NOTES AND INDEXES

"When there is Peace, our land no moreWill be the land we knew of yore."Thus do our facile seers foretellThe truth that none can buy or sellAnd e'en the wisest must ignore.When we have bled at every pore,Shall we still strive for gear and store?Will it be heaven? Will it be hell?When there is Peace?This let us pray for, this implore:That, all base dreams thrust out at door,We may in loftier aims excelAnd, like men waking from a spell,Grow stronger, nobler, than before,When there is Peace.Austin Dobson.

"When there is Peace, our land no moreWill be the land we knew of yore."Thus do our facile seers foretellThe truth that none can buy or sellAnd e'en the wisest must ignore.

When we have bled at every pore,Shall we still strive for gear and store?Will it be heaven? Will it be hell?When there is Peace?

This let us pray for, this implore:That, all base dreams thrust out at door,We may in loftier aims excelAnd, like men waking from a spell,Grow stronger, nobler, than before,When there is Peace.

Austin Dobson.

AFTER THE WAR

After the war—I hear men ask—what then?As though this rock-ribbed world, sculptured with fire,And bastioned deep in the ethereal plan,Can never be its morning self againBecause of this brief madness, man with man;As though the laughing elements should tire,The very seasons in their order reel;As though indeed yon ghostly golden wheelOf stars should cease from turning, or the moonBefriend the night no more, or the wild roseForget the world, and June be no more June.How many wars and long-forgotten woesUnnumbered, nameless, made a like despairIn hearts long stilled; how many suns have setOn burning cities blackening the air,—Yet dawn came dreaming back, her lashes wetWith dew, and daisies in her innocent hair.Nor shall, for this, the soul's ascension pause,Nor the sure evolution of the lawsThat out of foulness lift the flower to sun,And out of fury forge the evening star.Deem not Love's building of the world undone—Far Love's beginning was, her end is far;By paths of fire and blood her feet must climb,Seeking a loveliness she scarcely knows,Whose meaning is beyond the reach of Time.Richard Le Gallienne.

How many wars and long-forgotten woesUnnumbered, nameless, made a like despairIn hearts long stilled; how many suns have setOn burning cities blackening the air,—Yet dawn came dreaming back, her lashes wetWith dew, and daisies in her innocent hair.Nor shall, for this, the soul's ascension pause,Nor the sure evolution of the lawsThat out of foulness lift the flower to sun,And out of fury forge the evening star.

Deem not Love's building of the world undone—Far Love's beginning was, her end is far;By paths of fire and blood her feet must climb,Seeking a loveliness she scarcely knows,Whose meaning is beyond the reach of Time.

Richard Le Gallienne.

NOTES

Page 3.The Story of Vinland.The discovery of America by the Norsemen is as well authenticated as any other fact of tenth-century history, and much better authenticated than most. There can be no doubt of the substantial accuracy of the Icelandic chronicle, and Mr. Lanier has followed it very closely.

Page 3.Stout Are Marson.Are Marsson. The stories concerning him and "Huitramannaland" are believed to be purely fanciful, an embroidery of fiction upon the historical background of the chronicles. There is no evidence that the Norsemen ever got farther south than Cape Cod, or, at most, Point Judith.

Page 7.Mid-ships with iron keel.The Norse boats had neither "iron keel" nor "ribs of steel." Keel and ribs were made of oak, and no evidence has been found of metallic sheathing. The size of these ships is usually underestimated. They were larger, stronger, and more seaworthy than those of Columbus. There is one in the museum at Christiania seventy-eight feet long, seventeen feet beam, and nearly six feet in depth. She carried a crew of at least thirty-five men. Henry Hudson's Half Moon carried a crew of only sixteen.

Page 7.The lofty tower.The old stone tower at Newport, around whose origin controversy raged for many years, but which is now believed to have been built by Benedict Arnold, governor of Newport, about 1676, for a windmill. The reader is referred to Palfrey's "History of New England," i, 57; Fiske's "Discovery of America," i, 214; and Drake's "New England Legends and Folk-lore," 393.

Page 7.Beyond the limits he had vainly set.The Pillars of Hercules, Gibraltar and Cape Serra.

Page 9.St. Stephen's cloistered hall.The conference was held at the Dominican convent of St. Stephen, at Salamanca.

Page 10.Cordova's sage.Seneca.

Page 12.The far-seeing Marchioness.Beatriz de Bobadilla, Marchioness of Moya, the bosom friend of the Queen, and a devoted admirer of Columbus. She happened to be with the Queen when Santangel rushed in demanding audience and told of Columbus's departure, and added her eloquence to his.

Page 14.Pedro Gutierrez.Pilot of the Santa Maria.

Page 14.Sanchez of Segovia.Roderigo Sanchez, inspector-general of the armament.

Page 16.A Castilla y á Leon."To Castile and Leon Columbus gave a new world." This was the motto annexed to the coat of arms granted to Columbus.

