New York - The Novel

harbor, to the place they call Oyster Island.
    One day the Boss said that he was going to a place out on the long island, and that Jan and I were to accompany him.
    We set out from the dock and went up the East River. When we came to where the river divides and we entered the channel that leads eastward, the waters began to churn and rush so violently that I was full of fear. Even Jan looked pale, though he didn’t want to show it. But the Boss just laughed and said: “This is Hell Gate, boys. Don’t be scared.”
    Once we passed through, the waters grew calm, and after a while he turned to me and said: “This is the Sound, Quash. On this side,” he pointed to the left, “the coast runs all the way up Connecticut and Massachusetts. On that side,” and he pointed to the right, “Long Island runs out for a hundred miles. Now are you glad you came?”
    For that was the most beautiful place I ever saw in my life. There was a clear blue sky above, and I could feel the sun on me. Everywhere you looked, the water was calm, and the land rose so gently, with beaches and great banks of reeds, and there were seabirds skimming over the waves. I thought I was in paradise.
    We sailed for some hours until we came to a small village on the island side of the Sound, with a wharf where we loaded the boat with supplies that the Boss was going to sell in the city. But toward the time we were finishing, a man came to inspect us. He was an English merchant. Soon he was looking thoughtfully at the Boss, and the Boss looked at him, and the man said: “Did I once sell you a silver dollar?”
    “I believe you did,” said the Boss.
    And after that they fell into conversation for half an hour. I did not hear all of it, but I was standing near them when the Englishman said that he’d married a couple of years ago, and that he was mighty glad he’d comeback across the ocean from London. Finally, as we were leaving, I heard the Boss say that the man should come to live in New York, where he might do very well; and the Englishman said he reckoned he would.
    That man’s name was Master. And he was going to cause plenty of trouble with the Mistress.

    I had one chance to please the Mistress very much.
    In the American colonies, everyone knew their lives depended on the disputes of our masters across the ocean. Five years after the last dispute between the English and the Dutch had ended, trouble started again. Only this time it was more of a family business.
    King Charles II of England was close to his cousin King Louis XIV of France, and he hadn’t forgotten the drubbing he got from the Dutch. So in 1672, when King Louis attacked the Netherlands, King Charles joined in. But things still didn’t go too well for them, because when the French with all their troops came into the Netherlands, the Dutch opened their dykes and flooded the land so the French couldn’t cross. The next summer we heard that Dutch ships were coming up the coast, burning the English tobacco ships off Virginia and causing all kinds of trouble. And at the end of July, we saw the Dutch warships anchoring off Staten Island.
    Now there was a young gentleman in the city then, by the name of Leisler. He was a German, I believe, but he had come to Manhattan and married a rich Dutch widow and done well for himself in business. He was all for everything Dutch, and the Mistress for that reason had quite a liking for him. While the Boss was out, he came round to the house, and I heard him telling the Mistress that many people were wondering whether to welcome the Dutch and tell them they could throw the English out of Manhattan again, if they had a mind to.
    “Some of the merchants think a deputation should go out to Staten Island,” he said. “But I’m worried about those guns in the fort. There’s forty-six cannon there which could do harm to the Dutch ships.”
    When Leisler had left, the Mistress looked thoughtful. When the Boss came back, she told him what Leisler had said. The Boss already knew about the rumors, and he told everyone to stay in the house. Then he went out again to find out more.
    He hadn’t been gone long before the Mistress called: “Have you got a hammer, Quash?” Well, I did have a hammer, in the workroom at theback. So she looked around the workroom and saw some big metal pegs that the Boss had used for securing a tent. “Take those too,” she said. “You come with me.”
    I was afraid to go, on account of what the Boss had said, but I