1842.] Collections of the N. Y. Historical Society. 93 tion of the continent was inhabited by savage hordes; within the United States the barbarous tribes appear to have been greatly depopulated, and the ancient and cultivated nations to have become extinct; even in Mexico and Peru the civilization of the first ages seems to have surpassed that of later times, and society generally was in a state of decadence. The old system-its moral and social elements, its capacity for self-improvement — had thus been fairly tested, and the time had arrived when a new race, and the Christian religion, were appointed to take possession of this soil." ART. III. Collections of the New York Historical Society. Second Series. Volume I. TWENTY years had elapsed since the New York Historical Society published a volume of its Collections. Their series had been too full of interest to leave this suspense of activity unregretted; especially had the third volume, printed in 1821, inspired the highest hopes. The names of its publishing committee were of good augury, and its contents proved the earnestness and zeal of men like Verplanck and Wheaton. The deep impression which was made on the public mind by the admirable anniversary discourse of Verplanck, has not yet passed away. It was one of the first, and, we will add, one of the most elaborate and most successful efforts to do justice to the lineage of the country, to vindicate fervently, yet fairly, the honor of its ancestry, and to set in bold relief the names of the great men whose influence had been generously exerted for the culture of its mind. A fine spirit of cosmopolitan willingness to receive every thing that had merit is combined in that production, not only with intense nationality, but with feelings of state pride and local attachments; and we never read it without wishing that his successors in the field of inquiry in New York, may ever display a spirit as liberal and enlarged, even in their most circumscribed researches. After exciting expectation by a volume of such rare merit, the Society for a fifth of a century suspended its labors, except, indeed, that in 1829 the History of New York by William Smith, with a continuation by the same author, which had so long remained in manuscript, was published under their direc tion. This silence was not the result of want of materials. These, it is understood, exist in abundance and at hand, and of the deepest interest. There is no one state in the Union which has not in its records many a tale of heroism and romance; but attractions cluster round the history of New York, and give to it a variety, contrasts, a movement and life, such as no republic in the world could ever before boast of. The most cultivated nations of Europe vied with each other for the possession of its soil; the dividing creeds of Christian parties disputed for the dominion of its mind; while the followers of Calvin were planting their churches along the Hudson, the disciples of Loyola were bearing the cross along the Mohawk, and building their chapels of bark on the waters of the Onondaga. The history of the Five Nations, the heroic race which held the keys to our country, long keeping possession of the head-springs of the Susquehannah and the Delaware, of the Hudson and the Ohio, all is included in the early history of New York, and, though fragmentarily narrated by Colden, yet in its early character is still imperfectly developed by any native historian. Colden wrote at a time when the rancor generated by the wars of the Reformation had not been appeased, and he could not do justice to the heroic fortitude of the Jesuit missionaries on the soil of New York. Charlevoix published his unsurpassed work at a time when the public in France was growing weary of the details of piety, and opinion was at strife with the old faith of the Roman church in the efficacy of its ordinances and the nature of its vows, when the world was more ready to scoff at self-renunciation as a folly, than to admire ardently the rapt enthusiasm of martyrs, and the sublime. courage of men who braved the superstitions and dangers of the wilderness with no other protection than a prayer-book and a gown. But time has softened their asperities. The age of wars for religious creeds has passed away, and humanity may now busy herself impartially in gathering up the memorials of self-devotion, of daring, of mental greatness, of which the traces are left in Western New York, even though the statute-book of the colony forbade the continued presence of the Romish envoys on pain of death, and its historian breathed the prayer that the prohibition might be perpetual. Our acquaintance with the early events on the Mohawk, and west of it, has been limited by too great a dependence on English sources: from the compendious narrative of Du 1842.] Collections of the N. Y. Historical Society. 95 Creux, from the annual reports of the Jesuit missionaries themselves, many a tale will be revived to lend a new charm to a region which, by its very successes in agriculture and commerce, its enterprise and its wealth, will revert with ever-increasing interest to the wilderness wars, and missions, and embassies, and martyrdoms, that checked the earliest period of its existence in history. There is scarcely a great name among the early French in America, from Champlain, who was the first of white men to skim a bark on its inland waters, to La Salle, who launched the first vessel on Lake Erie, but blends itself with the recollections of New York; while the destiny of the Iroquois confederacy, by its organization, its customs, its dominion over the wilderness, its brave and fruitless struggle against fate, demands of its successors at least a monument. If the collisions of Holland, England, and France, and the alliances and wars with the Five Nations, give attractive variety to the earliest history of New York, again in the wars for supremacy between France and England, it was the chosen battle-ground in America; and the strife did not cease till her sons knew the war-path to Canada as familiarly as did the heroes