ted the Bowling Green.

In the center, then, was pitched the tent of the men of battle of the
manhattoes, who being the inmates of the metropolis, composed the
lifeguards of the governor. These were commanded by the valiant Stoffel
Brinkerhoff, who whilom had acquired such immortal fame at Oyster Bay;
they displayed as a standard a beaver rampant on a field of orange, being
the arms of the province, and denoting the persevering industry and the
amphibious origin of the Nederlanders.[50]

On their right hand might be seen the vassals of that renowned Mynheer,
Michael Paw[51], who lorded it over the fair regions of ancient Pavonia,
and the lands away south, even unto the Navesink Mountains,[52] and was,
moreover, patroon of Gibbet Island. His standard was borne by his trusty
squire, Cornelius Van Vorst, consisting of a huge oyster recumbent upon a
sea-green field, being the armorial bearings of his favorite metropolis,
Communipaw. He brought to the camp a stout force of warriors, heavily
armed, being each clad in ten pair of linsey-woolsey breeches, and
overshadowed by broad-brimmed beavers, with short pipes twisted in their
hat-bands. These were the men who vegetated in the mud along the shores of
Pavonia, being of the race of genuine copper-heads, and were fabled to
have sprung from oysters.

At a little distance was encamped the tribe of warriors who came from the
neighborhood of Hell-gate. These were commanded by the Suy Dams and the
Van Dams, incontinent hard swearers, as their names betoken; they were
terrible looking fellows, clad in broad-skirted gaberdines, of that
curious colored cloth called thunder and lightning, and bore as a standard
three devil's darning-needles, volant, in a flame-colored field.

Hard by was the tent of the men of battle from the marshy borders of the
Waale-Boght[53] and the country thereabouts; these were of a sour aspect,
by reason that they lived on crabs, which abound in these parts. They were
the first institutors of that honorable order of knighthood, called
Flymarket shirks; and, if tradition speak true, did likewise introduce the
far-famed step in dancing, called "double trouble." They were commanded by
the fearless Jacobus Varra Vanger, and had, moreover, a jolly band of
Breuckelen[54] ferry-men, who performed a brave concerto on conch shells.

But I refrain from pursuing this minute description, which goes on to
describe the warriors of Bloemen-dael, and Weehawk, and Hoboken,