Page 21.The shining Cèpango.Cipango was the name given by Marco Polo to an island east of Asia, supposed to be the modern Japan. It was Cipango which Columbus and all the voyagers for half a century after him were seeking.

Page 25.Old Las Casas.Bartolomé de las Casas (1474-1566), a Spanish Dominican, celebrated as a defender of the Indians against their Spanish conquerors.

Page 30.Moscoso.Luis de Moscoso, who took charge of the expedition after De Soto's death.

Page 30.Six thousand of our foemen.The native loss was greatly exaggerated. It probably did not exceed five hundred.

Page 30.And eighty-two of Spain.The Spanish loss was 170. The scene of the battle is supposed to have been what is now known as Choctaw Bluff, in Clarke County, Alabama.

Page 31.The cities of the Zuñi.Coronado's expedition reached Cibola early in July, 1540, and a few days later carried it by storm and subdued the whole district, but found no treasure. A detailed account of the expedition will be found in Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History of America," ii, 473-503.

Page 34.Good Bernard.Bernard of Cluny, a French Benedictine monk of the twelfth century, author of "De Contemptu Mundi," popularly known through Neale's translation, "Jerusalem the Golden."

Page 34.Do not fear.The last words Gilbert is known to have spoken were the famous "We are as near to heaven by sea as by land." These are said to have been heard on board the companion ship, the Hind, a short time before the Squirrel disappeared.

Page 38.Pocahontas.This imaginative tale, from which all other narratives of the event are derived, appears in the second chapter of the third book of Smith's "The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles" (London, 1622), and is as follows:—

"At last they brought him toMeronoco moco, where was Powhatan, their emperor. Here more than two hundred of these grim courtiers stood wondering at him as he had been a monster, till Powhatan and his train had put themselves in their greatest braveries. Before a fire, upon a seat like a bedstead, he sat covered with a great robe, made of Rarowcun skins, and all the tails hanging by. On either hand did sit a young wench of 16 or 18 years, and along on each side of the house, two rows of men, and behind them as many women, with all their heads and shoulders painted red; many of their heads bedecked with the white down of birds; but every one with something: and a great chain of white beads about their necks.At his entrance before the King, all the people gave a great shout. The queen ofAppamatuckwas appointed to bring him water to wash his hands, and another brought him a bunch of feathers, instead of a towel to dry them: having feasted him after their best barbarous manner they could, a long consultation was held, but the conclusion was, two great stones were brought before Powhatan; then as many as could laid hand on him, dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head, and being ready with their clubs to beat out his brains, Pocahontas, the king's dearest daughter, when no entreaty could prevail, got his head in her arms, and laid her own upon his to save him from death: whereat the emperor was contented he should live to make him hatchets, and her bells, beads, and copper: for they thought him as well of all occupations as themselves. For the king himself will make his own robes, shoes, bows, arrows, pots; plant, hunt, or do anything so well as the rest.

"They say he bore a pleasant show,But sure his heart was sad,For who can pleasant be, and rest,That lives in fear and dread:And having life suspected, dothIt still suspected lead."

In spite of which, it is generally agreed among historians that no such incident ever occurred. One can only remark that Smith seems to have had a genius for imaginative detail worthy of Defoe.

Page 40.Richard Richwas a soldier and adventurer who accompanied Captain Newport in the Sea Venture, and experienced all the dangers and hardships of that remarkable voyage. He finally got back to England in 1610, and on the first day of October, published this poem, his object being, as he says in a brief and broadly humorous preface, to "spread the truth" about the new colony, whose attractions had so impressed him that he was resolved to return thither with Captain Newport in the following year. He speaks of another book of his soon to be issued, also devoted to a description of the colony, but no copy of it has ever been discovered, nor is anything known concerning Rich's subsequent adventures. A copy of his "Newes from Virginia" was found in 1864 in Lord Charlemont's collection, and is now in the Huth Library.

Page 40.Gates.Sir Thomas Gates, lieutenant-general of the new company.

Page 40.Newport.Christopher Newport (1565?-1617) had had an adventurous career as a corsair in the West Indies, where he sacked four Spanish towns, and destroyed no less than twenty Spanish vessels.

Page 40.Eleaven months.June 2, 1609-May 24, 1610.

Page 40.Inhabited by hogges.The descendants, presumably, of those left by the Spaniards.

Page 40.Two only.Six of the company died on the island.

Page 40.A son and daughter.These details are confirmed in "A True Repertory of the Wracke and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates upon and from the Islands of the Bermudas," or from Silas Jourdan's "Discovery of the Barmudas ... by Sir T. Gates ... with divers others" (1610); to both of which Shakespeare is said to have been indebted for the groundwork of "The Tempest."

Page 43.The Marriage of Pocahontas.There is some doubt as to whether the marriage occurred in 1613 or 1614. The former has been the more generally accepted date, but the compiler has adopted the latter on the authority of Mr. Wyndham Robertson, who has made an exhaustive study of the question, the results of which were embodied in a paper read before the Virginia Historical Society in 1860. Mr. Robertson proves pretty conclusively that April 5, 1614, is the correct date.

