USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The annals of Albany, Vol. II > Part 18
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The Dutch Language and Literature.
prudence in all its branches. The northern provinces were long destitute of a university : that of Louvain, in Brabant, served for all the Low Countries, until King Philip established another at Douai for his Walloon sub- jects, which, however, after it came under French domi- nion, declined rapidly. But the university of Leyden, founded in 1575 by Prince William I, in order to reward the patriotism of her citizens, displayed in a valiant re- sistance against the Spaniards, soon exerted a beneficial influence over the whole united Netherlands. Men like Scaliger, Lipsius, Daniel and Nicolas Heinsius, Gronovius, Van Bahrle, Spanheim, and others, in ancient literature ; Erpenius and Golius in Arabic ; Arminius, Drusius, Coc- cejus, and others, in divinity ; the two Snellius in mathe- matics,- made this university famous over all Europe. Universities were also founded at Franeker in 1585, at Groningen in 1614, Utrecht in 1636, and Harderwyk in 1647, and their competition with the university of Leyden was very advantageous to science. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, Huygens, Leeuwenhoek, Zwam- merdam, Hartsoeker, and others, distinguished themselves in natural history and astronomy. New light was shed on the Oriental, Greek and Dutch languages; also on medicine, after the peace of Utrecht, by men like Alb. Schultens, Tiberius Hemsterhuis, Lambert Ten Kate and Hermann Boerhaave; and, under a series of distinguished men who succeeded them, these branches flourished more than ever, particularly at Leyden, which, during the whole of the eighteenth century, was indebted for many distin- guished professors to the university of Franeker. Utrecht also had its Wesseling, Duker, Drakenborch and Saxe. Among the jurisconsults, Mathæi, Huber, Noot and Voet are distinguished. The cultivation of the Dutch language was especially promoted by grammarians, including, be- sides the above-mentioned Lambert Ten Kate, Sewels, Zeydelaar, Kramer and Moerbeek. Dictionaries were produced by Kramer, Sewels, Halma, Moerbeek, Weiden- bach and Weiland. In philology, history, geography, mathematics, natural philosophy and medicine, the Dutch have distinguished themselves in the highest degree by
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The Dutch Language and Literature,-
talent, erudition and diligence, and their contributions to civil and public law are very valuable. The Dutch have always had men of the first distinction in ancient classical literature. Works of this kind, however, can not be called a national literature ; particularly if they are written, as was mostly the ease with these, in a foreign language, or by natives of foreign countries. Among the men who shone at Leyden as stars of the first magnitude, Scaliger and Luzac were born in France, Albinus in Dessau, Vos- sius, in the Palatinate, Gronovius (properly Grönhof ) in Hamburg ; Ruhnken was a Pomeranian, Vorstius a native of Cologne, and the great philologist Wyttenbach was a Swiss. The national literature, properly speaking, of the Duteli, is deficient in originality, because mostly formed on the models of the Germans, English and French; yet they have produced works which need not shun a com- parison with those of other countries. In the seventeenth century, their poetry flourished : their native popular poetry is fine, and other poetical productions are distin- guished by power, fullness and beauty of description and language. From 1640 to 1750, their national theatre was particularly developed, and was carried to a high degree of perfection by several poets of talent. Until 1750, the Dutch theatre was much richer in original pieces than the German; and the dramas of Van der Gon, Rotgans, Duyf, Lescalje, Benagie and De Marre were incomparably more beautiful than what the period of Gottsched produced in Germany ; yet many of those Dutch plays are mere imita- tions of the French. Among the poets who distinguished themselves, are Jan van der Doos (Janus Douza of Nor- wik, died 1604), who is eminent as a philologist, historian, and Latin poet ; here, however, chiefly mentioned as one of the first who attempted poetry in the vernacular tongue, in which Daniel Heinse of Ghent (who died 1665) followed him with great success. Peter Cornelius van Hooft of Amsterdam (who died 1647), esteemed for his histories of King Henry IV and Belgium, and an excellent translation of Tacitus, was too artificial in his tragedies and other poems, and his language is overloaded; but in all the poems of James Cats (who died in 1660), there breathes
