and they, too, were interred in the Potter's Field. Therefore the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the native and foreigner, found a resting place here. Although including about ten acres, the space was entirely occupied by the time the cemeteries off the island were established. There were many beautiful and costly monuments, together with those of humble worth, but all have been removed, the graves leveled, and the whole converted into a beautiful park and military parade ground.*

I will now return to the south end of the city. On my first visit, and for several years afterward, the little park, known as the Bowling Green, was enclosed with a common pale fence without gates and consequently never open to the public as a promenade. It was oval in form, and contained about two acres. Near the centre stood a pedestal of mason work about four feet high, partly in ruins, on which had reposed in former times the equestrian statue of King George the Third, but when tyranny of the mother country had been such as to exceed the utmost bounds of endurance on the part of the colonists, when they were no longer treated or considered as subjects, but rather as slaves, when they were denied their rights under the Constitution, the great Magna Charta of their liberty, they declared themselves free and independent, and when they raised the standard of rebellion they at the same time razed to the ground the symbol of subjection and royalty, both horse and rider. Tradition assures us that as the statue was composed of lead the patriots, melting it, converted it into bullets with which they expelled the mercenaries of the King from our shores.

Garden street was the first one going north. In this little street was located, I think, the first post office of the city, in a very ordinary two story building, which possibly was visited by Dr. Franklin during his three weeks' tour of all the post offices in the country, in his "one hoss shay," while he was Postmaster General over all His Majesty's colonies in America.

Directly at the head of Wall, on Broadway, stands Trinity Church. During the Revolution the structure was destroyed by

*The old Potter's Field was leveled and Washington Square laid out upon its site in 1823. In the same year a law was passed forbidding interment south of Canal street.

fire, as the inscription on the front wall informs us, but was afterwards rebuilt and enlarged. It is a large building of gray stone. Its interior is spacious and finished in the most beautiful and costly style. When I was there last, and I presume it is the same now, services were held each day in the week. This they can well afford, for theirs is the most wealthy ecclesiastical body in the country.

The spire of Trinity Church was the highest in the city, and the belfry, even at that early time, was furnished with a full chime of bells which on our National holidays rang out right merrily with "Hail Columbia" and "Yankee Doodle," while on Sundays the good old tunes of Windham, Lenox and Old Hundred could be heard quite over the city as it was then. The yard includes a full block, and interments were continued until most of the ground had been more than once excavated. In the southeast corner is a beautiful white marble monument erected to the memory of Alexander Hamilton by the " Cincinnati Society," of which he was an honored member.

Maiden lane extends from Broadway to East River. Directly opposite is Cortlandt street, extending to the Hudson, where we find the ferry to New Jersey, while at the foot of Maiden lane we find the ferry to Brooklyn. In that early time these two ferries were the only ones by which to leave the city. Conveyance on the East River was exclusively in large rowboats, and the frequency of the trips depended largely on the number of passengers to and fro and the condition of the river. The milk used in the city was brought from Long Island by the milkmen in their own boats and then carried about the streets in two cans suspended from a yoke, such as sugar makers use, upon their shoulders. The fare on the Hudson at that time, and long afterwards, was nine cents and on the East River six cents.

At the head of Maiden lane was a small market in the centre of the street, known as the Oswego Market, which was long since removed. At the foot of the street was the old Fly Market, which was very similar to the Bear Market.

The first Indian I ever saw was sitting in a stall in the Oswego Market, clad in his buckskin leggings, his moccasins and the indispensible blanket. Whole families sometimes came to the

city from Albany and points farther north. We boys were often amused to watch the precision and dexterity with which even the smaller Indian boys handled their national weapon. We would place a penny on the top of a stick six inches in height at one side of the street, and an Indian boy from the opposite side would seldom fail to shoot it off with his arrow. Their only garment consisted of the inevitable blanket, secured at the neck with a brooch, and wearing about the loins a sash of some bright red or yellow.

