his
heart—mirthful as kind, in disposition: he was unlike
the servants of these times, who ape in vice their superiors;
for while the latter pilfer in the way of business,
the former follow the example, by trying it on their
masters: he was of a different species—and that now
rarely to be found; he had foibles, but they were of the
cast that wronged none; he was a faithful creature, and
could it be otherwise? he had been bred up with his master;
the companion of his youth, he had for sixty years
fed from the same table and dish, and had slept under
the same roof:—in a word, he had wintered and summered
from infancy to age, in the same family—and in
them his being was wrapt up: the name of ingratitude
to him, was strange; though now, a word more acted on,
than any in the language: he never dreamt of stinging
the bosom that fostered him; proud to be the dependant,
of his owner, and almost equal by treatment, he went
cheerfully to his duty—and all prospered under his assiduous
hand during the day; and when the dusky night
closed his task, ere he sought his little loft, which was
on a level with the swallow coops that were fastened on
the ferry-house wall, he would take his accustomed seat
on the well worn log that filled one corner of the huge
fire place—and while basking in the genial warmth of
his situation he would make the roof ring with his glee;
as, to the wondering urchins who regardless of his
colour, clung about his knees and neck, he would relate
the traditions of his mother, who had been brought from
the gold coast in a ship belonging to the Holland West
India Company—and which had been consigned to Guysbert
Myndero, of Nieuw Amsterdam: and at times, for
the further amusement of his infantine audience, he
would to the sonorous chords of a crack-stringed violin—
from which, with much grimace and many laborious
scrapings, he succeeded in producing a species of melody
that might alone be compared with the soft tones extracted
from the filing of a handsaw—blithely troll some
rude song. part English, part Dutch, and part African,
that would set all his hearers in a titter of delight. Besides
this, Yonne had many other powers of sociability—
he was the gazette of the whole country round; and
the honest Dutch neighbourhood, when any subject was
abroad, was always sure to hear the relation through the
medium of his tongue: there was not a wedding in embryo—an
old witch to be burnt—or a pirate to be gibbeted,
but what he was the person best informed on
every matter concerning them: his brain was truly a
chronicle of recorded experience; stored with tales of
ghosts, Indian massacres, spukes and wood demons innumerable:
he could tell whole histories of the devil's
dans kammer and the Hellegat—and never was there a
winding sheet curled in the lamp, or a stranger who had
fallen from the burning embers of the cheerful hearth,
but they were construed aright by the divining black;—
he was therefore, in high favour and credit with the
goed vrouw, particularly as he had foretold that the day
was to come when she would ride in a coach drawn by
four long switch tailed mares, which were to come from
Coeymans—and should yet live to carry her head as
high as the governor's lady herself; and it was a matter
of course, that his wife's favourite, was in this case
equally Mynheer's; and in indulging the whimsies of
Yonne, was one of the rare matters on which they
agreed.

Yonne, at the period herein deseribed, under the
immediate superintendance of Vanderspeigl, was busily
engaged in scraping and overhauling the bottom of the
schouw in which he daily laboured, ere it was laid up
for the winter; near him, bubbling over a brisk flame
which had been kindled from the dry brush wood that
lay around, stood an iron pot, heating with tar, from
which he was busied in filling the gaping chinks of the
boat, though now and then he would pause in his occupation
to address some passing word to his master, who, taken
up with the arduous task of smoking and thinking, would
merely assent to his words by a slow motion of the head;
or, as he felt the increase of the cold, and the nearer approach
of the tempest, with a quick jerk of the pipe from
his mouth, and a shrug of the shoulder, he would bid the
black hasten his work.

“Me tink him birate be a berry bad man,” said Yonne,
as he stirred the boiling liquid and addressed Sporus in
one of the intervening conversations, which were occasioned
by some necessary hindrance of his pursuit,
“Massa Boomelhyser say him kill neegur man to gard
him goold—der brute! him hab no bowel—tink neegur
man hab no feelin—him blood no run ven him hurt nuder,”—then
apostrophizing his work, he continued, “ter

debbil dake a nail—him plit ter schouw clebber, sartain
—him rotten ting Massa Sporus—vat you tink Massa
Boomelheyser 'pose him no stand noder rack—me neder
sartain;—den to tink dem debbils dreat negur man so—
him no cristin cretur; bad as dem ingin beasts—sartain
him all hang some dime a noder.”

“Ja! Ja!” drawled out his half dozing auditor,
between long intervals of heavy breathing and puffing,
“mein Got! der ish der sensh in dein woord, ash vat
ish in der spraken von der groodt Stadhouder, op myn
ziel—ja! ja! Dou betwisten ash broper ash der Burgomaster
in der raadkamer, dat ish, der gounshil der
Nieuw Amsterdam—mien Got! ja! ja, Yonne! ja!”

The black's visage lighted instantly up with a smile of
satisfaction at this high encomium, in having the sense of
his words compared to the profound reason that actuates
the speeches of their heerships, the lords of the city in
council assembled,—that showed the double fence of ivory
which guarded his mouth from ear to ear; and it is understood,
from the chronicles extant of the enlightened era
which is here treated of, and which in most things resembled
the present improved times, that Vanderspeigl's discrimination
in the matter was extremely accurate; for
it appears that their mightinesses, like our own puissant
aldermen, were much addicted to silence in city affairs,
and only spoke sensibly and interestingly at large, before
voting on giving a contract or bestowing an office, and it
has also been made certain by deep research, that as the
present test on taking a place under government, municipal
or national, is to make what you can out of it—so the
ancient burgomaster took the oath of allegiance, by swearing
“to maintain the reformed religion in conformity to the
word of God, and the decree of the Synod of Dordrecht,”[29]
and in other matters to promote public good, whilst it
served his own purposes. However, it is but just to these
by-gone dignitaries that their histories should not be
wrongly inserted, for the former part of the test was that

which they spoke with a loud voice, while the latter was a
mental reservation, and like all mental determinations, was
kept strictly to the letter; but perhaps it is erroneous
thus to hazard remarks on persons of such heavy heads
and stations, whether living or dead, for the inditer is innocent
and unlearned as to what is proper in such great and
profound characters, whose dignity is in reality sublime, and
this, though well-meaning, might be construed into scandal,
and as it hath been demonstrated, there is but small change
of sentiment or power among them from former days, he
might be forced to suffer the ancient punishment of the
wooden horse[30] ; or like Jan Hobbes, the early Dutch satirist,
who had the audacity to write a classic hollandsche
distich, by way of compliment to one Burgomaster Ezel-een
Mensch, who sold lumber near the Webber's Kreek,[31]
wherein he stated in verse that would have become a
Johannes Secundus, that when Ezel-een's yard was empty,
(to wit of lumber,) his head was full, and that the thickest
block he possessed, was his own skull, which Hobbes writes
kop, in the original; this, however unfortunately, Echevin
Mensch did not altogether rightly understand, for he
was a strong stomached Dutchman, and rather hard of
digestion, owing doubtless to his extreme ignorance and
his not having studied the learned Dutch authors, for it
is reported, that when he was a child, being more lacking
in sense than children are in common, he used to run
without broeks and play with the hogs, and from these
animals his manners being formed, the term `hoggish,'
in stating a man's perfections, hath arisen, and was first
applied to this renowned burgomaster; who, from these
causes, was utterly unable to take and relish the delicate
allusion to his business and his mind, contained in Jan
Hobbes' poetry, and he therefore commanded his two
Schepens, before whom, as he himself was an interested
person, the cause came on to be tried, to order that the
said Jan, his guilt not clearly appearing in evidence,
should be punished that a confession might be extorted
from him by torture; therefore the presumptive satirist
was sentenced, to allay the irritated and delicate feelings
of the burgomaster, to pay four stuyvers, when it was
known he was not worth a groat, and also to stand in
the rasphouse door at the ringing of the bell, and humbly
and contritely beseech the magnanimous Ezel-een
Mensch's pardon.[32]

“Me sure Massa Burgher,” continued Yonne, presuming
on the applause he had received, and anxious to prolong
the discourse, “me sure him do him bowel mush
good did him kill dem birates dere—den be so berry tankerous
wid poor negur man, sartain—ony tink, Massa
Roperdauser lick Primus, vat lib wid him, till he kill der
neegur,[33] and den him money, him goold, bring him off;
no, dey no hang rich white burgher at Nieuw Amsterdam,
ony poor neegur, sartain.”

From the conclusion of the black's speech, it will be
perceived that he was no mean observer of the course
pursued towards criminals in the province, and it may be
fairly deduced from his words that there is not a great alteration

in our own era, for now probably, even more
than the period spoken of in this volume, riches have
their influence—gold in the hands of any man is the
strongest passport that can be held;—if even a murder is
committed, juries are tampered with by those whose situation
as public officers demands that they should prosecute.
—Judges themselves become but mere tools of corruption
—and should even the public outcry call for a condemnation,
so rank the crime, that not even premeditated and
artful delays will serve, and should the solemn mockery of
trial be gone through—what is it all—a farce! Go hunt
the prisons; they are filled with wretched losels, beggars,
who had not wherewithal to bribe, or whose crimes were
forced upon them by mere want, by bitter misfortune and
accident—these have no friends, but wear away their
lives in sad and solitary wo, while he who was unfit to
breathe the free air, whose black heart swelled with
wickedness, hath been set at large; his wealth hath
loosened the chain—he crossed the threshold of the dungeon
door, but his pardon was in his pocket. Think not
from what here hath been set forth, that this is but the
fevered railing of one disgusted by petty wrongs, and
who gazes on all things with a jaundiced eye, making
mountains from sand hills—far from it: there is not a
word in this paragraph, to prove which, examples are not
easy to be pointed out—they need not far to be gone for
—they are even at hand.

