arly detected "by his
style."

He contracted, moreover, a considerable debt at the postoffice, in
consequence of the numerous letter he received from authors and printers
soliciting his subscription--and he was applied to by every charitable
society for yearly donations, which he gave very cheerfully, considering
these applications as so many compliments. He was once invited to a great
corporation dinner; and was even twice summoned to attend as a juryman at
the court of quarter sessions. Indeed, so renowned did he become, that he
could no longer pry about, as formerly, in all holes and corners of the
city, according to the bent of his humor, unnoticed and uninterrupted; but
several times when he has been sauntering the streets, on his usual
rambles of observation, equipped with his cane and cocked hat, the little
boys at play have been known to cry, "There goes Diedrich!" at which the
old gentleman seemed not a little pleased, looking upon these salutations
in the light of the praise of posterity.

In a word, if we take into consideration all these various honors and
distinctions, together with an exuberant eulogium, passed on his in the
Portfolio (with which, we are told, the old gentleman was so much
overpowered, that he was sick for two or three days) it must be confessed
that few authors have ever lived to receive such illustrious rewards, or
have so completely enjoyed in advance their own immortality.

After his return from Scaghtikoke, Mr. Knickerbocker took up his residence
at a little rural retreat, which the Stuyvesants had granted him on the
family domain, in gratitude for his honorable mention of their ancestor.
It was pleasantly situated on the borders of one of the salt marshes
beyond Corlear's Hook; subject, indeed, to be occasionally over-flowed,
and much infested, in the summer-time, with mosquitoes; but otherwise
very agreeable, producing abundant crops of salt grass and bulrushes.

Here, we are sorry to say, the good old gentleman fell dangerously ill of
a fever, occasioned by the neighboring marshes. When he found his end
approaching, he disposed of his worldly affairs, leaving the bulk of his
fortune to the New York Historical Society; his Heidelberg Catechism and
Vander Donck's work to the City Library; and his saddle-bags to Mr.
Handaside. He forgave all his enemies--that is to say, all that bore any
enmity towards him; for as to himself, he declared he died in good-will to
all the world. And,