The scenes of which he was a witness, had produced a powerful effect on Van Staats of Kinderhook.  Of a slow imagination but of a powerful and vast frame, he was not easily excited, either to indulge in fanciful images, or to suffer personal apprehension.  Only a few years had passed since men, who in other respects were enlightened, firmly believed in the existence of supernatural agencies in the control of the affairs of this life; and though the New-Netherlanders had escaped the infatuation which prevailed so generally in the religious provinces of New-England, a credulous superstition, of a less active quality, possessed the minds of the most intelligent of the Dutch colonists, and even of their descendants so lately as in our own times.  The art of divination was particularly in favor; and it rarely happened, that any inexplicable event affected the fortunes or comforts of the good provincialists, without their having recourse to some one of the more renowned fortunetellers of the country, for an explanation.  Men of slow faculties love strong excitement, because they are insensible to less powerful impulses, as men of hard heads find most enjoyment in strong liquors.  The Patroon was altogether of the sluggish cast; and to him there was consequently a secret, but deep pleasure, in his present situation.

“What important results may flow from this adventure, we know not, Mr. Alderman Van Beverout,” returned Oloff Van Staats; “and I confess a desire to see and hear more, before we land.  This ‘Skimmer of the Seas’ is altogether a different man from what our rumors in the city have reported; and, by remaining, we may set public opinion nearer to the truth.  I have heard my late venerable aunt——­”

“Chimney-corners and traditions!  The good lady was no bad customer of these gentry, Patroon; and it is lucky that they got no more of thy inheritance, in the way of fees.  You see the Lust in Rust against the mountain there; well, all that is meant for the public is on the outside, and all that is intended for my own private gratification is kept within-doors.  But here is Captain Ludlow, who has matters of the Queen on his hands, and the gentleman will find it disloyal to waste the moments in this juggling.”

“I confess the same desire to witness the end,” dryly returned the commander of the Coquette.  “The state of the wind prevents any immediate change in the positions of the two vessels; and why not get a farther insight into the extraordinary character of those who belong to the brigantine?”

“Ay, there it is!” muttered the Alderman between his teeth.  “Your insights and outsights lead to all the troubles of life.  One is never snug with these fantastics, which trifle with a secret, like a fly fluttering round a candle, until his wings get burnt.”