“Ja! ja! Yonne! dou sbeaks mit der menschlyke
natuur—op myn ziel, dou dalks ash goot ash dosh der dominie,—mien
Got! vat a neger!” said the smoking Vanderspeigl
in answer to his slave, blowing with the labour
of utterance, and the unaccustomed exercise of his jaws,
“Got tam, der storm ish come vroom der Spyt den duyvel,
ash it would plow myn ziel out—myn Got,” he continued
somewhat more briskly, as with unusual haste he
doubled his jerkin across his body, “myn Got! de wind
waart hard—Yonne, mensch haast—Got tam de ding will
dake you all night, op myn ziel.”

“Lor a mitetee, vy you crumple Massa,” returned the
negro pettishly, “some dime one ting, some dime nuder,”

added he, muttering sullenly to himself with the freedom
of a favourite servant checked in this indulgence of his
career—“habbe no peace; der debbil, me workee,
workee, no tanks neder, sartain”—then turning sulkily
to the boat, as is the natural resource of most in fault, he
sought to vent his spleen on a new object—“den tink
me patch dis old schouw—dam him tar, de neegur—him
plack snoot no run in him hole, him berry cantagus—tink
wid me no loose him dime mend dis old schouw—dam
him imperance—ony tink!”

But it was not in the nature of the garrulous and even
tempered African to remain long put out or displeased
with any body or thing, for having quickly discharged the
momentary bile in these ejaculations which Sporus's admonition
had called forth, he shortly turned again to his
testy companion, and with a complaisant grin, sought to
join in his anticipations of a tempestuous night.

“Massa Boomelhyser,” said he, for it seemed this important
personage was a favorite oracle and undisputed
authority with him on all subjects and occasions, “tell
me dis morning him hab no doubt it snow 'fore night like
him berry debbil, sartain, him corn gib him clebber trouble—sure
sign ven man's toe itch dere someting come—
Massa Boomelhyser no 'staken—him berry clebber man.”

“Ja! Ja!” growled the Mynheer, whose crabbedness
was rather increased as he felt the air grow sharper
with cold, and feeling somewhat worried at having the
tranquillity of his mind disturbed by his attention being
called to listen to Yonne's ill-timed address—“mien Got!
dien clipper klapper, dien taal, dosh as moosch wark ash
dien hand, dou art ash bad ash der vrouw. Goot Got,”
he continued, puffing clouds of smoke from his mouth,
and blowing like a swimmer between every three or four
words, “der sneuw ish naa by, op myn ziel, dou praater
mak haast; ich mun smoke mien byp mit beace, so
holdsch dien tam blaffing, negur.”

The black well knew the sudden changes of his owner's
humour, and therefore forbore answering him, but grumbling
sourly, in a few half whispered and unintelligible
sentences, expressive of discontent, he proceeded to apply
himself solely to his work, which soon rapidly progressed,

and the ringings of his busy hammer were loudly
and oftentimes repeated; yet Yonne's thoughts were not
engaged with his labours—he had been barred in the very
moment he was entering on the relation of an important subject;
in truth he was swelling with news, and he felt like
some talkative gossip who receives an offence at the opening
of her budget, and though provoked to silence, wants
but a word's concession to loosen the strings of the whole
communication, and at last fearful of receiving no encouragement
or hearing, of her own will, details her story,
amply and at large, as it were out of mere wantoness;
and thus it was, that not even the long drawn puffs, the
half closed eyes, and the nodding head of the nederlander,
which bespoke, that in spite of the weather and of care,
he was making himself as easy and comfortable as any
Dutchman could be in his situation, were able to deter
the slave, brimful of his subject and unmindful of his late
repulse, from again breaking on Vanderspeigl's quietude.

* * * * * But ere proceeding with the narration, (and
indeed the matter grows out of Yonne's situation,) it seems
as if it ought to be remarked, that though it is certain all
are greedy, selfish, and avaricious, without generosity in
most matters, so that it may be fairly supposed that it is a
principle of civilized society that any thing bearing a value
obtained by one should be denied another by the very hand
that hath been gifted, yet in some affairs of moment and
import there is an unbounded and liberal feeling, and the
first among these that is given without a seeking or a demand
of return, is the fame of the day, the current of
passing intelligence, the reports and rumours, which are
the existence and the moving breath of the crowd, that
flies from mouth to mouth swift as a signal on the mountain;
for in truth, it is seldom but what the person who
hath received aught that he deems interesting or strange,
is anxious that others should share his wonderment, and
he is no more to be obstructed in his intention, though
met by coldness and even frowns, than the swollen linn,
that dashing down its rude and worn channel in the face
of the hill, is to be changed or dammed up from its irresistible
and brawling journey by the splintered shrubs
and shattered pieces of rocks that it hath washed in its

way, or that hath been cast from the overhanging cliffs to
impede its passage; truly the earth is overstocked with
beings of this species, ever active newsmongers, who
would scarce be known to have stirred in an honourable
action, but are still of so free spirited a disposition that
their whole business is to fetch and carry information—if
in the heat of argument an irritable word falls from one,
they are sure to let it be known to whom it may concern;
not as truly spoken, but larded with their own conclusions,
and then when the hearer hath expressed himself in return,
all is brought back to the original speaker, and after that it
becomes their part to let the world into the secret; surely
the idea of these disgusting insects, whose brains are thus
stored, and whose venomous tongues are thus urged to
activity, calls in view the flight of a busy, buzzing blue-bottle,
who sounds his wings with great noise and beats
actively against the window pane without impression, but
yet though insignificant, is troublesome; for however contemptible
are these constant bearing and ever talkative
gentry, so slight is public belief and confidence, that many
times their adsurdities thrust them into consideration, for
the bustle and appearance they assume are apt to deceive,
and are calculated to impose on the ignorant and unreflecting,
who contribute largely in the formation of the
crowd: for the surface is that which soonest attracts the
eye, and there the lightest air blown bubble always swims
—that this is true must be obvious, for it is not to be supposed,
that the possession of great abilities, so often as
a moving, noisy nature, aided by the influence of accident,
have brought men forward or lifted them from a lowly
sphere; it has happened that many a hollow but strong
lunged blockhead hath been thrown in a place of consequence,
for the world goes to great lengths when once it
sets out, and when once a man is raised a step above his
fellows, he is pushed up in spite of his own dullness to the
very top of the ladder, and while so exalted, the adoration
of a blinded mob, (for there is no reasoning with a
popular rage, however ridiculous,) even though his baseness
be as vivid as light, it is in vain to deny him talents
and acquirements, as stragglers from the opinion of the
great mass and herd, the world, are sure to be considered
envious or foolish; indeed, in many instances, the same
thing that calls attention to a village bellman, raises to
notice a beer house politician, or whence are public trusts
held so commonly by characters of the meanest and lowest
description, if not that they bully themselves to power, or
that designing men, believing them from their hot, senseless,
and unquiet spirits, fit puppets to gratify their private
malice, intrigue, ambition, or avarice,—for who is
more capable of wallowing in dirt and filth than those who
have been bred amidst them,—have helped them to authority
and power, which their vulgarity and ignorance render
contemptible as well as disgraced: and there cannot be
a more singular difference than in the conduct and bearing
of these hour raised mongrels while mixing in the common
duties of life with their equals, and while robed in
the insolence of the functions of their ill borne greatness:
in the one, they are on the level with their kind, bending to
their constituents and fawning and cringing to their superiors;
in the other, swelled and conceited with ideas of
their own vast importance; they are haughty to those
above them, and overbearing to those below them; dressing
themselves in all the vulgar airs of affected greatness,
acting a part to which hitherto they have been unknown;
they almost conceive themselves of a higher class
and finer mould than the rest of mankind, but having neither
opinions, thoughts, or actions that are their own,
moving without reason, method, or sense, they soon are
made the mere jests and tools of the wary; but what else
could be expected? If you place a butcher in a legislative
hall to make your laws, doth he not partake of the
stupidity of a bull? If you take a potter from his jars and
jugs, and set him to enact statutes, will they not be as
empty as his ware? Drag a hatter from his line of business,
is not his skull as hollow as his work ere it is used?
a mason's brains are, in government, as hard as the brick
he was born to lay; and a publican, though he may be
able to guard his till, and measure out drams, knows but
little of finance or public measures, except what he might
have gathered from tap room knowledge and wit. How
far nobler would it be, were men more diffident, did they
not endeavour to make themselves ridiculous by aiming
at stations for which they are unfit, but keep to those which
were allotted them by education; were this the case there
would be a lack of that host with which we are now over-run,
barefaced and insolent upstarts, who, without foundation,
pretend to every thing. To the conceited greatness
and impudent self-filled consequence of such, the Records
of Nieuw Nederlandts present an excellent lesson in the
humility and condescension of that worthy ancient, Whamuldus
Schermerhorne, of Schenectadie, who being preferred
to the trust worthy and dignified situation of dog
whipper for that famous city, attended Dominie Meir's lecture
the Sunday after his exaltation without any feeling of
pride or elation, which he modestly, as he entered the
kerk, evinced, for as he waddled towards his pew under
the pulpit, at the commencement of a solemn portion of
the dominie's service, to unite with which, the pious
Dutch congregation had arisen from their seats, and by
which motion, the sapient Schermerhorne understood they
were paying respect to him; yet nothing puffed up by
this mistake, which might have raised the head of any
man, the worthy Hollander, bowing humbly and with
profound lowliness, so that his nose almost touched the
ground, an exertion in so fat a man of no ordinary kind,
exclaimed in a loud voice that all might have the benefit
of his words—“By myn ziel, dish ish doo musch, Ik ish
nien lift up mit mien brosberity—Ik ish but a man;” so
were the persons just written of, to remember they were
but men, and what kind of men they had been; it would
be much more creditable to their modesty as well as sense.

Hiatus in MSS.

