Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/193

Rh New York State has no old memories, no origin of an interest equal to that of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. It was trade which first populated this country. Its earliest founders proceeded thence from Holland; and the country was called by them New Netherlands, and the peninsula upon which New York stands was then called Manhatten, a grand Indian name, by which I could wish that New York might be rebaptised. It was at the expense of the Dutch Company that Hudson went to America and discovered the glorious river which bears his name, and the country around it he described as “Het shoonste land det men met voeten betreden kon.” Even to this day the State is full of the Dutch, who live in a clan-like manner, and will not avail themselves of schools or other great institutions which have been established by the present law-giving and dominant people. The State of New York does not appear to have contributed to the spiritual treasury of great ideas in the New World. Nevertheless, the idea of a federal republic seems to have been carried over to New York from the general States of Holland.

And now, good-bye, my sweet sister! I am tired and sleepy.

&emsp; I now write to you with the rivers from this grand, renowned New World's wonderful waterfall, roaring and murmuring around me. And it is grand, and worthy to be renowned and wonderfully beautiful, and yet, at the same time, so simple and comprehensible in its grandeur, that one at once receives the impression both into soul and sense, and retains its indelibly. It astonished me less than I expected, but it has become more to me. It has grown with me, and—but I shall talk to you about it another time.

It is now evening, and dark without. And now, by lamplight, with the music of the rivers' roar beneath my