Processions of peasants were passing from church to church, the whole day, to implore succour against the cholera, which, by the way, and contrary to all rule for a low and moist country, is said to be very light here.  The Flemings have the reputation of being among the most bigoted Catholics, and the most ignorant population of Europe.  This accounts, in some measure, for the existence of the latter quality among the first inhabitants of New York, most of whom were from Flanders, rather than from Holland.  I have found many of our names in Antwerp, but scarcely one in Holland.  The language at home, too, is much nearer the Flemish than the Dutch; though it is to be presumed that there must have been some colonists from Holland, in a province belonging to that nation.  I listened to-day to a fellow vending quack medicines and vilely printed legends, to a song which, tune and all, I am quite sure to have heard in Albany, when a schoolboy.  The undeviating character and habits of the people, too, appear to be very much like those which existed among ourselves, before the influx of eastern emigration swallowed up everything even to the suppan.  I remember to have heard this same quack singing this same song, in the very same place in June, 1828, when we first visited Antwerp.  The effect was exceedingly ludicrous, for it seemed to me, that the fellow had been occupying the same spot, employed in the same pursuits, for the last five years, although the country had been revolutionized.  This is also a little characteristic, for some of our own Communipaws are said to believe we are still the property of the United Provinces.

The Flemish language has many words that are French in the spelling, but which have entirely different meanings, representing totally different things or ideas. De is one.  In French this word, pronounced der, without dwelling on the last letter, is a preposition generally meaning “of.”  Before a name, without being incorporated with it, it is an invariable sign of nobility, being even frequently affixed, like the German von, to the family name, on attaining that rank.  In Flemish it is an article, and is pronounced precisely as a Dutchman is apt to pronounced the, meaning the same.  Thus De Witt, means the White, or White; the Flemings using the article to express things or qualities in the abstract, like the French.  Myn Heer De Witt is just the same as Monsieur le Blanc, or Monsieur Du Bois, in French; one of which means Monsieur White, and the other Monsieur Wood.  So nearly does this language resemble the English, that I have repeatedly comprehended whole sentences, in passing through the streets.  Now in New York, we used to think the Dutch had become corrupted by the English, but I fancy that the corruption has been just the other way.