And now having concluded to my own satisfaction this
important theme, the necessity of entering on which,
easily excuses its length, and the propriety of which I
leave entirely to the judgment of the reader, who, I have
already found, a most gentle, courteous, and candid personage,
I will straightway and with great alacrity go back

to where we first set out, if he so desire it, and will accompany
me thither; for indeed our friend Yonne's words
have been a long while on the end of his tongue, and the
poor fellow has been bursting to speak could he have found
an opportunity, but as no one has been in a hurry to hear
him, I have not cared much to attend to his discourse; yet
as some one or the other will take up this volume, to
whom the state of disposition and opinions laid down, will
not give a moment's concern, but whose whole heart will
be placed on the unravelling of the important tradition
with which this section began, and as I am a very obliging
author, always minding the admonitions or wishes of the
peruser, I am minded to let all the odds and ends of matters
for a time take care of themselves, and once more
journey towards the pith and marrow of the business in
right earnest, on which account an attentive application is
recommended to all that follows.

SECTION II.—Pursued.

“Him no hear vat Massa Boomelhyser tell 'bout ven
him come vrom Massa Piet Bogert's dis tay,” said Yonne
aloud, as if to himself, yet in a way to awaken his master's
curiosity, and rolling at the same time his large eyes on
one side, so that he might note the effect of what he spoke
on the dormant faculties of the lazy Hollander, “ony
tink, him hear Snippitee Waldron tell dat him hear Brom
Schenck tell him hear dat Dominie Vermilye's neegur,
Crippiltee Cuff, vat goes clamming, tell him Massa dat—
Loramitee, ony tink, Massa Sporus, how him sleep,”
cried the slave, abruptly breaking the connexion of his
communication at beholding Vanderspeigl gave no heed to
what he said, except by a kind of half snore or snort,
which appeared to intimate that he was more asleep than
awake, “catch him det a cold, sartain—him no hear,
Massa Boomelhyser tink ter ting true—dem debbil birate
back agin wid him ugly face, ony tink Massa,” pursued he,

perceiving Sporus moving and listening, “ony tink now,
him imperance; him ship in ter sound, Cuff see ur big gun
as clebber as him see me—'spose him here vor sum mischief
or noder—las dime him here, him teel Gerard Beekman's
cows—take all him lay him tam hans 'top—der tief.”

It is not a slight thing that will stir a man of equanimity,
and of the placid temperament of the ferry master;
but nevertheless, the tighter the cork be driven in, and
the slower it yields to the screw, the more wind, spirit,
and fire when it once comes from the neck of the flask,
may be expected from the liquor; therefore, he that is
slow to anger, when once aroused, is sure to be more
fierce than one who blazes at every spark, catching like
tinder; so though the bosom of man may seem impervious
to the slightest emotion, yet there are times when some
chord being stirred, we are surprised that the feelings
are so acute and quick, having heretofore beheld nothing
but a strange indifference; but that string when moved
must be a home one—that which winds about the heart
itself. Whether the last was the cause in this case, or
that Vanderspeigl had a mind to circulate his blood,
and give a specimen of his activity, it is difficult to determine,
but he had scarce heard Yonne's intelligence
through, ere, with singular velocity, his eyes started
wide open, and his hand, with equal despatch, snatched
the pipe from his mouth, which naturally from the movement
of the muscles of his face, was left full ajar,—or
what may be more probable, in his haste of action, it being
a minor thing, he had neglected to close it, not (forgetting
however, at the same time, to make a gulp and
swallow down suddenly the smoke which might have remained
in his jaws,) while, with astonishing rapidity, considering
the mould, he raised that inert and ponderous
load, his body, on the support of his legs; indeed, the
whole pantomime was in the true stage style, and would
have called down applause from all judges, who are now-a-days
lamplighters, editors, scene-shifters, and all other
blackguards, hired by managers to force on an audience
lascivious spectacles and bawdy dialogues: it is incumbent,
however, to mention that the facility of enactment
just described, it is probable, might have been inherited

by Sporus from his `grootvader,' who was a stage sweeper
at Saardam, to one Van Worst, a great fat, greasy,
gin-swelled, duck-legged, beastly knave, who kept a
beer byt or bear garden, for the amusement of the rabble.—“Mien
Got!—Got tam,” cried he, speaking quickly
with the peculiar emphasis, that belonged to his gutteral
enunciation, and then pausing a considerable time, as if
fairly to get rid of the ejaculation, he added rapidly, “vat
dis dou dells, der zeerover in der oost vloed—Yonne,
mien bloud ish cold, mien vingers, mien pones dremble—
op myn ziel, tish nien drue, negur, niet waar Ik saai, Ik
hab mien dout,” and having thus delivered himself, he
with all the quietness and calmness possible after so terrible
a squall, comfortably reseated himself, and resumed
his pipe, leaving the amazed black to gaze at him with
the utmost astonishment, for although Yonne had sometimes
beheld the placable Nederlander fly into a vagary
or so, which either came up to or exceeded the cause of
his surprise, and had heard him execute the delivery of
many staring oaths with the like flourishes, yet it was seldom
that these were performed, except when the worthy
burgher's peaceable disposition had been alarmingly
wrought on to the full bearing of his manhood and patience,
or when fairly put out of countenance at being
sadly driven, teazed, and provoked by the never ceasing,
and bitter attacks of his helpmate; but that any thing else
in the world should have, at such a rate, moved or stirred
him up, was not only singular, but alarming,—and direful
misgivings and strange thoughts ran riot through the fertile
brain of the faithful slave. That the announcement of
what had been formerly an every day occurrence, (though
for several months past it had not happened,) that a rover's
barque was lying in the waters of the sound, whose
neighbourhood, however to be dreaded, had heretofore
only been of detriment to the poultry yards and the cattle
of the Nederlanders, the numbers of which always
diminished at these visits of the buccaneer, but which
were amply repaid by the rich trade that was sure to follow
their arrival, among the merchants, pedlars, and
speculators of the island of Manathan—that this could
have awakened the frigid torpidity of Mienheir Vanderspeigl
seemed nearly incredulous, a matter unaccountable,
and indeed Yonne did not know what to make of it, so
having looked sufficiently at the visage of the sturdy
Dutchman, he bethought himself that it would be of no
use whatever to again repeat the correct, straight forward,
and not to be doubted source and channel from whence he
had derived the rumour, for he was well acquainted with
his proprietor's hatred of being contradicted; for when
Vanderspeigl asserted black was white, or any other disputable
position, if his words were not instantly assented
to, he was sure to be as quick, surly, testy, and crabbed,
as a snapping turtle himself, and it was all along that his
wife's manner and customs were in this matter the very
counterpart of his own, that the poor man dragged out
such an intolerable existence, that his temper was ruined,
and his flesh like a jelly on his bones; since, though it
may be a very romantic theory, that when taste and dispositions
assimilate in a married couple, they are the certain
sources of conjugal happiness and contentment, yet
the truth is widely against such interpretation, and Mienheir
Sporus and Vrouw Yokupminshie, proved the latter
in every sense of the word for nothing could be farther
from happiness than as they lived yet on whom the fault
rested will not here be determined; but still it is no more
than just and impartial to say that ya vrouw herself stated
with great feeling, that she was obliged to preach from
morning to night, and yet it was to no purpose, for Sporus,
do what she would, was never satisfied, and so it appears
the poor woman talked herself as lean as a razor in her
dutiful endeavours to make her spouse cheerful, while he,
in spite of her affection, (as she most pathetically affirmed,)
ungrateful dog as he was, continued as dogged,
contrary, and cross-grained, as if he was possessed, which
truly, to the amiable creature was vastly provoking; for
though the obstinate mule of late never ventured to
speak a word in return to her gentle and admonitory
rebukes, yet what worried the kind soul almost to death,
was that he would look at her glum, sour, and ill-natured
as old Nick himself. Now all this had, in a certain degree,
a weight and influential power on the observing, acute,
and close viewing mind of the shrewd negro, and therefore
having gone completely through the subject by conjecture,
and finding without satisfaction, that both in
thought and supposition he was drained to the very
dregs, or in other words, that every idea he could
muster on the occasion relative to the matter which he
strived to develope, was entirely ran out without confirmation,
he thought it of moment to wind up the business
by coming to a conclusion, in which he definitely considered
that at present it was adviseable as his safest plan
to say not a word more on the matter, as it would be of
no use or service for him, if not certainly dangerous and
hazardous, to broach to his master's hearing aught further
that had been spoken by the worthy Mienheir Boomelhyser;
for though the storm of Vanderspeigl's mind
seemed to be entirely blown away, it was wise not to give
it fresh cause to feed on, were there any hunger left: and
of a surety in this, Yonne argued in a sound, cautious,
and discretionate manner, and with reasoning cool and dispassionate,
and it might have been that he drew the foundation
of this logic from his experience entirely, for the
forest and the wild hill and bitter labour had been his only
books, and there are few better, saith a wise old saw;
though it must be confessed their lessons sometimes direfully
puzzled and bewildered his woolly pate, as in one
instance fell out while slooping to Coxsackie, up `de
noordt rivier,' at the time his master hired him to old Cobus
Kuypers, of Waappinger's Kreek, for as he came by
the Shaangum Mountain, there blew up a devil of a squall
which in a moment set the craft on her beam ends, and
in the snap of a finger, swung the spanker boom about
with such velocity, that forgetting all ceremony, it took
the luckless skull of the black in its way, whirling it, together
with the body adjoined, into the water; now,
though this was rather a severe warning, yet it had its
effect, for when in a pitiful plight, by the aid of the leeboard,
he got on deck after his sousing, he bethought
himself that all was owing to his want of civility in not
getting out of the road for his betters; he therefore gathered
wisdom from his misfortune, as rubbing the bruised
seat of wisdom, he exclaimed, “Loramitetee be prase—
ony tink now, me nebber put dis cokernut in de way agin,
sartin—ven me do he velcom to gib nuder slap”—now it
is no more than to be believed, that this remembrance
had its force in the resolution which he had settled for
his conduct, as above amply descanted on; though for all
this, one might incline to think that he had equally in
view the correct, memorable, erudite, and impartial decision
of that sound just, and learned Dutch civilian,
Dirk Von Rikkettie, of Nieuw Amsterdam, who will be
found figuring to no small advantage in one of the latter
books of this remarkable tradition;—but to the case in
point, wherein it appears that skipper Van Wycke, of Sing
Sing, was complainant, and old Mutchin Brinckerhoff, a
ragged, lousy, beggarly, brazen, shirtless, breechless vagabond,
without a character or a coat to his back, stood
defendant; and thus it was,—while the respectable `roeyer's
slupe' lay snugly harboured in der Breede-Gracht,[34]
opposite the beurs,[35] which was on the top of the market
house, right in the very centre of business, for
he had arrived with a valuable cargo of radishes, manure,
and aard apples, and while the skipper, who had
brought for him a great round Yonker's cheese, was comfortably
drinking a zoepje of peach brandy, and smoking a
friendly pipe with his cousin Mienheir Van Kortlandt under
the cover of the great locust tree that stood before
his mill door in der molen weg, or the mill straat as it was
most usually called; that strapping knave, old Mutchin,
who had been watching his opportunity, for the artful dog
was at all times about, poking his nose in places where
he ought not to have been, and where nobody wanted
him, slipt away with an old copper basin, the skipper's
clam knife, and the cover of a high Dutch psalm book,
upon which Van Wycke's name was written by the dominie
in a flourishing Hollandsche text—now Van Wycke
who was a tall, strong, raw-boned, six foot giant of a
Dutchman, with huge staring black whiskers, and great
long lanthorn jaws, set great store by these articles, and
when he found they were gone, he swore horribly, and in
a towering rage he advertised them in the Post Boy, offering
a reward for their recovery of a vier stuyver stuk,
and a skipple of meal, and soon traced them to a hovel in
Rotten Row,[36] the residence of Mienhier Brinckerhoff,
whom he brought by the nape of the neck before the redoubtable
and incorruptible Dirk Von Rikkettie, and in a
blunt, Low Dutchman-like way, informed that sapient
judge of his wrongs. Now Dirk having limped forward
on their entrance, for he was a truly courteous man, and
very condescending withal, though monstrously deep in
law, greeted both parties kindly, inquiring after their
vrauws and little ones, together with their own healths—
and after shaking hands, began with a very profound visage
to maturely weigh the state of the case in his own
mind;—now it should be premised that Dirk mortally
hated the whole race of Van Wyckes for they were of the
old government interest, and he had joined the other side
ever since they were in power—and he also well knew
that old Mutchin was as noisy as he was dirty—and could
lie, toss coppers, and vote in every corner of the stadt at
an election time, when either a Burgomaster or Schepin
was to be chosen—so after fitting and proper time his
mind was made up, and in a clear audible voice he began
to deliver his judgment:—first he set forth with a compliment
to the high standing and well known respectability
of the persons concerned—then he diverged sapiently
in quotations from Puffendorf and Grotius, together with
many other legal authorities, whose writings were appropriate—first
he appeared to lean to one side of the question,
then the other equally balanced it—then he had select
cases from unknown juridical reports—then he stated
what would have been the opinion of Jan Erasmus in the
business—lumbering out and tossing over the whole substance
of the statutes of Nieuw Nederlandts, like a skittish
Flemish mare who switches her long tail about her,
sending the mud on all sides—so that for a long while it
was uncertain how matters stood. At last, after having
kicked up a surprising dust by thus beating around in
every direction, and solemnly taking every bearing of the
compass that was visible, he slowly sought to bring matters
into a narrower compass by ordering the honest
Mynheer Brinckerhoff to be set at large, and advising
him immediately to seek a remedy against the skipper
for false imprisonment—and also with a very stern countenance,
which he however asked Van Wycke's pardon for
putting on, as it was impossible for him to look otherwise
on so serious and dignified an occasion, he proceeded
to admonish the skipper for his carelessness in leaving
temptation in the sight of Brinckerhoff, who had the articles
not been imprudently exposed, would never have
had an idea of taking them; and he (Dirk) therefore
could not but consider it as justice, that might in part
sooth the wounded honour of Mynheer Mutchin (and the
law allowed greater latitude of severity, but he refrained
from the exercise,) if he sentenced Mynheer Van Wycke
to pay all the expenses of the trial. At this the skipper
could not help, in spite of the awe that pervaded him at
the research and talents of the judge, ripping out a huge
swinging oath, and giving his mustachios an undaunted
and defying twist that made all stare again, and was
about to make an appeal—but Dirk, interposing, said he
had not yet finished, for that on account of the complainant
being a resident of another county, he was doubtful
of his jurisdiction in the business, and he therefore supposed
that the affair of the costs would be best referred to a
higher tribunal. And then finding it time to dismiss the
court, he invited the skipper to walk home to his house
and take a drink of brandtwyn with him—at the same
time thanking Van Wycke as they went along, in the
name of the Stadt, for the inflexible activity with which
he prosecuted offenders against the laws.

