HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
 

CHAPTER    XIII.
 

NEW   YORK.

]S^Ew YoKK.—The Ditkb of York. ^ Governor Nicolls.—Mr. and Mrs. Johannes
Van Brugh.—The Brodhead Family.—Albany.—-The Taking of the Oath of
Allegiance to England. —Sir Robert Carr at Delaware Bay. —An Extraordi¬
nary Complication.—Connecticut Diplomacy.—The Dividing Line between
Connecticut and New York.—New Jersey. — Elizabethtown.—Johannes De
Peyster. — Interesting Controversy.—Court of Assizes. — Nicolls a Law-
Maker. — The Hempstead Convention. — "The Duke's Laws."—The First Race-
Course on Long Island.—The Fikst Vineyard on Long Island.—The First
Mayor of New York. — The First Aldermen. — John Lawrence. — Nicholas
Bayard. — Symptoms of "War. — Secret Orders. —War declared. — Cornelis
Steenwyck. —The Plague in London. —The Great Fire in London. — England's
Disgrace.—Clarendon's Fall.—New York's Miseries.—Nicolls's Wisdom.—
Witchcraft. — The Manors of G-ardiner and Shelter Islands. — Nicolls asks
FOR HIS Recall.

IT has been the destiny of New York to sustain fiercer trials and to
gain a wider and more varied experience than any other American
State. The first half-century of her existence, though not very fnutful in
ichievements, greatly surpasses in importance any other equal period,
from having projected the impulse and prescribed the law of her subse¬
quent development. When, in 1664, she was geographically united to
New England and the Southern British colonies, and exchanged a repub¬
Ucan sovereignty for an hereditary king, she possessed the vital element
of all her later greatness. The irrepressible forces, political, social, and
religious, which were sweeping over the chief nationalities of Europe in
that remarkable century, were aUeady here, and pushing to unforeseen
ends. Eighteen languages were spoken in our infant capital. The arri¬
vals which followed increased without materially changing the character
of the population. The old, stubborn, intensely practical Dutch spirit
was firmly planted in this soil; English infiexibility, sagacity, and invig¬
orating Ufe had also taken root; and French industry, refinement, and
vivacity fiourished, if possible, the most luxuriantly of the three.    The