CHAP. VI.-Showing the great Advantage that the Author has over his Reader in time of Battle-together with CHAP. VII.—Containing the most horrible Battle ever re- CHAP. VIII.-In which the Author and the Reader, while reposing after the Battle, fall into a very grave Discourse -after which is recorded the Conduct of Peter Stuy- vesant after his Victory ..................................... CONTAINING the third PART OF THE REIGN OF PETER THE CHAP. I.-How Peter Stuyvesant relieved the Sovereign CHAP. II.-HOW Peter Stuyvesant was much molested by the Moss-Troopers of the East, and the Giants of Merry- land; and how a dark and horrid Conspiracy was car- CHAP. III. Of Peter Stuyvesant's Expedition into the CHAP. V. Showing how the Grand Council of the New- Netherlands came to be miraculously gifted with long Tongues-Together with a great Triumph of Economy. 331 CHAP. VI.-In which the Troubles of New-Amsterdam appear to thicken-Showing the Bravery, in Time of Peril, of a People who defend themselves by Resolutions 336 CHAP. VII.-Containing a doleful Disaster of Anthony the Trumpeter; and how Peter Stuyvesant like a se- cond Cromwell, suddenly dissolved a Rump Parliament. 345 CHAP. VIII.-How Peter Stuyvesant defended the City ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR. It was some time, if I recollect right, in the early part of the fall of 1808, that a stranger applied for lodgings at the Independent Columbian Hotel in Mulberry Street, of which I am Landlord. He was a small, brisk-looking old gentleman, dressed in a rusty black coat, a pair of olive velvet breeches, and a small cocked hat. He had a few gray hairs plaited and clubbed behind, and his beard seemed to be of some eight and forty hours' growth. The only piece of finery which he bore about him was a bright pair of square silver shoe-buckles and all his baggage was contained in a pair of saddle-bags, which he carried under his arm. His whole appearance was something out of the common run; and my wife, who is a very shrewd body, at once set him down for some eminent country school master. As the Independent Columbian Hotel is a very small house, I was a little puzzled at first where to put him; but my wife, who seemed taken with his looks, would needs put him in her best chamber, which is genteelly set off with the profiles of the whole family, done in black, by those two great painters, Jarvis and Wood; and commands a very pleasant view of the new grounds on the Collect, together with the rear of the Poor-House and Bridewell, and the full front of the Hospital; so that it is the cheerfullest room in the whole house. During the whole time that he staid with us, we found him a very worthy good sort of an old gentleman, though a little queer in his ways. He would keep in his room for days together, and if any of the children cried, or made a noise about his door, he would bounce out in a great passion, with his hands full of papers, and say something about "deranging his ideas;" which made my wife believe sometimes that he was not altogether compos. Indeed there was more than one reason to make her think so, for his room was always covered with scraps of paper and old mouldy books, lying about at sixes and sevens, which he never would let any body touch; for he said he had laid them all away in their proper places, so that he might know where to find them; though, for that matter, he was half his time worrying about the house in search of some book or writing which he had carefully put out of the way. I shall never forget what a pother he once made, because my wife cleaned out his room when his back was turned, and put every thing to rights; for he swore he would never be able to get his papers in order again in a twelvemonth. Upon this my wife ventured to ask him, what he did with so many books and papers? and he told her, that he was "seeking for immortality;" which made her think more than ever, that the poor old gentleman's head was a little cracked. He was a very inquisitive body, and when not in his room was continually poking about town, hearing all the news, and prying into every thing that was going on: this was particularly the case about election time, when he did nothing but bustle about from poll to poll, attending all ward meetings and committee rooms; though I could never find that he took part with either side of the question. On the contrary, he would come home and rail at both parties with great wrath-and plainly proved one day to the satisfaction of my wife and three old ladies who were drinking tea with her, that the two parties were like two rogues, each tugging at a skirt of the nation; and that in the end they would tear the very coat off its back, and expose its nakedness. Indeed he was an oracle among the neighbours, who would collect around him to hear him talk of an afternoon, as he smoked his pipe on the bench before the door; and I really believe he would have brought over the whole neighbourhood to his own side of the question, if they could ever have found out what it was. He was very much given to argue, or, as he called it, philosophize, about the most trifling matter, and to do him justice, I never knew any body that was a match for him, except it was a grave looking gentleman who called now and then to see him, and often posed him in an argument. But this is nothing surprising, as I have since found out this stranger is the city librarian; and, of course, must be a man of great learning: and I have my doubts, if he had not some hand in the following history. As our lodger had been a long time with us, and we |