Now doubtless it is apparent to every mind of reflection,
that this judgment was the best at every point for
the parties themselves and the public good, that the
state of the affair admitted; for had it been determined
otherwise, Mutchin might have been put in the pillory,

and been thrown out of his livelihood, though it was difficult
to say how the fellow lived, yet he made out to get
along some how or other; and losing its head and stay,
his whole family would have been broken up and gone to
the `werkhuis,' and so have been a great expense to the
vroedschap, while on the other hand, the unsuspecting
skipper would, not thinking of the matter, have placed
some new temptation in the way of somebody else, and
there would have been another trial and more time lost,
now all this was foreseen and adroitly avoided by the
inimitable decision of the immortal Dirk: and thus it was
with the sapient Yonne, for as he had not the least desire
that his head should again be where it was in danger of a
rough salute, it struck him thoroughly that he ought not
to put the smallest temptation in the view of his testy and
irritable owner, so without more ado abandoning Vanderspeigl
entirely to his internal cogitations, in one tenth part
of the time which has been taken to relate it, the negro
once again resorted and assiduously applied himself to
the finishing of the labour in which he had been engaged.

Meanwhile the vapours that had hovered darkly upon
the heights, gathered their dusky mantles over the distant
prospect, and the hoar frost hardened as the night
approached near, and as the light grew fainter, the aspect
of the long line of woods that skirted the river was continually
changing; first could be distinctly marked mighty
and majestic groups of trees even to the delicate fibres
that like smooth long grass hung to the rough bark and
twisted boughs, nor were branches of minor growth hid,
the lithe and prickly stems of the wild rasp, the orange
hipp and the percimen whose berries had been the food of
autumnal birds, rustled and bowed their tender heads as
the blast raved by; now like a colossal column some
broad trunked and gnarled oak, whose scathed coat was
whitened by moss that had been growing a hundred years,
could be distinguished, erect in isolated and spectral grandeur,
a leader in the forest, while mingling with its shadow,
like attendants to its glories, the brown fir, the proud
cedar, the noble elm, and the wild mountain ash, cloaked
in their russet garbs, blended their multitudinous arms into

a darksome net work; but in a short time all was mingled
and merged in a sable and undefined mass, whose broken,
scattered heaps, seemed like the black armour of a giant
carelessly strewn amid the surrounding obscurity. The
snow fell faster from its invisible palace in the clouds—its
drifting and feathery flakes, now melting in their flight,
anon resting on the earth white as purity, while the
brown soil of winter grew chequered with its touch; at
intervals broke on the ear, through the melancholy swelling
of the wind, the plashing of some waterfall, that like
the floating mane of a courser in flight, leapt adown the
mountain's rocky side, here concealing itself as it rapidly
trickled amid a cloud, over-hanging swamp wood and dying
brush, that strung with icicles, the frozen drippings of
the wave, glittered dazzlingly even in the night above
the clear transparent waters; here bounding forth over
the smooth worn stones that choaked the ravine, it rushed
into the stream below—the voice of the wilderness,
the appalling and gloomy solitude around, the sublime
and time enduring forms, among which nature alone was
paramount, all seemed scorning the weak invasion of man,
with a comparison of the insignificance and transitoriness
of the arts, enjoyments, and occupations, and of the brief
duration of human existence itself.

And now that ruthless and uncourteous ancient—impartial
time! who tarrieth not for man—be he high or
low—overflowing with riches, or stricken with poverty—
but with the same rapid and unerring stride, passes o'er
the king, priest, or peasant; the lord and slave; the
festal of the victor, and the despair of the vanquished;
on his sure journey moved insensibly, though scarce noted;
while Yonne, though driven hard by desire, for his
soul was of that o'erflowing kind, that it was a task for
him to set bounds to his loquacity—remained silent,
finding no favourable moment wherein he could indulge
himself by a renewal of conversation; at several periods
indeed the words of a new subject were on the very
ends of his lips; and it was with much ado of grievous exertion,
that he restrained their utterance; being alone
forced to stillness, by the awe of his lordly proprietor's

