To this he adds a word about the human wall, upon which more reliance was to be placed than in rotten planks and dismantled guns. In this country there is a Woman yet ahve from whose Loyns there are upward of three hundred and sixty persons now living. The men that are here have generally strong and lusty bodies.

In the face of such a statement as the foregoing the historian is dumb, willing in future to look without question at any extravagance in census enumeration.

Two Cities on One Site 23

Old Ca])tain John Buckhout, of Sleepy Hollow, who with his wife Sarah could count two hundred and fort\- children and grandchildren, -- a statement graven large upon his tombstone, -- has long been thought to hold the record as an ancestor, but his claim vanishes, his merits are insignificant, beside the " Woman yet alive" of Governor Dongan's report. The Albany fort was described by Dongan as being made of pine trees fifteen feet high, and fitted with batteries, etc., yet all very rotten, and he strongly recommends the substitution of masonry for timber at this important post. From Dutch to English, then back again from English to Dutch, and finalh' once more into English hands, the embryo metropolis passed: but one looks in vain for records of carnage or of heroism. The transfers were made apparently without undue excitement on either side. A report to the Dutch Lords relates how one of these events came about.

High and Mighty Lords. One Andries ^Hchielsen, having been placed by Captain Binckes, the Commander of a squadron of four ships and one sloop-of-war, on board a prize of about fifty tons burthen, taken by the aforesaid Commander near Guadeloupe, in the Caribbean Islands, to bring her here, was forced, by leakage and insecurity of the ship, to run through the Channel, where he had the misfortune to be captured by the English of Bevesier.