country in its fairest colors. Perhaps Nicolls had already planned to obtain a grant of Albania for himself, and hoped to leave behind him to his collateral heirs a fine estate. He had already given tracts of land at Elizabethtown to four families from Jamaica, Long Island, and had confirmed another purchase from the Indians near Sandy Hook. He was evidently preparing to extend his authority over the fair lands of Albania.

The Duke of York in June, 1664, before the fall of New Netherland, had conveyed all of what is now New Jersey to two court favoritesSir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley of Stratton. Carteret, brave, passionate, impulsive, had deserved well of his king. When Charles was an exile Carteret had given him a refuge on his island of Jersey, of which he was governor and where his family had been eminent for many centuries. He had boldly resisted the parliamentary forces and yielded only at the command of his king. He came back at the restoration, to become a favorite servant of Charles and James, and to live forever in his true colors. In the amusing portraiture of Samuel Pepys, no one can forget the bold, fierce controller of the navy, or the rare art with which Pepys brought his son Philip Carteret to marry Lady Jemina Montague.

Berkeley, too, had deserved rewards and favors. But the grant to the two patentees had been kept secret from the commissioners and was a perfect surprise to Nicolls. The first news of it came to him from Virginia. Here Philip Carteret, a cousin of Sir George, had been driven by storms into the Chesapeake. He had been appointed governor of the new colony, which was to be called New Cesarea, or New Jersey, in honor of the Carterets and their native island. Carteret brought with him a letter from James to Nicolls directing him to aid the grantees and give up the province. He obeyed, but evidently with intense disappointment and regret. He even ventured to write a remonstrance to the duke, pressing him to give Carteret and Berkeley other lands along the Delaware. He urged that New Jersey was the most valuable part of the duke's possession, capable of receiving "twenty times more people than Long Island." "I gave it the name of Albania," he adds, and the blow was one that he felt most keenly. Yet it was a most fortunate event for the future progress of the country. Carteret by the

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concessions" was able to give free institutions to his people. Carrying a hoe on his shoulder, he landed at the head of thirty emigrants he had brought over and founded Elizabethtown. It was named in honor of Sir George's wife. New Jersey under his liberal government soon began to flourish; New-York, however, under

the despotic rule of Nicolls, scarcely advanced. Many towns grew up on the Jersey shore: Elizabeth, Perth Amboy, Middletown, and Newark were settled by active and cultivated immigrants. Carteret had no easy place at the head of his free and turbulent people. He lived amidst perpetual discord. But his temper was mild, his disposition liberal. He married an intelligent and wealthy wife, and lived and died at Elizabeth. To the free spirit of his laws New Jersey owes much of its greatness and of the

vigorous growth that has made it always a bulwark of union and independence.

Late in August Nicolls sailed up the Hudson for the first time, surveyed its wild and desolate shores, and reached Albany in safety. He went there ostensibly to quiet the Indians, but more probably to observe the conduct of the Dutch inhabitants. He placed Captain Baker in charge

of the fort at Albany, with instructions to keep THE CARTERET ARMS. strict watch and discipline, to live in peace with the Dutch, and avoid all disputes and differences. Captain Manning he removed to NewYork. He licensed the first English school-master at Albany, one of Baker's soldiers. On his return down the river in October, he stopped at Esopus, where Brodhead was in command, and gave him some wise counsel. He was to be patient, prudent, forbearing. But Brodhead forgot the advice, and was soon in open hostility with the Dutch settlers. At Esopus, Nicolls bought large tracts of land from the Indians. The loss of New Jersey had evidently led him to wish to draw settlers to the banks of the Hudson. He wrote a prospectus, a taking account of the advantages offered to planters under the "Duke's Laws" and of the fertility of the lands. This paper he was obliged to print at Cambridge. Here the only printing-press existed in all the English possessions of America; New-York had not a printer then.

One of the peculiar traits of the time when printers were few was the trial of Ralph and Mary Hall for the "abominable crime" of witchcraft. It was held before the Court of Assize of New-York in October, 1665. A jury of respectable merchants and others was summoned, of whom Jacob Leisler, afterwards so conspicuous and so unfortunate, was one. The sheriff, Anthony, produced his prisoners. They were from Seatalcott or Brookhaven, Long Island, and were charged with having procured the deaths of one George Wood by wicked arts and of the infant child of Ann Rogers, "widdow of ye aforesaid George Wood." Several witnesses testified to the facts. "Then the clarke calling upon Ralph Hall, bad him hold up his hand and read as follows: 'Ralph Hall, thou standest here indicted for that, not having the fear of God before thine eyes, thou didst upon

VOL. I.-21.

the 25th day of December, as is suspected, by some wicked and detestable arts, cause the deaths of the said George Wood and the infante childe.'" The wife, Mary Hall, was summoned in the same way. Both prisoners pleaded not guilty. The jury, who had some intelligence, gave them the advantage of the doubt. Hall was acquitted. Some suspicion, they allowed, rested upon his wife, and he was directed to give bonds for her good conduct. But Governor Nicolls in 1668, with his usual moderation, set them both free. Some years later Katherine Harrison, a widow from Wethersfield, Connecticut, was charged by the people of Westchester with witchcraft. They were anxious to drive her from their borders, but she proved her innocence so clearly that she was allowed "to remaine in the towne of Westchester." New-York officials were free from the mad superstition that covered Old and New England with judicial murders; her juries never condemned a witch.

