on an island, and become a hermit; taken up into a ship when floating on the sea, into which he had accidentally fallen, and carried to some remote country, from which he was expected to return, fraught with experience and faith. I remember some of my earliest reveries to have been occupied by the mysterious disappearance of this hard-fated pastor.1

In the meanwhile new events were unfolding

1 There is an entry of a baptism by him on the 14th October, 1759, in the church Doep Boek, but strange to say, there is a letter in existence, written on the 10th October, 1759, by G. Abeel of New York to his relatives in Albany, in which he says that while he was writing, the ship in which Dom. Frielinghuysen had embarked was leaving the port, and according to custom the guns were firing parting salutes. That on the previous Sunday he preached in the new Dutch church, and when he sat down, after giving out the last psalm, the bench gave way and he fell to the floor, which was universally regarded as a bad omen. Among other gossip it was remarked that the ocean was fatal to his family, and the impression that he would never return pervaded the minds of the people standing about and discussing the matter. A letter to his wife is extant, showing that the domine was in London, expecting to embark on his return to America, since when nothing is known of him. Dr. Thomas De Witt says he went to Holland on business growing out of the impending controversy in the church, concerning the catus, the ordination of the clergy; a party insisting that it was not imperative that the candidate should go to Holland to receive the rite there, as had been the practice. His child Eva, baptized 5 December, 1756, was buried 15 September, 1757 (Munsell's Annals). Another Eva was baptized 10 September, 1758 (Pearson's Early Settlers). These are the only children of Dom. Frielinghuysen, that are found recorded, and are said to have been grand-children of Geertruy Isabella Lydius, daughter of Domine John Lydius, pastor of the church 1700-9. Mrs. Frielinghuysen was a granddaughter of Lancaster Symes, an English officer, from whom and other relatives she inherited quite a fortune for the times. Office Secretary of State, Deeds, XVI.

more fully to the Albanians the characters of their lately acquired friends. Scandal of fifty years standing must by this time have become almost pointless. The house where the young colonel, formerly mentioned, was billeted, and made his quarters good by every art of seductive courtesy, was occupied by a person wealthy, and somewhat vain and shallow, who had an only daughter; I am not certain, but I think she was his only child. She was young, lively, bold, conceited and exceedingly well-looking. Artless and fearless of consequences, this thoughtless creature saw every day a person who was, no doubt, as much pleased with her as one could be with mere youth, beauty, and kindness, animated by vivacity, and distinguished from her companions by all the embellishments which wealth could procure in that unfashioned quarter; his heart, however, was safe, as will appear from the sequel. Madame foresaw the consequences likely to result from an intimacy daily growing, where there was little prudence on the one side, and as little of that honor which should respect unsuspecting innocence on the other. She warned the family, but in vain; they considered marriage as the worst consequence that could ensue; and this they could not easily have been reconciled to, notwithstanding the family and fortune of the lover, had not his address and attentions charmed them into a kind of tacit acquiescence; for, as a Roman citizen in the proud days of the republic would have refused his daughter to

a king, an Albanian, at one period, would rather have his daughter married to the meanest of his fellow-citizens, than to a person, of the highest rank in the army, because they thought a young person, by such a marriage, was not only forever alienated from her family, but from those pure morals and plain manners, in which they considered the greatest possible happiness to exist. To return:

While these gaieties were going on, and the unhappy domine embarking on the voyage which terminated his career, an order came for the colonel to march; this was the only commander who had ever been in town who had not spent any time, or asked any counsel at the Flats. Meanwhile his Calista (for such she was) tore her hair in frantic agonies at his departure; not that she in the least doubted of his returning soon to give a public sanction to their union, but lest he should prove a victim to the war then existing; and because, being very impetuous, and unaccustomed to control, the object of her wishes had been delayed to a future period. In a short time things began to assume a more serious aspect; and her father came one day posting to the Flats, on his way to the lakes, seeking counsel too late, and requesting the aid of their influence to bring about a marriage, which should cover the disgrace of his family. They had little hopes of his success, yet he proceeded; and finding the colonel deaf to all his argu

VOL. I. 20

ments, he had recourse to entreaty, and finally offered to divest himself of all but a mere subsistence, and give him such a fortune as was never heard of in that country. This, with an angel, as the fond father thought her, appeared irresistible; but no! heir to a considerable fortune in his own country, and perhaps inwardly despising a romp, whom he had not considered from the first as estimable, he was not to be soothed or bribed into compliance. The dejected father returned disconsolate; and the astonishment and horror this altogether novel occurrence occasioned in the town, was not to be described. Of such a circumstance there was no existing precedent; half the city were related to the fair culprit, for penitent she could hardly be called. This unexpected refusal threw the whole city into consternation. One would have thought there had been an earthquake; and all the insulted domine's predictions rose to remembrance, armed with avenging terrors.

Many other things occurred to justify the domine's caution; and the extreme reluctance which the elders of the land showed to all such associations. All this Madame greatly lamented, yet could not acquit the parties concerned, whose duty it was, either to keep their daughters from that society for which their undisguised simplicity of heart unfitted them, or give them that culture and usage of life, which enables a young person to maintain a certain dignity, and to revolt at the first

trespass on decorum. Her own protégés were instances of this; who, having their minds early stored with sentiments, such as would enable them truly to estimate their own value, and to judge of the characters and pretensions of those who conversed with them; all conducted themselves with the utmost propriety, though daily mixing with strangers, and were solicited in marriage by the first people in the province, who thought themselves happy to select companions from such a school of intelligence and politeness, where they found beauty of the first order, informed by mind, and graced by the most pleasing manners.