Part 1 (1/2)

Afloat And Ashore

by James Fenimore Cooper

PREFACE

The writer has published so much truth which the world has insisted was fiction, and so much fiction which has been received as truth, that, in the present instance, he is resolved to say nothing on the subject Each of his readers is at liberty to believe just as much, or as little, of the matter here laid before him, or her, as e of the world, or ignorance If anybody is disposed to swear he knows precisely where Clawbonny is, that he ell acquainted with old Mr Hardinge, nay, has often heard hiet a little wide of the mark, it will not be the first document of that nature, which has possessed the same weakness

It is possible that certain captious persons may be disposed to inquire into the _cui bono?_ of such a book The answer is this Everything which can convey to the human mind distinct and accurate impressions of events, social facts, professional peculiarities, or past history, whether of the higher or more familiar character, is of use All that is necessary is, that the pictures should be true to nature, if not absolutely drawn fro, often becomes serviceable in modes and manners little anticipated in the reater portion of all our peculiar opinions have their foundation in prejudices These prejudices are produced in consequence of its being out of the power of any oneThe most favoured mortal must receive far more than half of all that he learns on his faith in others; and it e for theet pictures of the saht otherwise obtain This is the greatest benefit of all light literature in general, it being possible to render that which is purely fictitious evenextravagancies, by pourtraying with fidelity, and, as our friend Marble ” with discretion

This country has undergone es since the coes have been for the better; others, we think out of all question, for the worse The last is a fact that can be known to the generation which is coes ht on both points, in representing things as they were The population of the republic is probably sohteen millions and a half to-day; in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred, it was but a little more than five millions In 1800, the population of New-York was somewhat less than six hundred thousand souls; to-day it is probably a little less than two millions seven hundred thousand souls In 1800, the town of New-York had sixty thousand inhabitants, whereas, including Brooklyn and Willia, which then virtually had no existence, it must have at this ious nues of another sort Although an increase of nuh civilization, it reasonably leads to the expectation of great melioration in the commoner comforts Such has been the result, and to those familiar with facts as they now exist, the difference will probably be apparent in these pages

Although the es in American society have not kept even pace with those that are purely physical, many that are essential have nevertheless occurred Of all the British possessions on this continent, New-York, after its conquest froanization of the mother country Under the Dutch, even, it had some of these characteristic peculiarities, in its patroons; the lords of the manor of the New Netherlands Some of the southern colonies, it is true, had their caciques and other see noblesse, but the system was of short continuance; the peculiarities of that section of the country, arising principally from the existence of domestic slavery, on an extended scale With New-York it was different A conquered colony, the mother country left the iraved than on any of the settlerants to proprietors, or under charters from the crown It was strictly a royal colony, and so continued to be, down to the hour of separation The social consequences of this state of things were to be traced in her habits unlit the current of i with it those that were conflicting, if not absolutely antagonist The influence of these two sources of thought is still obvious to the reflecting, giving rise to a double set of social opinions; one of which bears all the characteristics of its New England and puritanical origin, while the other es and notions of the Middle States, proper

This is said in anticipation of certain strictures that will be likely to follow so always deemed an essential in an American critic, that he should understand his subject Too many of them, indeed, justify the retort of the e of life, set up by a neighbour, that ”had been to meetin' and had been to mill” We can all obtain some notions of the portion of a subject that is placed immediately before our eyes; the difficulty is to understand that which we have no

On the subject of the nautical incidents of this book, we have endeavoured to be as exact as our authorities will allow We are fully aware of the i what the world thinks, rather than what is true, and are not conscious of any very palpable errors of this nature

It is no more than fair to apprize the reader, that our tale is not completed in the First Part, or the volumes that are now published

This, the plan of the book would not permit: but we can promise those who may feel any interest in the subject, that the season shall not pass away, so far as itthe narrative to a close Poor Captain Wallingford is now in his sixty-fifth year, and is naturally desirous of not being hung up long on the tenter-hooks of expectation, so near the close of life The old gentle seen much and suffered much, is entitled to end his days in peace In this mutual frame of mind between the principal, and his editors, the public shall have no cause to cohts of the same nature on other subjects

The author--perhaps editor would be the better word--does not feel himself responsible for all the notions advanced by the hero of this tale, and it may be as well to say as much That one born in the Revolution should think differently fros, is to be expected It is in just this difference of opinion, that the lessons of the book are to be found

AFLOAT AND AShore

CHAPTER I

”And I--low; The raven locks that grac'd my head, Wave in a wreath of snow!

And where the star of youth arose, I dee ray should close, And those lov'd treesbowers my childhood play'd”

MRS HEMANS

I was born in a valley not very remote from the sea My father had been a sailor in youth, and some of my earliest recollections are connected with the history of his adventures, and the recollections they excited

He had been a boy in the war of the revolution, and had seen so other scenes he witnessed, he had been on board the Truht naval co its incidents He had been wounded in the battle, and bore the ured a face, that, without this bleularly handsome My mother, after my poor father's death, always spoke of even this scar as a beauty spot Agreeably to my own recollections, the ave one side of the face a grim and fierce appearance, particularly when its oas displeased

My father died on the farreat-grandfather, an English erant that had purchased it of the Dutch colonist who had originally cleared it from the woods

The place was called Clawbonny, which soood Dutch others bad Dutch; and, now and then, a person ventured a conjecture that it ht be Indian Bonny it was, in one sense at least, for a lovelier farm there is not on the whole of the wide surface of the Empire State

What does not always happen in this wicked, world, it was as good as it was handsome It consisted of three hundred and seventy-two acres of first-rate land, either arable, or of rich river bottom in meadows, and of more than a hundred of rocky mountain side, that was very tolerably covered ood The first of our family ned the place had built a substantial one-story stone house, that bears the date of 1707 on one of its gables; and to which each of his successors had added a little, until the whole structure got to reseether without the least attention to order or regularity There were a porch, a front door, and a lawn, however; the latter containing half a dozen acres of a soil as black as one's hat, and nourishi+ng eight or ten elms that were scattered about, as if their seeds had been sown broad-cast In addition to the trees, and a suitable garniture of shrubbery, this laas coated with a sward that, in the proper seasons, rivalled all I have read, or iined, of the emerald and shorn slopes of the Swiss valleys

Clawbonny, while it had all the appearance of being the residence of an affluent agriculturist, had none of the pretension of these later times