It was quite customary then for shopmen to designate upon their signs what part of the world they came from, thinking by this means to induce more customers to call. Thus you would

In John street, between Nassau and William streets, is the oldest Methodist church in the city. On a beautiful white marble tablet inserted in the front wall is an inscription to the memory of the Rev. John Summerfield. He was young, eloquent and beloved by all. At the ends of Fulton street are located the two principal markets of the city-Fulton on the east and Washington on the west. On the corner of Fulton and William stood the old Dutch Reformed Church where, and in a building since erected upon its site, for years has been held the daily noon prayer meeting. The church, being situated on the corner of two principal streets, the services were often disturbed by the noise of passing vehicles. To obviate this difficulty the church obtained permission from the City Council to close the streets during the hour of service by extending a chain across each street a short distance above and below the church, but this was done only during the Summer of 1815.

OLIVER MORHOUSE.

NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF PRINTING IN

NEW YORK.

V.

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel soon after employed Bradford to print an edition of the Prayer Book in Mohawk. Of the six nations who composed the Iroquois confederacy in the early part of the last century, the Mohawks and the Senecas, at the Eastern and Western ends, were the most powerful and the most warlike, although there was a great disproportion between their numbers, the Senecas having by far the most warriors. Yet the Mohawks were to other peoples and countries the representatives of the confederacy. It was the Mohawks who were imitated by badly-behaved young men in London in the time of Addison; it was the Mohawks who were most spoken of in France, in Massachusetts, in the Carolinas. They owed this prominence to their exceptional position. They were at the head of ship navigation on the Hudson; they controlled the portages of the Mohawk, and no one could cross from Lake Champlain south without going through the land occupied by them. They were nearest alike to the Dutch, the English, and the French. Each was obliged to show consideration to them, and to study their condition. Moreover, there was at that time and for many years after a sincere desire among the residents of New England and the Middle Colonies to Christianize our Indian tribes, changing them from heathens, with barbarous rites, into civilized beings, relying upon the truths of the gospel. Robinson, the pastor of those pilgrims who first left Holland to settle in Plymouth, in a very touching letter written some little time afterwards, hoped that his followers might have converted some before they killed any, and the exertions of Eliot, of Mayhew, and others are well known. This feeling was not confined to the zealots of New England. From France a long succession of priests labored with the Iroquois and other Indians, almost from the time of the settlement in Quebec. Their success seemed to be greater than that of the

New Englanders, as they had more flexibility, living among the Indians and being of them. The Churchmen of New York desired that the Prayer Book might be printed for the natives of our province, and the work was accordingly done after a lapse of time by Lawrence Claesse, interpreter to the Rev. William Andrews, missionary to the Indians. It comprises one hundred and nineteen pages, small quarto, with two title pages, one in Mohawk and the other in English. The date is 1715.

After this work was issued there seems to have been no very noteworthy book printed within the next ten years. The number of separate pieces became greater, and their size on an average was larger, but they never became ponderous volumes, nor are their contents such as would entice a modern reader to look at them. Many are polemical; others are on questions the interest in which has long since died out. They are, however, valuable historically, as almost every one has some fact bearing upon our development, and very valuable bibliographically, as evidencing the progress of printing and the polite arts. Within the past forty years there has been a rage for collecting the works from Bradford's press. Their scarcity, their quaintness, their connection with local incidents, have caused these books and broadsides to be held in great request by collectors. Twenty-five years ago a club was organized which bore Bradford's name, and it drew attention anew to him. Philadelphia joins with us in seeking for his works. Very few copies of anything printed by Bradford in these earlier years survive, but it is probable we have at least a specimen of more than two-thirds. Our houses were wooden at that day, and fires were frequent. Two of these conflagrations, those of 1776 and 1835, were as great in proportion to the size of the city as almost any that ever occurred. In these were destroyed many ancient relics. This colony occupied the position in America that the Low Countries do in Europe. Every war has devastated us, and we paid more dearly for our independence than any other State, with the exception, perhaps, of New Jersey. Not only are laws silent during war, but the most precious collections of art, of books, of curiosities, are dispersed, pillaged, or destroyed, both by the troops and the camp followers and thieves that accompany them. Thus were valuable collections in Philadelphia and New