Page 43.Sparkling-Water.The English meaning of Pocahontas.

Page 45.The town shall not rise from its ashes again.Jamestown, at the time it was burned, consisted of a church, state-house, and about eighteen dwellings, mostly of brick. Only the tower of the church and a few chimneys were left standing.

Page 45.Bacon's Epitaph.This remarkable poem has been preserved in an anonymous "History of Bacon's and Ingram's Rebellion," known as "The Burwell Papers," and printed by the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1814. The "Burwell Papers" have been attributed to a planter named Cotton of Acquia Creek, but this is only conjecture, and there seems to be absolutely no clue to the authorship of the elegy, which will probably always remain one of the literary mysteries of America.

Page 48.The Downfall of Piracy.This is thought to be one of the ballads referred to by Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography. He says: "I now took a fancy to poetry, and made some little pieces. My brother, thinking it might turn to account, encouraged me, and put me on composing occasional ballads. One was called 'The Lighthouse Tragedy,' and contained an account of the drowning of Captain Worthilake, with his two daughters; the other was a sailor song on the taking of Teach (or Blackbeard) the pirate."

It had been thought for many years that both of these ballads were lost, but "The Downfall of Piracy" was discovered by Dr. Edward Everett Hale in a volume entitled "Some Real Sea-Songs," edited by Mr. John Ashton, and published in London. There is, in Dr. Hale's opinion, no doubt that it is one of the Franklin ballads. The news of the fight probably reached Boston about the first of January, 1719, and the ballad was no doubt written soon after. Of "The Lighthouse Tragedy" no trace has been found.

Page 50.'Twas Juet spoke.Robert Juet accompanied Hudson as mate on his previous voyage, and on this one acted as clerk. He kept a curious journal of the voyage, which has been preserved in Purchas's third volume.

Page 52.The Praise of New Netherland.The full title, in English, is "The Praise of New Netherland: wherein are briefly and truly shown the excellent qualities which it possesses in the purity of the air, fertility of the soil, production of the cattle, abundance of game and fish, with its advantages for navigation and commerce." It was printed at Amsterdam "for Jacobus Van Der Fuyk, bookseller in the Still-Alley, Anno 1661." Steendam had returned to Amsterdam, it is thought only on a visit, at the time of the publication of this poem. It is dedicated to "The Honorable Cornelis van Ruyven, councillor and secretary of the Hon. West India Company there. Faithful and very upright Promoter of New Netherland."

Page 54.Noch vaster.A play upon words, a whimsical device adopted by Steendam. Steendam means "stone dam," andnoch vaster, "still firmer." Notwithstanding which he seems to have been "a man of very unsettled purposes of life."

Page 58.Bartholomew Gosnold's 'headlands.'Gosnold commanded an expedition which, in 1602, discovered Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, both of which were named by him.

Page 63.The Expedition to Wessagusset.Mr. Longfellow has followed the account of this expedition given in Winslow's Relation of "Standish's Expedition against the Indians of Weymouth." He has, however, turned the incident of Standish's killing of the chiefs, Pecksuot and Wituwamat, into a much more open and heroic piece of conduct than the chronicle admits. The killing really occurred in a room into which Standish and a few of his men had enticed them. This was the first Indian blood shed by the Pilgrims. A general battle followed in the open field, from which the Indians fled and in which no lives were lost.

"Concerning the killing of those poor Indians," wrote Robinson of Leyden (December 16, 1623), "of which we heard first by report and since by more certain relation, O how happy a thing had it been, if you had converted some before you had killed any!"

Page 65.New England's Annoyances.These verses are undoubtedly of a very early date, probably about 1630. Rufus W. Griswold, in his introduction to "The Poets and Poetry of America" (Philadelphia, 1854), calls them "the first verses by a colonist," a statement which is, of course, impossible of proof. They appeared originally in the Massachusetts Historical Collections, with the statement that they were "taken memoriter, in 1785, from the lips of an old lady at the advanced age of 96."

Page 73.Anne Hutchinson's Exile.The basis of the famous Antinomian controversy, as it was called, was the promulgation, by Mrs. Hutchinson, of "two dangerous errors: first, that the person of the Holy Ghost dwells in a justified person; second, that no sanctification can help to evidence to us our justification." The words are Winthrop's. To these two doctrines Mrs. Hutchinson attached so much importance that she undertook the public ministration of them. Sir Harry Vane, the young governor of the colony, was one of her converts, but in May, 1637, Winthrop was chosen governor instead of Vane, and at once took steps to suppress the Antinomians, which resulted in the banishment of the more prominent among them.

Page 73.The father.William Hutchinson, who had accompanied his family from England.

Page 73.The boys and girls.There were fifteen children, so that Portsmouth, which they founded, started off with a larger population than most towns of the period.

Page 75.In the ruler's seat.Underhill was chosen governor of the "Passataquack men" in October, 1638.

Page 83.Pettaquamscut town.South Kingston, Rhode Island. The Narragansett stronghold lay sixteen miles away, in what is now the town of North Kingston.

