of the governor's council. About the year 1750, he obtained a patent for a large tract of unsettled land near Newburgh, in Orange county, and named his manor, Coldenham. There, after the year 1755, he resided, with his family, most of the time, engaged in agriculture and in literary and scientific pursuits. Many learned essays from his pen enriched the medical and scientific publications of his day; and his History of the Five Nations of Indians, is a noble monument in testimony of his careful and judicious researches in that special field of inquiry. Almost all of the scientific men of Europe were his correspondents, and Franklin and other leading Americans were among his intimate epistolary friends. Botany was his favorite study, and he was a constant and valued correspondent of Linnæus, the great master of the science, for a series of years. His voluminous papers are now among the choice treasures of the New York Historical Society. In 1760, Dr. Colden was appointed lieutenant-governor of the province of New York, and became the acting magistrate, at eighty years of age. He managed public affairs with great prudence during all the trying scenes of the Stamp-Act excitement; and the Sons of Liberty respected him, while they defied his delegated power. He was released from office, by Governor Tryon, in 1775, and retired to his country seat, at Flushing, Long Island, where he died on the 28th of September, 1776; a few days before that great conflagration which consumed more than five hundred buildings in the city of New York. Governor Colden was then almost eighty-nine years of age.

THERE

JOHN SMITH.

HERE are men whose career appears meteor-like in brilliancy and progress, which nevertheless makes permanent impressions upon the world's history, and beams in the firmament of past events, with steady, planetary lustre. John Smith belongs to the meteor-heroes of our race. He was born at Willoughby, in Lincolnshire, England, in 1559, and in early childhood was distinguished for his daring spirit and love of adventure. At the age of thirteen years, he sold his books and satchel to procure money to pay his way to the sea-shore, for he had resolved to try life on the ocean wave. He was prevented from embarking, and apprenticed to a merchant. Two years afterward he ran away, went to France, and then to the Low Countries, and there studied military tactics. With a portion of his deceased father's estate, young Smith, at the age of seventeen years, went abroad, like a knight-errant, in search of adventures. On a voyage from Marseilles to Naples, a great storm arose. The crew of the vessel were Roman Catholics, who, believing the young heretic Englishman to be a Jonah, cast him into the sea to appease the angry waters. He swam to a small island, and there embarked in a French vessel for Alexandria, in Egypt. From thence he went to Italy, and then to Austria, where he entered the imperial army. His valor soon procured him the command of a troop of horse, which, in the war against the Turks, obtained the name of The Fiery Dragoons. On one occasion, during a siege, a Turkish officer offered to engage in a duel with any Christian soldier, "to amuse the ladies." The lot fell to Smith. They fought in sight of both armies. Smith cut off his antagonist's head, and carried it in triumph to the Austrian camp; and then fought two other Turkish champions with the same result. He was afterward captured and sold to a Pacha, who sent his prisoner as a present to his sweetheart, to be her slave. Her love was excited, and to insure his safety, she sent Smith to her brother. The Turk treated the captive cruelly. Soon an opportunity for escape was offered, when Smith killed his

DAVID RITTENHOUSE.

35

tyrant, fled into Muscovy, and found his way to Austria. The war had ended, and Smith departed from the Adriatic, with a French sea-captain, for Morocco. He was engaged in a sea-fight near the Canary Islands, with the Spaniards; and then, after a long absence, returned to his native country. His restless spirit now yearned for adventures in the New World, and accompanying the first English expedition which successfully planted a settlement in America, he became the real founder of the Virginia colony. The settlers became jealous of his talent, on the voyage, and, ignorant that he was named in the "sealed box" as one of the Council, they put him in irons, under the plea that he intended to make himself King of Virginia. He was released when his name appeared among the appointed rulers. He possessed great energy, and he not only supported good government by his presence, but saved the colony from destruction. He was rescued from death by Pocahontas, the daughter of the Indian king, while a prisoner among them; and he acquired such influence over the savages, that they were friendly to the English while Smith ruled the colony. He explored the coast from Pamlico Sound to the Delaware river, and constructed a map of the country. An accident caused him to go to England for surgical attendance. Five years afterward he made a trading voyage to America, explored the coast from the Thames to the Penobscot, made a map of the country, and called it New England. Smith offered to accompany the Pilgrim Fathers, to America, in 1620, but on account of his aristocratic notions, his proffered services were declined. He died in London, in 1631, at the age of seventy-two years.