of the forest. In New York are the spots that gain an interest from the defeat of Dieskau, and the successes of Montcalm; there, too, the scenes that gain a charm from the hearty resistance to Burgoyne, by the noble valor and patriotism of the people; there the resting-place of Montgomery; there the height so gallantly defended by Clinton. There, too, is the ground on which Washington stood, when the news of disasters crowded on him so thickly, that, for the only time in his military career, they wrung from him an audible shriek of anguish there is the acclivity rising over the Hudson,* where the father of his country won his greatest victory over the discontent of a triumphant army, and hushing their passions by the memorable words, "I have not only grown gray, but blind in your service," closed his military life by asserting the rights of humanity, the liberties and the peace of his country. Since New York is so rich in events of universal interest, is it to public indifference that we are to attribute the long interruption of the activity of its Historical Society? Can it be that in our times of abundance, and even luxurious ease, we * John C. Hamilton; Life of Hamilton, vol. ii., p. 72. are careless of the hardships of those who won for us the pleasant heritage? In England and France the vast population concentrated in the cities, especially in London and Paris, quicken intellectual emulation by the easy access to a multitude of readers. The scattered population of America, in some parts of the south and the west, might appal a publisher, lest his book should hardly thread its way through field and forest to the homes of the curious; but the city of New York, in itself, has inhabitants enough to stimulate and to reward literary enterprise. Will not its dense population lend its cordial sympathy and aid to every effort for promoting an intimate acquaintance with the past? Will not a generous love of letters, and a due regard for our ancestors, awaken on the part of the public a spirit in harmony with the zeal and ambition of the historical inquirer? Shall the New York Historical Society ever again have cause to complain that its volumes engage little attention in the busy haunts of commerce? Shall it be allowed again to be hushed into long silence, without public rebuke? The first volume of this second series of the Collections of the New York Historical Society is not only the best it has ever published, but, in copiousness and historic value, excels any volume of historical collections as yet published by any society in the country. It is also ushered into the world with unpretending modesty. The publishing committee make no boasting claims to approbation; but, after gathering materials from various countries, most of them entirely new to the American public and some of them of exceeding rarity, they leave the reader to an unbiassed estimate of their worth. We cannot pass by the discourse of Chancellor Kent, without expressing alike a wish for the long continuance and the happiness of his life, and a regret that he has not poured out his recollections more liberally. His mind is so clear and so placid, at once loving his fellow man and willing to admire merit, that we could not grow weary in hearing him illustrate it. Born among the highlands, and familiar from childhood with the men who acquired immortal renown in defending its acclivities, he commands our gratitude, when now, venerable with years and honors, he seeks to place before us in fresh remembrance the merits of our ancestors;* and we leave his pages with a disposition to complain that he has * See Discourse, p. 20. 1842.] Collections of the N. Y. Historical Society. 97 not introduced us in greater detail to the brilliant deeds that illustrate the romantic regions round his birth-place. Here follows an account of the voyages of Verazzano, the famed Italian, who was probably the first European to cast anchor in the harbor of New York. See the bonds that hold together different ages and communities in intellectual life. Some careful antiquarian centuries ago deposited in a library at Florence the homely narrative of the sailor, as in his unpolished language he painted the wonderful incidents of his voyage to a New World, which had not then obtained vulgarly a name, and now, after the manuscript had reposed for centuries in the dust of a library, it sees the light for the first time in an island in which the homes of hundreds of thousands rise above the waters which the mariner was the first of Europeans to enter, finding nothing to observe but the harbor in its solitude, the river running almost silently between the hills, and a family of Indians gay with ornaments of many-colored feathers. Strange, indeed, that this account of the voyage, at least in its present form, should be printed for the first time in the very scene of which the discovery was the most signal incident of the adventure. It is accompanied by a translation made with scrupulous care; the New York Society owes the possession of the original to the present American consul at Rome, a gentleman who merits to be better known and more highly appreciated by his country men. To the Indian tradition respecting the first arrival of the Dutch, we attach very little importance. Stories that are told from memory nearly two centuries after an event, are at best but a branch of mythology. The villages of the Mohegans were scattered, and those around New York have long been nearly or quite extinct. An Indian chief, when pressed for a narrative, may have willingly yielded to the importunate curiosity of the missionary; the tradition speaks of the Great Mannitto, the Supreme Being, as already in his unity forming an article of the faith of the barbarians. All contemporary accounts agree that the natives, at the time of the discovery, worshipped an infinity of powers, and had not as yet obtained the distinct notion of unity. We are glad to meet, as in this volume, (pp. 79-122,) with a translation of the work of Lambrechtsen. It is written by a Dutchman in a national spirit, and with warm regard |