each court you will get at the earliest condition of the place and people. Collect from the old soldiers of the Revolution all the remarkable incidents coming to their knowledge of the war. This would collect many proofs of individual valor and many moving anecdotes. Get also from those pioneers who were the first settlers in the interior the many strange things they first saw in its savage state, and the contrast now." It was in this spirit he worked, making short journeys in every direction, consulting every old person likely to give him hints, watching the demolition of old buildings, and examining MSS. and papers wherever he could hunt them up. It is by his unwearied diligence that many things are preserved that would otherwise long since have passed into oblivion. In his rambles he collected many curiosities, pictures, portraits, autographs, etc., and his MS. annals in the Philadelphia Library and Historical Society are not only very curious, but valuable. In this spirit of preserving the memory of the great and good he caused the remains of Godfrey, the inventor of the quadrant, and those of his parents, to be removed to Laurel Hill and a monument to be placed over them, and a monument to be erected over the remains of General Nash; another over Colonel Irwin, Captain Turner, and others who fell at the battle of Germantown; one over the British officers, Brigadier-General James Agnew and Lieutenant Bird, who fell in the same battle; he endeavored to honor in like manner John Fitch's memory by a stone on the banks of the Mississippi, and interested himself in the erection of a monument to Charles Thomson in Laurel Hill. Mr. Watson's long life may be attributed to his temperate habits, his love of exercise and gardening, and his equanimity of temper. He was a man of few but strong attachments, of untiring energy and perseverance-strong in a religious belief, a firm patriot, though no politician, and a man of retentive memory. Besides the Annals and other local works, he wrote on many subjects, particularly on theology. While in New Orleans, and not then a pious young man, he originated the first Episcopal church there. For thirty years, up to his death, he was a communicant in St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Germantown. He persuaded G. W. P. Custis to write out his Recollections of Washington, and suggested the topics for that work. He was one of Macpherson's Blues, who formed a guard of honor in the funeral procession in memory of Washington, December 26th, 1799, which marched to the Lutheran church to hear the oration of General Henry Lee. Not one is now living. Mr. Watson died Sunday, December 23d, 1860, in the eightysecond year of his age. The Historical Society at a meeting on the 14th of January passed a series of resolutions expressing their deep regret at the loss of one of its most distinguished members, and requesting Rev. Benjamin Dorr, D. D., to prepare a memoir, which was read in public. From this memoir, with facts added by members of his family, this sketch of Mr. Watson has been prepared. This memoir was supplemented by a touching eulogy of the deceased by Hon. Horatio Gates Jones. In New York, Benson J. Lossing, the historian, and a friend of Watson, announced his death to the New York Historical Society in some appropriate remarks, and the society adopted a series of resolutions. Mr. Lossing also prepared a memoir of him, and published it in his Eminent Americans. Only two months after Mr. Watson's decease another annalist, and one of his friends, passed away-Dr. John W. Francis, the historian of New York City. ANNALS OF PHILADELPHIA AND PENNSYLVANIA. FROM HUDSON'S DISCOVERY OF THE DELAWARE TO THE DEATH OF PENN. CHAPTER I. SETTLEMENTS BY THE DUTCH ON THE DELAWARE, 1609-1638. THE originator of these Annals having already given an outline of the Colonial History of Philadelphia (Vol. I. p. 6, et seq.), it only remains for us to add a few details. Those who see the great city in our time can form but little conception of its appearance in 1609, when Hudson entered the bay, hesitating to pursue his way farther up the stream on account of shoals. But its site was a trackless wild, and covered with hills where now all is so level, and these again intersected by creeks. The inhabitants were numerous, principally of the Lenni Lenape Indian tribe. Hudson, an Englishman in the service of the Dutch East India Company, sailed north and discovered the river which bears his name, though sometimes called the North River, while the Delaware was known as the South River. It received its present name, soon after Hudson's visit, from the English in Virginia, after Lord de la War, who touched at its mouth about one year after Hudson, or in 1610. Thus matters rested till the expedition sent out by the Dutch East India Company under Cornelis Jacobsen Mey, who gave his name to Cape May and to Cape Hindlopen, Henlopen, or Hinloop, which he called Cornelis. He came amply provided with numbers and means of barter, subsistence, and defence. Mey, in the "Fortune," cruised along the Atlantic coast, taking the southern course, the others the northern coast as far as Cape Cod. After making their explorations, four of the vessels returned to Holland. Of the five vessels Mey brought with him, one was burnt at the mouth of Manhattan River, but it was replaced by a small craft they built of sixteen tons, forty-four and a half feet long and VOL. III.-B 2* 17 |