marching squadrons, her gorgeous court appeared to him the petty pageantry which stood between the royal ear and the discovery of a world. The most romantic picture of the period was Boabdil, last of the Moorish kings, coming out from Granada and on bended knee surrendering to Ferdinand and Isabella the keys to the city, while the cross rose above the crescent upon the towers of the Alhambra. While all Europe was ringing with acclaim over this expulsion of the Mussulman, to one proud and lofty figure standing aloof and unmoved it seemed of trivial importance compared with the grander conquest so clearly outlined before his vision. It was a happy omen of what America could do for woman that when statesman and prelate alike had rejected the appeal of Columbus as visionary, and the king had dismissed it with chilling courtesy, Isabella comprehended the discoverer's idea, saw the opportunities of his success, appreciated the magnitude of the results to her throne and to the world, and pledged not only her royal favor, but her fortune and her jewels to the enterprise. The American woman with her property rights guaranteed by American law, with her equal position and independence, with her unequaled opportunities for higher education and for usefulness, can say with pride to her brother, her lover, and her husband, 'You owe America to me.' Let this International Fair be held; let the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by Columbus be celebrated; let it be commemorated by an industrial exhibition grander in extent and volume than any ever seen before; let the Old World know what their children have done in the New; let the Stars and Stripes float from every roof and turret and flagstaff; let the bands announce the opening and closing of the fair each day with the inspiring strains of our national anthem, and we will separate from this grand communion impressed more deeply than ever before with the fact that the proudest title on earth is that of American citizen." GENERAL ROGERS DEFENDS RHODE ISLAND In a notable oration at the centennial anniversary of Rhode Island's adoption of the Constitution, in Providence, on the 29th of May, General Horatio Rogers said: "Detractors have sometimes ascribed Rhode Island's procrastination in adopting the federal Constitution to a general low plane of patriotism pervading her character. Her record during the memorable struggle for independence from Great Britain proves that such an assumption is utterly without foundation. In 1783 the Continental Loan office accounts show that only four states had contributed more to the public treasury than Rhode Island, diminutive as she was; and in proportion to population none could compare with her. But it has been urged that the delegates from Rhode Island were very delinquent, at the last, in attending the continental congress. This was rather the fault of the members than of the state, for the delegates were duly elected, and, if they neglected their duties, they but followed the example of members from other states. At one period Rhode Island was the most radical, and at another the most conservative, of all the old thirteen colonies or states. The colonial charter of Rhode Island, likewise, was unsurpassed in liberality. That of Connecticut alone approached it; in these two colonies only, until after independence, were the governors elected by the people. So liberal were the royal charters of these two colonies that they alone survived the revolution, Connecticut abandoning her charter in 1818, and Rhode Island clinging to hers till 1842. Her people and her representatives have always exerted a stronger direct influence on governmental affairs, and still exert it, than any other colony or state, and nowhere was, or still is, there a greater jealousy of official or other centralized power. Until within a very few years the people directly, or through their representatives in general assembly, elected all their officers, and only recently has the governor, to any considerable extent, been invested by statute with an appointing power. Nowhere has town government been so rigidly adhered to. Even in Connecticut state senators are now elected from districts, regardless of town lines, and in Massachusetts county officers have charge of probate matters and the recording of deeds. Nowhere on the face of the earth, Great Britain and her colonies not excepted, do the old English common-law forms of procedure and practice prevail to such an extent as in the courts of Rhode Island. The very liberality of her cardinal principle and of her royal charter seems to have made her fearful of losing what of liberty she had gained; so the radicalism of her early days has reacted upon her, producing an intense conservatism. Rhode Island was by no means the only state where deep-rooted opposition to the constitution existed. Rhode Island never opposed union. On the contrary, she always favored it, being among the first to propose it, and as we have seen, she was the second of all the states to instruct her delegates in congress to ratify the articles of confederation providing for a perpetual union. She had performed her duty as well as most of the states, and in the struggle for independence she had been second to none. Her state sovereignty had been planted in exile and fostered by persecution; its corner-stone rested on sole liberty, and its preservation and integrity had been assured only by her sturdy resistance to the aggressions of her neighbors, and she was unwilling to transmit to posterity either that sovereignty impaired, or with the right to impair it vested in three-fourths of her sister states. Having once entered the constitutional union, Rhode Island has loyally adhered to it, and the blood of her sons has been lavishly shed and the money in her treasury has been bountifully expended in preserving it. Rhode Island may be conservative and peculiar, but, if a tree is to be judged by its fruit, where can a richer harvest be found than here within her borders?" NOTES THE BAY PSALM BOOK NOT IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM-Referring to a monograph in the May issue of this magazine on the Bay Psalm Book of 1640, its extreme rarity is further shown by the fact, courteously communicated by the "Keeper of the printed books," that the British museum does not possess a copy of the original edition. For this, a partial explanation may be found in the "Recollections of the late Henry Stevens," in which we are told that he had offered to the museum a copy (the gem of the Crowninshield collection) for 150 pounds sterling. But the timid librarian never had the courage to lay