humours: it is to be remarked, however, that Yonne,
although given singularly to earnest discourses, spoke
always to the purpose: and what he said, was preferable
in most instances, to the breathings of many who now
are of the like disposition: for truly, to be ever chattering
like a noisy ape, is a superior qualification; since to
be taciturn in company, is a mark of vulgarity as well as
folly—yet on the other hand, to engross the whole that
is talked, by senseless words and foppish grins, is not
only to be agreeable, but extremely talented and witty:
as such is the conclusion, it is in no wise astonishing,
that every brainless blockhead that is blest with a nimble
tongue, gives it full latitude—troth, 'tis disgusting to
walk abroad and mingle with the crowd, and have one's
ears deafened as it were by the hollow and ceaseless
clapper of a bell: for indeed there are but few circles
that have not their active mouthed idol, their privileged
jester and buffoon, whose mean and impertinent liberties
of speech and contemptible dullness, are received
current for pleasantry and smartness; and who, though
an egregious ass, hath the best of countenance. It is
certainly to be highly regretted, that the judicious reader
should thus have been forced by the untoward disposition
of circumstance, to lose what the sagacious negro
would have spoken: still it is a true proverb that teaches
it is an `ill wind that blows nobody any good;' and so it
was with the black; for what was a deprivation to his
wishes, was a considerable gain to his employment, which
throve mightily in having no rival in his attention: for it
seemed with Yonne as with most people—that the more
fuss they make, the less they do: as is verified in the proceedings
of certain assemblies; where the more they discuss
a matter, the farther they are from bringing it to
perfection: and thus day after day, is wasted in brawling
and childish disputes—foreign to the purpose, as
unsatisfactory to the hearers: so that from remarking
the management of large and mixed bodies, wherein
seldom unity of action or sentiment prevails, it is
not to be wondered, there are many who would prefer
the sway of one ruler, than the corruption, disagreements,
and intrigues of a dozen, who, when they do
agree on making a law, form it so that in case of need,
they may find a corner unguarded which may be turned;
and it is a close observance of this crafty principle, that
hath made so many of our statutes like the mesh of a
spider, which to be entangled in, is certain death to all
smaller winged insects; but for the buzzing bee, the
stinging wasp, the hornet, and other of the greater
species, it is no impediment: for wheresoever it pleases
them, they can with ease tear to rags every thread of
the web. As it may be expected from the premises
above set out, a much briefer space had been gone
through, than otherwise would have been necessary, ere
the boat was, by the dexterous and alert movements of
the slave, in a proper condition to execute its portion
towards the interest of the ferry-master: and soon thereafter,
that the object of his care might be safe from the attacks
of the tempestuous weather already aroused, Yonne
snugly housed the repaired schouw under the shelter of
a neat straw-thatched schouwloots, that adjoined the barn
and dwelling; whose roof served the swallow to hang
his nest to, and where the martin and wren coops were
nailed; all of which from the past summer were silent,
deserted and decaying, making the dreariness of winter
more palpable to the heart, and visible to the mind: and
thus having concluded his toil, and shivering like an aspen
with the cold, to which he was more sensitive than his
hardy master, whose phlegm alone was enough to keep him
warm, the black proceeded with considerable alacrity,
(for the finishing of work, however worn down and fatigued
the labourer may be, is always the quickest,) to collect
together the implements that had assisted his skill, for the
purpose of conveying them with him into the mansion: it
nevertheless must be mentioned, that the speed of this
performance, was interrupted at intervals by the enactor's
being forced by the biting rigour with which his fingers
were affected from the wind, to call in the aid of sundry
stratagems, of rubbing, clapping, and blowing on the
numbed flesh with his breath, to keep his blood in circulation:
it was in the procedure of the latter, at a
moment when a somewhat long exposure had rendered an
extraordinary exertion necessary from the lips—that while
bending his head in this pursuance, the bearing of the negro
was attracted and his notice called from that on which
he was busied, by an afar off sound, which indistinct and
broken by the density of the air and weakened by its being
very distant, at first was scarcely distinguishable, but soon
grew stronger on the ear: Yonne stopped from his occupation,
and raising himself in an attitude of listening, he
strained every nerve to catch the origin of the noise, and
it was not a great while ere from the swiftness of its approach,
that his curiosity was satisfied; for as it became
louder and embodied itself, though from the darkness
and the white showers of falling particles of drift, that in
hosts thickened around, dark above but bright as sea
foam below, he could perceive nothing, yet soon he plainly
marked the dashing of the heavy hoofs of a horse at great
speed on the frozen ground, and whose course was evidently
in the direction of the ferry house. An occurrence
so strange and uncommon was not a little surprising to
the black, who marvelled greatly thereat, since it was
but seldom the custom of traders or others, who adventured
to thrid the lonely, scarce broken paths of the wilderness,
to pursue their solitary travel beyond the fall of
evening, but sometime ere its coming it was prudent as
well as necessary for them to shun danger by seeking
shelter from the hundred deaths that would, armed, spring
up to oppose their way, whilst environed with the gloominess
and shadows of night; and further, it was entirely
out of the question to suppose for an instant that any of
the lusty Dutch colonists had ventured at so late an hour
without the precincts of their own comfortable homesteads;
and indeed both Nederlander and pedlar were too
knowing as well as careful of the wind of their sleek steeds,
to urge them at the rate with which the one that now approached
was spurred—considering these reasons, it is not
to be wondered at that various odd conjectures, surmises,
notions, and flighty ideas, gathered in almost the swiftness
of a moment in Yonne's teeming and fruitful imagination
so that his very brain swarmed again with fearful
visitations, as some how or other, (and there is no accounting
for such things,) they are the maggots of the sense that
thrust their heads out of their holes at every turn; and thus
each dormant fear aroused in his mind, he bethought himself
how it was said that the spirit of old Antony Colve a
fierce, storming, swearing dragoon of a Dutch Governor,
(who had been deprived of his power by an unfortuitous
peace between the United Belgick States and England, in
which the former ceded the colony of Nieuw Nederlandts
to the latter, and had consequently smoked himself to death
out of clear vexation,) was accustomed to ride round and
round the seat of his former government, the proud isle
of Manathan, on a winter's night, mounted on a fiery,
trampling, black war horse, that snorted vengeance on the
invaders of his master's rights; and so, shaking and shivering
through his whole carcass as though stricken by an
ague, scarce able to hide his fright, the timorous negro
turned his eye towards his owner, as if to seek safety and
protection from his countenance, “Mien goot Got! dishish
drange—op myn ziel, tish niet him alrede,” muttered
Vanderspeigl, somewhat perturbed and perplexed, for he
also was started from his reverie by the sound of the galloping.
“Ja! ja! der ding ish twyffelagtig—Mien Got! Ik
peleives tish nien more ash der draveller, ja! der reezer
vor mien schouw to croosh der veer—Got tam! tish zome
Nieuw Englesch loopkramer, some tam bedlar vrom der
stadt ash drades mit tem tam prutes der Indiaan—ja, Ik
hersch der horsche's voet ash blain ash mienzelf—Mien
Got! Ik hab een goed gehoor.”

As this speech took up considerable time, for the Dutchman
paused between every sentence to collect his words
as well as breathe, Yonne had no opportunity to remark
in answer, for now the rider, whatever he might be, was
but a short space distant; the doubtful black, however,
as he hearkened breathlessly to the closer boundings of
the hoofs, could not refrain from whispering to himself,
“Him no like a tradin massa horse, him ride too fas for
dat, sartain—him nuder sort of ting, take my say: den
me see a trange someting last night—me dream all 'bout de
debbil too, ony tink now;” and he shook his head with a
lengthened, rueful, and ominous visage.

On the left of the ferry house, for about a quarter
of a mile, ran a rude and narrow path, or rather
track, winding around several precipitous ledges of
rock and hill, until it gained the open and unfrequented
country; a few yards from the building it
overhung a thick and straggling copse, which sprang up
along the borders of the river below, to the full length of
the footway, while here and there was a small and sudden
opening with a descent to the water cut by the hand of nature
through the tangled thicket; beyond this stretched
out a sandy and pebbly beach, over which, at nigh tide,
the hasty current made its march, and sullenly murmured
against the bank that stopped its farther progress; still in
some places beyond the ascent, lay scanty patches of dry
ground, covered and often defended from the stream
by splinters of the rocks and roots which had crumbled
or been washed down by the rains from the edges of the
earth and crags that projected above. Guided by this difficult
and dangerous way, now trampling recklessly over
the sharp and flinty stones, now plashing in some overflowing
of the current, whose waves tossed up their white
caps, moaning as in anger, like unblest spirits threatening
in their shrouds, with the carelessness of one who well
knew the rugged and broken track, in spite of stock or hindrance
the horseman boldly rode, the clash of his horse's
feet following each other in a thick, close and uninterrupted
succession, so that Yonne's words were scarce breathed
from his lip ere the subject of his forebodings appeared
beneath the brow of a lordly locust tree, which was fast
enveloping itself in a cloak of fleece, for the snow hung
like leaves to its boughs, as it stood like a sentinel at the
head of one of those narrow descending ways. As soon
as the rider perceived the Dutchman and his attendant,
through the dense haze, he hailed them with a loud halloo
of `what cheer ho!' and striking his heels lustily in
the sides of the strong and mettled steed that he was mounted
on, he was borne by the sure footed animal in an instant
to the place where they were.

At the period here written of, many varieties and fantastic
fashions of garb prevailed in the province, probably
owing to the combining circumstances of the time