The Dutch Language and Literature. 223
a true spirit of poetry, a peculiar serenity, wisdom, and piety. The Dutch call him their Ovid. The poems of John Antonides van der Goes (who died in the year 1687) have the reputation of correctness and elegance. Joost van der Vondel of Cologne (who died in 1679) wrote metrieal translations of the Psalms, of Virgil and Ovid, satires, eulogies, many tragedies, and an epie poem (Adam and Lueifer), and has obtained the fame of a classic poet among the Dutch. His language, if not always correet, is nervous and rich. Among his tragedies is also a Maria Stuart. A complete collection of these tragedies appeared, in 1720, at Amsterdam, in two volumes. Constantius Huggens (who died in 1687) is celebrated for his epigrams ; James Westerbann (who died in 1670) and John Adolphus Dans (who died in 1674) for their erotie poems. Among the poets distinguished for their mirthful vein are . John van der Veen (who died 1660), and John Decker (who died 1664). Luke Rotgans of Amsterdam (who died in 1710) formed himself on the model of the ancient elassies ; and his epie poem William III, as well as his tragedies, prove sufficiently what models he strove to imitate. Jan van Broeekhuyzen of Amsterdam (who died 1707), celebrated as a eritie and a Latin poet, left also in the Dutch lan-
guage, odes, idyls, and other poems. The lyric poems of Arnold Moonen, and the idyls of Wellekens, should not be forgotten. Hubert Corneliszoon Poot of Abtwout near Delft (who died in 1733), was a talented, natural poct. Adrian van der Vliet, who, besides biblical poems, wrote a poem, The Spaniards in Rotterdam (died in 1780) ; Piet. Nieuwland (who died in 1794), and several others, are much esteemed. An epie poem, called Germanicus, appeared in 1780, by an anonymous authoress. Besides these, we should mention, among the elder poets, Burmann, Smits ; and, among the modern, Hieronymus de Bosch, Theod. van Kooten, Klijn, Kleinhoff, Kaldenbach, Bel- lamy, Nieuwland, Feith (who died in 1824), Bilderdyk, Helmers, Spandow, Van Hall, Tollens, Kilmers (who died in 1813), Kinker, Witsen, Gysbeek, and the Portu- guese Jew Dacosta. Bilderdyk, at the same time, is a scholar of the first rank. Even from these short notices
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The Dutch Language and Literature.
it will appear that much effort has been made to adapt the language to elevated purposes ; and these efforts have been crowned with much success. No nation has so good a translation of Klopstock's Messiah as the Dutch trans- lation by Groeneveld (Amsterdam, 1784 to 1791, 2 vols.), in hexameters. The prose of the Dutch has, it is truc, little cuphony and elegance, but it is well adapted to express practical truths in a simple and popular manner. The Dutch prose would, undoubtedly, have acquired greater perfection, if their philosophical and other writers had not often made use of a foreign language. Erasmus, Lipsius, Grotius, Wyttenbach and others, wrote in Latin ; and Francis Hemsterhuys, that amiable Socratic philo- sopher and tasteful and ingenious writer, in French. As with philosophy, so also with history. The Dutch prose must gain by translations from foreign languages, which are very numerous in modern times. The sciences have flourished in the northern provinces, and kept pace with the progress of the times ; but this is not the case in the southern provinces. Instruction in the university of Louvain has not advanced with the time : it has adhered to the dead forms of the middle ages. In this the conse- quences of the Spanish tyrany, which dreaded the light, have been manifested, and several improvements intended by Joseph II were openly resisted. The abolition of the university at Louvain during the French government, and the foundation of the Atheneums at Brussels and Liege, Ghent and Bruges, could not banish the spirit of darkness, which, as late as in 1814, may be thought to have ap- peared in the joy with which the restoration of the Jesuits was received; yet there were, in the southern provinces as well as in the northern, numerous institutions for in- struction, at Louvain, Liege, Ghent. Athenæums or gymnasia are found also at Middleburg, Breda, Deventer, Francker, Harderwyk and Amsterdam. The kingdom had, in the year 1825, 3889 schools, with 383,970 pupils, and 75,648 schools for the poor and primary schools. The six universities contained 2636 students : Louvain had the most (580). The northern provinces had the advan- tage, in gymnasia and schools, over the southern provinces.
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The Dutch Language and Literature.
