another step I must pause to take breath, and recover
from the excessive fatigue I have undergone, in preparing
to begin this most accurate of histories. And
in this I do but imitate the example of a renowned
Dutch tumbler of antiquity, who took a start of three
miles for the purpose of jumping over a hill, but having
run himself out of breath by the time he reached the
foot, sat himself quietly down for a few moments to
blow, and then walked over it at his leisure.
[19] Grotius: Puffendorf, b.
v. c. 4, Vattel, b. i. c. 18, etc.
[20] Vattel, b. i. ch. 17.
[21] Bl. Com. b. ii. c. 1.
BOOK II.
TREATING OF THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE PROVINCE OF
NIEUW NEDERLANDTS.
My great-grandfather by the mother’s side, Hermanus
Van Clattercop, when employed to build the large stone
church at Rotterdam, which stands about three hundred
yards to your left after you turn off from the Boomkeys,
and which is so conveniently constructed that all
the zealous Christians of Rotterdam prefer sleeping
through a sermon there to any other church in the
city—my great-grandfather, I say, when employed
to build that famous church, did in the first place
send to Delft for a box of long pipes; then having
purchased a new spitting-box and a hundredweight of
the best Virginia, he sat himself down, and did nothing
for the space of three months but smoke most laboriously.
Then did he spend full three months more in trudging
on foot, and voyaging in the trekschuit, from Rotterdam
to Amsterdam—to Delft—to Haerlem—to
Leyden—to the Hague, knocking his head
and breaking his pipe against every church in his road.
Then did he advance gradually nearer and nearer to
Rotterdam, until he came in full sight of the identical
spot whereon the church was to be built. Then
did he spend three months longer in walking round
it and round it; contemplating it, first from one
point of view and then from another—now
he would be paddled by it on the canal—now
would he peep at it through a telescope, from the
other side of the Meuse—and now would he
take a bird’s-eye glance at it, from the top
of one of those gigantic windmills which protect the
gates of the city. The good folks of the place
were on the tiptoe of expectation and impatience—notwithstanding
all the turmoil of my great-grandfather, not a symptom
of the church was yet to be seen; they even began
to fear it would never be brought into the world, but
that its great projector would lie down and die in
labor of the mighty plan he had conceived. At
length, having occupied twelve good months in puffing
and paddling, and talking and walking—having
traveled over all Holland, and even taken a peep into
France and Germany—having smoked five hundred
and ninety-nine pipes and three hundredweight of the
best Virginia tobacco—my great-grandfather
gathered together all that knowing and industrious
class of citizens who prefer attending to anybody’s
business sooner than their own, and having pulled
off his coat and five pair of breeches, he advanced
sturdily up, and laid the corner-stone of the church,
in the presence of the whole multitude—just
at the commencement of the thirteenth month.
