[Footnote 1: It will be remembered Mr. Littlepage wrote more than seventy years ago, when this distinction might exclusively belong to the _East_; but the _West_ has now some claim to it, also.] [Footnote 2: On the subject of this story, the editor can say he has seen a published letter from Col. Heathcote, who died more than a century since, at Mamaroneck, West Chester Co., in which that gentleman gives the Society for the propagation of the gospel an account of his proceedings, that agrees almost _verbatim_ with the account of the matter that is here given by Mr. Cornelius Littlepage. The house in which Col. Heathcote dwelt was destroyed by fire, a short time before the revolution; but the property on which it stood, and the present building, belong at this moment to his great-grandson, the Rt. Rev. Wm. _Heathcote_ de Lancey, the Bishop of Western New York. On the subject of the _plunder_, the editor will remark, that a near connection, whose grandfather was a Major at the taking of Louisbourg, and who was subsequently one of the first Brigadiers appointed in 1775, has lately shown him a letter written to that officer, during the expedition, by _his_ father; in which, blended with a great deal of pious counsel, and some really excellent religious exhortation, is an earnest inquiry after the _plunder_.--EDITOR.] CHAPTER II. “I would there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty; or that youth would sleep out the rest.” _Winter's Tale_. It is not necessary for me to say much of the first fourteen years of my life. They passed like the childhood and youth of the sons of most gentlemen in our colony, at that day, with this distinction, however. There was a class among us which educated its boys at home. This was not a very numerous class, certainly, nor was it always the highest in point of fortune and rank. Many of the large proprietors were of Dutch origin, as a matter of course; and these seldom, if ever, sent their children to England to be taught anything, in my boyhood. I understand that a few are getting over their ancient prejudices, in this particular, and begin to fancy Oxford or Cambridge may be quite as learned schools as that of Leyden; but, no Van, in my boyhood, could have been made to believe this. Many of the Dutch proprietors gave their children very little education, in any way or form, though most of them imparted lessons of probity that were quite as useful as learning, had the two things been really inseparable. For my part, while I admit there is a great deal of knowledge going up and down the land, that is just of the degree to trick a fellow-creature out of his rights, I shall never subscribe to the opinion, which is so prevalent among the Dutch portion of our population, and which holds the doctrine that the schools of the New England provinces are the reason the descendants of the Puritans do not enjoy the best of reputations, in this respect. I believe a