The Arkansas advocate., 1831-01-19
F5,oa, fhe .Natioaot Gaxeffe.
EXTRACT FROM FIR. cooPER's NEW NOVEL.
 "Tl5E WITCH" {"

tA uCCp AiS4 i0V GiGGA peuetFdLSu tllB iSlsttfu9 at this point, for the distance of quarter of q mile. Each Of its banks had row of buildings, as the houses line canal in the cities of Hol- iand. As the natural course of the inlet was necessarily respected, the streets had taken a curvature not unlike that of q new moon. Tae houses were ultra Dutch, being low, angular, lastidiously neat, and all erected with tlieir ga bles to the street. Each had lis ugly and ia- convenient entrance, termed stoop, it's vane or weathercoek, its dormer windows, and it's graduated battlelaent walls Near the apex of one of the latter, little iron crane projected into the street. \ small beat, of the same met al, swung from its end, a sign that the building to whlchit was appended, was the ferry house.
 An inherent love of artificial and confned navigation, had probably induced the burghers toseiect this spot as the place whence so many craft departed from the town, since it is certain that the two rivers could have furnished divers points more favorable lorsuch an object, ,insomueh asthey possessed the advantage of wide and ua- distracted channels.
 fiity blacks were alfeadyin the street, dip- ping their bfooHas into the creek, and tlourisiling water over the side walk, and on the fronts of the low editices. This light but daily duty was relieved by eiainorous collisions of wit, and by shouts ol nerflment, in which the whole street would Join as with 10 joyous and reckless move ment of the spirit.
 The language of this light-hearted and noisy zace was Dutch, aiready corrupted by English sdonas, and occasionally by English words; q systeHe change that has probably given rise 10 an opsnion, among some of the descendants of ghe earlier colonists, that the latter tongue is patoisofthe former. hisopinion,whieh so much resembles that which certain well read English scholars entertain of the plagarisms of ffc continental writers, when they first begin to dip into their works, is not strictly true, since the language of England has probably bestow- cd as much on the dialect of which we speak. as t has ever received from the purer sources Hot the school of Holland. Here and there q grave burgher, still in his night cap, might be seen wiff q head thrust out of an upper window. listening to these barbarisms ofspeech. and talk ing not ofa!ith merry libes that flew from mouth 10 mouths with an indomitable gravity, that no leyIty of those beneath eond undermine.
 As the movement of the ferry boat was neees- farily slow, the Alderman and his companion were enabled to step into t, before the lasts were thrown abroad The peragua, as the craft was called, partoolS of an European and American character. It possessed the length, narfowness aud clean bow of the canoe. from which Its name WIS derived, with the flat bottom and lee boards oi boat constructed for the shal- tow waters of the Low Countries. Twenty years ago vessels of this description abounded sn our rivers, and even now their two long and unsupported nlastss and high narrow head sails are daily seen bending like reeds to the breeze, and dancing lightly over the pillows of the bay. Afere IS a variety Of the class, of size and pretenslonaltogether superior to that just inen- toned, which deserves q place among the most picturesque and striking boats that float. He wao has had occasion to navigate the southern shore Of the Sound, must have often seen the vessel to which HTe allude. It is distinguished by Its great length, and masts which, naked of cordage, rise from the hull like two tall and fault less trees When the eve runs over the daring height of canvass, the noble confidence of the tig, and sees the comparatively vast machine handled with case and grace by the dextefity of two fearless and expert mariners, 1t excites some such admiration as that which springs from the view of q severe temple of antiquity. lhe nakednesa and simplicity of the construc- ton, coupled with the boldness and rapidity of It's movements, mPart to the craft an air of gran deur, that it's ordinary uses would not give req con to expect
 Though in some respects, of singularly ad,lat- ic habits, the original colonists of New York were far less adventurous, as mariners, than their present descendants. A passage across che bay did not often occur in the tranquil lives of the burghers, andt is still within the memo y of man, that voyage between the principal towns oi the State was all event to excite the so- iictude of friends, and the anxiety of travellers. he perils of the Tappaan Zee, ls one of the wider reaches of the Hudson is still termed, was often dealt with by good wives of the colony, in their relations of marVels, and she who had of tenest encountered them unharned, was deem ed sort of marine amazon.
 It has beenseen thatt the periagua was in mo sion before our adVenturers succeeded in step ts