PETER THE HEADSTRONG.

Peter Stuyvesant was the last, and, like the renowned Wouter Van Twiller, the best of our ancient Dutch governors, Wouter having surpassed all who preceded him, and Pieter or Piet, as he was socially called by the old Dutch burghers, who were ever prone to familiarize names, having never been equalled by any successor. He was, in fact, the very man fitted by nature to retrieve the desperate fortunes of his beloved province, had not the fates, those most potent and unrelenting of all ancient spinsters, destined them to inextricable confusion.

To say merely that he was a hero would be doing him great injustice: he was, in truth, a combination of heroes; for he was of a sturdy, raw-boned make like Ajax Telamon, with a pair of round shoulders that Hercules would have given his hide for (meaning his lion's hide), when he undertook to ease old Atlas of his load. He was, moreover, as Plutarch describes Coriolanus, not only terrible for the force of his arm, but likewise of his voice, which sounded as though it came out of a barrel; and, like the self-same warrior, he possessed a sovereign contempt for the sovereign people, and an iron aspect, which was enough of itself to make the very bowels of his adversaries quake with terror and dismay. All this martial excellency of appearance was inexpressibly heightened by an accidental advantage, with which I am surprised that neither Homer nor Virgil have graced any of their heroes. This was nothing less than a wooden leg, which was the only prize he had gained in bravely fighting the battles of his country, but of which he was so proud, that he was often heard to declare he valued it more than all his other limbs put together; indeed, so highly did he esteem it, that he had it gallantly enchased and relieved with silver devices, which caused it to be related in divers histories and legends that he wore a silver leg.

Like that choleric warrior Achilles, he was somewhat subject to extempore bursts of passion, which were rather unpleasant to his favorites and attendants, whose perceptions he was apt to quicken, after the manner of his illustrious

imitator, Peter the Great, by anointing their shoulders with his walking-staff. Though I cannot find that he had read Plato, or Aristotle, or Hobbes, or Bacon, or Algernon Sydney, or Tom Paine, yet did he sometimes manifest a shrewdness and sagacity in his measures that one would hardly expect from a man who did not know Greek, and had never studied the ancients. True it is, and I confess it with sorrow, that he had an unreasonable aversion to experiments, and was fond of governing his province after the simplest manner; but then he contrived to keep it in better order than did the erudite Kieft, though he had all the philosophers, ancient and modern, to assist and perplex him. I must likewise own that he made but very few laws, but then again he took care that those few were rigidly and impartially enforced; and I do not know but justice, on the whole, was as well administered as if there had been volumes of sage acts and statutes yearly made, and daily neglected or forgotten.

He was, in fact, the very reverse of his predecessors, being neither tranquil and inert, like Walter the Doubter, nor restless and fidgeting, like William the Testy; but a man, or rather a governor, of such uncommon activity and decision of mind, that he never sought nor accepted the advice of others; depending bravely upon his single head, as would a hero of yore upon his single arm, to carry him through all difficulties and dangers. To tell the simple truth, he wanted nothing more to complete him as a statesman than to think always right, for no one can say but that he always acted as he thought.

He was never a man to flinch when he found himself in a scrape but to dash forward through thick and thin, trusting by hook or by crook, to make all things straight in the end. In a word, he possessed in an eminent degree that great quality in a statesman, called perseverance by the polite, but nicknamed obstinacy by the vulgar,-a wonderful salve for official blunders, since he who perseveres in error without flinching gets the credit of boldness and consistency; while he who wavers in seeking to do what is right gets stigmatized as a trimmer. This much is certain, and it is a maxim well worthy the attention of all legislators, great and small, who

stand shaking in the wind, irresolute which way to steer, that a ruler who follows his own will pleases himself, while he who seeks to satisfy the wishes and whims of others runs great risk of pleasing nobody. There is nothing, too, like putting down one's foot resolutely, when in doubt, and letting things take their course. The clock that stands still points right twice in the four-and-twenty hours, while others may keep going continually, and be continually going wrong. Nor did this magnanimous quality escape the discernment of the good people of Niew Nederlands; on the contrary, so much were they struck with the independent will and vigorous resolution displayed on all occasions by their new Governor, that they universally called him Hard-Koppig Piet, or Peter the Headstrong-a great compliment to the strength of his understanding.

If from all that I have said thou dost not gather, worthy reader, that Peter Stuyvesant was a tough, sturdy, valiant, weather-beaten, mettlesome, obstinate, leathern-sided, lionhearted, generous-spirited old governor, either I have written to but little purpose, or thou art dull at drawing conclusions.

LTHOUGH John Fitch constructed the first steamboat that navigated American waters, he obtained little credit for the invention. Only recently has justice been done to the claims of this humble mechanic, whose misfortune it was that his merits were concealed under a rough garb.

John Fitch was born on the 21st of January, 1743, at Windsor, Connecticut. His father, Joseph Fitch, was descended from an old Saxon family which had emigrated to Essex, England, and had finally crossed to America, and settled at Windsor. When only four years old, John Fitch lost his mother, and at the age of eight he was put to work on the farm. Out of his scanty earnings he managed to purchase a copy of "Salmon's Geography," which he studied. When he was thirteen, after much difficulty, he persuaded his father to allow him to take lessons in surveying. Chiefly owing to the cruel treatment of his elder brother, life at home was no longer bearable, and at seventeen, John ran away. Arriving at Wethersfield, he shipped on board a vessel bound for New York. His treatment here was worse even than he had received at home, and he transferred himself to a Providence sloop.

Soon tired of a sailor's life, Fitch apprenticed himself to a clock-maker; but receiving little instruction in the practical part of this business from his master, he left and set up a

brass foundry, in which undertaking he had some success. Believing he could make more money in manufacturing potash, he gave up the brass work; but the potash business proved a failure. On the 28th of December, 1767, he married a Miss Lucy Roberts. This union brought nothing but misery to both parties, and in less than two years they separated on account of incompatibility of temper. The fruit of this marriage was two children, a son and a daughter. The children were taken by the mother, who seems to have alienated any affection they might have had for their father. In later years he wrote them frequently, offering them land and property, but received no response.

At the age of twenty-six he left his little homestead and became a wanderer, traveling in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. When the American Revolution broke out, he found occupation in repairing arms at Trenton. The British army entering that place, destroyed the little property he had accumulated and also his tools. Fitch now enlisted in a company of New Jersey volunteers, and was made lieutenant. At the expiration of his term of service he received. $4,000 of Continental paper; for this he realized in specie only one hundred dollars. Working for a time as deputy surveyor under the State of Virginia, he, in 1780, set out on foot for Kentucky, and took up lands between Kentucky and Green Rivers. When he returned to Philadelphia, in 1781, he was the owner of 1,600 acres of land. In 1782, whilst descending the Ohio to New Orleans with a cargo of flour and groceries, he, with eight others, was taken prisoner by a party of Indians under Captain Buffalo. Fitch was passed from one tribe to another, and from one owner to another in exchange for skins, until he computed that he had traveled 1,200 miles through the North-western territory. In October of the same year his captivity ended by his being purchased from the Indians by a British officer at Detroit. Subsequently he was exchanged as a prisoner of war, and returned to the United States in the winter of 1782-3. By means of knowledge gained, during his Indian captivity, of the country, on his return he drew a map embracing the territory from the Lake of the Woods to the mouth of the Ohio River. He was