In Flanders, the gymnasia flourish least. Among the institutions for instruction ought to be mentioned the artillery and engineer school of the kingdom, the military school at Delft, the institution for the deaf and dumb at Groningen, the school for naval architecture at Antwerp, the schools of navigation at Antwerp, Amsterdam and Helvoetsluys. Other scientific institutions are, the mu- seum at Amsterdam (a collection of pictures, drawings, works of sculpture, gems and antiquities, and a public library ) : the Netherlandish institute for sciences and arts (Nederlandsch Institut van Wetenschappen, Letterkunde en schoone Kunsten), divided into four classes : 1. of sciences; 2. of language ; 3. literature and poetry ; 4. history and antiquities, and of fine arts. At Leyden there arc public libraries, anatomical, surgical, mathematical and philoso- phical collections : at Haarlem, the society of the sciences (founded in 1752), Teyler's foundation for the promotion of theology, and some other kindred branches ; and an agricultural society (Hollandsche Huishoudelijke Maat- schappij) : at Groningen, the society pro excolendo jure patriæ, and many other societies. Thus Arnheim, Züt- phen, Bergen-op-Zoom, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Enkhuyzen (where a socicty exists, established by the minister Jan Nieuwenhuyzen, for the education and improvement of the lower classes, and which, in 1810, contained 8000 mem- bers), Ziericksee, Breda, Luxemburg, Maestricht, Liege, Brussels, Ghent, &c., contain numerous societies for the promotion of learning, or for practical purposes. Of the transactions of the academy of sciences and arts in Ba- tavia (founded more than fifty years ago), the tenth volume appeared in 1825. The clergy of Holland are unfavorably distinguished by a spirit of intolerance, particularly the Calvinists ; and the most intolerant are generally the most esteemed. There are, indeed, honorable exceptions ; but such individuals are mostly kept silent by the fear of per- secution. It is still worse with the Catholic priests in Belgium. Part of the Lutheran clergy, however, arc cn- lightened men. The most tolerant spirit, and the greatest share of knowledge to be found among the Dutch clergy, fall to the share of the Remonstrants and Mennonites ;
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The Dutch Language and Literature.
but, for this very reason, they are hated and despised by their brethren. The study of law and general jurispru- dence is in a flourishing condition. The judges and law- yers have a high character. Medicine is well cultivated ; but intellectual philosophy is in an exceedingly backward state. Even now there are many who adhere to the Car- tesian system. In mechanics and hydraulics, the Dutch are well known to excel.
DUTCH NAMES FOR ALBANY AND VICINITY.
Albany was known by the several Dutch names of BEVERWYCK, WILLEMSTADT, and FORT ORANGE, chiefly by the last. It was also known as the FUYCK, or Hoop-net ; and a kill is mentioned as there, and known as the FUYck Kill, changed to RUTTEN Kill, an abbreviation of RUTGERT'S Kill : Rutgert Bleecker, a proprietor of the ground adjacent to it, the third creek from the Norman's Kill inclusive. The creek known as VYDE Kill, the fifth creek, the creek at WATER VLIET, literally at the time water flood, the word VLIET since rarely in use ; the seat of the family of Van Rensselaer. The lands immediately opposite to Albany, and for a distance along and from the river, the Dutch denoted as HET GREENE BOSCH, the pine woods, corrupted to Greenbush. The mouths of the Mohock they distin- guished as the SPRUYTES, corrupted to, and which may also possibly pass for a translation, the Sprouts. The larger island formed by the Sprouts, they called WALVISCH Island, Whale Island. "I can not forbear," says Van Der Donck, "to mention, that in the year 1647, in the month of March, when, by a great freshet, the water was fresh almost to the great bay, there were two whales, of to- lerable size, up the river ; the one turned back, but the other stranded, and stuck not far from the great fall of the Cohoes." The arable land immediately above, they denoted as the HALVE MAAN, the half moon, from its crescent-like form along the hills on the western side, -Judge Benson,
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ORIGIN OF YANKEE DOODLE.
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It is known as a matter of history, that in the early part of 1755, great exertions were made by the British Ministry, at the head of which was the illustrious Earl of Chatham, for the reduction of the French power in the provinces of the Canadas. To carry the object into effect, General Amherst, referred to in the letters of Junius, was appointed to the command of the British army in North- western America; and the British colonies in America were called upon for assistance, who contributed with alacrity their several quotas of men, to offect the grand object of the enterprise. It was still fresh in the memory of some of our oldest inhabitants forty years ago, that the British army lay encamped, in the summer of 1755, on the eastern bank of the Hudson, a little south of the city of Albany, on the ground now belonging to Jeremiah Van Rensselaer. Vestiges of their encampment remained for a long time ; and after a lapse of sixty years, when a great proportion of the aetors of those days had passed away from the earth, the inquisitive traveller could ob- serve the remains of the ashes, the places where they
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Origin of Yankee Doodle.
