Wilson, James Grant, The memorial history of the City of New-York (v. 2)

([New York] :  New York History Co.,  1892-93.)

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CHAPTER  I

THE   EARL   OF   BELLOMONT   AND   THE   SUPPRESSION   OF   PIRACY

1698-1701
 

f!c?l^^) ^^ administration of Richard, Earl of Bellomont, was a
^^^■^V ^^^^^ ^^^^9 extending only from the 2d of April, 1698,
^f Bi^^ when he arrived, to the 5th of March, 1701, when he died.
<^^^^^l Nevertheless it was one of mark, owing to his personal
character, to the circumstances in which he was placed, and to what
he endeavored to do. From almost the beginning, or so soon as his
purposes revealed themselves, with scarcely a week's interval after his
arrival, it was one of bitter opposition, personal attack, and struggle
with contending elements. Probably nothing but the king's contin¬
ued favor carried him through. But upon a man of sixty-two,—his
age when he undertook the government,—a man afflicted with the
gout, even yet that most defiant and painful disorder; one Avho some¬
times worked from nine in the morning till ten at night, with scarcely
time for meals, and amid a sea of worries, the effect was sure to show
itself. The gout in the end conquered a robust constitution and caused
his death, before his undertakings were in any way complete. Im¬
mersed as he was, during his whole administration, in affairs of such a
nature, he might be likened to a stormy petrel, whose only rest is upon
heaving waves, whose life is passed in perpetual battle with winds and
storms, or with the resisting, struggling fish it pulls from the ocean,
where each seemed intrenched and safe. The motions of this bird
over the uneasy waters suggested Peter walking upon the Sea of
Grennesareth, and hence its name. And Bellomont, had he yielded
to Peter's fears, must, like him, have sunk.

As a further introduction to the main narrative, allusion may here
be made to the difficulty of getting correct impressions concerning
men and events of party times, and the necessity of collating and sift¬
ing authorities. The writers of such a period are apt to be more or
less prejudiced, and to follow them as authorities is to perpetuate their
prejudices.    Montesquieu lays it down as a fundamental law of histor-

VoL. IL—1.                                               1
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