CHAPTER X

THE PORT

The three walked toward the Battery, and, while Tayoga attracted more attention in New York than in Quebec, it was not undue.  The city was used to Indians, especially the Iroquois, and although comments were made upon Tayoga’s height and noble appearance there was nothing annoying.

Meanwhile the two youths were using their excellent eyes to the full.  Although the vivid imagination of Robert had foreseen a great future for New York he did not dream how vast it would be.  Yet all things are relative, and the city even then looked large to him and full of life, both size and activity having increased visibly since his last visit.  Some of the streets were paved, or at least in part, and the houses, usually of red brick, often several stories in height, were comfortable and strong.  Many of them had lawns and gardens as at Albany, and the best were planted with rows of trees which would afford a fine shade in warm weather.  Above the mercantile houses and dwellings rose the lofty spire of St. George’s Chapel in Nassau Street, which had been completed less than three years before, and which secured Robert’s admiration for its height and impressiveness.

The aspect of the whole town was a mixture of English and Dutch, but they saw many sailors who were of neither race.  Some were brown men with rings in their ears, and they spoke languages that Robert did not understand.  But he knew that they came from far southern seas and that they sailed among the tropic isles, looming large then in the world’s fancy, bringing with them a whiff of romance and mystery.

The sidewalks in many places were covered with boxes and bales brought from all parts of the earth, and stalwart men were at work among them.  The pulsing life and the air of prosperity pleased Robert.  His nature responded to the town, as it had responded to the woods, and his imagination, leaping ahead, saw a city many times greater than the one before his eyes, though it still stopped far short of the gigantic reality that was to come to pass.

“It’s not far now to Master Hardy’s,” said Willet cheerfully.  “It’s many a day since I’ve seen trusty old Ben, and right glad I’ll be to feel the clasp of his hand again.”

On his way Willet bought from a small boy in the street a copy each of the Weekly Post-Boy and of the Weekly Gazette and Mercury, folding them carefully and putting them in an inside pocket of his coat.

“I am one to value the news sheets,” he said.  “They don’t tell everything, but they tell something and ’tis better to know something than nothing.  Just a bit farther, my lads, and we’ll be at the steps of honest Master Hardy.  There, you can see where fortunes are made and lost, though we’re a bit too late to see the dealers!”