Page 83.George Fox.Founder of the Society of Friends, who visited America in 1671-72.

Page 84.Connecticut had sent her men.Of the army of a thousand, five hundred and twenty-seven were furnished by Massachusetts, and the remainder by Connecticut and Plymouth.

Page 85.On a Fortification at Boston begun by Women.This poem occurs on pages 30-31 of "New England's Crisis," and not, as Duyckinck states, at the beginning. The author, Benjamin Tompson, "learned schoolmaster and physician, and yerenowned poet of New England," as the epitaph upon his tombstone puts it, was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, July 14, 1642, graduated from Harvard in 1662, and after serving as master of the Boston Latin School and Cambridge Preparatory School, died at Cambridge in 1675.

Page 85.Sudbury's battle.The Indian attack was made early in the morning of April 21, and lasted practically all the day. News of it soon reached the neighboring towns, and relief parties were started forward. The Indians were on the lookout for them. A party of eleven men from Concord walked into an ambush and only one escaped; eighteen troopers from Boston finally got into the town with a loss of four; and a party of fifty from Marlboro, under Captain Samuel Wadsworth, were caught in an adroitly prepared trap, out of which but thirteen came alive.

Page 99.Charles of Estienne.Charles de St. Estienne was a son of Claude de la Tour, a nobleman who, in 1610, had been forced by poverty to seek his fortune in the New World. They came to Port Royal, shared in the vicissitudes of the little settlement, and were among those who took to the woods after its destruction by the English. Among the fugitives was the Sieur de Biencourt, who held a grant to the country about Port Royal. They built some rude cabins, cultivated little patches of ground, and raised a fort of logs and earth near Cape Sable, which they called Fort St. Louis. Biencourtdied in 1623, and Charles de la Tour took command of the fort and assumed control of Biencourt's property, claiming that Biencourt had so willed it. Another fort was built on the River St. John, and La Tour was appointed by the king lieutenant-governor over Fort Louis, Port la Tour, and dependencies.

At about the same time, Richelieu sent out an expedition to take formal possession of New France, and named Isaac de Launay de Razilly governor of all Acadia. He made his settlement at La Hève, on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, but died in 1635, and his deputy, Charles de Menou, Chevalier D'Aulnay, asserted his right to command in the colony. Thereupon began between him and Charles de la Tour that famous struggle for the possession of Acadia which forms so romantic a passage in American history.

Page 101.Pentagoet shall rue.La Tour was unable to avenge himself, but time did it for him. D'Aulnay was drowned in 1650, and La Tour was appointed governor of Acadia. In 1653 he married D'Aulnay's widow, Jeanne de Motin.

Page 105.Pentucket.The Indian name for Haverhill.

Page 106.Of worthy Captain Lovewell.Not much is known of Lovewell. He was a son of Zaccheus Lovewell, an ensign in the army of Oliver Cromwell, who had come to America and settled at Dunstable, where he died at the great age of one hundred and twenty years,—"the oldest white man who ever died in New Hampshire." He left three sons, the youngest of whom was John, the hero of Pigwacket. At the time of the fight, he was about thirty-three years of age, and had a wife and two or three children. After the Indian attack on Dunstable in 1624, he and some others petitioned the House of Representatives at Boston to make some provision for a force to be sent against the savages. The Representatives voted that all such volunteers should be paid two shillings and sixpence a day, and promised large rewards for the scalps of male Indians old enough to fight. A company of thirty was raised, with Lovewell as captain, and captured one prisoner and took one scalp. A second expedition brought back ten scalps and some other booty, and the third expedition culminated in the battle at Pigwacket.

Page 106.'Twas nigh unto Pigwacket.The old name for Fryeburg. Pigwacket was at the time the principal village of the Ossipe tribe. Also spelled Pequawket.

Page 108.They killed Lieutenant Robbins.Robbins was a native of Chelmsford. He was so badly wounded that he had to be left on the ground. He desired his companions to charge his gun and leave it with him, saying, "As the Indians will come in the morning to scalp me, I will kill one more of them if I can."

Page 108.Good young Frye.Jonathan Frye, the chaplain of the company, was the only son of Captain James Frye, of Andover, and had graduated at Harvard only two years before. It is a curious commentary on the taste of the time that he should be commended for scalping Indians, as well as killing them; the scalping, however, was the result not of ferocity but of the large rewards offered by the Boston legislature for these trophies.

Page 108.Wymans Captain made.Ensign Seth Wymans, or Wyman, belonged in Woburn, and commanded through the day, after the fall of his superiors at the first fire. He so distinguished himself that he was given a captain's commission, and his admiring townsmen presented him with a silver-hilted sword.

Page 108.Anon, there eighty Indians rose.Penhallow says seventy, Hutchinson eighty, Williamson sixty-three, and Belknap forty-one.

