Satanstoe | Page 9

of West Chester. Well, this Col. Heathcote
told my grandfather, speaking on the subject of religion, that he had
been much shocked, on arriving in this country, at discovering the
neglected condition of religion in the colony; more especially on Long
Island, where the people lived in a sort of heathenish condition. Being a
man of mark, and connected with the government, The Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, applied to him to aid it in
spreading the truths of the bible in the colony. The Colonel was glad
enough to comply; and I remember my grandfather said, his friend told
him of the answer he returned to these good persons in England. "I was
so struck with the heathenish condition of the people, on my arriving
here," he wrote to them, "that, commanding the militia of the colony, I
ordered the captains of the different companies to call their men
together, each Sunday at sunrise, and to drill them until sunset; unless
they would consent to repair to some convenient place, and listen to
morning and evening prayer, and to two wholesome sermons read by
some suitable person, in which case the men were to be excused from
drill." [2] I do not think this would be found necessary in New England
at least, where many of the people would be likely to prefer drilling to
preaching.
But all this gossip about the moral condition of the adjacent colonies of
New York and New England is leading me from the narrative, and does
not promise much for the connection and interest of the remainder of
the manuscript.
[Footnote 1: It will be remembered Mr. Littlepage wrote more than
seventy years ago, when this distinction might exclusively belong to
the _East_; but the West has now some claim to it, also.]

[Footnote 2: On the subject of this story, the editor can say he has seen
a published letter from Col. Heathcote, who died more than a century
since, at Mamaroneck, West Chester Co., in which that gentleman
gives the Society for the propagation of the gospel an account of his
proceedings, that agrees almost verbatim with the account of the matter
that is here given by Mr. Cornelius Littlepage. The house in which Col.
Heathcote dwelt was destroyed by fire, a short time before the
revolution; but the property on which it stood, and the present building,
belong at this moment to his great-grandson, the Rt. Rev. Wm.
Heathcote de Lancey, the Bishop of Western New York. On the subject
of the plunder, the editor will remark, that a near connection, whose
grandfather was a Major at the taking of Louisbourg, and who was
subsequently one of the first Brigadiers appointed in 1775, has lately
shown him a letter written to that officer, during the expedition, by his
father; in which, blended with a great deal of pious counsel, and some
really excellent religious exhortation, is an earnest inquiry after the
plunder.--EDITOR.]

CHAPTER II.
"I would there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty; or that
youth would sleep out the rest."
_Winter's Tale_.
It is not necessary for me to say much of the first fourteen years of my
life. They passed like the childhood and youth of the sons of most
gentlemen in our colony, at that day, with this distinction, however.
There was a class among us which educated its boys at home. This was
not a very numerous class, certainly, nor was it always the highest in
point of fortune and rank. Many of the large proprietors were of Dutch
origin, as a matter of course; and these seldom, if ever, sent their
children to England to be taught anything, in my boyhood. I understand
that a few are getting over their ancient prejudices, in this particular,
and begin to fancy Oxford or Cambridge may be quite as learned
schools as that of Leyden; but, no Van, in my boyhood, could have

been made to believe this. Many of the Dutch proprietors gave their
children very little education, in any way or form, though most of them
imparted lessons of probity that were quite as useful as learning, had
the two things been really inseparable. For my part, while I admit there
is a great deal of knowledge going up and down the land, that is just of
the degree to trick a fellow-creature out of his rights, I shall never
subscribe to the opinion, which is so prevalent among the Dutch
portion of our population, and which holds the doctrine that the schools
of the New England provinces are the reason the descendants of the
Puritans do not enjoy the best of reputations, in this respect. I believe a
boy may be well taught, and made all the honester for it;