Satanstoe | Page 6

impression on a child of that
tender age. My honoured grandfather was then living, as he was long
afterwards, and he took a strong interest in the military movements of
the period, as was natural for an old soldier. New York had no
connection with the celebrated expedition that captured Louisbourg,
then the Gibraltar of America, in 1745; but this could not prevent an
old soldier like Capt. Littlepage from entering into the affair with all
his heart, though forbidden to use his hand. As the reader may not be
aware of all the secret springs that set public events in motion, it may
be well here to throw in a few words in the way of explanation.
There was and is little sympathy, in the way of national feeling,
between the colonies of New England and those which lie farther south.
We are all loyal, those of the east as well as those of the south-west and
south; but there is, and ever has been, so wide a difference in our
customs, origins, religious opinions, and histories, as to cause a broad
moral line, in the way of feeling, to be drawn between the colony of
New York and those that lie east of the Byram river. I have heard it
said that most of the emigrants to the New England states came from
the west of England where many of their social peculiarities and much
of their language are still to be traced, while the colonies farther south
have received their population from the more central counties, and
those sections of the island that are supposed to be less provincial and
peculiar. I do not affirm that such is literally the fact, though it is well
known that we of New York have long been accustomed to regard our
neighbours of New England as very different from ourselves, whilst, I
dare say, our neighbours of New England have regarded us as different
from themselves, and insomuch removed from perfection.

Let all this be as it may, it is certain New England is a portion of the
empire that is set apart from the rest, for good or for evil. It got its
name from the circumstance that the English possessions were met, on
its western boundary by those of the Dutch, who were thus separated
from the other colonies of purely Anglo-Saxon origin, by a wide
district that was much larger in surface than the mother country itself. I
am afraid there is something in the character of these Anglo-Saxons
that predisposes them to laugh and turn up their noses at other races;
for I have remarked that their natives of the parent land itself, who
come among us, show this disposition even as it respects us of New
York and those of New England, while the people of the latter region
manifest a feeling towards us, their neighbours, that partakes of
anything but the humility that is thought to grace that Christian
character to which they are particularly fond of laying claim.
My grandfather was a native of the old country, however, and he
entered but little into the colonial jealousies. He had lived from
boyhood, and had married in New York, and was not apt to betray any
of the overweening notions of superiority that we sometimes
encountered in native-born Englishmen, though I can remember
instances in which he would point out the defects in our civilization,
and others in which he dwelt with pleasure on the grandeur and power
his own island. I dare say this was all right, for few among us have ever
been disposed to dispute the just supremacy of England in all things
that are desirable, and which form the basis of human excellence.
I well remember a journey Capt. Hugh Littlepage made to Boston, in
1745, in order to look at the preparations that were making for the great
expedition. Although his own colony had no connection with this
enterprise, in a military point of view, his previous service rendered
him an object of interest to the military men then assembled along the
coast of New England. It has been said the expedition against
Louisbourg, then the strongest place in America, was planned by a
lawyer, led by a merchant, and executed by husbandmen and
mechanics; but this, though true as a whole, was a rule that had its
exceptions. There were many old soldiers who had seen the service of
this continent in the previous wars, and among them were several of

my grandfather's former acquaintances. With these he passed many a
cheerful hour, previously to the day of sailing, and I have often thought
since, that my presence alone prevented him from making one in the
fleet. The reader will think, I was young, perhaps, to be so far from