Page 111.The British Lyon Roused.From Tilden's | miscellaneous | Poems, | on | Divers Occasions; | Chiefly to Animate & Rouse | the | Soldiers. | Printed 1756. The little volume from which this poem was taken is one of the most interesting published before the Revolution. For a long time nothing whatever was known of the author, not even his first name. But that was subsequently discovered by Mr. J. H. Trumbull, and communicated to the "New York Historical Magazine," iv, 72, by him. This account seems to have been overlooked by all of Tilden's biographers. Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography fails to give his first name, nor does any history or cyclopædia of American literature with which the compiler is familiar.

Page 112.The Song of Braddock's Men.This spirited song has been preserved by Mr. Winthrop Sargent in his excellent monograph upon the Braddock expedition, published by the Pennsylvania Historical Society in 1855. Mr. Sargent states that it was composed in Chester County, Pennsylvania, while the army was on the march in the early autumn of 1755, and that there is no doubt of its authenticity. He does not say where he discovered it.

Page 112.Braddock's Fate.It will be noticed that these verses were composed just six weeks after the battle which they describe, and the author must have sat down to them at once upon hearing the news of the defeat.

Page 113.Old sixty-six.The author.

Page 114.North America.It is worthy of note that in all colonial and revolutionary poetry, America is rhymed with such words as day, say, and away.

Page 114.Telesem.A name which Tilden gave to this form of verse.

Page 118. OfWolfe's brave deeds.General James Wolfe, who commanded a brigade, and took the leading part in the assaults on the fortress, on one occasion plunging into the sea at the head of his grenadiers, and capturing a battery which commanded the beach.

Page 118.Amherst's patriot name.Jeffrey (afterwards Baron) Amherst, commander-in-chief of the land forces, fourteen thousand strong. He was hotly criticised by Wolfe for his blundering conduct of the campaign.

Page 119.The tartans of Grant's Highlanders.Major Grant, of the Highlanders, had obtained permission to reconnoitre the fort, and set out with about eight hundred men. He reached the fort on September 14, but, relying on his supposed superior numbers, divided his force in such a way that the different parts could not support each other. He was defeated in detail, his force cut to pieces, and himself taken prisoner. His loss was nearly three hundred.

Page 119.Loyalhanna.Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

Page 121.Ned Botwood.Edward Botwood, sergeant in the grenadiers of the Forty-seventh, or Lascelles' Regiment. He was the author of the verses given here, which were written on the eve of the expedition's departure from Louisburg, and continued popular with the British troops throughout the Revolution. He was killed during an unsuccessful assault, July 31.

Page 122.Then Wolfe he took his leave.A short time before leaving for America, Wolfe had become engaged to Katherine, daughter of Robert Lowther.

Page 122.A parley.This is, of course, purely imaginary. There was no parley.

Page 122.Then instant from his horse.Wolfe was not on horseback.

Page 129.The Virginia Song.When David Garrick wrote "Hearts of Oak" as an expression of English patriotism, he little dreamed that he was furnishing ammunition for England's enemies. It was to the air of that song that the most popular of the colonial patriotic songs were written, and it was probably better known than any of our national songs are to us to-day. Such versions as "The Virginia Song," "The Patriot's Appeal," "The Massachusetts Song," and "The Liberty Song" were printed on broadside sheets and in newspaper columns and sung in village meeting and city street throughout the land, awakening immense enthusiasm.

Page 131.The Liberty Pole.From "The Procession with the Standard of Faction, a Cantata," a four-page folio preserved in the Du Simitière collection of broadsides.

Page 132.Who carry caps and pouches."Pouches," perhaps a survival of the days of the hand-grenade.

Page 132.Crispus Attucks.Attucks was a resident of Framingham, and there is some difference of opinion as to whether he was a mulatto or half-breed Indian. His only claim to remembrance is that he happened to be in the path of a British bullet on that March day in Boston.

Page 135.A New Song called the Gaspee.The author of this old ballad is unknown. It was rescued from oblivion by Mr. John S. Taylor, who printed it in his "Sketches of Newport and its Vicinity," New York, 1842.

Page 138.Tremble! for know, I, Thomas Gage.Gage was the last royal governor of Massachusetts, and the best hated.

Page 139.Against Virginia's hostile land.Patrick Henry's famous speech, delivered in 1764 before the House of Burgesses, had never ceased to ring in the ears of royalty, and the people of Virginia had long been regarded as a "rebellious band that must be broken."

Page 139.Hail, Middlesex!A small number of the people of Middlesex County, Virginia, early in 1774, had adopted some Royalist "resolves," an event which gave rise to the following epigram by a "Lady of Pennsylvania":—

To manhood he makes a vain pretenceWho wants both manly form and sense;'Tis but the form and not the matter,According to the schoolmen's clatter;From such a creature, Heaven defend her!Each lady cries, noneuter gender!But when a number of such creatures,With women's hearts and manly features,Their country's generous schemes perplex,I own I hate this Middle-sex.

Page 139.To Murray bend the humble knee.John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia, 1770-1775.

Page 139.Mesech Weare.Weare was president of the state of New Hampshire in 1776. His verses were set to a psalm tune and widely sung.

