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Page 44
"This summary process was as effectual in those simple days as was
the seal-ring of the great Haroun Alraschid among the true
believers. The two parties being confronted before him, each
produced a book of accounts, written in a language and character
that would have puzzled any but a High-Dutch commentator, or a
learned decipherer of Egyptian obelisks. The sage Wouter took them
one after the other, and having poised them in his hands, and
attentively counted over the number of leaves, fell straightway
into a very great doubt, and smoked for half an hour without saying
a word; at length, laying his finger beside his nose, and shutting
his eyes for a moment, with the air of a man who has just caught a
subtle idea by the tail, he slowly took his pipe from his mouth,
puffed forth a column of tobacco-smoke, and with marvelous gravity
and solemnity pronounced, that, having carefully counted over the
leaves and weighed the books, it was found, that one was just as
thick and as heavy as the other: therefore, it was the final
opinion of the court that the accounts were equally balanced:
therefore, Wandle should give Barent a receipt, and Barent should
give Wandle a receipt, and the constable should pay the costs.
"This decision, being straightway made known, diffused general joy
throughout New Amsterdam, for the people immediately perceived that
they had a very wise and equitable magistrate to rule over them.
But its happiest effect was, that not another lawsuit took place
throughout the whole of his administration; and the office of
constable fell into such decay, that there was not one of those
losel scouts known in the province for many years. I am the more
particular in dwelling on this transaction, not only because I deem
it one of the most sage and righteous judgments on record, and well
worthy the attention of modern magistrates, but because it was a
miraculous event in the history of the renowned Wouter--being the
only time he was ever known to come to a decision in the whole
course of his life."
This peaceful age ended with the accession of William the Testy, and the
advent of the enterprising Yankees. During the reigns of William Kieft
and Peter Stuyvesant, between the Yankees of the Connecticut and the
Swedes of the Delaware, the Dutch community knew no repose, and the
"History" is little more than a series of exhausting sieges and
desperate battles, which would have been as heroic as any in history if
they had been attended with loss of life. The forces that were gathered
by Peter Stuyvesant for the expedition to avenge upon the Swedes the
defeat at Fort Casimir, and their appearance on the march, give some
notion of the military prowess of the Dutch. Their appearance, when they
were encamped on the Bowling Green, recalls the Homeric age:--
"In the centre, then, was pitched the tent of the men of battle of
the Manhattoes, who, being the inmates of the metropolis, composed
the lifeguards of the governor. These were commanded by the valiant
Stoffel Brinkerhoof, who, whilom had acquired such immortal fame at
Oyster Bay; they displayed as a standard a beaver _rampant_ on a
field of orange, being the arms of the province, and denoting the
persevering industry and the amphibious origin of the Nederlands.
"On their right hand might be seen the vassals of that renowned
Mynheer, Michael Paw, who lorded it over the fair regions of
ancient Pavonia, and the lands away south even unto the Navesink
mountains, and was moreover patroon of Gibbet Island. His standard
was borne by his trusty squire, Cornelius Van Vorst; consisting of
a huge oyster _recumbent_ upon a sea-green field; being the
armorial bearings of his favorite metropolis Communipaw. He brought
to the camp a stout force of warriors, heavily armed, being each
clad in ten pair of linsey-woolsey breeches, and overshadowed by
broad-brimmed beavers, with short pipes twisted in their hat-bands.
These were the men who vegetated in the mud along the shores of
Pavonia, being of the race of genuine copperheads, and were fabled
to have sprung from oysters.
"At a little distance was encamped the tribe of warriors who came
from the neighborhood of Hell-gate. These were commanded by the Suy
Dams, and the Van Dams,--incontinent hard swearers, as their names
betoken. They were terrible looking fellows, clad in broad-skirted
gaberdines, of that curious colored cloth called thunder and
lightning,--and bore as a standard three devil's darning-needles,
_volant_, in a flame-colored field.
"Hard by was the tent of the men of battle from the marshy borders
of the Waale-Boght and the country thereabouts. These were of a
sour aspect, by reason that they lived on crabs, which abound in
these parts. They were the first institutors of that honorable
order of knighthood called _Fly-market shirks_, and, if tradition
speak true, did likewise introduce the far-famed step in dancing
called 'double trouble.' They were commanded by the fearless
Jacobus Varra Vanger,--and had, moreover, a jolly band of
Breuckelen ferry-men, who performed a brave concerto on conch
shells.
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