A delightful old print ostensibly representing him at forty, shows him to have been a round-faced, more or less portly gentleman, with a full, pleasant mouth and very big and bright eyes.  His wig is meticulously curled and powdered, and he is, plainly, a very fine figure of a man indeed.  Roubilliac’s bust of him in Westminster makes him much better looking and not nearly, so stout.  Thomas Janvier, who has written delightfully about our captain, disturbs me by insisting that he was a little man,—­nay, his insult goes deeper:  he says a little, fat man!  I simply will not accept such a distressing theory!

Edward de Lancey, descended from the family of the girl Peter married, describes him as being “...  Of attractive manners, quick in perception and action, but clear-headed and calm in judgment.”  And the historian Parkman declares that at forty-two he had “the ardour of youth still burning within him.”  Reverse the figures.  What do you suppose that ardour was like when he was not forty-two but twenty-four?

At the time of our hero’s first command and first naval engagement on his own ship, things were quite exciting for his King and country, though we have most of us forgotten that such excitements ever existed.  England had a host of enemies, some of them of her own household.  It was even whispered that the American possessions were not entirely and whole-heartedly loyal!  This seemed incredible, to be sure, but the men in high places kept an eye on them just the same.  Captain Warren’s first official post was the station of New York, and in 1728 he made his first appearance in this harbour.

He was then just twenty-five, and gloriously adventurous.  One can imagine with what a thrill he set sail for a new country, new friends, new excitements!  I wonder if he guessed that the lady of his heart awaited him in that unknown land, as well as the dear home where, for all his sea-roving taste, he was to return again and again through twenty rich years?  He was in command of the frigate Solebay then, and in the old papers we read many mentions of both ship and officer.  From almost the first Peter loved the Colonies and the Colonies loved him.  In between his cruises and battles he kept coming back like a homing bird, and every time he came he seemed to have won a little more glory with his various ships,—­the sloop Squirrel, the frigate Launceston, and the big ship Superbe with sixty guns.  It is said that no man save only the Governor himself made so fine an appearance as young Captain Warren, and fair ladies vied with each other for his attentions!  Nevertheless, his social successes at this time were nothing to what was to come, when he had more money to spend!

Two years after his first introduction to New York, the Common Council of the city voted to him “the freedom of the city,” from which one gathers some idea of his standing in public favour!  And in another year,—­of course,—­he got married, and to one of the prettiest girls in the town, Susanna de Lancey!