[Illustration: WILLIAM THE TESTY.]
Van Twiller Edition
=Knickerbocker’s History of New York=
=By=
=Washington Irving=
=With Illustrations=
=by=
=Edward W. Kemble=
=Vol I.=
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
NEW YORK LONDON
27 West Twenty-third St. 24 Bedford Street, Strand
=The Knickerbocker Press=
1894
COPYRIGHT, 1893
BY
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
Electrotyped, Printed and Bound by
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
=A History of New York=
=From the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty.
Containing, among Many Surprising and Curious Matters, the Unutterable
Ponderings of Walter the Doubter, the Disastrous Projects of William
the Testy, and the Chivalric Achievements of Peter the Headstrong; the
Three Dutch Governors of New Amsterdam, being the Only Authentic
History of the Times that Ever Hath Been or Ever Will Be Published=
=by=
=Diedrich Knickerbocker=
=De waarheid die in duister lag,
Die komt mit klaarheid aan den dag=
[Illustration: Wall-mounted pendulum clock centered within a decorative
border]
=Contents.=
PAGE
ORIGINAL ADVERTISEMENTS xv
THE AUTHOR’S APOLOGY 1
ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR 7
ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC 23
BOOK I.
CONTAINING DIVERS INGENIOUS THEORIES AND PHILOSOPHIC SPECULATIONS,
CONCERNING THE CREATION AND POPULATION OF THE WORLD, AS CONNECTED
WITH THE HISTORY OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. I.—Description of the World 35
CHAP. II.—Cosmogony, or Creation of the World; with a multitude of
excellent theories, by which the creation of a world is shown to
be no such difficult matter as common folk would imagine 46
CHAP. III.—How that famous navigator, Noah, was shamefully
nicknamed; and how he committed an unpardonable oversight in not
having four sons; with the great trouble of philosophers caused
thereby, and the discovery of America 61
CHAP. IV.—Showing the great difficulty philosophers have had in
peopling America; and how the Aborigines came to be begotten by
accident—to the great relief and satisfaction of the Author 72
CHAP. V.—In which the Author puts a mighty question to the rout,
by the assistance of the Man in the Moon—which not only delivers
thousands of people from great embarrassment, but likewise
concludes this introductory book 84