JOSHUA GOODENOUGH'S OLD LETTER


THE following letter has come into my possession, which I publish
because it is history, and descends to the list of those humble beings
who builded so well for us the institutions which we now enjoy in this
country. It is yellow with age, and much frayed out at the foldings,
being in those spots no longer discernible. It runs:

ALBANY _June_ 1798.

TO MY DEAR SON JOSEPH.--It is true that there are points in the history
of the country in which your father had a concern in his early life, and
as you ask me to put it down I will do so briefly. Not, however, my dear
Joseph, as I was used to tell it to you when you were a lad, but with
more exact truth, for I am getting on in my years and this will soon be
all that my posterity will have of their ancestor. I conceive that now
the descendents of the noble band of heroes who fought off the indians,
the Frenche and the British will prevail in this country, and my
children's children may want to add what is found here in written to
their own achievements.

To begin with, my father was the master of a fishing-schooner, of
Marblehead. In the year 1745 he was taken at sea by a French man-of-war
off Louisbourg, after making a desperate resistence. His ship was in a
sinking condition and the blood was mid-leg deep on her deck. Your
grandfather was an upstanding man and did not prostrate easily, but the
Frencher was too big, so he was captured and later found his way as a