much, and
at low water is very shallow and much of it dry. Inside of the
easterly point there was a ship aground, which had struck on the reef
of rocks which put out from Corlaer's Hook towards this bay, and had
floated over here and sunk. She was a French privateer, which had
taken some rich Dutch prizes in the bay of Campeachy and was going
through here to New England, in order to dispose of the goods which
would not bring money enough in New York. There were many goods still
in the sunken ship, and they have tried several times to raise her,
but to no purpose. We went ashore here, and observed several kinds of
fish, which I had not seen before in this country, such as flounders,
plaice, sole, etc. This aunt of de La Grange is an old Walloon woman
from Valenciennes, seventy-four years old. She is worldly-minded, with
_mere bonte_,[383] living with her whole heart, as well as body, among
her progeny, which now number 145, and will soon reach 150.
Nevertheless she lived alone by herself, a little apart from the
others, having her little garden, and other conveniences, with which
she helped herself.[384] The ebb tide left our boat aground, and we
were compelled to wait for the flood to set her afloat. De la Grange
having to train next week with all the rest of the people, at New
York, bespoke here a man to go as his substitute. The flood tide
having made, we arrived home by evening.

[Footnote 382: The Walebocht, or bay of the Walloons, was a bight in
the Long Island shore, where the Brooklyn Navy Yard now stands. It was
so named from a group of Walloons who settled there at an early date.
The modern form of the name is Wallabout.]

[Footnote 383: Meaning, apparently, "with mere human goodness."]

[Footnote 384: This old woman was Catalina Trico (1605-1689), widow of
Joris Jansen Rapalie. She was the mother of eleven children, of whom
the eldest, Sara, born in 1625 at Fort Orange, is understood to have
been "the first born Christian daughter in New Netherland," Jean Vigne
(see p. 47, note 2) being the first-born child. Two depositions by her
of 1685 and 1688, printed in _Doc. Hist. N.Y._, III. 31-32, quarto
ed., give interesting details of the beginnings of the colony, for she
came out "in 1623" (1624, rather) in the _Eendracht_ (Unity), the
first ship sent out to New Netherland by the Dutch West India Company.
After three years at Fort Orange and twenty-two at New Amsterdam, she
and her husband settled at the Walebo