Nicolls in November wrote to the duke that his government was satisfactory to the people, and that even the republicans could find no cause for complaint. He urged his patron to send over merchant ships, for the trade of the city was nearly lost. Yet he foretold the future greatness of New-York; he saw that it must become the chief port of the continent. Hither, he said, and not to Boston, must come the commerce of America. But he complained of the neglect shown towards him by the ministry; no supplies had reached him from England, he had nearly ruined his private fortune to save his soldiers from want, and now he begged to be relieved of his command. He proposed as his successor Captain Harry Norwood, who had gone to England, but who, he thought, would be acceptable to the soldiers and the country. To this request Clarendon replied in a complimentary letter, but refusing it. No one but Nicolls, he thought, could so well fill the place of Governor.

At this moment there was good reason why no troops nor supplies came from England. Charles had entered upon the war with the Netherlands, hoping to crush them easily. He chose a moment when the plague raged in its cities, when fifteen hundred persons died of it in one week at Amsterdam, when the Orange faction was clamoring against De Witt, and the republic was still borne down by an excessive debt. At first he had been successful. De Witt had sent out one of the finest fleets the Dutch had ever possessed. It was commanded by Obdam, a brave if not a skilful officer; Cortenaer was his viceadmiral, and the most famous Dutch captains, except De Ruyter, who was on a distant expedition, appeared in the fleet. The crews were well fed with increased rations, and promised pensions to the wounded and double pensions to their wives and children in case of death. A great reward was offered to any one who captured a flag

ship. One hundred and three line-of-battle ships, eleven fire-ships, and twelve galliots, besides a reserve squadron of forty ships more, all manned by twenty-two thousand men, completed this unequaled armament. All was hope and

ardor, we are told by D'Estrades, among the Dutch soldiers and sailors; they were full of cheerfulness and certain of success. The English fleet numbered one hundred and nine line-ofbattle ships, twenty-one fire-ships, seven galliots, and twenty-one thousand men. The Duke of York, the Earl of Sandwich, and Prince Rupert were in chief command. The fire-ships used in these naval contests were often of great service; they closed with the larger vessels and were then set on fire.

CORNELIUS DE WITT.

The two fleets met off Lowestoft, on the Surrey coast, on the 2d of June. A frightful combat followed; Cortenaer, the Dutch vice-admiral, was shot early in the battle, and his squadron fled; Obdam assailed the Duke of York, on his flag-ship, but his own ship blew up, and all on board were lost. The Dutch were beaten. They fled to their harbors with great loss, and the enraged people met their defeated officers with outcries and ill-usage. The brave Evertsen they nearly killed, throwing him into one of the canals, whence he was taken by some soldiers. The English were full of triumph. "It is the greatest victory that ever was," wrote Pepys in his secret diary; and the king ordered medals to be struck inscribed "et pontus serviret "-"the sea shall obey him." The English were plainly masters of the sea. But not for a long time. John De Witt was now the ruling statesman of the Netherlands. He formed a happy contrast to the corrupt kings and ministers of his age. Honest, firm, unyielding, pure in morals, an excellent husband and father, learned, and the friend of all men of letters, but above all a patriot, De Witt for twenty years, as Grand Pensionary of Holland, led on his countrymen to unusual prosperity. Dutch fleets covered the seas. Dutch commerce supplied the wants

of Europe. The cities of Holland were full of activity and wealth, the envy and the models of their contemporaries. But it was as the teachers of republican virtue and simplicity that the Dutch had chiefly alarmed and offended the profligate rulers of France and England. A sense of their own moral inferiority sharpened the rage of Charles, James, and Louis against De Witt and his associates. The republic must be subdued, the monitor blotted from existence, and the conscience of nations deadened and destroyed. Happily the event was very different, and the corrupt monarchs succeeded only in rousing again an impulse of reform that became at last irresistible.

De Witt, unshaken in defeat, succeeded in awakening the patriotism of his people. He went in person to the fleet, punished the cowardly, rewarded the brave, celebrated the memories of the two brave admirals Obdam and Cortenaer. The fleet was fitted out anew, and suddenly the return of De Ruyter with twelve line-of-battle ships, a great number of prizes, and two thousand tried sailors added to the general confidence and joy. The people crowded to see their famous hero, women kissed and embraced him. He received them all with his usual good humor; they hailed him as the savior of the republic. He was made at once admiral of the fleet.

man.

De Ruyter was the chief naval commander of his time. He was born in extreme poverty at Flushing, the son of a brewer's journeyHe went to sea at eleven as a cabin-boy, was then a common sailor, and soon made his way by his skill and courage to the highest place in the navy. Modest, honest, sincere, amiable, he was often unwilling to take the high positions offered him. He was a faithful friend of De Witt and always eager to obey him. But every one felt his real superiority as a commander and a citizen; his return at once roused his countrymen from their depression. He was of middle stature, we are told, but good figure, his forehead broad, his complexion ruddy, dark eyes and beard, and a grave yet gentle countenance that reflected the brave spirit within. He reminds one of the faithful Batavians who formed the most trusted portion of the Roman legions in Britain. But the Dutch found another and a dreadful ally to avenge their miseries. The plague broke out in London; at first it was scarcely noticed. Pepys relates that there were several houses shut up, with the cross and the "Lord have mercy upon us" on them-a thing he had never seen before. But soon the pestilence raged with unexampled violence. In the hot months of August and September ten thousand persons sometimes died in a single week. London was abandoned by all who could escape-except a few honorable and noble men and women who remained to aid the sick and bury the dead. It was a deserted city, the grass growing in the desolate streets. People passed through it in horror. But as the winter came on the disease decreased,