NEAR

DAVID RITTENHOUSE.

[EAR the banks of the beautiful Wissahiccon, in the vicinity of Germantown, four miles from Philadelphia, lived three hermits a century and a half ago; and near their hiding-places from the world's ken, a mile from the old village where the good count Zinzendorf,1 the Moravian, labored and reposed, was the birth-place of one whose name is co-extensive with scientific knowledge. It was David Rittenhouse, the eminent mathematician, who was born in Roxborough township, on the 8th of April, 1732. His father was a humble farmer, and David was his chief assistant when his life approached young manhood. The geometrical diagrams which disfigured his implements of labor, the barn doors, and the pig-sty, attested the peculiar workings of his brain while yet a mere lad. These indications of genius would doubtless have been disregarded, and his aspirations remained unsatisfied, had not a feeble body made the abandonment of field labor a stern necessity. David was apprenticed to a clock and mathematical instrument maker, and the pursuit being consonant with his taste, he was eminently successful.

Rittenhouse was a severe student, but on account of his pecuniary wants, he was deprived, in a great degree, of the most valuable sources of information, especially concerning the progress of science in Europe. While Newton and Liebnitz were warmly disputing for the honor of first discoverer of Fluxions, Rittenhouse, entirely ignorant of what they had done, became the inventor of that remarkable feature in algebraical analysis. Applying the knowledge which

1. The silly King James, instead of making an open appointment of a council for the government of Virginia, placed their names in a sealed box, with directions not to open it until their arrival on the shores of the New World.

1. Zinzendorf was the founder of the Moravians, or United Brethren, and preached in Germantown, for a while.

Dav? Rittenhouse

he derived from study and reflection, to the mechanic arts, he produced a planetarium, or an exhibition of the movements of the solar system, by machinery. It is a most wonderful piece of mechanism, especially when we consider the fact that the inventor was yet an obscure mechanic in a country village. That work of art is in the possession of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, it having been purchased on the recommendation of President Witherspoon. It gave him great reputation; and in 1770, he went to Philadelphia, where he pursued his mechanical vocation, and met, daily, members of the Philosophical Society of that city, to whom he had, two years before, communicated the fact that he had calculated, with great exactness, the transit of Venus, which occurred on the 3d of June, 1769. Rittenhouse was one of those whom the Society appointed to observe it. Only three times before, in the whole range of human observations, had mortal vision beheld the orb of Venus pass across the disc of the sun. Upon the exactitude of the performance according to calculations, depended many important astronomical problems, and the hour was looked for

1. When Cornwallis arrived at Princeton, after the severe battle at that place on the morning of the 2d of January, 1777, he saw and admired that work of art, and determined to carry it away with him. The Americans caused him to leave the place too soon to accomplish his purpose. During the same year, Silas Deane, the American commissioner at the French court, actually proposed to present the planetarium to the French king, as a bonus for his good will! The conqueror and the diplomatist were both foiled.

ward to, by philosophers, with intense interest. As the moment approached, according to his own calculations, Rittenhouse became greatly excited. When the discs of the two planets touched, at precisely the expected moment, the philosopher fainted. His highest hopes were realized; and on the 9th of November following he was blessed with the sight of a transit of Mercury.

When Dr. Franklin died, Rittenhouse was chosen President of the American Philosophical Society, to fill his place; and from his own earnings he gave the institution fifteen hundred dollars, on the day of his inauguration. His fame was now world-wide, and many official honors awaited his acceptance. He held the office of treasurer of the state of Pennsylvania, for many years; and in 1792, he was appointed the first Director of the Mint. Failing health compelled him to resign that trust, in 1795; and on the 6th of June, the following year, he died the death of a Christian, at the age of sixty-four years.

UN

UNCAS.