boiled their camp kettles. It was this army that, under the command of Abercrombie, was foiled with a severe loss in the attack on Ticonderoga, where the distinguished Howe fell at the head of his troops, in an hour that his- tory has consecrated to fame. In the early part of June, the eastern troops began to pour in company after eom- pany ; and such a motley assemblage of men never before thronged together on such an occasion, unless an example may be found in the ragged regiment of Sir John Falstaff, of right merry and facetious memory. It would have relaxed the gravity of an anchorite, to have seen the de- scendants of the puritans marching through the streets of our ancient city, to take their station on the left of the British army : some with long coats, some with short coats, and others with no coats at all, in colors as varied as the rainbow ; some with their hair cropped like the army of Cromwell, and others with wigs whose eurls flowed around their shoulders. Their mareh, their ac- coutrements, and the whole arrangement of the troops, furnished matter of amusement to the wits of the British army. The music played the airs of two centuries ago, and the tout ensemble exhibited a sight to the wondering strangers that they had been unaccustomed to in their own land. Among the club of wits that belonged to the British army, there was a physician attached to the staff by the name of Doctor Shackburg, who combined with the science of a surgeon the skill and talents of a musician. To tease brother Jonathan, he composed a tune, and with much gravity recommended it to the officers as one of the most celebrated airs of martial music. The joke took, to the no small amusement of the British corps. Brother Jona- than exclaimed it was nation fine ; and in a few days, no- thing was heard in the provincial camp but the air of Yankee Doodle. Little did the author or his coadjutors then suppose, that an air made for the purpose of levity and ridieule, should ever be marked for such high desti- nies : in twenty years from that time, our national mareh inspired the hearts of the heroes of Bunker Hill; and in less than thirty, Lord Cornwallis and his army marehed into the American lines to the tune of Yankee Doodle.
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Salmon in the Hudson River.
PEASE
SALMON IN THE HUDSON RIVER.
The historian of the first voyage of Europeans upon our river, speaks of the abundance of fish they met with, among which were " great store of salmons." There are also traditions, if nothing more reliable, that the creeks of Albany abounded with these fishes, particularly the Foxen creek, now become a mere sewer. Dr. MITCHELL, nevertheless, wrote a learned paper in the Philosophical Transactions, and a letter of his is contained in the Col- lections of the New York Historical Society, (vol. i, 41), in which he labors to show that the Hudson river has never been a favorite resort for salmon. His letter is as fol- lows :
Concerning the frequency of salmon in the river Caho- hàtatèa or Mahaganeghtuc, when first visited by the navi- gator Hudson, I have my doubts as to its correctness. That fish has, indeed, been taken in this river, and even in the vicinity of Albany. But this is a rare occurrence : and the individuals of this kind that have been caught are solitary, and not the gregarious salmons swimming in shoals. I have conversed with several persons here, who have seen a few of these lonesome and straggling fishes, from time to time, as they have been brought to market.
I can not learn that there is any record or tradition of their having ever frequented cur river, after the manner of the Connecticut, the Kennebeck, and the other streams on this continent. Salmon love clear and limpid water, as do all the species of the trout family, to which they belong; and I should question much whether the ooze and mud of the Cahohàtatea was so agreeable to them, as the sandy bottoms of the more precipitous and rapid
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Salmon in the Hudson River.
rivers. Besides, you well know, that our river is but an estuary as far as the outlet of the Mohock ; and the strata of schistic rocks which cross it above the junction of that river, are generally more shallow, than, perhaps, the salmon would like. And, further, the Dutch word salm or salmpie, commonly in use to signify salmon, means also, in ordinary and loose conversation and composition, trout.
There are, still, other considerations unfavorable to the abundance of salmon in our river. They are those which relate to the Herring, the Shad, and the Sturgeon, the annual visitants of this stream, at Albany and higher. Whatever may be the opinion of speculative men, as to the governing principle of these creatures, whether it be instinct or reason, the fact nevertheless is, that they select very proper places to deposit their spawn, and per- petuate their race. In our river, these three species of fish had each an appropriate place for the great work of multiplication.
The grand rendezvous of the herrings, was the Saratoga lake ; into which they entered by its outlet, yet called Fish creek. The obstruction of this passage by dams and artificial impediments, has turned the herrings from their favorite haunt. The inhabitants of the neighboring region have, thereby, been deprived of their ycarly treat of her- rings. But, more than this, the herrings thus dispossess- ed and discouraged, have become more rare in the river, and are deserting it in proportion to the want of accom- modation it affords them. It is reported, that the course of the herrings was more especially on the west side of the river.
