composes the United States, the people of the latter are more
homogeneous in character, language, and opinions, than those of any other
great nation that is familiarly known. This identity of character is owing
to the early predominance of the English, and to the circumstance that
New-England and Virginia, the two great sources of internal emigration,
were entirely of English origin. Still, New-York retains, to the present
hour, a variety of usages that were obtained from Holland. Her edifices of
painted bricks, her streets lined with trees, her inconvenient and awkward
stoops and a large proportion of her names, are equally derived from the
Dutch. Until the commencement of this century, even the language of
Holland prevailed in the streets of the capital, and though a nation of
singular boldness and originality in all that relates to navigation, the
greatest sea-port of the country betrays many evidences of a taste which
must be referred to the same origin.

The reader will find in these facts a sufficient explanation of most of
the peculiar customs, and of some of the peculiar practices, that are
exhibited in the course of the following tale. Slavery, a divided
language, and a distinct people, are no longer to be found, within the
fair regions of New-York; and, without pretending to any peculiar
exemption from the weaknesses of humanity, it may be permitted us to hope,
that these are not the only features of the narrative, which a better
policy, and a more equitable administration of power, have made purely
historical.

Early released from the fetters of the middle ages, fetters that bound the
mind equally with the person, America has preceded rather than followed
Europe, in that march of improvement which is rendering the present era so
remarkable. Under a system, broad, liberal, and just as hers, though she
may have to contend with rivalries that are sustained by a more
concentrated competition, and which are as absurd by their pretension of
liberality as they are offensive by their monopolies, there is nothing to
fear, in the end. Her political motto should be Justice, and her first and
greatest care to see it administered to her own citizens.

The reader is left to make the application.

The Water-witch.

Chapter I.

"What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse?
Or shall we on without apology."

Romeo and Juliet.

The fine estuary which penetrates the American coast, between