Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete eBook
Washington Irving
But, not withstanding all this martial rout and invitation,
the ranks of honor were but scantily supplied, so
averse were the peaceful burghers of New Amsterdam
from enlisting in foreign broils, or stirring beyond
that home which rounded all their earthly ideas.
Upon beholding this, the great Peter, whose noble
heart was all on fire with war, and sweet revenge,
determined to wait no longer for the tardy assistance
of these oily citizens, but to muster up his merry
men of the Hudson, who, brought up among woods, and
wilds, and savage beasts, like our yeomen of Kentucky,
delighted in nothing so much as desperate adventures
and perilous expeditions through the wilderness.
Thus resolving, he ordered his trusty squire, Antony
Van Corlear, to have his state galley prepared and
duly victualed; which being performed, he attended
public service at the great church of St. Nicholas,
like a true and pious governor; and then leaving peremptory
orders with his council to have the chivalry of the
Manhattoes marshaled out and appointed against his
return, departed upon his recruiting voyage up the
waters of the Hudson.
CHAPTER IV.
Now did the soft breezes of the south steal sweetly
over the face of nature, tempering the panting heats
of summer into genial and prolific warmth, when that
miracle of hardihood and chivalric virtue, the dauntless
Peter Stuyvesant, spread his canvas to the wind, and
departed from the fair island of Manna-hata.
The galley in which he embarked was sumptuously adorned
with pendants and streamers of gorgeous dyes, which
fluttered gayly in the wind, or drooped their ends
into the bosom of the stream. The bow and poop
of this majestic vessel were gallantly bedight, after
the rarest Dutch fashion, with figures of little pursy
Cupids with periwigs on their heads, and bearing in
their hands garlands of flowers the like of which
are not to be found in any book of botany, being the
matchless flowers which flourished in the golden age,
and exist no longer, unless it be in the imaginations
of ingenious carvers of wood and discolorers of canvas.
Thus rarely decorated, in style befitting the puissant
potentate of the Manhattoes, did the galley of Peter
Stuyvesant launch forth upon the bosom of the lordly
Hudson, which, as it rolled its broad waves to the
ocean, seemed to pause for a while and swell with
pride, as if conscious of the illustrious burden it
sustained.
But trust me, gentlefolk, far other was the scene
presented to the contemplation of the crew from that
which may be witnessed at this degenerate day.
Wildness and savage majesty reigned on the borders
of this mighty river; the hand of cultivation had
not as yet laid low the dark forest and tamed the
features of the landscape, nor had the frequent sail
of commerce broken in upon the profound and awful solitude
of ages. Here and there might be seen a rude
wigwam perched among the cliffs of the mountains,