the offer before the trustees for acceptance and payment. After waiting five or six years, this precious volume was withdrawn by its patient owner, to be superbly bound by Bedford, taken back to America in 1868, and sold to Mr. George Brinley for 150 guineas. This was the copy for which, at the sale of that gentleman's library, $1,200 was paid in 1878 by Cornelius Vanderbilt. It may be proper to emphasize the fact that the British museum, first in rank of the great libraries of the world, still lacks the first book in the English language both written and printed in America. THE BREAD AND BUTTER BALLAmong the extracts from Washington's diaries in Vol. IV. of the Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society is the following: "Feb. 25, 1760. Went to a ball at Alexandria, where musick and dancing was the chief entertainment. However, in a convenient room, detached for the purpose, abounded great plenty of bread and butter, some biscuits, with tea and coffee, which the drinkers of could not distinguish from hot water sweetened. I shall therefore distinguish this ball by the stile and title of the bread and butter ball." MOTLEY AND THE UNITED NETHERLANDS-It was while preparing his great popular work with the above title that the clever historian wrote to his mother from England: "My life is now very much within the four walls of my study. I am hard at work, but, alas, my work grows and expands around me every day. I am like the conjurer's apprentice in the German ballad, who raised a whole crowd of spectres and demons by stealing his master's wand, and then did not know how to exorcise them and get rid of them. The apparitions of the sixteenth century rise upon me, phantom after phantom, each more intrusive and threatening and appalling than the other, and I feel that I have got myself into a mob of goblins, who are likely to be too much for me. The truth is, I have laid out too much work. If I labored away, like a galley-slave at the oar, eight hours a day for the next five years, I should hardly fill up the outlines. which I have chalked out." STEPHEN WHITNEY was the grandfather of Stephen Whitney Phoenix. He is incorrectly mentioned as the uncle in the June issue, page 441. EDITOR QUERIES He WILLIAM DRUMMOND, FIRST GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA-I should like to make some inquiries about William Drummond, a Scotchman, who came to Virginia prior to 1659. He was a lawyer, and by appointment of the lords proprietors became, in 1664, the first governor of the colony of Albemarle, from which grew the state of North Carolina. His term of office expired in 1667, when he returned to Virginia. He resided at Jamestown, and was highly respected. took part in the so-called "rebellion" of Bacon, in 1676, and met the fate of a martyr at the hands of the ferocious Berkeley at Williamsburg, January 20, 1677. Sarah Drummond, his wife, was as patriotic as her husband. She had several children, and was in Virginia in 1679, when she brought suit against Albemarle to recover debts due her husband there, and also against Lady Francis Berkeley as a co-trespasser with her husband in taking possession of the estate of Drummond under the alleged forfeiture for treason. I want to know what was the maiden name of Mrs. Drummond, and what became of her and her children. Did they remain in Virginia or return to England? In the volume of Papers Relating to the History of the Church in Virginia, 1650-1776, edited by Rev. William Stevens Perry, page 94, I find mention made of one Mr. William Drummond, an able justice of James City court, who was struck out of the commission of the peace after he had refused to sign a "complimenting" address concerning Governor Nicholson. This was about 1700. Is this the son of the governor of Albemarle, and are any of his descendants known to be living? Is anything known of the life of Governor Drummond prior to his coming to America? Was he a relative of William Drummond, the poet of Hawthornden ? Tradition says he was his son, but this is REPLIES THE ISLAND OF SEVEN CITIES [xxiii. 417]-This imaginary island is the subject of one of the legends of the ocean, current in Spain and Portugal in the BIBLIO a great number of people, took ship and fled across the ocean, seeking new homes in the unknown west. After tossing about for some time at the mercy of the waves, they at last arrived at a rich and beautiful island in the midst of the sea. Burning their ships that all hope of flight might be taken away from their followers, the bishops founded seven cities with magnificent temples and dwellings. The island is said to have been so rich that the very sand on the seashore was partly composed of gold. At various times, sailors who had seen the gleaming domes of the cities from a distance had landed on the island, but were never allowed to leave it, for the islanders feared that their retreat would be discovered by the Moors. It is also related that, reports of this mysterious island having reached Portugal, a cavalier named Don Fernando de Alma fitted out two vessels and set sail for the Canaries, in order to discover the new country. When the expedition reached the latitude of these islands the ships were separated by a storm, and that of Don Fernando was at length becalmed near an island on which he could see a fine city with towers and castle. He landed, was well received by the inhabitants, and remained as he thought for a single day; but when he returned to his native country he found that instead of a day he had spent a whole century on the magic island. It is said that the legend of this island suggested to Columbus that there might be land in the west, and it belongs to the same class as the legends relating to the Isle of St. Brandon and to Plato's Atlantis. DANIEL B. RUGGLES HANOVER, N. H. KITTEREEN [xxiii. 506]-Kittereen was not a vehicle, but a removable and adjustable portion of a vehicle. The name is probably derived from kiste, a German word for a little chest ; kistchen is a small kind, iron-bound, with lock, as boxes under a carriage seat were made, so kittereen must be an Anglicised Dutch or German word for the box fitting under the hammer-cloth or box of a carriage. It was made of a peculiar wood, kistenholz; and kistenfullung meant ordinary contents, clothes, linen, such as a German peasant gave as a bridal present to his daughter. I think I thus show the proper derivation of kittereen, kiste, coffer; kistje, little coffer. Kit is applied to a package covering necessaries for traveling, just as a kittereen might be supposed to contain equivalent requirements for stable uses and perhaps horse-covering, etc. |