on crabs, which abound in these parts.  They were the first institutors of that honorable order of knighthood called Fly-market shirks, and, if tradition speak true, did likewise introduce the far-famed step in dancing called ‘double trouble.’  They were commanded by the fearless Jacobus Varra Vanger,—­and had, moreover, a jolly band of Breuckelen ferry-men, who performed a brave concerto on conch shells.

“But I refrain from pursuing this minute description, which goes on to describe the warriors of Bloemen-dael, and Weehawk, and Hoboken, and sundry other places, well known in history and song; for now do the notes of martial music alarm the people of New Amsterdam, sounding afar from beyond the walls of the city.  But this alarm was in a little while relieved, for lo! from the midst of a vast cloud of dust, they recognized the brimstone-colored breeches and splendid silver leg of Peter Stuyvesant, glaring in the sunbeams; and beheld him approaching at the head of a formidable army, which he had mustered along the banks of the Hudson.  And here the excellent but anonymous writer of the Stuyvesant manuscript breaks out into a brave and glorious description of the forces, as they defiled through the principal gate of the city, that stood by the head of Wall Street.

“First of all came the Van Bummels, who inhabit the pleasant borders of the Bronx:  these were short fat men, wearing exceeding large trunk-breeches, and were renowned for feats of the trencher.  They were the first inventors of suppawn, or mush and milk.—­Close in their rear marched the Van Vlotens, of Kaatskill, horrible quaffers of new cider, and arrant braggarts in their liquor.—­After them came the Van Pelts of Groodt Esopus, dexterous horsemen, mounted upon goodly switch-tailed steeds of the Esopus breed.  These were mighty hunters of minks and musk-rats, whence came the word Peltry.  —­Then the Van Nests of Kinderhoeck, valiant robbers of birds’-nests, as their name denotes.  To these, if report may be believed, are we indebted for the invention of slap-jacks, or buckwheat-cakes.—­Then the Van Higginbottoms, of Wapping’s creek.  These came armed with ferules and birchen rods, being a race of schoolmasters, who first discovered the marvelous sympathy between the seat of honor and the seat of intellect,—­and that the shortest way to get knowledge into the head was to hammer it into the bottom.—­Then the Van Grolls, of Antony’s Nose, who carried their liquor in fair, round little pottles, by reason they could not bouse it out of their canteens, having such rare long noses.  Then the Gardeniers, of Hudson and thereabouts, distinguished by many triumphant feats, such as robbing watermelon patches, smoking rabbits out of their holes, and the like, and by being great lovers of roasted pigs’ tails.  These were the ancestors of the renowned congressman of that name.—–­Then the Van Hoesens, of Sing-Sing, great choristers and players upon the jew’s-harp.  These marched