race
and absurdity, which was partly European, partly Chinese, partly
belonging to no land,--and over all a delightful air of peace and
innocence.

So Dordrecht flashed upon me for the first time, the oldest and at the
same time the freshest and brightest town of Holland, the queen of
Dutch commerce in the Middle Ages--the mother of painters and
scholars. Honored in 1572 by the first meeting within its walls of the
deputies of the United Provinces, it was also at different times the
seat of memorable synods, and was particularly famous for that
meeting of the protestant theologians in 1618, the Ecumenical Council
of the Reformation, which decided the terrible religious dispute
between Arminians and Gomarists, established the form of national
worship, and gave rise to that series of disturbances and persecutions
which ended with the unfortunate murder of Barneveldt and the
sanguinary triumph of Maurice of Orange. Dordrecht, because of its
easy communication with the sea, with Belgium, and with the interior
of Holland, is still one of the most flourishing commercial towns of
the United Provinces. To Dordrecht come the immense supplies of wood
which are brought down the Rhine from the Black Forest and
Switzerland--the Rhine wines, the lime, the cement and the stone; in
its little port there is a continual movement of snowy sails and of
smoking steamers, while little flags bring greetings from Arnhem,
Bois-le-Duc, Nimeguen, Rotterdam, Antwerp, and from all their
mysterious sisters in Zealand.

The boat stopped for a few minutes at Dordrecht, and I unexpectedly
observed near by a number of fresh little cottages which were purely
Dutch, and which aroused in me the greatest desire to land and make
their acquaintance. But I conquered my curiosity by the thought that
at Rotterdam I should see many such sights. The boat started, turned
to the left (it was the ninth turning), and entered a narrow branch
of the Meuse called De Noord, one of the numerous threads of that
inextricable network of the waters which covers Southern Holland.

The captain approached me as I was looking for him to explain the
position of Dordrecht on the map, for it seemed to me very singular.
In fact, it is singular. Dordrecht is situated at the extremity of a
piece of ground separated from the continent, and forming in the midst
of the land an island crossed and recrossed by numerous streams, some
of which are natural, some the work of man, rivers made