Page 140.In spite of Rice.This refers to the extensive donations sent from the other colonies to the people of Boston.

Page 140.Rivington's New York Gazetteer.This paper, the principal vehicle of Royalist poetry during the Revolution, was established by James Rivington, a bookseller, in 1773, and printed at his "ever open and uninfluenced press." In the autumn of 1775 his printing outfit was destroyed by a patriot mob; but he was soon afterwards appointed King's Printer for the colony, furnished with a new outfit, and started "Rivington's New York Loyal Gazette." At the close of the war he changed its title to "Rivington's Gazette and Universal Advertiser," but it died of starvation in 1783.

Page 141.Liberty Tree.On August 14, 1765, an effigy representing Andrew Oliver, distributer of stamps for Boston, was found hanging from a great elm opposite the Boylston Market. A mob gathered when the sheriff triedto take down the effigy, the stamp office was demolished, and Oliver himself was compelled to repair to the tree and resign his commission. It was thenceforward called the Liberty Tree. Liberty trees were afterwards consecrated in many other New England towns.

Page 143.Since mad Lee now commands us.Major-General Charles Lee, that eccentric, morose, and ill-fated genius, characterized by Thomas Paine as "above all monarchs and below all scum."

Page 143.Massachusetts Song of Liberty.This song, to the air "Hearts of Oak," became almost as popular as "Adams and Liberty" did at a later day. Mrs. Mercy Warren, to whom it is attributed, published a volume of "Poems, Dramatic and Miscellaneous" (Boston, 1790), dedicated to Washington.

Page 144.To the Boston Women.From Upcott, iv, 339.

Page 144.Paul Revere's Ride.It is possible that Mr. Longfellow derived the story, as told in the poem, from Revere's account of the adventure in a letter to Dr. Jeremy Belknap, printed in Mass. Hist. Coll. v. The publication of the poem called out a long controversy as to the accuracy of its details.

Page 147.Then Devens looked.Richard Devens, a member of the Committee of Safety, of which Hancock and Warren were the leading spirits.

Page 147.Then haste ye, Prescott and Revere.Dr. Samuel Prescott, of Concord, joined Revere and Dawes at Lexington and started with them for Concord. They were stopped by a British patrol. Prescott escaped by leaping his horse over the roadside wall and spurred on to Concord, while his companions were taken prisoners, but soon released.

Page 147.The red-coats fire, the homespuns fall.Eight Americans were killed, four near the spot where the battle monument now stands, and four others while escaping over the fences. Their names, as recorded on the monument, were Robert Monroe, Jonas Parker, Samuel Hadley, Jonathan Harrington, Jr., Isaac Muzzy, Caleb Harrington, and John Brown, of Lexington, and Asahel Porter, of Woburn.

Page 148.New England's Chevy Chase.As Lord Percy, at the head of the relief column, marched through Roxbury, his bands playing "Yankee Doodle" in derision of the opponents he was soon to meet, he observed a boy who seemed to be exceedingly amused. He stopped and asked the boy why he was so merry. "To think," said the boy, "how you will dance by and by to Chevy Chase." Percy, who was very superstitious, was worried by the remark all day. Its point will be appreciated when it is remembered that Percy was a lineal descendant of the Earl Percy who was slain at Chevy Chase.

Page 149.We saw Davis fall dead.Captain Isaac Davis, of the Acton company. He and Abner Hosmer were killed as the Americans charged the British stationed at the North Bridge. "I haven't a man that's afraid to go!" he had exclaimed as he wheeled his company into line for the charge.

Page 150.We'd rather have spent it this way than to home.One of the veterans of the fight made this very remark to Edward Everett.

Page 153.Of man for man the sacrifice.The British lost 65 killed, 180 wounded, 28 captured; the Americans, 59 killed, 39 wounded, 5 missing.

Page 158.King David.See 2 Samuel v, 23, 24.

Page 159.Yankee Doodle.Accounts of the origin of "Yankee Doodle" are many and various. The air is very old, and nearly every country in Europe claims it. It probably reached England from Holland, and in the days of Charles I was used for some verses about Lydia Lockett and Kittie Fisher, gay ladies of the town. Afterwards, when Cromwell rode into Oxford on a pony, with his single plume fastened into a sort of knot called a "macaroni," the Cavaliers used the same air for their derisive verses. The story goes that this fact was recalled by Dr. Richard Shuckburg, of the Seventeenth Foot, when the queerly garbed provincial levies presented themselves, in June, 1755, at the camp at Albany, to take part in the campaign against the French. He wrote down the notes of the air and got the regimental band to play it. It was taken up by the Americans and became instantly popular. Verses innumerable have been attached to the air, the best known of which are "The Yankee's Return from Camp" and "The Battle of the Kegs."