for then raged in the old world disaffection, troubles and
persecution—in government, religious and personal controversies;
and the eyes of the anarchist, as well as the
felon, the vagabond, and the bankrupted swindler whose
ways of living were overstocked, undone or ruined at
home, turned naturally and wistful of trial, towards a land
so new, so remote, and as yet scarce operated on—so
that numbers of wretches, vile and base, flying from merited
punishment, and inflamed with wondrous hardihood
and the spirit of adventure, sought in the new world fresh
fields for daring and the exercise of their talents; and from
the accession of these emigrants the inhabitants generally,
for the bad will soon contaminate the good, were
composed of a motley medley of rogues and knaves: and
as it is wisely though homely remarked, that what is bred
in the bone will follow the flesh—so it hath proved that
though the community in modern days may be better than
it hath been, it hath only improved in ingenuity in committing
many more atrocities with impunity—for indeed
such numbers of bad men, the outcast scum, the loathsome
purgings of European enormities, have ever since
been flowing in upon us, that every shadow of virtue that
might have once been, hath totally disappeared: and as
it is the interest of those who are ill of heart, to put honesty
and honour out of countenance and favour—they
have, by the repeated attacks, overcome all who were
hardy enough to oppose, and made at last every thing so
subservient to their wills, that for characters who bear in
conduct affinity to them, there is not a country on the
bosom of creation more favourable—hence there is no
marvel that daily and hourly their host is augmented with
recruits from the oldest adepts in villany—so that our whole
community is reduced to one common mass of worn out
pimps, sharpers, gamblers, and broken spendthrifts. As is
natural, the innovation of strangers brought with it, as well
as fresh crimes, new manners and customs; which as novelty,
however absurd, is most greedily followed, were soon
either grafted on or entirely superseded the old; and to
this day the vulgar rage of imitation hath flourished to
the ruin of many of its worshippers. Rich and poor, high
and low, are crazed with the folly of dress;—no matter
how it befits their situations in society—whether it strains
their slender means—or is ridiculous from their contemptible
birth and education:—here the wife of a hod carrier
is beprankt in loads of lace and finery that hath eaten
up in the purchase all that her labouring husband hath
been able to obtain for months by the severest industry—
and probably whilst she is showing out her awkward airs
and decorations, her offspring are lacking sustenance in
some damp and filthy cellar or garret:—there the daughters
of some cheating usurious skinflint, who hath piled
up his fortune by the lowest means, and who, uplifted
above the condition to which he was born, the stable,
the cow yard, or the bake-house, hath suddenly swelled
into consequence—ape the splendour and the ways of
their betters; and unmindful of their origin and forgetful of
the times when the plainest garb was a rarity, they launch
forth into extravagance:—one broad shouldered, coarse
bouncing wench, who was certainly intended by nature for
a scrub, hath her waist drawn to the compass of an hour-glass,
and her robe so loaded with trimmings, that strong
as she appears she hath much ado to carry it—another,
rouged to the very eyes, brawny as a scullion, hath her
covering so light and delicate that the wind almost carries
it away:—this lady cannot stir abroad but she must have
her glasses on, to show the world how learned and studious
she is—but it is only abroad she wears them:—and
lastly, the more strange that lady dresses, if it be but
costly and differing from common people, the more she
believes herself admired: and what to day excites the
laughter of all, to-morrow is sought after with avidity—
and the greater price set on the thing, however mean its
intrinsic worth, the more valuable in the eyes of the
world. Indeed with us it is only considered that high,
luxurious, and magnificent living, together with fine and
costly clothes—no matter whether they are in character
or not—whether afforded within the means of the wearer
or ever paid for—are wanted to make the lady or the
gentleman.

But the stranger must not be forgot, the singularity of

whose attire from these remarks will not surprise the
reader. He was a slight built man, though formed with
that knit of shape and texture of limb that at once bespoke
uncommon strength and activity. He was about
the middle age of life; though a naturally sallow, swarthy
and somewhat livid cast of complexion, which had evidently
attained its height from the dusky tinges of a
southern sun—such as his whole appearance told he had
lately been toiling under—together with the half grey
hairs that scantily mixed in his long, black and untrimmed
locks—might possibly to the eye have added several
years: yet his every look was of that wild and desperate
nature, and there was about him so much of the quick
glance and dauntless daring of one who cared or feared
not, that the mind was forcibly stricken that he was a
man rather to be shunned than encountered. In his apparel
there was but little that could elucidate that course
of life the wearer followed, for it was a strange mixture
of mendicant garment, applicable to the sea and land;
still it was not difficult to perceive that whatever might
be his calling, that of arms formed a part. His jerkin
was of Spanish cloth, whose delicate woof, intended for a
milder clime, could have guarded the rider but ill from
the stingings of the piercing blast—but this he recked
not;—loose trunk hosen, such as were in use by the mariners
of the era, slashed with silk, were gathered with
party hued ribbons at the knee—though all was much
rent, faded and discoloured, as by long and constant wear,
such as would be from the straits and passes of one who
voyaged the ocean, and had assumed some portions of
his attire from the strange places he had visited: a large
belt or bandeliere thrown over the right shoulder hung
down under his left arm, and sustained an arquebuss or
hand gun, which was carefully shielded from the wet and
night, by being wrapt in a folding of a huge sea cloak
that fell negligently from the neck, floating down on one
side of the horseman, and as it was thrown back
by the wind, disclosed in his baldric the glittering barrels
of a pair of pistolets and the naked blade of a hanger—
while a stout leathern cap, or rather a sombrero, ribbed
with curves of iron, such as was worn by those on board
of armed vessels who were selected for boarding, completed
his equipments.

“Ho, how goes it old broad stern,” said the stranger
as flinging himself to the ground, which rang with his
heavy tread, he rudely greeted the ferry master: while
the ample and gallant chest of the brave animal that had
borne him dripped with foam, which the speed that he had
been driven covered him with; “how has the wind set in
your canvass since last we swung in a hammock together?
Santissima Trinidada! I'll wager a pistole to a marvede
you've smoked more tobacco and swigged as many cans
of bomboo,[37] as would freight a barqua longa—by the
gold of Deldorado, old dolphin! you've here quietly turned
in, whilst in storm and sun we've swept the broad Pacific
from Panama to the stormy Cape. Hey topirassou,[38]
how goes times ashore?”

There are but few more truly awkward and disagreeable
situations, trying to one's self-possession and temper,
as when pursuing our way in a great hurry, on turning
a corner our sight is met suddenly, and our further
progress interrupted by running full tilt against
some teazing, dunning, beggarly, dirty looking fellow,
who has the impudence to claim an acquaintance, and
from whose disgraceful companionship and button holding
familiarities and importunity there is no escaping.
Feelings not entirely different from one in that sad predicament
appeared at the view and salute of the horseman
to actuate the motions of Vanderspeigl, for first with a

sheepish gaze he looked up, then down—then on one side
and then on another, as though anxious to shun the stranger's
eye; who perceiving the Nederlander's embarrassment,
and irritated at receiving no answer to his address
after a short interval abruptly continued in a rough voice.
“Curse me, but you look as thof you'd fell afoul o' the
flying Dutchman rather than an old messmate—you 'ant
lost your reckoning, swipes;—diabolo! but you land lubbers
are always stupid, like the albatross—but little can be
got out of you, for as it is said, `Quen no ha vista Sevilla,
no ha vista maravilla,'[39] so short yarn, out with your grapples
and lash to.”

Having become sensible to the backwardness of his
conduct, Sporus sought to obtain a transient mastery
over his actions, and while the cross and sour aspect of
his visage in spite of himself belied his words of welcome,
he thrust out with no cordial haste his huge hand.
“Mien goot Got!” said he in a tone of affected surprise
and recognition, “van vaar koomen u!—blesh mien ziel
tish Eumet ash ik livsch!—hartig un wel!—mien Got!
dou beest velcome aan strand, mien oude kennis op myn
ziel dat dou ish.”

“Nuestra Senora,” returned Eumet coldly, “but your
hail drops like partridge shot in a high sea—troth, thy
cutwater looks as long as Cogi Babba's[40] when we laid the
Kerry merchantman aboard, yard arm and yard arm—and
none of your damned yawing, old dog. Carra, but I'll give
you news that 'll make you float that broad keel of thine
as briskly as ever it did in the spiel houses of der hueren
wegh[41] —avast, lubber, thou look'st like a swab ducked
from the mast head—dost not see a free hearted
rover?”

“Mien Got! ish der galey—der adventur schip aan-komen
dat ish arrived,” quoth the Hollander, drawing

his words from the deepest corner of his mouth, yet finding
it impossible to disguise the clouds that were on his
countenance, from the keen, hasty, and piercing glances
of the buccaneer, for such the stranger was, though endeavouring
to assume an ease that scarce became him,
“ik ben er blydeom—dat ish zo bleased zo mush ash ish
von pird in der zonnes shyn—ja! dat ish in der zomer
dime—ja! tish drue! op myn zeil!”

“A fé, Senor, stiff shrouds—you manœuvre queerly
thof to show it,” answered the rover gruffly—“damn it,
but you hang aloft as sorry a sail as did long Ben, when
he hoisted hempen ruff at Execution Dock. Mi amigo!
you'd not let the scuppers run had we all messed below
with the bellena—mass! we're all jolly and alive my
hearty! top and top-gallant! riding yonder above the
hellgat.”

“Goot Got!” groaned Vanderspeigl in sore despair,
scarcely able to contain his muttering “den ik ish in der
verdamnt biece ob business—ja! ik hash der geluck, dat
ish der duivelsh—ja! en dat ish hish eigen: Got tam!
ik mill hab mien zeil droubled vrom mien leeven!—ja!
vrom mien podies.”

“Troth, I bear ahead too fast,” continued Eumet,
without noticing Sporus' agitated murmurings, “I must
about ship—for we should count no loss bate gunner
Moore and the hermosa barco herself—a line fifty fathoms
would not sound them. Virgen Santissima, as they
say on the main; but Tom was un noble espiritu, as ever
handled a pike under red bunting—but el y el capitan
could not pull the same cable; so d'ye see the old man
scuttled him, knocked his brains out with the strap
bucket off the coast of Malabar.[42] Mass! there was not a
boy aboard that thought the lousy dog had brains, till we
saw them strew the deck; thof there was not enough
blood to float a straw[43] so now his podredo esqueleto
swings in a wet hammock without parson's fees—while
the Adventure, poor soul, wanted copper, for her body
was rotten; so we rigged the Quedagh, our gallant prize,

and jilted the thing, leaving her with a lighted match to
seek her own harbour—so give her your tears picaron,
for she was as sweet a creature as ever ploughed salt
wave or bore live oak—then as to her crew, d'ye hear,
el valor nuestros marinos maketh a free ocean, and you
know at a chance there are mangrove bushes and un hermosa
puerto at Tobago.”[44]

Ever since the mariner's arrival the darkness had been
increasing, and now the whole face of the heavens had become
of one black hue, like a mighty funeral pall—the wet
sleet drove violently and swiftly about at every breathing
of the wind—strong and irregular blasts of which, loaded
with the drift, at times swept wildly and madly along, involving
every thing around in obscurity. The freebooter
wrapt him in his broad cloak, and sought to conceal himself
within its ample folds from the anger of the storm;
while the hardy Dutchman also began to feel concern
from the increased severity of the atmosphere; for actively
rubbing his hands together, he thrust them in the
comfortable warmth of his wide breeches pocket, whose
mouths yawned to receive them like the jaws of some
monstrous abyss;—and then drawing with all his might
two or three hearty puffs from his pipe, as if thereby to
obtain confidence, he resumed the conversation. “Sapperment!
mien guter vreind,” said he, “tish verdamnt
cold—hol mich der duivel, ik ish ys—ash von kanelboom
mit itsh dykes—ja! ik ish ash der Y—dat ish vrozen.
Mien Got! tish ash vone zo cold nagt in December dat
you shall zee—op myn zeil dis blace ish ash der Lablandsh!—Got
tam!”

