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IT may not be amiss, at this stage of our history, to
mention that the governor had not yet been a married
man; and it was not the death of his lady that propelled
him to enter on an unsettled, and rambling way of life;
as was the case with Sir Thomas Graham who, to relieve
his grief for the loss of a beloved wife, sallied out with a
regiment of English troops against the French, to kill all
that he could. It was not the loss of a dear woman that
had made the captain half mad when he set out with the
bog-trotter,

“In romantic method.”

But it was a cause that had some relation to it; disappointments
in love. These had happened to him frequently;
and from an early period. His first attachment
that took a strong hold of him was about the twenty
eighth year of his age. He had taken it for granted that
it was a thing of course for the maid to affect coyness,
and to be won with great difficulty. And hence it was
that he persevered too much and too long; and when
repulsed he bore it the more hardly, because he had not
expected it. The effect also was produced, that in his
advances to a future mistress, a very small matter discouraged
him; in the same manner as a steed in a
curricle, once baulked, will stick at a small impediment,
and refuse to draw. For falling in love with another
beauty, and learning that poetry was essentially necessary
in a matter of love to a young person, he wrote verses,
and presented them. The lady wishing to bring him to
the point, affected to consider his madrigals as a burlesque,
returned them to him, telling him that she had
not expected such ridicule from a gentleman of his good
breeding. The poor captain in the honesty of his heart
took her to be in earnest, and never went to see her
more.

The third that he addressed; for a lapse of a long
time intervened before he could muster resolution to pay
his respects to any one; the third I say, that he addressed;
or rather purposed to address, was a blue-eyed
beauty, with black hair and a white skin, whom he took

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by the hand, which trembled so, that he let it go; and
gave up his pretensions. The truth is, it was sensibility
in the young lady; and her joy in the good fortune that
she had to be addressed by one whom she prized so much.
He mistook it for a feeling of horror at her situation.
His next campaign was with one whom his heart
loved but his reason di approved, for she was as handsome
as an angel, but as ill tempered as Jezabel. He
would have married her; but he was relieved by a
richer wooer who made a present of a bread tray, and
chicken coop to the mother; and having her good wishes,
succeeded with the daughter so far at least as to gain
her consent to matrimony.

His last attack, to speak in a military phrase, was on
the heart of a young widow, who would have yielded
incontinently had he pressed his advances, but her little
boy calling a gentleman pappy who gave him sweetmeats,
he took it that the child had the hint from the
mother, and that the other was the favoured lover. Considering
the matter all over, he resolved not as the
English novelists say, upon a trip to the continent, but a
journey on the continent to dissipate his ennui, and recover
himself from the softer affections which had obtained
the ascendant. For a change of objects diverts the
mind; and going to watering places cures love as it does
the rheumatism; not that it has any other primary effect,
than cheating the imagination of its reveries.

The people of the settlement had built the governor a
house. The mansion of his excellency, was spacious,
and furnished with several large tables, and some long
benches, but was deficient in one particular, a lady of the
castle who might attend to household affairs, and receive
company. His senate thought that he ought to
marry. Having weighty reasons to oppose, he did not all
at once accede to the proposition. The truth is, as
we have seen he was apprehensive of a repulse.

For he had laid it down from his own experience, that
as some attract women, so others repel; and there is no
contending against nature. But though of great candour,
he did not wish to acknowledge, or profess the real
motives which led him to hesitate; but rather to evade,
and raise difficulties.

The setting an example of matrimony for the sake of
peopleing a new country, was suggested as an obligation
upon every good citizen: and that it behooved every good
man to see to it that he multiplied himself. To this he

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replied, that he was not so sure of the truth of that proposition.
That when we saw nature using means to put
people out of the world by pestilence, and earthquakes,
we could not be certain that it was the will of Providence
there should be more brought into it. And as it is of no
consequence to such as have not yet come into life, whether
they ever come at all, he did not see that those who
did not come had reason to complain of those who were
but the negative causes of the non-existence.

There was a subtilty in this reasoning which the people
could not answer; yet they were not satisfied. It came
to this at last that he was under the necessity of explaining
to them the delicacy of his situation, that it did not
become him, the governor of a republic, to compel matrimony
in his own case, or indeed in that of any other;
and that he had no reason to suppose that in any other
way, he could obtain the hand of the inamorata that he
might pitch upon.

