other person possessed of a liberality or benevolence of mind, whom chance had brought acquainted with them, was exceedingly partial to those high-souled and generous natives. The Mohawk language was early familiar to her; she spoke Dutch and English with equal ease and purity; was no stranger to the French tongue; and could (I think) read German. I have heard her speak it. From the conversations which her active curiosity led her to hold with native Africans, brought into her father's family, she was more intimately acquainted with the customs, manners, and government of their native country, than she could have been by reading all that was ever written on the subject. Books are, no doubt, the granaries of knowledge; but a diligent inquiring mind, in the active morning of life, will find it strewed like manna over the face of the earth; and need not, in all cases, rest satisfied with intelligence accumulated by others, and tinctured with their passions and prejudices. Whoever reads Homer or Shakspeare may daily discover that they describe both nature and art from their own observation. Consequently you see the images, reflected from the mirror of their great minds, differing from the descriptions of others, as the reflection of an object in all its colors and proportions from any polished surface, does from a shadow on a wall, or from a picture drawn from recollection. The enlarged mind of my friend, and her simple yet easy and dignified manners, made her readily adapt herself to those with whom she conversed, and everywhere command respect and kindness; and, on a nearer acquaintance, affection followed; but she had too much sedateness and independence to adopt those caressing and insinuating manners, by which the vain and the artful so soon find their way into shallow minds. Her character did not captivate at once, but gradually unfolded itself; and you had always something new to discover. Her style was grave and masculine, without the least embellishment; and at the same time so pure, that every thing she said might be printed without correction, and so plain, that the most ignorant and most inferior persons were never at a loss to comprehend it. It possessed, too, a wonderful flexibility; it seemed to rise and fall with the subject. I have not met with a style which, to noble and uniform simplicity, united such variety of expression. Whoever drinks knowledge pure

at its sources, solely from a delight in filling the capacities of a large mind, without the desire of dazzling or outshining others; whoever speaks for the sole purpose of conveying to other minds those ideas from which he himself has received pleasure and advantage, may possess this chaste and natural style: but it is not to be acquired by art or study.

CHAPTER XIV.

Marriage of Miss Schuyler.-Description of the Flats.

MISS S. had the happiness to captivate her cousin Philip, eldest son of her uncle, who was ten years older than herself, and was in all respects to be accounted a suitable, and in the worldly sense, an advantageous match for her. His father was highly satisfied to have the two objects on whom he had bestowed so much care and culture united. They were married in the year 1719,* when she was in the eighteenth year of her age. When the old colonel died, he left considerable possessions to be divided among his children, and from the quantity of plate, paintings, &c., which they shared, there is reason to believe he must have brought some of his wealth from Holland, as in those days people had little means of enriching themselves in new settlements. He had also con

siderable possessions in a place near the town, now called Fishkill, about twenty miles below Albany. His family residence, however, was at the Flats, a fertile and beautiful plain on the banks of the river. He possessed about two miles on a stretch of that rich and level champaign. This possession was bounded on the east by the river Hudson, whose high banks overhung the stream and its pebbly strand, and were both adorned and defended by elms, (larger than ever I have seen in any other place,) decked with natural festoons of wild grapes, which abound along the banks of this noble stream, These lofty elms were left, when the country was cleared, to fortify the banks against the masses of thick ice which make

Miss Schuyler was born in the year 1701.

war upon them in spring, when the melting snows burst this glassy pavement, and raise the waters many feet above their usual level. This precaution not only answers that purpose, but gratifies the mind by presenting to the eye a remnant of the wild magnificence of nature amidst the smiling scenes produced by varied and successful cultivation. As you came along by the north end of the town, where the Patroon had his seat, you afterwards passed by the enclosures of the citizens, where (as formerly described) they planted their corn, and arrived at the Flats, Colonel Schuyler's possession. On the right you saw the river in all its beauty, there above a mile broad. On the opposite side the view was bounded by steep hills, covered with lofty pines from which a waterfall descended, which not only gave animation to the sylvan scene, but was the best barometer imaginable, foretelling by its varied and intelligible sounds every approaching change, not only of the weather, but of the wind. Opposite to the grounds lay an island, above a mile in length, and about a quarter in breadth, which also belonged to the colonel; exquisitely beautiful it was, and though the haunt I most delighted in, it is not in my power to describe it. Imagine a little Egypt yearly overflowed, and of the most redundant fertility. This charming spot was at first covered with wood, like the rest of the country, except a long field in the middle, where the Indians had probably cultivated maize; round this was a broad shelving border, where the gray and the weeping willows, the bending osier, and numberless aquatic plants not known in this country, were allowed to flourish in the utmost luxuriance, while within, some tall sycamores and wild fruittrees towered above the rest. Thus was formed a broad belt, which in winter proved an impenetrable barrier against the broken ice, and in summer was the haunt of numberless birds and small animals, who dwelt in perfect safety, it being impossible to penetrate it. Numberless were the productions of this luxuriant spot; never was a richer field for a botanist; for though the ice was kept off, the turbid waters of the spring flood overflowed it annually, and not only deposited a rich sediment, but left the seeds of various plants swept from the shores it had passed by. The centre of the island, which was much higher than the sides, produced with a slight degree of culture the most abundant crops of wheat, hay, and flax.