The shad travelled along the eastern shore. Their chief place of resort was the basin at the foot of Fort Edward falls.
No particular path in the river was selected by the sturgeons. They seem to have swam at large, as they do at present. But they assembled for the propagation of their kind at the bottom of the Cahoes, or great falls of the Mohock. The roes or eggs of the sturgeon, are ex- ceedingly numerous, amounting to a large mass of spawn. You recollect that the Russian cavear is made of them.
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Castle Island.
Other fishes are fond of feeding on them; they eat it with remarkable voracity. It is one of the most alluring baits that anglers can use. The abundance of this exquisite food at the breeding season, is supposed to be a principal inducement for the basse or rockfish, to follow the sturgeons to their place of deposit. The disturbance the sturgeons have experienced in the progress of settlement, has dimi- nished their numbers exceedingly; and the basse has become proportionally rare.
Now, with all this information relative to the several sorts of fish, that have frequented the Hudson, since the possession of its banks by European cmigrants, there are no regular notices of salmon. Neither a swimming-course, nor a breeding-place has been detected. It is therefore a fair presumption, that these fishes never found within its waters sufficient inducement to visit them in great num- bers, or at regular times, and that those which have been taken are merely strays and wanderers .- Dr. Mitchell, in Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. i, 41.
CASTLE ISLAND.
A few were selected from the crews of the Dutch ships which sailed up the river the following year after the dis- covery of it, to remain here a winter over. They erected an habitation on the point of the island, the southern limit of the city of Albany, and enclosed it with palisa- does as a defence against the Indians, and it was known as the Kasteel, the castle. Stuyvesant, in his correspond- ence with the government of the Massachusetts Bay, mentions the island as still known by the name of Kasteel island.
Beeren island and the Overslagh still retain their Dutch names. The Dutch navigators speak of the river Gambia, on the cast of Africa, as having an overslagh, a bar, at its. mouth .- Judge Bensen.
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Indian Names of Albany and Vicinity.
INDIAN NAMES OF ALBANY AND VICINITY.
Hudson did not give his own name to the river which he discovered. The Iroquois Indians called it Cahohàta- tèa, The Mahiccans, Mahakanèghtuc, and sometimes Shatemuck. Hudson styled it, emphatically, the Great River, or the Great River of the Mountains,* no doubt from the extraordinary circumstance of such a body of water flowing through the mountains without a cataract. The name of its discoverer, however, was early attached to it. I find it familiarly called Hudson'st River in some of the public documents of the Dutch colonial government ; but more frequently the North River, to distinguish it from the Delaware, which was discovered by the same naviga- tor, and which, being within the territory claimed by the Dutch, was called by them the South River .;- Dr. Miller, in Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. i, 37.
The names of the rivers Mohock and Hudson, as they are extant among the Iroquois, liave engaged my attention, to make inquiry concerning them. My opportunities have been favorable. Mr. John Bleecker, the ancient Indian interpreter, now in the seventy-ninth year of his age, was well enough to receive a visit from me this morning, and in possession of his full recollection as to what I asked of him. On seeing me, he instantly, and without hesitation, pronounced my name, with a remembrance that he had been acquainted with me at Fort Schuyler, in 1788, when the Five Nations sold their lands to the state of New York. I have also seen Colonel Louis, the distinguished Indian
* This name is said by some to have been of Spanish origin.
t There is reason to believe, that this name, though soon adopted by the Dutch, was first applied by the English; probably as a part of their system for assuming the discovery and the property of the country to themselves.
# There is reason to believe, that this name, though soon adopted by the Dutch, was first applied by the English; probably as a part of their system for assuming the discovery and property of the country to themselves.
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Indian Names of Albany and Vicinity.
warrior, who is now in Albany, and have sought informa- tion from him. Jacob Dochstetter, the present Oneida interpreter, likewise gave me all the opportunity I wished of conversing with him, while he was attending with his countrymen, a treaty with the commissioners appointed on the part of the state.
From these several persons I have obtained the follow- ing words, which I immediately committed to writing, and corrected as well as I could, by many repetitions from the mouths of the speakers. Though, I ought to observe, that there are a few sounds which the letters of our alphabet are incapable of expressing.
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