“Mass! perro—thou sayst true,” replied the buccaneer,
“the wind hath a mind to cut up all my rigging,
the cold hath nearly wrecked me—carra! have you no
aqua vita, or aught to warm one's hull.”

“Mien Got!” returned the other, “ik hash niet—
mien ver guter vreind, der vroew hash der zilver water, and
der goold water, an der genever, an der Hollandts, altig in

der potbank—ja! in der glozet—an der vrouw likesh it
met een slotgesloten zyn—dat ish she sall keep der keysh
mit der locksh zo ash any oder womansh.—Sapperment,”
added he, anxious to change the discourse to which he
had been betrayed, for though he was willing to refresh his
own clay, he did not relish giving a drop of comfort to his
unwelcome visitor; so he collected his courage, desirous
to know at once the worst—“vat in der vorld Eumet
mensch, makes dou come dis dime a nagt zo as dien
paard sall break his neck, mit der gelop—ja! dat is hish
spoed.”

“Humph!” ejaculated the rover drily, at the same
time casting an expressive glance on Yonne, who ever
since the pirate's first arrival had remained in one unaltered
attitude of fixed attention and wonder at every word that
passed, with eyes distended till they looked like teacups,
and glistening with the anxious curiosity that pervaded
his whole frame, while his ears drank in every sound that
escaped the lips of the speakers.

“Mien goot Got! vat u means by humph?” exclaimed
the ferry master crabbedly, and not understanding the
caution, “in mien minds tish besser as dat u sbeaks blain
zo ash dat bersons sall verstand de zaak, vat u wants,
Got tam!”

“Santa terra! hold water my little Dutch mud turtle,”
rejoined the mariner, “that which I have is for your ear.
El que obra sabiamente merece el abanza, as the Spaniards
say—yonder gull hath piped his hands all adeck—
white owl there hath his hatches loose for a cargo—cut
your cables ebony—tack ship without freight and take
your course to another harbour, for damn you if your
black canvass is not quickly spread, I'll beat that calabash
of thine as flat as the deck of a Moorish ketch—luff
you dog—steer clear of my musquetoon.”

“No cassin 'tall, massa—no cassin massa sartain!” cried
the terrified negro, springing back at least a yard to avoid
the marauder as he advanced on him, “Loramittee—ony
tink—now be clebber—vy you angry so? der debbil!
take care him gun—me go fas as nuder man—dere dont
crumple, me gone—me gone, massa—ony tink now.”

Yonne, however, having obtained what appeared a
sufficient distance for present safety, heedless of his assurance
of instant departure, stirred not farther, but seemed
rather inclined to return to the spot whereon he stood
ere his retreat—for in spite of the savage visage of the
sea robber, and although he fearfully stole a glance at
the arquebuss, which his obstinacy rendered so likely to
descend upon his head in anger—he still hesitated not,
urged by uncontrollable curiosity, to linger, for as yet he
had not comprehended the character of the pirate; and
a desire to know what a person of such strange dress and
language could have to say privately to his owner, awakened
every dormant faculty within him. Besides, in the
dumb companion of the stranger he recognised an old acquaintance,
for whose being in such servitude and condition
he could no wise account—all this combined gave him an
uncommon share of stubborn courage; and depending on
his usual alertness in case of want, should the threatened
menace be attempted to be put in execution, he bravely
dared the consequence of his remaining. It is true, that
bravery is a faculty easily assumed, and mostly displayed
while distant from danger; and the credit of its possession
is often granted to some noisy sputterer, the haunter of
taverns and the bully of bawds, who, swelling with conceit,
and mighty in some nominal distinction which he hath himself
taken without cause, and which courtesy merely allows
him, or that he may have by chance obtained by hard service
as a veteran, by marching and countermarching a
ragged train of levies through lane and street under a destructive
and heavy fire from that enemy of citizen soldiers,
a raging sun; (whose power affords him an opportunity
of boasting of the severity of his discipline, though
in reality he may have a mortal antipathy `to that villanous
saltpetre that is dug from out the bowels of the
earth;' and loveth no kind of smoke except the smoke
of his segar; for that bears resemblance to his own bravery—being
a great deal of smoke to a little fire, and
is alone kept alive by repeated puffings;)—yet fear, the
very reverse of courage, hath oftentimes called it forth:
many cowards, driven to desperation, have acted like

brave men—dastards in their whole lives, have, when
thrust forth by fear, proved victors in deadly combats.
It is likely from these known and certain principles, and
perhaps urged by the hope of becoming heroes from
some lucky accident, that there are among us so many
bitten with the mania of being chieftains without scarcely
knowing the lock from the bore of a fusee—though doubtless
it is neither necessary for a general to have either
brains or boldness; for in truth he from whom I draw my
example and supposition, hath neither; as indeed the only
mystery he may comprehend is the making of his own
beaver, which from so competent a judge, ought to be of
the best; however, it is equally certain that the composition
of that which the beaver covers, is too much mixed
with the commonest wool to give its wearer any assistance
at a critical moment:—nevertheless, the rashness of the
prying negro was not derived from any of the causes just
detailed, but solely from that which it was first explained
had actuated him—unconquerable curiosity.

“Curse him tam imperance—him tirty manners—ony
tink der feller treat a body so cantagues,” in spite of prudence
burst from the lips of the provoked Yonne at the
uncivil attack of the freebooter, “him no wort mush, me
see dat clebber 'nough—good as him any day, me like—
him look like a tief sartain, wid all him talk,” and then
turning up a nose whose nostrils naturally covered one
half of his wide face, he gazed at his persecutor with one
of those contemptuous glances that denoted his sense of
the unmannerly breeding of his enemy, and an amazing
confidence in his own superiority of gentility and education.
However Yonne's continued loitering succeeded
in irritating one of whom he stood in greater awe—for
Vanderspeigl being probably likewise unwilling that a
third person, and particularly one of so communicative a
nature as the black, should be a partaker of the freebooters
words, at last exerted his authority.

“Yonne—God tam!” he thundered out, “zo dou is not
gone mit dien tam gibble gabble—op myn zeil, ik sall
preak dien kop, negur, dat is dien head, dou blaffing
hond.”

There was wanted no repetition of this threat, for the
negro spoke aloud not a word more, but quick as the
darting of a rat in his hiding place when suddenly surprised
at his midnight revelling and depredation—Yonne
shrunk precipitately in the door way and in a moment
disappeared.

SECTION II.—Concluded.

“Defiendene de me!—trades over—sharks are abroad
as thick as shoals on the banks,” said the buccaneer,
drawing himself close to the Hollander, and leaning familiarly
on his arquebuss—after, however, having first
glanced cautiously around to assure himself there was none
near to observe what might pass; “commissions are out
that will make your friend Jacob Liesler shake in his
leathern breeches like a rogue in the bilboes. Carra!
there has not been such ill news abroad since we missed
the Mocca fleet in Bab's Key—if the world should tack in
these courses our capsterns will not longer stretch our
orders,[45] nor a caballero andante ship 'cept under the
king's proclamation. Cielo! but I am one never down
hearted while there is a rope to hang hope to, or a breeze
to blow us clear of breakers—so drown care as they say
on the main, bien vengas—si vengas solo.”

“Mien Got! ik sall be ver zorrie—dat is in mien
hertz,” replied Sporus in a tone with which he meant to
commiserate—but there was little soothing in the sound
of his voice, which rather resembled the hoarse and guttural
growlings of some cross grained mastiff; “ja!” pursued
he, drawing a long breath from his pipe, and then
sending the smoke slowly voided from his mouth in the

face of his companion—“ja, hoe does all dis gebueren—
dat is, vat does it come vrom—ja! tish nien goot—tish
nien goot—mien Got!” and then slowly and dolorously
shaking his head as if to show the depth of his foreboding,
he drew the pipe from his lips, and with a forceful blow he
sent forth a volume of smoke that had for a long while
been concentrating in the huge corners and monstrous
cavities of his hollow jaws.

“Guardate! dont run out a false colour, hermano; I
know your rigging too well for a wrong chase,” answered
Eumet, while a smile of derision passed across his dark
and sunburnt features, “the Spaniards say `todo arbol se
conoce per su fruto,'[46] and, picaron, I have sailed life's
ocean too long not to tell a shark by his teeth—but come
Dutchman,” added he, clapping Vanderspeigl on the
shoulder so stoutly that he crouched from the touch,
wincing with pain. “Yo te amo—that is, I love thee—
and now's your time to return favours, or damn me I
shall give you a salt eel for supper—for as I just let you
know, all's going by the board;—d'ye hear me—I am
without a copper.”

“Ja!—Ik dort as mush!” groaned the Netherlander,
his jocund shaped face losing its rotundity, and the long
bushy brows that overhung his little grey sleepy eyes
moving simultaneously together and darkening in an anxious
frown.

“I'm a mendigo, stript as bare as the poles in an hurricane,”
continued the rover, “so d'ye see, I'm come to
lighten your locker of part of its ballast:—there's my
share of the yellow boys, the booty of the Scudder merchantman,[47]
—how say you knave—que no respondeis—
give me an order for an hundred pieces of eight on the
house in Nieuw Amsterdam—it will set me apiè-afloat
as gallant as a galleon.”

