No. I. "mea nemo - ob hanc rem, Quod sunt, quos genus hoc minime juvat, utpote plures WHEN the Memoir was read, a vote of thanks. and an appointment of a committee to obtain a copy for publication, followed, as matters of course. In consequence of my absence, in Albany, the remainder of the winter, the copy was not furnished until in the spring; and, from intervening occurrences, the publication was farther delayed. On the 12th of August, the publication still remaining to be commenced, the Society passed a resolution, recalling the vote of thanks, unless I would submit the Memoir to a committee, to expunge from it in their discretion. I cannot bring myself to think so meanly of their understandings, as to suppose they were not sensible, at the time, that, so far from acceding to the proffer, I should forbear from noticing it, farther than instantly to withdraw myself from them. I mention, in the Memoir, "that the subject furnishes little to please, perhaps less to instruct." The obnoxious passages have never been specified; circumstances, however, if the case merited it, could be mentioned, from which it might, with tolerable certainty, be guessed, they were among those designed for instruction. It obviously ought not to be unflattering to me; they have been, and from only being once heard, when read, remembered and pondered for a full half year. I have understood it is held among physicians, that the longer the draught, pill, or bolus, (and my Memoir, perhaps, something not unlike a compound of all three,) is retained, the better, if effect is finally produced; and the more violent the effect, the more they conclude the drug to have been genuine. The intent of the above, is to explain whence the publication of the Memoir, and not the vote of thanks, or even denoting myself a Member of the Society. I interleaved a few copies of the first impression of it, designed for particular distribution, with notes, in manuscript; none of them, however, as will be perceived, tending to vary the import of a single sentence in the text, which, as it is to be my Memorial, must ever remain the same as read. No. II. THE Memoir is to be considered as a piece in the loom; and the subject, as professed, Names, to serve only "as the warp for the interwoven woof;" and, to compare small things with great, in the famous weaving match of old, the fair websters had, probably, the like warp-"the skill of the GODDESS-ONE appeared in the woof; and the four lessons, the finish of the work, decided her victorious." I trust there will not be found, in my piece, a lesson, whether, as sentiment, and not just; or, as hint, or hit, and not fair. There is always an understood limit to the time allowed for discourses, however variously denominated, to be read before a society, or other assemblage of persons, convened for the occasion; hence, as to sundry subjects, comprised in the general one, I was restricted to mere instances, or examples, to aid as intimations to others disposed to a farther or more particular inquiry; in short, but with a saving from the imputation of a vanity in the first expression in the sentence, I had to make it a multum in parvo. No. III.-PAGE 6. FROM the passages cited from De Laet and Van Der Donck, and from others, relative to it, briefly interspersed through the pages, and although some are not citations, still none wholly without warrant, may be collected the history of the discovery of the coun try by the Dutch, and the occupancy and settlement of it by them; at least as much of it, very probably, as is worth research. No. IV.-PAGE 11. PETRUS STUYVESANT was the last of the Governors of the Colony, under the Dutch. He arrived in 1647, and the records of his administration are duly entire to serve as proof of character. He was of the profession of arms, and had lost a limb in the service; and hence the Indians, at times, in contumely, called him Wooden-leg-he being their dread; not unlike them. His skill or experience, and peculiarly his military habits, must have stood him in very beneficial stead, in his command here,-being incessantly vexed with the marauding clans of the Mohegan family-their homes, then, still adjacent to the Hudson and Rariton, and intermediate waters. Let a few instances suffice: At one time, and within a few weeks after a treaty of amity with them, 700 landed at the town, early in the morning, without notice, armed with bows and arrows; toward the close of the day they became disorderly; and, on the cry of murder, the inhabitants immediately betook themselves to their arms, and compelled them to re-embark and retire, with the loss of three of their number, killed-two of the whites were killed. At another time, they made an irruption into the settlement, the site of the present town of Bergen, burnt the houses, killed a number of the inhabitants, and carried off 100 of them, prisoners. Again; while he was absent, occupied in reducing the Swedish fortresses on the Delaware, 900 crossed the river, landed at Spuyten-duyvel Creek, took post there, and rerained until they were apprised that he had returned. Again; 900 intruded into the town, but perceiving the inhabitants prepared to receive them, they, after a stay of a few hours, went off. Orders of the government, during the period, "forbidding the Skippers to sail on the river, unless in companies of three, or at least two, yachts, well armed; and the inhabitants to be on their guard against the Indians, and patrol during Divine service, per vices." The claims of his neighbours on the east, the whites of New-England, were a source of disquietude and perplexity to him. In one of his letters to his principals, the West India Company, cited by our historian, he expresses himself, "You imagine the troubles in England will prevent any attempt on these parts; Alas! they are ten to one in number to us ; and are able, without any assistance, to deprive us of the country when they please; and their demands, encroachments, and usurpations, give the people great concern; the right to both rivers, by purchase and possession, being our own, without dispute." This indicates not only his suspicion, but a settled apprehension in him, that they meditated, ultimately, to wrest from the Dutch the whole of their possessions here; and the difficulty of his situation was increased by the reflection, that the case, apparently, admitted of no rule of compromise, or conressions. Indeed, if there were, he had little to hope from good disposition in them; on the contrary, in |