HEN Peter the Headstrong, of stubbornest will,

Was sent out from Holland, commissioned to fill

In New Netherland province a Governor's chair,

The people all knew by his obstinate air,

By the stamp of his foot and the wag of his

head,

That he meant to be minded in all that he

said;

And that naught but the soberest, solemnest

fun

Would ever find vent from this son of a gun.
Descended from captains, he too in the fight
Had led on to glory, but never for flight,

And in reaching the former by acting, not talk-
ing,

Had lost an extremity needed in walking.

By closely observing, his people soon learned

To compass his movements, wherever he turned:

*"At this season [1647], two whales of common size, swam up the [Hudson] river. One grounded about forty-three miles from the sea. [A Dutch mile is nearly equal to four English miles.] This fish was tolerably fat, for although the citizens of Rensselaerswyck broiled out a great quantity of train oil, still the whole river was oily for three weeks, and covered with grease.". Vanderdonck.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by TICK NOR AND FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

For the index that showed what old Peter intended
Was not in his face, but the limb that was mended.
So they watched with sly glances the silver-clad peg
That served as a mate to his natural leg,

And whenever, in argument, down came the stump,
And smote on the floor with a resonant thump,

Not a tongue further wagged, but, with looks mild and meek,
The Dutchmen all listened for Peter to speak.

Still they liked the old hard-headed, obstinate soldier,
For than he none e'er lived who was kinder or bolder,
And during his reign all his subjects rich gat,

While their faces grew broad and their bellies waxed fat.

One morn, at Manhattan, this Governor great
Sat weighing in Council grave matters of state,
When a stout-bodied Dutchman bounced into the room,
On whose face were depicted the terrors of doom.
"Your Highness," he said, having got back his breath,
"I have seen, God preserve us! a portent of death.
Just now in the river that flows by our town
Appeared a great monster, whose color was brown :
My glass, as I raised it, was wanting in strength
To disclose to my vision his terrible length:
And then through his nostrils the water he threw

So high, that it fell not in rain but in dew:

And so swift did he rush 'gainst the stream pouring down,
That he banked up the waters and flooded the town;
But he's gone up the river, and much do I fear
That tidings of woe we directly shall hear."

Then Peter called out, "Bring to me my state pipe
And a pound of tobacco; I don't like the stripe
Of the tale which you tell, and must presently think;
For if at such pranks we should knowingly wink,
The Yanghees from Hartford perhaps will come next
With a Puritan parson, all sermon and text,
Bringing onions and rum to Manhattan's fair isle,
And all sorts of notions our maids to beguile."
For two hours and a quarter he silently smoked,

Till his Councillors doughty were more than half choked;
Then, rising, in dignity calm and serene,

While his face through the smoke shot a rubicund gleam,
To the floor of the chamber he brought down his peg

And steadied himself on his flesh-and-blood-leg;
Then looking around, with an air grand and grim,
Said aloud in firm tones, "Let the animal swim!"

So the animal swam 'gainst the wind and the tide, Caring not if the river were narrow or wide, Rushing on like the tempest, and marking his path With the terrible waves of his foam-breathing wrath. As he passed by Fort Orange the gunner awoke : "The Yanghees from Hartford!" was all that he spoke, Then opened the gates, and, with breeches in hand And pipe in his mouth, rendered up his command. But soon 'mid the islands off Rensselaers wyck's shore The animal floundered and snorted and tore. Stuck fast in a quicksand, unable to go,

He blew out his life in a chorus of woe,

While the Donderberg mountains re-echoed his pain,
And rolled out their thunder o'er valley and plain.

As the spring floods subsided, the yeomanry came
To see the great monster without any name;
Among them a skipper, renowned on the sea,
With a knowledge of fishes like Barnum, P. T.
This skipper climbed up on the animal's back,
Then wandered about on a varying tack,
Pulled away at his flippers, examined his tail,
And said to the Dutchmen, "This here is a whale."
As when in years later, obedient to fate,

The rocks flowed with oil in a neighboring state,

And hundreds forsook their homes, firesides, and friends
For the spot where the stream of petroleum wends,
So now from the hillsides, the plains, and the town

The people all came where the animal brown
Lay dead on the quicksand, with hatchets and saws,
And axes and cleavers, and meat-hooks and claws,