At the end of the island, which was exactly opposite to the family mansion, a long sand-bank extended; on this was a very valuable fishing-place, of which a considerable profit might be made. In summer, when the water was low, this narrow stripe (for such it was) came in sight, and furnished an amusing spectacle; for there the bald or white-headed eagle, (a large picturesque bird, very frequent in this country,) the ospray, the heron, and the curlew, used to stand in great numbers in a long row, like a military arrangement, for a whole summer day, fishing for perch and a kind of fresh-water herring which abounded there. At the same season a variety of wild ducks, which bred on the shores of the island, (among which was a small white diver of an elegant form,) led forth their young to try their first excursion. What a scene have

I beheld on a calm summer evening! There indeed were "fringed banks" richly fringed, and wonderfully variegated; where every imaginable shade of color mingled, and where life teemed prolific on every side. The river, a perfect mirror, reflected the pine-covered hills opposite; and the pliant shades bent without a wind, round this enchanting island, while hundreds of the white divers, saw-bill ducks with scarlet heads, teal, and other aquatic birds, sported at once on the calm waters. At the discharge of a gun from the shore, these feathered beauties all disappeared at once, as if by magic, and in an instant rose again to view in different places.

How much they seemed to enjoy that life which was so new to them! for they were the young broods first led forth to sport upon the waters. While the fixed attitude and lofty port of the large birds of prey, that were ranged upon the sandy shelf, formed an inverted picture in the same clear mirror, and were a pleasing contrast to the playful multitude around. These they never attempted to disturb, well aware of the facility of escape which their old retreats afforded them. Such of my readers as have had patience to follow me to this favorite isle, will be, ere now, as much bewildered as I have often been on its luxuriant shores. To return to the southward; on the confines of what might then be called an interminable wild, rose two gently sloping eminences, about half a mile from the shore. From each of these a large brook descended, bending through the plain, and having its course marked by the shades of primeval trees and shrubs, left there

to shelter the cattle when the ground was cleared. On these eminences, in the near neighborhood and full view of the mansion at the Flats, were two large and well-built dwellings, inhabited by Colonel Schuyler's two younger sons, Peter and Jeremiah. To the elder was allotted the place inhabited by his father, which, from its lower situation and level surface, was called the Flats. There was a custom prevalent among the new settlers something like that of gavel-kind; they made a pretty equal division of lands among their younger sons. The eldest, by pre-eminence of birth, had a larger share, and generally succeeded to the domain inhabited by his father, with the slaves, cattle, and effects upon it.

This, in the present instance, was the lot of the eldest son of that family whose possessions I have been describing. His portion of land on the shore of the river was scarcely equal in value to those of his brothers, to whose possessions the brooks I have mentioned formed a natural boundary, dividing them from each other, and from his. To him was allotted the costly furniture of the family, of which paintings, plate, and china, constituted the valuable part; every thing else being merely plain and useful. They had also a large house in Albany, which they occupied occasionally.

I have neglected to describe in its right place the termination or back-ground of the landscape I have such delight in recollecting. There the solemn and interminable forest was varied at intervals by rising grounds, near streams where birch and hickory, maple and poplar, cheered the eye with a lighter green, through the prevailing shade of dusky pines. On the border of the wood, where the trees had been thinned for firing, was a broad shrubbery all along, which marked the edges of the wood above the possessions of the brothers as far as it extended.

This was formed of sumach, a shrub with leaves, continually changing color through all the varieties, from blending green and yellow, to orange tawny, and adorned with large lilach-shaped clusters of bright scarlet grains, covered with pungent dust of a sharp flavor at once saline and acid. This the Indians use as salt to their food, and for the dyeing of different colors. The red glow, which was the general result of this natural border, had a fine effect, thrown out from the dusky shades which towered behind.