“Mien goot Got!—dou be'est craze—mad as ish von
littel hares in de sbring dime,” exclaimed Vanderspeigl,
raising his hands in the utmost astonishment, “vone hondred

bieces von eight, bresarve me!—Got tam!” he
added testily, his choler fast rising, “dou dinks ik is all
geldt. Sapperment! ik hab nien stuyver in vone gorner
von mien broeks—ja! ik ish vone zeer boor mensch—dat
ish as bad zo as vone rotten haaring dat dey give der
hond.”

This petulancy did not, however, have the desired effect,
or stop the marauder's demands; for ere Sporus had
well ended his explanation, he strode within a foot of him
and gazed sternly in his face.

“Come swabber, overhaul your chests,” said the pirate
abruptly, in a sneering voice, “how many doubloons
have you laid by from that cargo, after cheating the revenue?—San
Joachin! draw for the gold and be
damned to you.”

“Mien zeer guter vriend, dou dinks der guilder last
vorever? ja!” rejoined the ferry master, retreating back
as the other advanced on him, and speaking with as gentle
and placable a manner as he was capable, “Ik has
baid de brize moneys dat sall be dien zo long as dat u
sall zee;” so saying he drew from his `broeks' a torn, dirtied
and well thumbed Low Dutch ballad, on the blank side of
which was scrawled some Hollandsche characters and
figures, to which having called attention by pointing with
his finger, he continued, “dere mien vriend is der reckening—dat
is der calculations op der zum dat is baid—
dere ish blain mit drute—dwendy guilder von der schepen—dirty
von der schout”—

“Thou miserly, lying, cheating picaron!” roared the
angered sailor, “you and those beggarly corrupt rascals
would swallow up an Indiaman:—But knave,” added he,
fiercely grasping the breech of his arquebuss in one
hand, while with the other he strongly seized the shrinking
Vanderspeigl, “an I thought thee worth an ounce of
lead and charge of powder, I'd tear your canvass rag
from rag, but I'd haul the right tale from thee; thof curse
me, thou smuggling porpoise, an you do not in the shifting
of a block sign for the broad pieces—traidor! I'll tar that
double jacket of thine till there is not a seam except of
running blood on its cowardly owner's carcass—perro!

I'll batter that hull of thine while there sticks a plank to
its rotten ribs to keep the stingy frame together.”

“Mien waarde vriend—mien zeer guter vriend,”
moaned the affrighted Dutchman, striving to mollify the
rage of the mariner, and sinking his short pursy form into
a heap beneath the powerful gripe with which it was assailed,
“op myn zeil! dou sall hab der beices. Goot
Got! dou is ash hot mit bassion, ash vire, ja!—zo ash der
blexemstaal dat is der lidt'ning dat vlashes—ik mill run
vor der baper—dou sall hab der bieces, myn guter vriend.”

“Not so hasty, lubber, I've brought all things, even to
the purser's quill,” said Eumet producing them, “here
clap your anchor—a hundred, a round hundred, rascal—
do you mark?

The Nederlander, while his determined tormentor
stood watching over him, with the muzzle of the piece
on a level with his head, though scarce alive with terror,
or conscious what he was about, complied quickly with
the marauder's demand, and signed the draft handed him;
which he had no sooner finished, than the other eagerly
snatched it from him; and having carefully folded it, he
placed it securely in his jerkin: while Vanderspeigl by this
motion being relieved from the present threatened and
imminent danger, turned his eyes towards his garment
where it had been held by Eumet—the place of whose
grasp was plainly visible, from sundry rents and lacerated
marks of violence.

“Mien got bresarve me,” he grumbled, unable to refrain
his anguish at the sight, “zee heir—got tam! u
dake a jonker mit his droat, as he was zo as a bear—op
myn zeil, u sall nien be willing to bay vone zingle stuyver
to mend dis jakje—ja—it mill gost more as vat dat
is.”—

“Avast, my bold hearted mosco, be of good cheer
about it”—returned the mariner, as with a loud laugh he
replaced his arquebuss in the support of the bandalier.
“Yo so agradacio![48] round bow—that's thanking you
like a true tar for the supply; and now, since I've mine

own freight aboard, I'll stow cargo for others; for I am
cursedly tired with looking at that ugly cats-head o' thine:
and if I anchor longer before your inhospitable harbour, I
shall hoist as many colours as a dying dolphin. Mass,
I am already an ice boat; therefore I must run up my
sail: nuestra senora, but first I've orders for thee; low
deck—the old man says you must heave anchor—for as
I tipped you a glass or so since, the little gentleman
who's rigged in black velvet[49] hath shipped the province
a new ruler—but the dog is wind bound at Catsdown,
and be damned to him: thof diabolo, his convoy parting
company, hath brought to in the very jaw of the sound;
we slipt her in the fog, and were it not for policy, in spite
of her iron teeth, we'd muzzle her—but d'ye see, they
might send the despatch in a leaden cannister to the sea's
bottom; so mark me, Dutchman, without spinning a long
yarn, we must have her papers or our jig's up; for thof
we have friends in Old England, as Kid says, who will
bring us off, it is hard to treat with the conqueror after
the flag's down: now ere I steered here, a canoe rowed
for the creek in which was the king's messenger; the
galliot herself, I take it, is fearful of venturing without a
pilot down the river; so hark ye, rogue, the captain leaves
much to thy ingenuity; they will perforce seek your
guidance,—and then,” whispered the desperado, “you
must run the old tack—and there'll not be a great difficulty
to give them short shrift, a burial ground, or a
winding sheet.”

“Ik dravel ad dis uur,” replied the phlegmatic Hollander,
every bit of resolution within him aroused at the
idea, “dou sall nien dink zo—got tam! 'tis one zo storm—
ja—zo cold nagt as dat u zee in der louwmand—dat is der
dime von midden winter—op myn zeil,” continued he
determinately, “ik will niet sdirs vrom mien huis vor all
dat Von Trump was—sapperment!

“Santa terra, buey! but thou shalt obey,” said the
buccaneer, turning suddenly round from the horse which
he was preparing to remount, and interrupting the Dutch

man, “diabolo! refuse, and in the flash of my petronel,
your blood shall die the snow,”—he shouted in a voice
that made his hearer shake at its sound—“picaron, the
red flames of your hovel shall be a beacon on the coast;
your glutted lockers shall not have one real to keep them
from emptiness; not a hound that you cherish shall live:
damn you, hedgehog—your hide shall be stript in thongs,
and tanned from the yard.”

“Bresarve me,” faintly ejaculated the cowering Vanderspeigl,
his courage momently escaping him as he expostulated
with, and strived to calm the marauder—
“mien guter vriend, your blood is zo warms as in vone
long day that is in Shune—op myn drute! do blease,
mien friend, ik mill dravel to der Guilderland—ja, ik did
dry u mit mien jockkernie—mien vun.”

“Avast! you need not take that latitude,” answered the
rover—“but time wears; an thou dost mutiny, beware!
ho, my caballo!” pursued he, smoothing the broad flowing
mane of his restless steed—who during the action
that had passed, had impatiently, with fretful pawings,
dashed up the drift and sand that encircled his hoofs;
“are you 'most ready for a cruize?—and you, messmate,
look ahead how you trim your ship,” continued he,
turning a deriding glance on the crest fallen Nederlander
as he sprang into his seat; “thof blow what breeze
may, I shall bless your hundred pieces, lo agradacio infinito
mi amigo[50] as the Spaniards say. Mass! you may
see a second draft when this runs low; but for now, buen
noches—veti en paz,[51] senor Close-chest.”

And striking his heels sturdily in the flanks of the
horse, the gallant animal sprung like an arrow through
the night—and darting down the long track by which
he had advanced, in a few minutes both steed and rider
were lost to the view.

“Der tam birate—der tieving hond,” growled out the
ferry-master—the long pent up flood of gall bursting forth
with all the virulence of an angry stream breaking its

dam; “ja, hesh sdole dat bay paard, mit de vite sbot all over
mit him: blesh mien hertz, tis grying Benson's hosh, dat
livsh at der kommons. Ja—der zeerover—got tam! hesh
dakenmien brincibal—vone hundred—mien got, Ik sall
loseder belaang—dats de inderish—vyf ber cend—goot
Got! Ik sall be ruin—ja! got tam, Ik sall be ruin.”

The Dutchman having thus sorrowfully expressed himself,
paused and listened a short period, with an elongated
and melancholious visage, to the hollow, sullen and
retiring echoes of the horse's tread, muttering indistinct
curses between his teeth, and giving over the buccaneer,
without remorse or reservation, to the devil. Being
somewhat satisfied with this severe revenge—and all the
oaths applicable, furnished by his fertile imagination being
exhausted, he surlily shrugged his shoulders and
turned to retire, when right in his path he perceived an
abused companion;—the fragments of his pipe were scattered
before him; it had dropt unfortunately, during
one of his partial stresses from the embracing lips of its
owner, and had met a destructive reception from the
frozen earth whereon it had fallen.

“Got tam! myn byp is broke,” he lugubriously groaned—“dirty
dousand bieces—myn byp—Got tam.”

As he grumbled these expressive words in woeful
spirit, he seized with a hand at each corner, the colopeye
of his huge `broeks'—which either from the agitation,
or the uncommon exertions he had been forced to
undergo, were fast escaping by gentle slips from the
situation they were used and intended to occupy: (for in
those times, the waistband was the only supporter;) and
giving them a fretful hitch, that brought all back to its
duty—he, (the puissant Mienheer Sporus Vanderspeigl,
slow and thoughtful, bearing a countenance whose
expression was that of vinegar itself, while wending
dolorous and malcontent unto that retirement and solacing
shelter, of which, had it not been for the goed
Vrouw's usurpation, he was lord and master)—strode
into his domicile,—the ferry-house of Harlæm.

And so worthy and patient reader, he having thus

taken it in mind to depart, I shall with his disappearance,
make an end of this first book; not however, without
inviting you, if your stomach holds good, and your appetite
be as yet unsated—to turn your eyes to the
fresh food which is served up in that which cometh
next.