“He wore a commodore’s cocked hat on one side of his head.  He was remarkable for always jerking up his breeches when he gave out his orders, and his voice sounded not unlike the brattling of a tin trumpet—­owing to the number of hard northwesters which he had swallowed in the course of his seafaring.

“Such was Hendrick Hudson, of whom we have heard so much and know so little.”

You must read in the history itself the amusing account of Ten Breeches and Tough Breeches.  One of the Dutch colonists bought of the Indians for sixty guelders as much land as could be covered by a man’s breeches.  When the time for measuring came Mr. Ten Breeches was produced, and peeling off one pair of breeches after another, soon produced enough material to surround the entire island of Manhattan, which was thus bought for sixty guelders, or Dutch dollars.

In due time came the first Dutch governor, Wouter Van Twiller.

Governor Van Twiller was five feet six inches in height, and six feet five inches in circumference, his figure “the very model of majesty and lordly grandeur.”  On the very morning after he had entered upon his office, he gave an example of his great legal knowledge and wise judgment.

As the governor sat at breakfast an important old burgher came in to complain that Barent Bleecker refused to settle accounts, which was very annoying, as there was a heavy balance in the complainant’s favor.  “Governor Van Twiller, as I have already observed, was a man of few words; he was likewise a mortal enemy to multiplying writings—­or being disturbed at his breakfast.  Having listened attentively to the statement of Wandle Schoonhoven, giving an occasional grunt, as he shoveled a spoonful of Indian pudding into his mouth,—­either as a sign that he relished the dish or comprehended the story,—­he called unto him his constable, and pulling out of his breeches pocket a huge jack-knife, dispatched it after the defendant as a summons, accompanied by his tobacco-box as a warrant.”

When the account books were before him, “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 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 had 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 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.”

It is not wonderful that this was the first and last lawsuit during his administration, and that no one was found who cared to hold the office of constable.