Page 160.Edward Bangs.This is upon the authority of Dr. Edward Everett Hale, who states that "an autograph note of Judge Dawes, of the Harvard class of 1777, addressed to my father, says that the author of the well-known lines was Edward Bangs, who graduated with him. Mr. Bangs had, as a college boy, joined the Middlesex farmers in the pursuit of April 19, 1775. He was afterward a judge in Worcester County."

Page 160.Tom Gage's Proclamation.General Gage's proclamation, issued June 12, 1775, was as follows:—

"Whereas the infatuated multitudes, who have long suffered themselves to be conducted by certain well-known incendiaries and traitors, in a fatal progression of crimes against the constitutional authority of the state, have at length proceeded to avowed rebellion, and the good effects which were expected to arise from the patience and lenity of the king's government have been often frustrated, and are now rendered hopeless by the influence of the same evil counsels, it only remains for those who are entrusted with the supreme rule, as well for the punishment of the guilty as the protection of the well-affected, to prove that they do not bear the sword in vain."

Page 162.The Ballad of Bunker Hill.An unsigned copy of these verses, apparently an authentic Revolutionary ballad, but really written by Dr. Hale in 1845, was "discovered," about 1858, among some old manuscripts at Millbury, Mass., and reproduced in the "HistoricalMagazine," iii, 311. Dr. Hale had himself lost all trace of the poem, until he came across it in the first edition of this compilation.

Page 163.Grandmother's Story of Bunker-Hill Battle.Dr. Holmes himself says:—

"The story of Bunker Hill battle is told as literally in accordance with the best authorities as it would have been if it had been written in prose instead of in verse. I have often been asked what steeple it was from which the little group I speak of looked upon the conflict. To this I answer that I am not prepared to speak authoritatively, but that the reader may take his choice among all the steeples standing at that time in the northern part of the city. Christ Church in Salem Street is the one I always think of, but I do not insist upon its claim. As to the personages who made up the small company that followed the old corporal, it would be hard to identify them, but by ascertaining where the portrait by Copley is now to be found, some light may be thrown on their personality."

It has been pointed out that the belfry could hardly have been that of Christ Church, since tradition has it that General Gage himself watched the battle from that vantage point.

The poem was first published in 1875, in connection with the centenary of the battle which it describes.

Page 167.The Battle of Bunker Hill.This "popular" ballad was written and printed as a broadside for the purpose of encouraging recruiting for the English army. There are many versions of it, as well as parodies composed by Yankee sympathizers.

Page 169.'Twas then he took his gloomy way.Washington's journey was, as a matter of fact, a kind of triumph.

Page 169.Lawyer Close.Washington's aide, Major Lee.

Page 170.Like Esop's greedy cur.Fable 118. A dog crossing a rivulet, with a piece of meat in his mouth, saw his own shadow; and believing it to be another dog with a larger piece of meat, snatched at it, with the result that he lost his own piece.

Page 176.Emancipation from British Dependence.The following explanatory note is from Duyckinck's edition of Freneau:—

"Sir James Wallace, Admiral Graves, and Captain Montague were British naval officers, employed on our coast. The Viper and Rose were vessels in the service. Lord Dunmore, the last Royal governor of Virginia, had recently, in April, 1775, removed the public stores from Williamsburg, and, in conjunction with a party of adherents, supported by the naval force on the station, was making war on the province. William Tryon, the last Royal governor of New York, discerning the signs of the times, took refuge on board the Halifax packet in the harbor, and left the city in the middle of October, 1775."

Page 177.Rodney, who was one of the Delaware delegates to the Continental Congress, had obtained leave of absence for a journey through the southern part of the state to prepare the people for a change of government. His colleagues, Thomas McKean and George Read, were divided on the question, and the former, knowing Rodney to be favorable to the declaration, sent him a message urging his return. By great exertion Rodney arrived just in time for the final discussion, and his affirmative vote secured the consent of the Delaware delegation to the declaration, and effected that unanimity among the colonies which was essential to the success of the measure.

Page 180.The American Patriot's Prayer.This poem was formerly ascribed to Thomas Paine, but recent authority has rejected this on the basis of internal evidence.

Page 183.The Maryland Battalion.At the opening of the Revolution, the young men of Baltimore organized the "Baltimore Independent Company," and elected Mordecai Gist captain. This was afterwards increased to a battalion, of which Gist was appointed major. The battalion checked the advance of Cornwallis at the battle of Long Island, and saved a portion of Stirling's command from capture. Two hundred and fifty-nine were left dead on the field.

Page 183.Grant.The British general who commanded the left wing. He had declared in the House of Commons that the Americans would not fight, and that he could march from one end of the continent to the other with five thousand men.

Page 183.Stirling.William Alexander, commonly called Lord Stirling, eldest son of James Alexander Stirling, who had fled to America upon the discovery of the Jacobite conspiracy of 1715.

Page 184.Knowlton.Thomas Knowlton, lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of rangers selected from the Connecticut troops. He was killed at the battle of Harlem Heights, as was Major Leitch, who had been sent to his aid.

Page 185.Nathan Hale.Nathan Hale was a great-grandson of John Hale, first minister of Beverly, Massachusetts. He was born in 1755, and graduated from Yale in 1773. Little is known of his personal history.

