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ings, some of which were much admired by acknowledged judges. Of these the subjects were generally taken from sacred history.

I do not recollect the exact time, but think it was during the last years of Charles the Second, that a settlement we then possessed at Surinam was exchanged for the extensive (indeed at that time boundless) province of Munhattoes,' which, in compliment to the then heir apparent, was called New York. Of the part of that country then explored, the most fertile and beautiful was situated far inland, on the banks of the Hudson river. This copious and majestic stream is navigable one hundred and seventy miles from its mouth for vessels of sixty or seventy tons burden.2 Near the head of it, as a kind of barrier against the natives, and a central resort for traders, the foundation was laid of a town called

1 Surinam was awarded to the Dutch at the peace of Westminster, after various reverses, while New York, for which it was exchanged, remained quietly in the hands of the English. The two nations however continued for more than a century to make Guiana a point of attack in time of war.

2 The tonnage of the ancient sloops has been somewhat increased. The sloop in which Capt. Stewart Dean sailed from Albany to China in 1785, was 80 tons. The government made improvements in the navigation of the river after Albany became a port of entry, so that schooners of 200 tons were enabled to reach the city, and the Rochester steam boat, the largest vessel licensed at this port in 1836, of nearly 500 tons, made trips at low water. At a later day the Isaac Newton of 1400 tons was put on the river, and renewed efforts to increase the upward flow of the tide, in 1866, added nearly two feet to the surface. The altitude of Albany being but six or eight feet above that of New York, there are at all times three tides in the river, so great is the distance they have to ascend before reaching their utmost limit.

Oranienburgh, and afterwards, by the British, Albany.

After the necessary precaution of erecting a small stockaded fort for security, a church was built in the centre of the intended town, which served in different respects as a kind of land-mark. A gentleman of the name of Van Rensselaer was considered as in a manner lord paramount of this city, a preeminence which his successor still enjoys, both with regard to the town and the lands adjacent. The original proprietor having obtained from the high and mighty states a grant of lands, which, beginning at the church, was twenty-four by forty-eight miles in size, forming a magnificent manor, including lands not only of the best quality of any in the province, but the most happily situated both for the purpose of commerce and agriculture. This great proprietor was looked up to as much as republicans in a new country could be supposed to look up to any one. He was called the patroon, a designation tantamount to lord of the manor. Yet in the distribution of these lands, the sturdy Belgian spirit of independence set limits to the power and profits of this lord of the forests, as he might then be called. None of these lands were either sold or alienated. The more wealthy settlers, as the

1 It does not appear what name the Dutch may have given the locality. It was often alluded to as the Fuyck. Oranje is Dutch, but Fort Orange is English. I have not seen it elsewhere called Oranienburgh, although that would be a proper name - the city or fortress of Orange,

Schuylers, Cuylers, etc., took very extensive leases of the fertile plains along the river, with boundless liberty of woods and pasturage, to the westward. The terms were, that the lease should hold while water runs and grass grows, and the landlord to receive the tenth sheaf of every kind of grain the ground produces. Thus ever accommodating the rent to the fertility of the soil, and changes of the seasons, you may suppose the tenants did not greatly fear a landlord, who could neither remove them, nor heighten their rents. Thus, without the pride of property, they had all the independence of proprietors. They were like German princes, who, after furnishing their contingent to the emperor, might make war on him when they chose. Besides the profits (yearly augmenting) which the patroon drew from his ample possessions, he held in his own hands an extensive and fruitful demesne. Yet preserving in a great measure the simple and frugal habits of his ancestors, his wealth was not an object of envy, nor a source of corruption to his fellow-citizens. To the northward of these bounds, and at the southern extremity also, the Schuylers and Cuylers held lands of their own. But the only other great landholders I remember, holding their land by those original tenures, were Phillips

1 Philip (Pietersen) Schuyler bought his farm of several hundred acres and a large island about four miles north of Albany at a cost of 8,000 florins; and in recognition of the patroon's right he gave 40 bushels of wheat yearly,

VOL. 1.-4

At

and Cortlandt; their lands lay also on the Hudson's river, half way down to New York, and were denominated Phillip's and Cortlandt's manors.1 the time of the first settling of the country the Indians were numerous and powerful all along the river; but they consisted of wandering families, who, though they affixed some sort of local boundaries for distinguishing the hunting grounds of each tribe, could not be said to inhabit any place. The cool and crafty Dutch governors, being unable to cope with them in arms, purchased from them the most valuable tracts for some petty consideration. They affected great friendship for them; and, while conscious of their own weakness, were careful not to provoke hostilities; and they, silently and insensibly, established themselves to the west.

1 Philipse, or Philipsen, a carpenter by trade, who founded a wealthy Dutch family. In 1674 a valuation of the estates of the principal inhabitants of New York was made, when that of Frederick Philipsen, the highest, was valued at 80,000 florins. A portion of this manor was sequestered by reason of the defection of the owner in the Revolution, who fled to England, and was allowed by that government about three hundred thousand dollars as compensation for his loss. The whole of the original property was at a later day estimated at over three millions of dollars. The Van Cortlandt manor is still in a measure intact, and known as such.

Chapter II

THE FIVE NATIONS-JOHN AND PHILIP
SCHUYLER

Ο

N the Mohawk river, about forty miles distant from Albany, there subsisted a confederacy of Indian tribes, of a very different character from those mentioned in the preceding chapter; too sagacious to be deceived, and too powerful to be eradicated. These were the once renowned Five Nations, whom any one, who remembers them while they were a people, will hesitate to call savages. Were they savages who had fixed habitations; who cultivated rich fields; who built castles (for so they called their not incommodious wooden houses, surrounded with palisadoes); who planted maize and beans, and showed considerable ingenuity in constructing and adorning their canoes, arms, and clothing? They who had wise though unwritten. laws, and conducted their wars, treaties, and alliances with deep and sound policy; they whose eloquence was bold, nervous, and animated; whose language was sonorous, musical, and expressive; who possessed generous and elevated sentiments, heroic fortitude, and unstained probity: were these indeed savages? The difference

"Of scent the headlong lioness between

And hound sagacious, on the tainted green,"

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