Authors, American -- 19th century -- Biography; Irving, Washington, 1783-1859
"On their right hand might be seen the vassals of that renowned
Mynheer, Michael Paw, who lorded it over the fair regions of
ancient Pavonia, and the lands away south even unto the Navesink
mountains, and was moreover patroon of Gibbet Island. His standard
was borne by his trusty squire, Cornelius Van Vorst; consisting of
a huge oyster _recumbent_ upon a sea-green field; being the
armorial bearings of his favorite metropolis Communipaw. He brought
to the camp a stout force of warriors, heavily armed, being each
clad in ten pair of linsey-woolsey breeches, and overshadowed by
broad-brimmed beavers, with short pipes twisted in their hat-bands.
These were the men who vegetated in the mud along the shores of
Pavonia, being of the race of genuine copperheads, and were fabled
to have sprung from oysters.
"At a little distance was encamped the tribe of warriors who came
from the neighborhood of Hell-gate. These were commanded by the Suy
Dams, and the Van Dams,--incontinent hard swearers, as their names
betoken. They were terrible looking fellows, clad in broad-skirted
gaberdines, of that curious colored cloth called thunder and
lightning,--and bore as a standard three devil's darning-needles,
_volant_, in a flame-colored field.
"Hard by was the tent of the men of battle from the marshy borders
of the Waale-Boght and the country thereabouts. These were of a
sour aspect, by reason that they lived on crabs, which abound in
these parts. They were the first institutors of that honorable
order of knighthood called _Fly-market shirks_, and, if tradition
speak true, did likewise introduce the far-famed step in dancing
called 'double trouble.' They were commanded by the fearless
Jacobus Varra Vanger,--and had, moreover, a jolly band of
Breuckelen ferry-men, who performed a brave concerto on conch
shells.
"But I refrain from pursuing this minute description which goes on
to describe the warriors of Bloemen-dael, and Weehawk, and
Hoboken, and sundry other places, well known in history and song;
for now do the notes of martial music alarm the people of New
Amsterdam, sounding afar from beyond the walls of the city. But
this alarm was in a little while relieved, for lo! from the midst
of a vast cloud of dust, they recognized the brimstone-colored
breeches and splendid silver leg of Peter Stuyvesant, glaring in
the sunbeams; and beheld him approaching at the head of a
formidable army, which he had mustered along the banks of the
Hudson. And here the excellent but anonymous writer of the
Stuyvesant manuscript breaks out into a brave and glorious
description of the forces, as they defiled through the principal
gate of the city, that stood by the head of Wall Street.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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