dents of the noble band of heroes who fought off the indians,
the Frenche and the British will prevail in this country, and my
children's children may want to add what is found here in written to
their own achievements.

To begin with, my father was the master of a fishing-schooner, of
Marblehead. In the year 1745 he was taken at sea by a French man-of-war
off Louisbourg, after making a desperate resistence. His ship was in a
sinking condition and the blood was mid-leg deep on her deck. Your
grandfather was an upstanding man and did not prostrate easily, but the
Frencher was too big, so he was captured and later found his way as a
prisoner to Quebec. He was exchanged by a mistake in his identity for
Huron indians captivated in York, and he subsequently settled near
Albany, afterwards bringing my mother, two sisters, and myself from
Marblehead.

He engaged in the indian trade, and as I was a rugged lad of my years I
did often accompany him on his expeditions westward into the Mohawk
townes, thus living in bark camps among Indians and got thereby a
knowledge of their ways. I made shift also to learn their language, and
what with living in the bush for so many years I was a hand at a pack or
paddle and no mean hunter besides. I was put to school for two seasons
in Albany which was not to my liking, so I straightway ran off to a
hunters camp up the Hudson, and only came back when my father would say
that I should not be again put with the pedegogue. For this adventure I
had a good strapping from my father, and was set to work in his trade
again. My mother was a pious woman and did not like me to grow up in
the wilderness--for it was the silly fashion of those times to ape the
manners and dress of the Indians.

My father was a shifty trader and very ventur-some. He often had trouble
with the people in these parts, who were Dutch and were jealous of him.
He had a violent temper and was not easily bent from his purpose by
opporsition. His men had a deal of fear of him and good cause enough in
the bargain, for I once saw him discipline a half-negro man who was one
of his boat-men for stealing his private jug of liquor from his private
pack. He clinched with the negro and soon had him on the ground, where
the man struggled manfully but to no purpose, for your grandfather soon
had him at his mercy. "Now," said he, "give me the jug or take the
consequences." The other boat paddlers wanted to rescue him, but I
menaced them with