short reach instantly on passing West Point. It has been said that MARTELAER was in use among the Dutch, figuratively, to signify contending or struggling, as well as suffering. The reach is more at a right angle with the general course of the river than any other in it, and you may have the wind from the westward, and still so fair as to lay your course the whole of the distance from New-York to Albany, till you come to turn West Point, and then right ahead, so that you have to beat, and to contend, and struggle with it to weather the high rocky point on the opposite side of the river.

Pownal, in the journal already referred to, says, "on having entered this pass," the pass at the BOTER BERGH, Butter Hill, from its supposed resemblance to a roll of butter, "a very peculiar rock, called Martler's Rock, projects from the east into the river, and at the foot of these immense high mountains, although it is as high as a sloop's mast, looks like a dwarf or mole." The journalist was afterwards governor of the colony of the Massachusetts Bay; and if, judging from Martler's Rock and Topang Sea, it should be insinuated, that seemingly the ministry at home, the mode of expression generally used when speaking of the administration in the parent country, did not always exercise the best care and judgment in choosing governors for the colonies, it may be conceded, and not to be wondered at; had they been, as we have since become, privileged to choose for themselves in their own case, it must be presumed, and to borrow the phraseology of that part of the ancient writ of election for members of Parliament, doubtless

intended as admonition to the electors from the Lord Chancellor, the keeper of the sovereign's conscience, it being of his functions to issue it, "the best, most able, and discreet men for business," would have been sought for and preferred. We, however, must do them the justice, that, as it regarded us they were so far mindful of the respect due to us, as never to disparage us by placing over us a person of mean condition. Indeed, it was something we used to boast of above our neighbours, that of our governors in chief, the greater part of them were either noblemen, or of noble descent, or of the order of knighthood. The Indian name of only one of the whole number has come down to us, the name given to Fletcher. The occasion is thus related by our historian, among the transactions of the winter of 1693: "The governor was a soldier by profession-his extraordinary despatch up to Albany, on the first news of the descent of the French and Indians on the country of the Mohocks, gained him the esteem both of the public and our Indian allies. The express reached New-York on the 12th of February, at ten o'clock in the night, and in less than three days he embarked with three hundred volunteers. The river, which was heretofore very uncommon at that season, was open, and he landed at Albany, and arrived at Schenectady on the 17th of the month; but still too late to be of any other use than to strengthen the ancient alliance. The Indians, in commendation of his activity on the occasion, gave him the name of Cayenguirago, or the great swift arrow"-A name expressive of the speed with which he flew to the relief and succour of his

friends and allies; what an honourable memorial! The corporation of our city, in July thereafter, presented "an address of thanks to him for the great care he had taken for the security of the province; and also a cup of gold, as a token of their gratitude to their majesties, for appointing a person of so great vigilance, prowess, and conduct, to rule over us."

We must admit him to have been stout of heart, and if correct in judgment, correct to perceive the extent of it, and, of course, farther correct, free from pretensions beyond it, and then, rarely otherwise than correct to discern what is fit and commendable, and so, ultimately correct both in opinion and conduct, throughout, another compliment awaited him far more grateful. On a subsequent occasion, they attribute "to his prudence, that all their late heats and animosities are healed." The governor, the guide, the guardian, the father of the people, healing their heats and animosities! how suitably, how worthily occupied!-the "civil discord," known as "the troubles in Leisler's time," "the heats and animosities" intended--unhappy Leisler! made to suffer for treason, and his heart at the time filled with affectionate loyalty to his prince, William of Orange, emphatically of GLORIOUS MEMORY, a deliverer of Europe at the period from the ambition of a ruler of the French, Lewis of Bourbon, the fourteenth of the name, aspiring at the empire of it universally, and for which his people, in their own vanity, and to gratify his, surnamed him great.

The LANGE RACK, the Long Reach, the reach from POLLEPEL Island to the short turn in the river, the KROM ELLEBOOG; the first syllable retained, and the

last translated, its present name, the Crom Elbow.-LEPEL is a spoon-a POLLEPEL a ladle, and particularly the one with a short handle for beating the batter for the WAFEL; the resemblance of the island to the convex side of the bowl of the ladle, the origin of the name: a point in the long reach DANSE KAMER, dancing chamber, still retaining its name.

WILTWYCK, the Dutch name for the town of Kingston-literally Wildwich or Indianwich. The Dutch built a redoubt on the bank of the creek, at the landing, and thence the creek known as REDOUT Kill, corrupted to Rundout Kill. A second company of Walloons, consisting of twelve families, came over very early, and settled on the southern branch of the REDOUT KILL, and from them called the WAALE KILL, corrupted to Wallkill; their settlement is referred to in an ancient grant as the Frenchmen's Land-they gave it the name of the PALTZ, the Palatinate, having probably taken refuge there in the first instance: the two islands in the river, MAGDALEN Island, and SLYPSTEEN, Grindstone, Island, retain their Dutch names; the point projecting from the east shore toward the last, its Dutch name ROODE HOECK, translated, Redhook-the creek, ROELOF JANSEN's KILL, retaining its Dutch name; as does also the creek on the opposite side of the river, the CAT'S KILL. The following circumstances may, perhaps, serve for a probable conjecture whence the name of the first of these two creeks-Jan, John, and Roelof, some have supposed Ralph, very common Christian names; and, accordingly, not unusual for a number to pass by the conbination of the latter, with the patro

nymic from the former, Roelof Janse, and the true surname never noticed-among those, the subjects of the usage, was a Roelof Jansen, overseer of the Orphan Chamber, and so named in the public records, even when mentioned of him in reference to his trust. His widow, in 1638, married to Domine Everardus Bogardus, the first minister who came over from Holland, and sent by the West India Company, they claiming to be the Patrons of the Churches in the Colony; the term used in the English law sense, entitled to present the preacher. The Dutch called our Catamount or Panther, at times, Het Catlos, but more generally HET CAT, emphatically the Cat; it is also their name for the domestic cat, except when to distinguish the male, and which is then called the KATER; and hence, mistaking the origin of the name, a branch of it has received the name of the KATER'S KILL. The Island between Cats Kill and Hudson, under the east shore Vastrick's Island, so called after Gerrit Vastrick.

HET KLAUVER RACK, the Clover Reach-the Reach at Hudson-the Bluffs, or terminations of the hills there, on the east side of the river, called by the Dutch the KLAUVERS, the Clovers, from their resemblance, it is said, to the clover, but whether to the leaf or the flower, different opinions. BEEREN Island and the OVERSLAGH, still retaining their Dutch names. The Dutch navigators speak of the river Gambia, on the coast of Africa, as having an OVERSLAGH, a bar, at its mouth.

A few were selected from the crews of the Dutch ships which sailed up the river the following year