land, and a stranger stepped on shore, a lofty, lordly kind of man, tall and dry, with a meagre face, furnished with huge moustaches. He was clad in Flemish doublet and hose, and an insufferably tall hat, with a cocktail feather. Such was the patroon Killian Van Renselaer, who had come out from Holland to found a colony or patroonship on a great tract of wild land, granted to him by their High Mighti- nesses, the Lords States General, in the upper regions of the Hudson. Killian Van Rensselaer was a nine days' wonder in New Am- sterdam; for he carried a high head, looked down upon the portly, short-legged burgomasters, and owned no allegiance to the governor himself; boasting that he held his patroonship directly from the Lords States General. He did not tarry long (in the little city that he actu- ally never visited, and where he would have disdained to beat up recruits for his colony, which the reader knows actually antedated that of New Amsterdam), but pushed on up the river, whence reports of his doings were brought to the ears of the jealous Governor, At length tidings came that the patroon of Rensselaerswyk had extended his usurpations along the river, beyond the limits granted him by their High Mightinesses : that he had even seized upon a rocky island in the Hudson, commonly known. by the name of Beam or Bear's Island, where he was erecting a fortress to be called by the lofty name of Rensselaerstein. Wouter Van Twiller was roused by this intelligence. After consulting with his burgomasters, he dispatched a letter to the patroon of Rensselaerswyk, demanding by what right he had seized upon this island, which lay beyond the bounds of his pa- troonship. The answer of Killian Van Rensselaer was in his own Digitized by Microsoft® Nantucket Quakers and Dutch Fighters 513 lordly style, "By wapen recht ! " that is to say, by the right of arms, or, in common parlance, by club-law. This answer plunged the worthy Wouter into one of the deepest doubts he encountered in the whole course of his administration ; but while he doubted, the lordly Killian went on to complete his sturdy little castellum of Rensselaerstein. This done, he garrisoned it with a number of his tenants from the Helderberg, a mountain region, famous for the hardest heads and hardest fists in the province. Nicholas Koorn, his faithful squire, accustomed to strut at his heels, wear his cast-off clothes, and imitate his lofty bearing, was established in this post as waclit meester. His duty it was to keep an eye on the river, and oblige every vessel that passed, unless on the service of their High Mightinesses, the Lords States General of Holland, to strike its flag, lower its peak, and pay toll to the lord of Rensselaerstein. William Kieft — "William the Testy" — succeeded Walter the Doubter, and still the afifair of Beam Island was unsettled, that is to say, unsettled to any liking but that of the patroon. The irritable soul of the Gov- ernor, we are informed, winced at the very name of Rensselaerstein . Now it came to pass, that on a fine sunny day the Company's yacht, the Half -Moon, having been on one of its stated visits to Fort Aurania, was quietly tiding it down the Hudson; the com- mander, Govert Lockerman, a veteran Dutch skipper of few words but great bottom, was seated on the high poop, quietly smoking his pipe, under the shadow of the proud flag of Orange, when, on arriving abreast of Beam Island, he was saluted by a stentorian voice from the shore, " Lower thy flag, and be d d to thee!" Govert Lockerman, without taking his pipe out of his mouth, turned up his eye from under his broad-brimmed hat to see who hailed him thus discourteously. There, on the ramparts of the fort, stood Nicholas Koorn, armed to the teeth, flourishing a Digitized by Microsoft® SH The Hudson River brass-hilted sword, while a steeple-crowned hat and cock's tail- feather, formerly worn by Killian Van Rensselaer himself, gave an inexpressible loftiness to his demeanour. Go vert Lockerman eyed the warrior from top to toe, but was not to be dismayed. Taking the pipe slowly out of his moutn, "To whom should I lower my flag ?" demanded he. "To the high and mighty Killian Van Rensselaer, the lord of Rensselaerstein ! " was the reply. " I lower it to none but the Prince of Orange, and my masters, the Lords States General." So saying he resumed his pipe, and smoked with an air of dogged determination. Bang! went a gun from the fortress ; the ball cut both sail and rigging. Govert Lockerman said nothing, but smoked the