[NLIKE most of the Indian chiefs and sachems who appear conspicuous in our early annals, the line of descent from Uncas comes down almost to our own time, and he has been honored, in preference to all others, with a commemorative monument from the hands of the white man. Uncas was a Pequod, by birth. Rebelling against his chief, Sassacus, he was expelled from the Pequod domain, and by his talent and sagacity soon took the rank and power of a chief among the Mohegans. He became the inveterate enemy of Sassacus; and he was at the head of the Mohegans who accompanied Captain Mason against the Pequods, in 1637. He was always the firm friend of the English; and during that dark period, when King Philip succeeded in arming all the New England tribes against the white people, Uncas remained faithful. He even took up arms against Philip, and with two hundred Mohegans, and a greater number of subjugated Pequods, he marched with Major Talcott to Brookfield and Hadley, and at the latter place assisted in defeating seven hundred of Philip's savage allies. Like Philip, Uncas was opposed to the preaching of Christianity among his people, preferring to have them believe in the religion of his fathers. Yet he never used coercive measures in opposition; and, finally, he so far yielded, that on one occasion, when the country was suffering from a great drought, he asked a Christian minister to pray for rain. A copious shower fell the next day, and Uncas became like King Agrippa in the presence of Paul-he was almost persuaded to become a Christian. In 1659, Uncas gave a deed to several white people, conveying to them a large tract of land at the head of the Pequod river [the Thames], and there the city of Norwich was founded. The exact period of the death of Uncas is unknown. It is supposed to have occurred about 1683, when he was succeeded by his son Owaneko, or Oneco, who distinguished himself on the side of the English, in King Philip's war. In his old age, Oneco used to go about begging, accompanied by his squaw. As he could not speak English well, Richard Bushnell wrote the following lines for him to present to the benevolent:

"Oneco, King, his queen doth bring to beg a little food,

As they go along their friends among, to try how kind and good;
Some pork, some beef, for their relief; and if you can't spare bread,

She'll thank you for your pudding, as they go a gooding, and carry it on her head."

A neat granite obelisk, about twenty feet in height, has been erected in the city of Norwich, to the memory of Uncas. The foundation stone was laid in

1825, by General Jackson; and in the small cemetery in which it stands, a descendant of Uncas, named Mazeon, was buried in 1827. There are a few of the Mohegan tribe yet living, near Norwich; but soon it may be written upon a tomb-stone, "The last of the Mohegans."

A

KING PHILIP.

GENEROUS mind readily appreciates and commends an exhibition of true patriotism, even by an enemy. Those who regard the Indian as without the pale of the sympathies of civilization, are often compelled to yield reluctant admiration of the qualities which make men heroes, sages, and patriots, when exhibited by this taboo'd race. No one appears more prominent as a claimant for consideration on account of these qualities, than Metacomet, the last chief of the Wampanoags of Rhode Island, known in history as King Philip. He was one of two sons of Massasoit, the sachem' who gave a friendly welcome to the Pilgrim Fathers. They were named, respectively, Alexander and Philip, by governor Winslow, in compliment to their father. Alexander was the eldest, and succeeded his father in authority. He died, and his mantle fell upon Philip, a bold, powerful-minded warrior, whose keen perception had already given him uneasiness respecting the future of his race. He saw, year after year, the encroachments of the white people, yet he faithfully kept the treaty of his father, with them. He even endured insults and gross indignities; and when his hotblooded warriors gathered around his throne upon Mount Hope, and counselled war, he refused to listen. At length forbearance seemed no longer a virtue, and the hatchet was lifted.

Among the "praying Indians," as Eliot's converts were called, was one who had been educated at Cambridge, and was employed as a teacher. On account of some misdemeanor, he had fled to Philip, and became his secretary. He afterward returned to the white people, and accused Philip of treasonable designs. Because of this charge, he was waylaid and murdered by some of the Wampanoags. Three suspected men were tried, convicted on slender testimony, and hanged. The ire of the Wampanoags was fiercely kindled. Philip was cautious, for he knew his weakness; his young warriors were impetuous, for they counted not the cost of war. The sachem was finally overruled; and remembering the indignities which he had suffered from the English, he trampled solemn treaties under foot, and lighted the flame of war. Messengers were sent to other tribes, and with all the power of Indian eloquence, Philip exhorted his followers to curse the white man, and to swear eternal hostility to the "pale faces." The events which followed have been detailed in our sketch of Captain Church, and need not be repeated here. Metacomet was a patriot of truest stamp, and his general character, measured by the standard of true appreciation, in which all controlling circumstances are considered, bears a favorable comparison with the patriots of other lands, and of more enlightened people. His death occurred in August, 1776, when he was about fifty years of age. During the war, the government of Plymouth offered thirty shillings for every head of an Indian killed in battle. The faithless Wampanoag received that price"thirty pieces of silver"-for his master's head.

1. Sachem and Chief are distinct characters, yet they are sometimes found in the same person. A sachem is the civil head of a tribe; a chief is a military leader. Philip was both.