fixing his eye for hours together upon a little print of Amsterdam,
which hung in a black frame against the opposite wall of the council
chamber. Nay, it has even been said, that when any deliberation of
extraordinary length and intricacy was on the carpet, the renowned
Wouter would absolutely shut his eyes for full two hours at a time,
that he might not be disturbed by external objects--and at such times
the internal commotion of his mind was evinced by certain regular
guttural sounds, Which his admirers declared were merely the noise
of conflict, made by his contending doubts and opinions.

It is with infinite difficulty I have been enabled to collect these bio-
graphical anecdotes of the great man under Consideration. The facts
respecting him were so scattered and vague, and divers of them so
questionable in point of authenticity, that I have had to give up the
search after many, and decline the admission of still more, which would
have tended to heighten the coloring of his portrait.

I have been the more anxious to delineate fully the person and
habits of the renowned Van Twiller, from the consideration that he
was not only the first, but also the best governor that ever presided
over this ancient and respectable province; and so tranquil and benev-
olent was his reign, that I do not find throughout the whole of it, a
single instance of any offender being brought to punishment--a most
indubitable sign of a merciful governor, and a case unparalleled, ex-
cepting in the reign of the illustrious King Log, from whom, it is
hinted, the renowned Van Twiller was a lineal descendant.

The very outset of the career of this excellent magistrate was dis-
tinguished by an example of legal acumen, that gave flattering presage
of a wise and equitable administration. The morning after he had
been solemnly installed in office, and at the moment that he Was
making his breakfast. from a prodigious earthen dish, filled with milk
and Indian pudding, he was suddenly interrupted by the appearance
of one Wandle Schoonhoven; a very important old burgher of New
Amsterdam; who complained bitterly of one Barent Bleecker, inasmuch
as he fraudulently refused to come to a settlement of accounts, seeing
that there was a heavy balance in favor of the said Wandle. 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 dis-
turbed 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.

This summary process was as effectual in those 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 anal character that would have puzzled

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