It seemed to the multitude a ridiculous idea that there
could be any spinster in the colony who would refuse the
hand of a man of station when offered to her. But that
if there should be any one found so recreant, the voice
of the people should compel an acquiescence: that they
would send out through all their border, and find out a
damsel for my Lord, the governor, as in the case of king
David, Ahasuerus, and others that are read of in the
scripture times.

Appalled at all idea of constraint, he was disposed to
try rather what might be accomplished by fair means.
He had heard of the emigration of the Creoles from St.
Domingo, which happened about this time, being driven
from their own country, by the revolt of the negroes, some
of these half mulattoes themselves; or what are called
mustachees, and not being of the fairest complexion, and
pressed by great necessity, might wish to match themselves
with any person for a livelihood. Or, as another
expedient, he thought of sending by a trader, a keg or
two of whiskey, to the Indian towns to purchase a princess
who could be reconciled, for a little calico, to relinquish
her connections. But the people would hear of no
Creole, nor savage, who would be running back like a
pig that is brought from another settlement; or bringing
her relations along with her of foreign manners, and
attachments. They insisted on his issuing a proclamation
to call in all the spinsters, and selecting one from

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the assembled; some Abisha, the Shinamite, or Easter;
not for a concubine; for they would have no concubine,
but to be the lady of his hall, in a decent manner, as became
the magistrate of a christian people.

His excellency could not reconcile it to himself to procure
an assemblage of females by proclamation; as in
that case one must be rejected, and another chosen,
which could not but wound his own mind as well as that
of the unsuccessful candidate; and he could not marry
them all, even were they so disposed; for a plurality of
wives, in modern times could not agree in one house,
however it might have been in ancient, when women
were better tempered than at present. Besides the accommodation
of the country would not admit it. If he
took two, some honest settler might be without one.

To obviate the delicacy of a selection, it was suggested,
the procuring a number to be got together under the
idea of a spinning match, a thing well known in the
country, and let the best spinner take the prize; or to
draw lots, as marriage is but a lottery, which would be
a way of avoiding all idea of a preference.

That may do, said the Governor, provided that my
man, Teague O'Regan, is put out of the way, or fastened
up; for if they once see him, the matter is at an end; I
shall get none of them to take a chance for me. But all
things considered, it was thought the most convenient
course to do, as others did; and without making
any noise, to ride about the country a little to see the
damsels in their hamlets and at their spinning wheels,
in their virgin state and simple habiliments, with unadorned
tresses.

In visiting the settlement, his excellency admired
much the spinning wheel, a piece of machinery which
he saw in almost every cabin. The attitude of the spinster
is unquestionably finer than that of a lady at the forte
piano, or harpsichord; not altogether because it connects
grace with industry; and charms imagination at
the same time that it engages reason in its favour; but
because the position of the body behind the instrument,
and with a front view to the beholder, has a great advantage.
The fact is, that a finely formed woman can be
seen in no possible attitude, to more advantage, than at
the spinning wheel. At the forte piano, at a side view,
which is the best; for you cannot have a front view, but
a side view only, the instrument being in front, you see

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but the profile of the face, and the person in an inclined
posture, with the shoulder stooping, somewhat. Even
the fingers, however lightly they touch the instrument,
are not seen to more advantage, than those of the
spinster when she draws the lint from the rock with one
hand, and rests the other on her lap. I consider the Irish
harp as but approaching the spinning wheel in exhibiting
the person to advantage; but independent of connecting
the idea of utility, figure to yourself this simple
piece of mechanism, combining the circle with the triangle,
in its form; the lever, the inclined plane, the axis
in the principle of motion; the orders of architecture in
the rounding of the pillars, from the turning loom; and
the white maple stained in concentric circles of bright
yellow, or scarlet die; the yellow by the rind of the shumack,
and the scarlet by the pacoon root, gathered by
the female hand from adjoining woods. The tripod of
Appollo, made of ebony, may present a resemblance;
but the trapezium, on which the foot rests, and puts in
motion the machine, with the neat ankle, and morocco
slipper, is not so easily painted to the fancy. But when
you raise your eye to the auburn, or golden, or hair of
raven wing; with a skin milk white, and a brow of jet,
and eyes of the crystal blue; when you add to this the
finger of Hebe, disporting with the lint; the chest of
Juno, thrown back from the position; the cincture and
the smile of Venus, and the vivacity and sense of Mnemosyne,
you may have an idea of what I have seen of
beauty, and loveliness of the use of this instrument. A
woman, on horseback, presents her form to advantage;
but much more at the spinning wheel.

“And still she turn'd her spinning wheel,”

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