Page 188.Trenton and Princeton.From McCarty's "National Song Book," iii, 88. McCarty says it was written from the dictation of an old lady who had heard it sung during the Revolution.

Page 204.Lord North's Recantation.These verses were written by "a gentleman of Chester," England, and first appeared in the "London Evening Post."

Page 205.General Howe's Letter.From Upcott, v, 45.

Page 208.British Valor Displayed; or, The Battle of the Kegs.This ballad was occasioned by a real incident. Certain machines in the form of kegs, charged with gunpowder, were sent down the river to annoy the British shipping then at Philadelphia. The danger of these machines being discovered, the British manned the wharfs and shipping and discharged their small-arms and cannons at everything they saw floating in the river during the ebb tide.—Author's note.

David Bushnell, inventor of the American torpedo, constructed the machines, which were so arranged as to explode on coming in contact with anything. Hopkinson's verses, which swept from colony to colony, did much to relieve the strain of those early months of 1778, and were perhaps worth as much, in tonic and inspiration, as the winning of a battle would have been.

Page 208.Sir William.Sir William Howe, commanding the British army.

Page 208.Mrs. Loring.Wife of Joshua Loring, the notorious commissary of prisoners.

Page 208.Sir Erskine.Sir William Erskine.

Page 214.King Hancock at their head.John Hancock commanded the second line of Massachusetts militia in this movement.

Page 214.Bold Pigot.Sir Robert Pigot commanded the British forces in Rhode Island.

Page 216.Betty Zane.Elizabeth Zane was about eighteen years of age at the time she performed this exploit, and had just returned to Fort Henry from Philadelphia, where she had completed her education. She lived until 1847.

Page 216.Betty's brothers.Ebenezer and Silas.

Page 217.The Wyoming Massacre.This ballad was printed, apparently for the first time, in Charles Miner's "History of Wyoming" (Philadelphia, 1845), where it is stated that it was written shortly after the tragedy by Mr. "Uriah Terry, of Kingston." In McCarty's "National Song Book" (iii, 344) it is said to have been written "by a person then resident near the field of battle."

Page 219.The Cruise of the Fair American.The war song of the Salem Privateersmen during the Revolution, and preserved in Griswold's manuscript collection of "American Historical Ballads." It was taken down from the mouths of Hawthorne's surviving shipmates early in the last century.

Page 219.Bold Hawthorne.Daniel Hawthorne, grandfather of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Page 223.The Yankee Man-of-War.This, one of the very best of American sea-songs, was first published by Commodore Luce, in his collection of "Naval Songs." He states that it was taken down from the recitation of a sailor. Internal evidence would indicate that it was composed by a member of the Ranger's crew.

Page 224.Paul Jones—A New Song.This is Number 613, vol. iii, of the Roxburghe collection of broadsides.

Page 224.As Green, Jemmy Twitcher.Captain Green was a noted pirate, and Jemmy Twitcher was the name given to the notorious John, Lord Sandwich.

Page 224.Pierce.Captain Richard Pearson. He was knighted as a reward for his fight with Jones. The latter remarked, upon hearing of it, "Should I fall in with him again, I'll make a lord of him."

Page 225.The Alliance bore down and the Richard did rake.The Alliance was commanded by Pierre Landais, a Frenchman, and his actions have never been satisfactorily explained. He had held his ship aloof at the opening of the battle, disregarding Jones's orders, but came up later only to pour three or four broadsides into the Richard, killing or wounding many of her crew and almost sinking her. She then drew off and awaited the result of the battle.

Page 225.Full forty guns Serapis bore.She really carried fifty against the Richard's forty-two. Besides, she was a new frigate, only four months out, while the Richard was old and unseaworthy. The Serapis carried 320 men, the Richard 304.

Page 226.Bold Pallas soon the Countess took.The Countess of Scarborough struck to the Pallas after a gallant two hours' battle.

Page 226.In the Hyder Ali.Hyder Ali was an Indian prince who defeated the English in 1767 and subsequently caused them so much annoyance that he was very popular with American patriots.

Page 229.The Hope.The ship Hope and the brig Constance, which were with the South Carolina, were also taken.

Page 229.Sir Henry Clinton.Clinton was left in command of New York city, when Howe started on his expedition for the capture of Philadelphia.

Page 230.Braving the death that his heart foretold.Wayne was convinced that he would not survive the attack on Stony Point, but nevertheless led the assault in person. He was struck in the head by a bullet, but insisted on being borne into the fort with his men.

Page 232.The Modern Jonas.A pasquinade printed as a broadside and stuck up in New York city. "Old Knyp" was General Knyphausen; "Old Clip," General Robertson; and "Yankee Farms," Connecticut Farms.

Page 233.The Cow-Chace.The last canto of this poem was published in "Rivington's Royal Gazette" on the day that André was captured. These are the only verses he is known to have published. The original copy is still in existence, and has the following stanza upon it, under André's signature:—

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