ter and gentleness of conduct and
manner were so combined in him that he frequently seemed to me to be
a living proof of the truth of a saying of poor George Dawson: "The
tenderness of a strong man is more gentle than the gentleness of the
most tender woman."

Mr. Van Wart was an American by birth, and a Dutchman by descent. His
ancestors emigrated from Holland about the year 1630 to the colony of
New Netherland, established in North America by the Dutch in the year
1621. The capital of this settlement was named New Amsterdam, and
was built upon the island of Manhattan, the entire area of which, now
completely covered with buildings, and comprising the whole site
of the city of New York, had been bought from an Iroquois chief, in
fee-simple, for twenty-four dollars, being at about the rate of a
penny for twelve acres! In 1652, New Amsterdam, then having about a
thousand inhabitants, was incorporated as a city. Twelve years after,
the entire province was seized by the British, under Colonel Nichols,
and was re-named by him "New York." The Dutch made some unsuccessful
attempts to recover possession, and they held the city for a short
time, but in 1674 the whole colony was ceded by treaty to the English,
who held it until the War of Independence. When they quitted it, on
November 25th, 1783, Henry Van Wart was exactly two months old.

The struggle for the independence of the American states had been
going on with varying success for many years, but the tide at length
turned so decidedly against the British, that an armistice was sought
and agreed upon. Hostilities were suspended, and a conference met in
Paris. Here a treaty, acknowledging the independence of America, was
agreed to by England, and signed on the 3rd of September, 1783. On the
25th of the same month, Henry Van Wart was born at a pretty village on
the banks of the Hudson, called Tarrytown, a place since celebrated
as the "Sleepy Hollow" of Washington Irving's delightful book, but
at that time remarkable as the scene of one of the most distressing
incidents in all the wretched struggle then just over--the capture of
the unfortunate Major Andre.

Mr. Van Wart, feeling little inclination for his father's business of
a farmer, was apprenticed to the mercantile firm of Irving and Smith,
of New York. In accordance with the usage of the times, he became an
inmate of the household of Mr. William Irving, the head of the
firm. Mr. Irving, like his gifted brother, Was