of war, for the de- fence of the Colonists, in case of misunderstanding with the natives. In a colony the necessary stock for beginning was provided to each tenant by the landlord. This stock- ing included one pair of draught cattle, two cows, and one or two sows. " If in the course of time, with God's blessing, the stock multiply, the bouweries can be fully stocked with necessary cattle, and new bouweries set off with the remainder, as is the practice in Rensselaer's Colonic and other places, and so on, de novo, so as to lay out no money for stock. " The houses used at first by those who settled the new lands were rude affairs, often consisting of nothing more than a pit, dug cellar fashion, encased, and floored with timber, and roofed with spars covered with bark and sod. Not only did the poorer settlers use such homes, we are informed, but even the "wealthy and principal men" commenced to live in that fashion, doing so for the twofold reason that they might lose no time from the planting and cultivation of necessary Digitized by Microsoft® 98 The Hudson River crops, and that the poorer colonists might be encouraged by their example. More substantial dwellings followed those first prim- itive makeshifts that at the most could not be expected to last above four or five years. Reference has already been made to the troubles — or, as Van Tienhoven calls them, "misunderstandings" — ^with Indian neighbours. Particular instances of such unfortunate encounters have their place in the narratives of individual settlements, and will be touched upon more fully in other chapters of this book. It is suggestive of recent South African history that the tenant farmers were referred to in some of the old documents as boors or boers. To us of to-day the name is associated with sweltering velts and beleaguered kopps and laagers of waggons bristling with guns. Perhaps the best way for us to comprehend the Boef of the seventeenth century, with his energy, pluck, thrift, and courage, is by studying his kinsman of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to whose uncon- querable obstinacy the attention of the world has for several years been directed. Instead of a Transvaal farm, substitute a Hudson River bouwerie. Let the colonist trek with family and household goods and gods to the pleasant, well- watered lands of Schuyler or Van Rensselaer. He carries a match-lock gun, heavy as a weaver's beara, easy to handle as a small cannon, and taking probably not more than five minutes to load and fire. His garments are of a quaint cut, and Digitized by Microsoft® Early Settlers of the Hudson Valley 99 he has a cherubic breadth of feature, if we are to trust the painters. He is unlettered, practical, not too nice in manners and far from fanciful regarding either this life or the next. He has accepted Calvinism, but does not allow it to disturb him; wherein he differs essen- tially from his New England neighbour, who wears his creed as an ascetic would wear a hair shirt, to the discomfort of himself and the annoyance of his neigh- bours. The Hudson River Boer worked out his salvation with infinite difficulty and toil, though fear and trerii- bling were foreign to his disposition. He hewed his home out of the wilderness, endured hardship with as little complaint as any colonist in the world has ever made, and he has furnished the backbone and sinew of many a hardy fight. His blood, "transmitted free," has reddened many a battle-field and consecrated many a victory. Is the Boer capable of self-development, of high achievement, of ultimate success? It may be that the answer lies in the history of the men who settled the valley of the Hudson. Digitized by Microsoft® Chapter VIII The Passing of the White Wings IF one who knew the Hudson in his youth should return after half a century of absence, possibly the change which would strike him most forcibly would be in the character of the shipping. Turning his eyes away from the tall buildings, he would expect to discover in the river itself some realisa- tion of old memories; but in spite of familiar shore lines and well-known contours, the aspect of the stream would be strange and new. He would perhaps be bewildered, while he could not fail to be impressed, by the spectacular display of steam craft of every description, from the smallest launch that darts shoreward from the side of some trim yacht or imposing war vessel, to the ocean liners that move majestically from their piers and succeed in preserving an imposing dignity of demeanour in spite of the hustling, bustling, rowdy tugs to whose escort they have been committed. The